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24 May ~2008
The Nature Center where I volunteer develops curiculi for several flavors of nature programs, on rivers, plants, Ponderosa Pine forests, wildlife and others.Yesterday I was scheduled for a plant program that I don't do very often. When i went down to the basement to get the materials, I read through the narrative to aquaint myself with what should be presented. I found a section where the teacher or a student is dressed up in a tree costume and leads the students in a rhyming song about the parts of a tree.
I am sure grateful the Nature Center is flexible on this, allowing individual program leaders to customize what they do according to their style. I can't really see myself getting dressed up in a plant suit to sing a rhyming song.
My style has always been to walk the kids a long ways, to get out and see what they can discover. Walking is connecting with the earth, feeling it under your feet and paying attention to the special beauty in each day.
The kids take photos on our walks and yesterday a few of the ones they got were priceless, revealing their personalities. And I got one when they all sat down to examine a web of tent catepillars on a buckthorn shrub.
I led two programs - one before and one after lunch. The children after lunch were animated to the point of frenzy, and I wondered how much sugar they consumed. Some of them were running ahead, and so I called them all together and gave them my Mountain Lion lecture. I explain that I found a deer carcass just down the hill from here once, and there sure are plenty of lions in these parts. If a lion sees a small person, about your size, all by themselves, what might go through the mountain lion's mind is . . . . Dinner. So its good to stay with the group, because lions rarely attack anyone, but they almost never attack anyone in a group.
My talk was effective - none of the kids were running ahead after that.
Children have a natural instict to be fascinated by the world around us. It gets suppressed when they spend to much time inside in front of crt and lcd screens. It doesnt take long for it to show up again when they are out on a forest or meadow trail. I sure enjoy seeing that happen on the walks they take with me and their teachers and Moms and Dads.
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