Have I mentioned yet that I am currently stationed in
Hawaii?? I guess I probably should. At the end of 2012, I left Seattle, and my
beloved preschool, Bella Mente, with my partner Dylan in search of a
home. Ever since I left for college and my mom moved into
a new house, I have been leading this transient, “move-every year” lifestyle.
Although Dylan and I set out for Seattle with the possibility of it becoming
our new home, we quickly realized that it was too far from family and lacked
that clichéd home-sweet-home feeling.
His family always rented and they moved around all the time so both of us
decided that it was high time we find ourselves a place to settle into more
permanently.
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| As we pulled up to the farm for the first time I thought to myself, Hawaii is going to be good for us |
It’s kind of a long story and I’m not going to get into the
details, but we ended up in Hawaii for four months, which is even further from
home than Seattle was since we are both from New England, but in the long run
this is bringing us closer to what we are ultimately seeking. The Central Coast
of Maine is where we plan to make our home once we are ready. So then why
Hawaii, one might ask. Well the idea of
home, is about more than just a location and a house for us, it is about a
lifestyle and the lifestyle we are after is one of self-sufficiency. We want to
become farmers, and so we are in Hawaii through the WWOOF program, learning to
live off the land and test out the farming life. At the same time, we are
giving ourselves the chance to have one last big and crazy adventure, refresh
ourselves and develop some healthier habits, and get some much needed Vitamin
D.
Since I am going to be surrounded by nature for the next few
months, I have decided to start my first series of themed blog posts on the
subject. This topic is a big one and will definitely require being broken down
into multiple posts to avoid overwhelming you, my wonderful readers. It made
sense to me to do this now since I was going to get to it at some point anyway.
If you have been to my Pinterest page, you’ll notice I devote quite a bit of
energy to showcasing various ways of incorporating the natural world into the
lives of children, in the classroom and the home.
Following the Reggio Approach, I believe that by surrounding
children with natural accents and materials, and exposing them to real live
nature, we as educators and parents can help foster a relationship between the
two. Children who grow up connected with their environment and the natural
world grow up with a deeper respect for it and that makes a huge difference. We
need more children who will grow into adults who care about and want to live in
harmony with our planet rather than continuing to deplete it until it is all
dried up. We need creative thinkers who will work with rather than against
their environments to create a more sustainable and successful future for
everyone.
Nature is on my mind and is deeply entrenched in my everyday
experience and my current work with children, or with little K anyway. K is the
going-on-two year old daughter of our host family whom I spend a good chunk of
my time with each weekday (about 3-4 hours each morning), hanging out on the
farm and learning together. You are bound to hear more about my adventures with
K throughout the next few months while we are in Hawaii since I get to give her
my everything as a teacher. It has been a while since I’ve done one-on-one work
with kids but I am super excited. My biggest frustration working at a big
preschool was that I never had enough time, energy or attention to give to each
child in my class. Now K has my undivided every day and I get to experience the
opposite end of the spectrum for a while.
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| The roaming chicken coop in the mango orchard at K's house |
We just finished our first week of work here at the farm so
K and I are still getting to know one another and I am still getting to know
the farm, the island, and the people who I am sharing this beautiful space
with. It is amazing having come from working with urban children in Seattle to
be here working with a little one who spends her days among the food in the
garden, the geckos all around us, and the hot, hot sun. In the mornings we feed
the chickens together and walk around the farm checking on the progress of the
various crops until the hot sun sends us inside to read in the cool of K’s
tile-covered bedroom floor.
Since Dylan and I have arrived on the farm, K has taken a
serious interest in food and cooking. A few weeks ago she began weaning off of
nursing and eating more and more solid foods. At first, her mother told me, she
was quite resistant but suddenly she has become an adventurous little eater,
more so than most adults I know. At her age, she is soaking everything in like
a sponge so being around the garden and so many people who work with and love
good food means that she is beginning to develop quite the sophisticated palate.
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| One of K's salads ready to eat! |
We spend at least an hour each morning in food-related
creative play games and actual preparation of meals for her. The first night we
arrived, we had a family dinner that featured a big salad that K watched her
mother prepare. Since then, she and I have been making “salads” for Dylan as he
works nearby. K’s salads consist of shredded leaves that were trimmed and
discarded off the hedges by her house and we put them in a wooden salad bowl. I
ask her how she wants to dress them and sometimes she wants salad dressing,
other times she prefers just olive oil and salt, and sometimes she wants
pepper, mangoes, and avocado too. She tosses it with her hands and gets a stick
that she calls a fork and we deliver it to Dylan, who kindly pretends to eat
her carefully prepared meal.
Her interest in food has got me thinking about fashioning an
outdoor play kitchen for little K so we can take her creative play to another
level, introducing new dishes, new kitchen tools, and new preparations methods.
This way K can continue to pursue her newfound interest in cooking and eating
while at the same time developing those essential fine motor skills as she rips
and grasps and handles the materials. Over time I have collected a handful of
great examples of play kitchens on
Pinterest and will continue to add a ton
more as I delve deeper into my research on the topic so check out and follow my
education boards for more inspiration for your own classrooms and homes.
Though most kids at some point take an interest in kitchen
play, K is not yet two and her knowledge of food and her adventurous palate are
likely connected to her upbringing here on the farm. She spends a lot of time
around food in every stage of its production and so almost nothing on her plate
is unfamiliar to her. Growing up as an active participant in her own
nourishment will likely be a valuable asset to her in the future and I know it
makes life a lot easier for her parents who never have to worry about what to
feed her. K takes part in deciding what she eats and her preferences right now
are eggs, fish, mangoes, raspberries, purple potatoes, broccoli, kefir, olives,
and she’s always up for trying something new.
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| The main garden of the farm where K helps harvest her dinners, she loves to nibble on the broccoli florets as we go. |
I have already salvaged an old frying pan that a neighbor
was throwing away and so hopefully by the end of the week I will have a good
start on K’s play kitchen to show you and more stories to report about K’s
continued interest in food. If there’s anything I have learned so far in my
week with K it is that continued exposure to a wide variety of foods certainly
impacts what a child will and won’t eat. K also happens to be a pretty
strong-willed little girl so I’m willing to bet that getting a say as to what
goes into her meals makes a big difference too. Her only options are healthy
ones so it really doesn’t matter what she picks because anything she chooses is
going to be good for her. Being a food person myself, she’s my kind of eater
and I can’t wait to see where we go from here.
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| This simple model from natureforkids.net is similar to what I'll try to fashion for K |
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