Share specific examples of how you have taken an idea in education that has inspired you, and applied it to your home/classroom/daily activities. How did your new practice change the learning for your students? What impact did it have on their level of engagement and understanding?
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I could have easily mentioned this book in any of the Idea Box titles…all would have been fitting. Thanks to Lisa, friend and Garden Committe Chair at our school, who recommended this truly inspiring reading experience to me. Richard Louv’s research into Last Child in the Woods covers so many insightful ideas about the relationship of nature and our children’s development. His website has a resource guide for parents, teachers, community leaders with nature activities that may be new ideas to some, and just positive reinforcement for others: http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/
In spite being a “black thumb” (a little more grey than black now thanks to Shauna), I can see how much my children thrive in natural settings. Just a few weeks back, my boys and their cousin spent the day together, which started out with “when can we play Wii?”, along with much superficial “cool dudeness” and attitude. After a warm up at the Aquarium, we ended up at the beach impromptu (we didn’t even have a tissue to wipe their noses!).
It began with “Omg, it’s so cold and windy, let’s just stay 10 minutes”, to “let’s see how cold the water is”, which evolved into 2 hours of a type of fun I simply could not have created for them, ever. The tide was out so they decided to explore and spent their time discovering creatures, converting sticks and stones into digging devices, having their feet stuck in the mud (first, by accident, then deliberately) became one boy trapped by the pirates so the others had to rescue him. I made them retreat back to the beach area to see how cold and wet they were. They denied it in spite of blue lips and chattering teeth. Another half hour was then committed to burying each other in the sand to “get the wet off”. Yes, in full clothing. At this point, they were having so much fun I couldn’t say no. It, of course, developed into burying the “evil sandmen” who then tried to escape the “mountain cage” of sand.
But, most surprisingly, was the additional hour they spent playing follow the leader (I’m not kidding…two 10-yr olds and an 11-yr-old who is usually very careful about being a “dude” at all times!) on the logs with a leader wiggling his bottom and crawling along a log, the others following suit. They then discovered a log with a hole in the top. How could this be an hour’s worth of play? Well, one decided the hole in the log needed to be filled “for safety reasons”, after which they discovered that the sand they put inside escaped from another hole on the bottom of the other side of the log. Most of the hour was spent dumping the “garbage” into the “landfill” and then “recycling” it all from the bottom of the hole because they were “eco-friendly sandmen”. They negotiated together who would do which role, and when they would switch. I had to finally scrape them away before we all froze.
Some may think I should have stepped in and redirected them to do something more productive, more age-appropriate even. But no adult-made curriculum could have taught them more that day about ecology, resiliance, innovation, creativity & imagination, and collaboration. Oh, and that toilet paper is just as good for runny noses as Kleenex!