Children and Nature

When children have the opportunity to spend time in nature, it nourishes the feeling of belonging to life. There is a great mystery to life that children are still in contact with. They want to know about everything that is alive, where it comes from, how it works, what it does. They experience everything in nature with all their senses: a very full-bodied engagement. After a time, a calm period often settles upon them, and we have seen children become very relaxed and at peace just hanging out in the sun, or the shade, by a tree or rock, picking in the dirt, playing with rocks, or drawing lines with sticks. We feel that the children have entered a space that is more merged with the world around them, more at home. And it is from experiences like these that they will know, in some way, that they belong to a greater world around them. It is one of our great hopes that children will grow up to feel a consciousness towards caring for the planet. For this to happen, they must have a personal relationship to nature. Nature must be something they feel as a friend, as an ally, as something that they need and love. We sing many songs and tell stories about the great circle of life, and these are the songs the children ask to sing the most.

We have found that one of the greatest ways to foster a sense of belonging in children is to have them spend extended time in nature. We have seen social disharmony melt away and children get along and play with children that might not be in their usual sphere. After awhile, there is a creation of what we call “Village” energy. The teachers have often watched in amazement as the children take on all the necessary roles in a real village. Some are building, some hunting, cooking, gathering, caretaking, and planting. These jobs seem to be cross gender and anyone can do whatever they are drawn to.

Homestar’s preschool is nature based. Almost our entire curriculum is based on how a child’s life is directly linked to the natural cycles and seasons of the year. The 3 1/2 to 5 year olds go hiking every week in the open spaces or Boulder mountain parks. All the children go to the park, take walks, and spend time on the playground. We want children to experience the big sky, the immensity of trees, the songs of birds, the feel of the earth on bare feet, playing with water, sand, mud and rocks, digging for worms, discovering spider webs, feeling the warm sun on their skin and finding secret spots to crawl in and play.

Children’s Inner Lives

We believe that one of our responsibilities as teachers is to help children stay in contact with their rich inner lives. One aspect of being human is the need to feel our aloneness, so that we know how we feel and what we are, and eventually, what our life is about. In order for this to be possible, children need to have space to themselves, to explore on their own, to feel their feelings, to think their thoughts, to have a relationship that is strong and stable with just themselves. It is this relationship that will carry them through the journey of life. Since life is constantly changing, permanence must be an internal state. That can only be developed with the right kind of nurturing, just like a seed can only grow with the right nutrients.

The American culture is very fast paced and focused on achievement and appearance. There is an overemphasis on giving children attention, praise, material possessions, stimulation and involving them in constant activity. Since children are very sensitive to stimulation, as well as being incredibly impressionable, they soon become more and more drawn to this external world of energy, just as a child can easily become addicted to candy. This creates in children an addiction to attention and the need for approval, acknowledgement, and an inability to stay in touch with what they know and feel about themselves and the world around them. The more a child is pulled away from their own deep sense of themselves and life, told what to do, how to be, what’s right and wrong, good and bad, the more a child drifts away from their abilities to discriminate, perceive, analyze, solve and have the innate sensitivity necessary to deal with life’s challenges. In the end, we have adults who no longer know themselves except as extensions of their families, mates, jobs, and what they surround themselves with. We feel that this is the underlying root cause of depression, anger, disconnection, selfishness and confusion that permeates every level of our society. What is the main reason that adults (and even more and more children) turn to therapy? They don’t know who they are, what they want, how they feel, why they can’t succeed, why they can’t connect. What is missing is a deep sense of internal peace and contentment.

We see that children need a balance between time with people and time alone so that they can feel deeply bonded and connected to those who love them, develop their social skills, their capacities and potentials, and a strong connection to their own perceptions, feelings and thoughts. We honor and respect their dignity as humans by talking to them in regular tones of voices, by explaining to them what is going on around them, and by not rushing them so they can develop their own internal rhythms. We trust that they often know and feel what is right, and as teachers we can work to bring them back home to the place inside that is in harmony with others and their environment. We provide a consistent daily routine, with the structure needed to help children feel safe. Our rules make sense to the children, because they are fully talked about and the children have the opportunity to be involved, to question, and to contribute to what makes a day feel good.

To help children nourish their inner lives we:

• Have quiet time every day.
• Limit an overabundance of praise and instead ask children to tell us about what they have done, to help them feel for themselves what they accomplish or learn.
• Create special rituals that settle children into quiet, more internal spaces.
• As teachers we work on our own ability to feel content and accepting when we are alone by taking time to do what we call ‘being’ time. This is time where we are focused on just being alone, and not doing or working. We might walk, sit, listen to certain kinds of music, or spend time being receptive to the impressions of nature.
• Talk with parents about creating alone time at home for themselves and their children.

