Hello from the Forest

find this story on Amazon.com here

A whole month has gone by since my last post... woops! Time flies in the summer time and this month has been a busy one. Lots of travel, lots of friends and families, a month-long art and nature summer camp, and a much needed respite from the daily routines that had started to wear me down. But, I'm am back refreshed and revitalized and ready to share lots of goodies and stories I've collected over the past few weeks. To start out, I'd like to share a book I stumbled across at the library one morning as I browsed for stories to share with my 4-6 year old campers. Although this powerful and important book is on the longer side, the story and illustrations held onto everyone's attention and the web-of-life concept kept most campers involved in a lively discussion long after I put it down.

The story starts with a young girl discovering that her cat had gone missing during the night and as she heads off into her beloved forest to investigate, she finds his collar and a few patches of fur on the ground. Suddenly, the girl is introduced to a side of wildlife she had not yet encountered and though it frightened and saddened her, she set out to understand it, and in turn the world, a little bit better. The author takes what could be a traumatizing and grim experience for a child and invites children to understand both sides of the predator-prey relationship.

Having the river in the forest as our playground made it easy for the kids to take what they learned in the classroom the world at large. Out here we came across a painted turtle, craw fish, wild mushrooms, and birds of all kinds to observe.

With my particular group, this story opened up conversation about losing pets and the emotions and rituals that surround dealing with death. It also invited children to share what they know about the food chain and what kinds of animals eat what. We talked about how although it seems mean that a mountain lion or wolf might have eaten the girl's cat, that each animal has a family to feed and are designed differently so that there is enough food for everyone. One child in my group suggested that if all animals ate grass there wouldn't be any grass left. Even though the children were sad for the girl and the loss of her feline friend, they were able to look beyond their sadness at the grander picture of life. These are important concepts that are often avoided with younger children because of their seriousness, but I have always found that children are never credited enough for their ability to both understand and work through even the most complicated emotions and concepts when guided and supported by loving adults and peers.

Depicting their new-found knowledge of birds via drawing

Following our reading and discussion, the children headed off to the art table to investigate and animal pictures in the National Geographic magazines I had brought in and many of them made collages of their favorite animals, pointing out the herbivores versus the carnivores. Other children gathered around the computer to watch episode three of this BBC documentary about birds, exploring how their beaks are uniquely shaped to suit their diet. Other children headed outside to do a bit of bird watching with the binoculars I had brought in while others grabbed one of the many non-fiction animal and nature book on display in our classroom. I also set out the story on the art table with some paper and markers for children as an art provocation and a few sat down to draw animals and forest scenes of their own. All in all, I was pleased with the fun and learning that was born out of this story and I can't wait to read it again with another group. If you have ever read this one with a child or class, I'd love to hear stories of the discussions, projects, and inquiry that resulted.

Green Education

I have been deep in research mode lately, since my camp doesn't start up for a few more days and I haven't been working directly with any kiddos recently. This means that while I don't have as much direct experience or stories to offer at the moment, I do have tons of ideas and resources to share. First of all, I've been reading and investigating more on Richard Louv's concept of Nature Deficit Disorder (remember his book Last Child in the Woods from this post a while back?). I picked up his follow-up book, The Nature Principle as a graduation gift for my little sister who is starting at Sterling College next fall, a small alternative school in Vermont that puts the need to connect with the natural world at the heart of their curriculum. She is still in the middle of another book so I decided to dig into it first--we are sisters after all, we share stuff all the time anyway, particularly our favorite books. Well, this book is just as incredible as the last and I want to share with you a quote Louv recorded on page 72....

In addition to the benefits to physical and mental health, there's the added spiritual value of green exercise. The theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, "Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement, to look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; to be spiritual is to be constantly amazed."

I love this idea, and I completely agree, there is magic all around us, every day if we just open our eyes and hearts to it. Just yesterday I was trying out my new binoculars and struggling just to get it so I was no longer seeing double, and in a bit of frustration let them drop and hang around my neck. Just then I noticed that a few feet in front of me, a little brown bunny was watching me from next to the purple and white bell flowers that surround the trunk of the old maple tree in our yard. The rabbit froze as we locked eyes, but since I didn't move, he stayed there for a moment rather than hopping immediately away. He hopped around a bit as I watched him and then scampered off to the crab apple tree toward the back of our small piece of land. He continued to watch me and I continued not to move, content in the moment just to see what he might do next. The sweet little bunny went about his business of munching on clover leaves and sniffing the air as I went back to messing around with my binoculars. He was still hanging out when I got bored and headed inside and back to my computer.

Oh how I miss working in the garden with K, the best little lima bean (and pigeon pea) sheller I ever knew. She is a girl after my own heart, as plucking peas from their pods was my favorite task too back when I was my mother's little garden helper

I was so inspired by my experience with the rabbit, that I went on the hunt for what other bloggers, teachers, parents, and writers had to say on the subject of getting out into the outdoors with kids. Ever since I had the opportunity to teach in an outdoor classroom, on the farm in Hawaii with little K, I can't stop thinking about the value of green education. Louv's books are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the literature available on this subject and although his work and a few others are the only ones I've delved into so far, I am so impressed by and excited about what I foresee learning over the next however many months, (or more likely, years) it takes me to get through it all. And not only is there literature available to satiate my own hunger to learn, there is just as much, if not more geared toward the most important audience, the children themselves.

Being a long-time lover of children's literature, I am well aware that such stories exist and I have used many of them in my classrooms quite regularly, but I had no idea just how many books are so well suited for green education. This is what I am calling a nature-based program that is rooted in a belief in a sustainable lifestyle that is in harmony with rather than opposed to the natural world, while at the same time encourages and supports technological and economic innovation and development through an interest-driven program fostering a life-long love of learning. Green Education is my new philosophy and passion, though it seems this is where I've been heading all along, I just didn't know quite what to call it yet. The name has probably been around for a while, I'm fairly certain I am not the first to think of it, and the concept is certainly not my own creation, but either way I am advocating for it like crazy, regardless. I firmly believe that a green or sustainability focus is exactly what is necessary to breathe new life into the education system, and in turn the economy after that.

So now that I've rambled for a bit, it's time to get to the good stuff...

Check out more about this incredible book here

• Here is Joyce, from Inner Child Learning and her 5 tips for exploring nature with the kiddos. I love this post because it offers a lot of really simple and easy tips for getting outside with kids for the every day parent. Don't have expensive camping gear or a whole weekend to spend, then this post is for you!
• Check out this gardening and growing plants themed list of amazing children's books, I love them all!!
• Here is the Amazon.com page for David Sobel's excellent book, Childhood and Nature, one I have repeatedly used to help explain the Reggio concept of natural materials and the infusing of nature in classroom design.
• If you live in an urban area or have struggled to get outdoors, this awesome indoor growing system offers kids an up-close-and personal view of how plants grow that requires little beyond the initial planting and regular watering but can provoke tons of inquire and exploration into the process of plant growth
• and the gem of all gems, the Center for Ecoliteracy and their publication co-written by Daniel Goleman (remember him from his work on emotional intelligence?), Ecoliterate: How Educators are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence