Through the Eyes of a Child

The dolphin's swam so close I probably could have touched one had I tried.

To children, the world is still so new and exciting because so much of it they are seeing for the very first time and to them, it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever scene. This past week, I have been trying to see the world through the eyes of a child, to experience a bit of the joy and wonder of being a kid again. Reading Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods during my final days living in Hawaii means that all I want to do is get outside in the sunshine and soak in all the beauty of this spectacular island. Last weekend I hiked around a volcano, saw a beach where all the sand was black, and went snorkeling for the very first time where saw beautiful yellow tang fish feeding among the coral. Then this weekend rolls around and I got to swim with wild dolphins at Ho'okena Beach Park. While I was looking for fish, a Spinner dolphin swam right underneath me. It was amazing. Before this, I had never seen or heard of Spinner dolphins, who get their name because they love to jump up in the air and spin as many times as they can before splashing back into the waves. School or not, I learn something new every day and my appetite for knowledge keeps on growing.

These beautiful flowers smell even better that they look, if you can possibly imagine. Just pay attention when you touch them because the white sap is apparently poisonous and can potentially lead to blindness. I love these flowers anyway.

I will always remember the time I swam with wild dolphins in the Hawaiian Pacific. If I was a kid and I swam with dolphins, I might suddenly want to be a marine biologist when I grew up. I am not going to switch careers or anything, I but I do have a new found interest in learning more about the creatures of the ocean after living in Hawaii. I can’t wait until we find our place in Maine this fall so I can start looking for puffins and seals and find out what other wildlife exists in my soon-to-be new home. Today, I saw a handful of sea turtles grazing the shores and then later saw two more taking a nap in the sunshine among the lava rocks just an arms-length away. I watched the turtle for a while, he blinked his eyes a few times and squirmed a bit to get more comfortable, I presume. These turtles, one smaller and younger looking and a bigger, more tired-looking one were just like the ones I’ve seen in pictures online. Seeing them up close like I did today, was so much better than looking at pictures.

Cardinals, just like the ones that I grew up with in Vermont

Nature has a powerful effect on people, it’s pretty amazing. Hawaii is a great place to fall in love with nature because it’s everywhere and all of it is stunningly beautiful. But nature, and all of it’s beauty can be found just about anywhere if only you look for it. I believe that this is my most important role as a teacher, to seek out the wonders of the world and share them with my students. When K and I are playing outside together, I always switch into hyper-observer mode, seeking out amazing things around us to point out to her and these experiences have helped us to bond, influenced K’s play, and inspired her interest in various aspects of nature she may not have otherwise noticed. When I hear a bird call, I ask her if she heard it too and together we search for the source. I also try to replicate the call with a bit of concentrated whistling. K loves it when I call to the birds and once we even tricked a cardinal into believing he was hearing the sounds of another cardinal. I whistled back and forth with the bird who sat a few feet away searching for the source of the sound he heard. K stared in fascination as I interacted with the brilliantly red cardinal and after he flew away, we talked about what the cardinal might have been trying to communicate.

Pacific Golden Plover we saw at the beach one morning.

I have a personal love of birds, I think they are so beautiful and interesting and I always want to learn more about them. Throughout my time with K, I have been able to share my fascination with ornithology with her and now I notice her pausing to spot the birds she hears singing. Recently, after I started naming the birds we noticed around the farm, K has started pointing out the birds she sees, identifying them by name just like I do. I didn’t do anything special to teach her this, I simply shared with her when I noticed them myself. I could have taught K about the local species of birds through pictures on the computer, as I often used to with kids, but it’s the magic of first hand experience and interaction with these winged creatures that I believe has sparked her interest, as it did mine. This isn’t to say that I don’t use the computer to learn more about the creatures I see out in the world, but usually it’s experience in nature that I use to guide my research. 

Did you know that there are species of animals that can regrow limbs? Sharing our living spaces with these awesome little creatures, K and I have learned a ton about them together through our daily observations and interactions. For instance, when Dylan and Daniel rebuilt the cabin roof, we learned that gecko's drop their tails when they get scared. The tail flops around spiritedly as a distraction while the tailless gecko fleas the scene. It takes about a six weeks to fully grow back.

K digs holes in the sand while the tide tickles her toes.

K is a sensory learner, she wants to experience things first and so getting out and connecting with nature is critical to her optimal learning. Some kids prefer to learn first through reading and then through experience, but usually that habit comes about later on, especially once they’ve mastered reading for themselves. That’s how I prefer to learn skills, I research in advance before attempting something new, to build up my confidence first. Observing nature is different. When I step out into the world of nature, I pay attention to my surroundings in a way that is not-second nature for me the way it is for K, who is a natural observer. I don’t often notice the details around me except for when I find myself out in the woods, swimming in the ocean, or admiring the way the tall grass sways softly across an empty field. There is something so freeing and so rejuvenating about the natural world, all my senses are stimulated at once and I am able to quiet my brain and notice those small details I often miss. I can feel my balance restoring and new interests forming and I always walk away from nature-based experiences feeling inspired and excited a motivated.

K's playground among the mango trees here at the farm.

These last few days in Hawaii I have spent my time soaking up as much nature as possible and savoring all the beauty of this place. I can feel my appreciation of these things rubbing off on K. She lives in a beautiful place and she knows it. Most kids do. I knew it when I was a kid too, but I forgot over the years when education was no longer about observing the natural beauty of my local environment, but about memorization and homework and tests. I lost the feelings of wonder and if you ask me, that is a school’s greatest mistake, squandering children’s natural awe rather than harnessing it. Looking back on my schooling, the experiences rooted in nature are what stick with me most, and from them I learned more than I ever did in the classroom, unless I was writing or reading about them. This is what ecoliteracy, the Reggio Approach, and so many other non-traditional methods of educating recognize, that students want to learn and will eagerly do so when provided with the proper support and guidance. Kids don’t need us to teach them about the world, per se, they just need someone to regularly take them out and share the magic that exists all around us. From that place of sheer excitement and inspiration, authentic and self-directed learning is born. All I need to do as a teacher is create an environment that facilitates the work of learning in which my students are so eager to engage.