Through the Eyes of a Child
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It is Spring in Australia and I am aware of nature ‘unfolding’
around me – every day I learn something new!
Having arrived here 6 weeks ago after
nearly 15 years in Scotland I am living through new,
exciting and sometimes scary moments - I consider myself very privileged to again
be allowed this opportunity to experience the ‘childhood’ awe and wonder I remember
feeling as a child.
As adults we can lose this ‘skill’ as we are often too busy;
rushing and meeting deadlines that we tend to then miss the amazing detail surrounding
us. All too often we ‘drag’ our children with us instead of allowing them to
lead us into their world – they live in nature time.
Children who are given time and space will find and enjoy
the detail of nature in even the most
unlikely places – a bug under a stone, a raindrop on a plant, a weed in the
corner of the car park, a puddle in a discarded plastic bag. Even a decomposing leaf as a beauty of its own.
I have observed
children spend time getting really close, investigating from
all angles and then exploring the play-potential of their discovery - often over extended periods of time.
I believe
that children are able to see and appreciate the minutia and detail of the world around
them leading to a natural fascination that should be nurtured
and valued.
Slow down, allow children to take the lead, to share with us the world
through their eyes and we will learn the true value and beauty of the world
that we have access to – a blade of grass, a bee, a shell or a stone.
Looking through the lens of my camera I can see the delicate
detail I would otherwise miss and feel so privileged that I am given
another opportunity to see and share the world with young children using my camera lens.
should have seen the epic excitement today when we cleared some weeds and found a rather large beautiful frog!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the excitement - bet the adults were just as excited as the children!!! I found this amazing green frog here and was then told it is called a motorbike frog!
ReplyDeleteA lovely post. Last week I was working in a class and one child spent the best part of an hour simply watching and experimenting with floating balls in a bucket of water. She was totally engrossed and it was lovely to see her quietly playing away.
ReplyDeleteJuliet, what is so refreshing to hear is that the adults obviously allowed this child the time to explore her thinking in depth. All too often I see such magical learning opportunities destroyed by the adult agenda. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWow! I love your site! The layout and photos are gorgeous and the message even better. I am so amazed that many parents feel they need to give their kids "toys" to play with outside. I take my 15 month old daughter outside for a couple of hours each morning and she always finds lots of interesting things to see and play with. A couple of months ago, she grabbed a zinnia and I thought she was going to pull it off the plant. I stifled the urge to tell her "no" and I'm glad I did. Instead of pulling the flower off the stem, she put it to her nose and "smelled" it (just like we had done together every day with the sunflowers. Of course they have no scent but it doesn't matter.) It was a wonderful precious moment. I wrote a piece on taking your baby outside. It's never too early to help them learn to enjoy nature. And it builds their brain. You can read it here http://www.babydevelopmentnow.com
ReplyDeleteDL - I love your article!! Thank you so much for including the need and want of babies to be outside and connecting to nature. I find they are so often in sterile, plastic environments that offer no sensory stimulation at an age when children need it! I will be writing a blog on babies soon!
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