Children are Our Nature Educators

It was such an amazing experience to go camping with eleven families from Home Sweet Home.  To feel supported by and in tune with other parents and children is both peaceful and exhilerating.  Delighting in watching children explore small ponds and large lakes with all five senses.  Identifying the world's largest tadpole (probably) or choosing to examine the deer carcass and without judgment for what the "learning value" of it might be, but to just relax in to the moment and be lead by the children's interest and wonder.  I am so grateful to Kris Palmer for her organizational efforts and all the families that participated to make it a very special weekend - hopefully the first of many!

In our quest to provide Nature experiences for every child, the learning community of Home Sweet Home seeks to support all of our partners to advocate for outdoor play.  What is possible for the individual (the family, the community) when we connect with Nature? What isn't possible!

Families are confronted by many challenges to the decision of allowing children free, unfettered play outside:

• Fears of physical safety
• Fears that we are making good parenting decisions
• Fears of what "might" happen
• Pressure to instead pursue "academic" activities
• an increasingly litigious society built on shallow ideas of what constitutes safety and responsibility

As a mother, I have found infinite support from the families I have partnered with, including as a Child Care Educator.  We instinctually know what's best for children is to deeply engage with nature.

There is a Hasidic story of the child of a rabbi who used to wander in the woods.  At first his father let him wander, but over time he became concerned.  The woods could be dangerous. The father didn't know what might happen there.
He decided to discuss the matter with his child. One day he took him aside and said, "You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods.  I wonder, why do you go there?"
The boy said to his father, "I go there to find God."
"That is a very good thing," the father gently replied, "I am glad that you are searching for God. But, my child, don't you know that God is the same everywhere?"
"Yes," the boy answered, "but I'm not."
(Rabbi David Wolpe)