Spending time enjoying God's creation doesn't always come easy with four little ones. There is always one more thing to clean, one more room to straighten, and one more load of laundry to fold. It seems someone is always just waking up or about to take a nap. The days I decide to just get outside and enjoy nature with the little ones end up being wonderful time spent together. We enjoy going to parks, but I prefer more wild places with no play ground option. So the other day we decided to venture to the spring behind our house for some playtime. We went about 4:00 in the afternoon and stayed about an hour. The day was beautiful and we had recently had a few inches of rain. I was hoping for a small waterfall.
I have recently started reading The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson and this book reminds me of the importance of experiencing nature with our children.
A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.
A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods.
Now I know that for children, too, nature reserves some of her choice rewards for days when her mood may appear somber.
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder...he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.
And then there is the world of the little things. seen all to seldom. Many children, perhaps because they find themselves are small and closer to the ground then we, notice and delight in the small and inconspicuous.
With your child, look at objects you take for granted as commonplace or uninteresting.
I was so happy to see the first signs of spring on our walk.
The above quotes were from Rachel Carson's book The Sense of Wonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment