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| We walked through the most gorgeous meadows... |
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| Big break on the rocks |
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| In his own habitat |
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| Seals lazing |
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| Education through the senses |
It would seem like we were playing, but as we walked, Thomas and myself stopped along the way to get the children to notice things. I have seen this, when you walk with a consciousness and when you just walk, the children respond differently... i have an extract from my blog here about the my thoughts on education through the senses... the simplified version of it...here it is
We had Forest School yesterday, which should be changed to Beach School because we spent big break on the rocks by Belfast Lough in the heat, paddling and watching the seals, terns and gulls. We also saw house martins, linnets (about 30 of them), swallows, house sparrows and cormorants. We also saw a host of plants - wildflowers and some inects and the children asked me questions about this and that.
I loved having been in the birdy place and wandered around with the wardens, because really its the wardens who knew the most about everything. They were the ones who taught me everything i know (which is not a lot) about moths, butterflies, wildflowers, insects and of course birds. If i do miss anything it is my annual visits to these places and being with wardens to chat about stuff and to see stuff. Eddie used to run moth traps for the boys round about this time of the year which was filled with the maddest LSD inspired inhabitants. Of course Eddie only looks on now (bless you Eddie)... how i miss him. Anthony patiently explained the difference between a gull and a tern, then taught me how to recognise birdsong, Brad floated me around Lower Lough Erne, Cuilcagh and other places, attempting to discover hen harriers (which we never did) and then and showed me wee baby snipe and lectured me about Sandwich terns (amongst other things :-) ), Matthew showed me the glories of Lough Foyle - i first saw whooper swans with him, and my first red and greenshank, Liam told me all about seabirds and placed a dead little auk from his freezer in front of me at three in the morning. Then there was the Biodiversity Officers network which gave me a wonderful insight into habitat management, bats, planning orders and plant ID. Really... and then of course there was the entire rainforest experience.
But you do not attempt to smother children with this info of course. When i go out with biologists, i want to tell them, do no do this to children. Let them enjoy it. Work with the teachers so that they have a poetic feeling before they actually see the thing, they will remember the thing so much better, it will be like magic.
And yesterday it was like magic.
Thomas led us through fields of buttercups and through orchards and the most lovely farm...we finally ended up at the beach. All the time the childen were going, this is fun...but really, i could see they were learning.
I could see even how they knew how to put on their wellies so much better. That they knew how to converge in the outdoors. They were confident with the woods, and the waters. They were asking questions all the time. Children who first did not like being outdoors, were now perfectly happy with it. I had a girl walk alongside me asking me the names of flowers and plants. We stopped at a stone totem (probably carved by Luc our woodowkr teacher) and we identified pictures and guessed at the figured that was carved. I helped identify the birds near the farmyard.
Then with all those black-headed gulls flying about us i said, gulls have different names too, i said. See this gull here, what colour is its head? Black, Oisin replied. So that is a black-headed gull. Oooooh! they all said. And they only have black-heads in the summer. WHAT??!! The children said. Yes, i said, in the winter they have their winter coats on and it is white. What colour are their legs... look...things like that. Then after big break, in the gorgeous heat of Belfast Lough, with all that around us, that we recited The Rainbow poem by Walter de la Mare. In these days of sun and rain, i hope they will see the rainbow and think of the bejewelled words of the poem which filled us daily.
Children learn through their senses because they are not awake yet in their thinking. We fill them with sensory activities and there is nothing more sensory than learning this way. We stopped and i got them to smell different flowers. Lilac. Pink thrift. Here, smell this rose, i said. A little boy sniffed it. It smells like sweets!! He said. Can you imgaine how wonderfully children can describe things? Could we eat it? We digest everything, and here was a child telling me he was literally digesting this encounter with a rose.
These are the days of the lifeforces, when the sun and air spirits surge within us. I said to Thomas, i love these beautiful summer days when it has been really really hot and then it rains and everything is saturated. Colours, smells, the air itself is swirling with amazement. The world admires itself. The elementals are singing. And Thomas, in his very wise way said, yes, you really feel the lifeforces. That is exactly it Thomas! The lifeforces, i said.
It is impossible not to be happy in these days of summer.