Team Work and the Need to Belong

The other end of the equation in helping children to grow up with a healthy sense of who they are and what life is about, is creating many opportunities for children to feel they belong. The first place children experience this sense of belonging is in the family. Once they come to school, it is time to extend their community to include other children and teachers. A basic need for all humans is to feel and know that they belong. Much of the violence in this world is around a feeling of being disconnected, rejected, not wanted or wanting what someone else has. Even in children, when they fight it is usually over a toy or hurt feelings. And many of the unfortunate and increasing incidents of school shootings are around rejection of peers. So, how can we help children know they are connected, not just by telling them, but by making it a reality?

We spend a great deal of time creating personal relationships with every child so that we can understand their individual needs. We give each child the time they need to find their place in our school and to let them feel safe to bond with the other students and the staff. We know that if we wait, watch and learn, we will be able to help every child to feel at home, and part of an extended family.

We constantly work with communication to help children express their feelings and needs, their opinions and what is important to them. We teach children to listen to each other, that communication is a two way street.

We have projects that are group oriented as a part of our daily curriculum. Children learn to share, to wait, to take turns, to do things together and to help others to have the projects turn out well. An example is baking bread. They all take turns stirring in the ingredients and kneading the dough. Then they get their own piece to make a loaf. After it is baked, they get to share it with the other children who weren’t baking for snack time. We have built houses together, done large murals, made mush soup and mud pies, washed chairs, and clean up is a daily ritual of team work.

We want children to feel that their contributions are valued and that responsibility is part of belonging to a family or community. We have watched a certain confidence come just from children doing simple tasks. They put on their clothes, wash their cups, put their shoes away, clean up their toys and messes, make and put away their nap beds. We know how much children are capable of doing, and we don’t do for them what they can do for themselves. This actually empowers them to feel capable, strong, and valued. When we feel valued, we contribute. It doesn’t require so much praise as just the opportunity to do what one is capable of and feel internally good about it. This is crucial to self esteem, because it comes from the child knowing he is giving, not from being praised by others and losing touch with that deep spiritual knowledge that life is a great circle of giving and receiving.

The Development of Qualities

We want children to be nourished by their own qualities, and not just by what they do. Qualities stay with us as we change in life. Although they are invisible, they are clearly manifested in all our actions. Nature is a great teacher of qualities. Every aspect of nature is the expression of a universal quality or force. Fostering the development of qualities is core to our program. If children are to feel solid in who they are, they will need patience, receptivity, sensitivity, objectivity, stamina, joy, strength, gratitude and more. We know that these can take a lifetime to become permanent, but by giving them a vital role in our curriculum, we hope to give children a strong taste of internal integrity.

For example, if we want to learn about patience, we can watch seeds sprout. If we want to learn about being calm, we can pretend to be deer, or watch our bunny rabbit be so still on the playground. We can learn about strength from kneading dough or moving heavier toys. We give children projects or experiences where they have to use these qualities themselves. Since we all desire our children to be able to meet life’s challenges, we want to give them the tools to know how to deal with decisions, questions, and uncertainties. We hope that they can have respect for advice, be responsible to themselves, have patience to wait until they have an answer which is true for them and be able to be strong in expressing their beliefs. These are just a few examples of the essential role qualities play in our development.

Curriculum

Our curriculum includes a balance between structure and freedom. Each program has their own curriculum which is planned by the staff according to the age, needs, interests and developmental milestones of each child. The curriculums are posted in the classrooms for parents to see, as well as given to the parents to take home. We always involve the children’s bodies (senses and movement) , minds and hearts. We call this three centered learning.

The Great Health of the Body

The body is an incredible machine worthy of the highest quality of nourishment. We educate children on the basic foundations of health.

The body is a machine that runs on energy, but what are the different sources of this energy? The air we breath, the food we eat, and impressions (nature and people) all provide us with the life force we need to be alive. We help children experience these three foods as nourishment by playing games and having our attention on how good it feels to breath deeply, the beauty that is all around us and creating a quiet, calm, enjoyable eating atmosphere.

We teach children about their anatomy: how do our organs work, what happens when we eat food, what happens when we eat fast or slow? We believe children should know all about the inner workings of their bodies in order to understand how to be healthy. Even young children can be taught about what happens inside their bodies. We include songs, skits and making life size drawings of our bodies to help children understand what goes on inside of them.

There is an emphasis on sensory experiences that children are so in love with. Almost everything we do has some kind of sensory component as a bridge to learning all about the world.

Taking care of our bodies is a daily routine. We brush teeth, wash, drink water, eat well, get fresh air, and learn how to take care of ourselves when we don’t feel well.

All children have the potential to be confident in their bodies. We believe that children need to be as physically active as possible in order to develop all their capacities. A child learns primarily through using and experiencing with their bodies. We have an extensive outdoor program where children have a chance to run, jump, climb, explore and play games. We stretch, tumble, wrestle, jump high, jump long, and play all kinds of games that help children to feel in touch with the power in their bodies. We talk about posture, we do stretching and yoga in our morning circles, and we create many opportunities to learn new ways to move and physically approach new challenges. We help children to feel integrity and strength in their bodies and thus to meet life open and confident.