Note: For privacy reasons, the children quoted and referenced in this article will be known as O and E.
“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” John Muir
The older I get, the more inclined I am to reminisce about my childhood. Nostalgia overwhelms me as I remember how it felt to run barefoot through the grass, or through a dirt field, where I happened to step on a Garter snake, as it slithered across my path. I can still feel the pain from scraping my shins on the trunk of a tree lying supine along the driveway and how the distraction of the great outdoors dispelled the discomfort of the injury. The memory of my rosy, red cheeks after playing outside in the snow warms my heart, like a steaming cup of hot cocoa warmed my tired and frozen body from the inside out. The snowman I made stood proud and tall as I wondered how snow sticks together to make snowballs. I can still smell the grass after a fresh rainfall and the earthy smell of pond water and pasture where most of my outdoor play occurred. My favourite experiences were those way out in the “back forty” where human feet rarely trod, and the natural masterpiece as God intended it to be had not yet been rearranged by human hands. One of those masterpieces, when I was a little girl, was the creek that flowed behind the house. I remember spending hours floating little wooden boats in the creek, which naturally segued into the study of different little bugs in the murky water. The “chirruping” of the resident gophers led to a game of peek-a-boo, which initiated curiosity about their underground tunnels. I would imagine little rooms branching off the tunnels, complete with furniture and fixings. Watching the birds dipping and diving on a beautiful, cloudless day triggered questions of flight and wings and how they function.
Thank goodness for the outdoors, for sunshine on my face and the wind at my back. Thank goodness for the sweet sounds of birdsong and the coyote howls at night, the smells of farmyards and fire pit evenings, the tickle of grass on my feet or a ladybug traveling across my hand. Even though I now live in the city, these descriptions still fill my senses, just a little more at a remove. It is also in the city where I can hear the cheerful play of children outside on a warm summer day. It is that sound that I find so delightful and takes me back to my childhood. I am finding as the years progress, the sound of play becomes less and less, and I am aware, this is due to the children growing up in my community, that, and they are not playing outside as much as they used to. I am happy to say, this is not the case with every child.
I would like to introduce you to O and E. These two cuties are my niece’s little ones! My niece and her husband raise these adorable little munchkins in a city in western Canada. Being they are six hours away from me, I don’t get to see them very often. I do, however, get to see them a lot in videos and pictures that their mom puts on Instagram, or that my sister sends to me in those moments where she wants to do a little bragging of her own. On my side of the family, these two sweethearts get a lot of attention, even if it is through a computer or a phone. The photos are engaging because anytime you photograph a 4-year-old and 16-month-old, something unexpected is bound to be captured in that photo, but 90% of the time, it is because the setting for the picture is the great outdoors.
My niece is an amazing mom! She invests hours of dedication to her two beautiful children, and it is not all about giving them instant gratification or attention. She has taught them an appreciation for the outdoors from a noticeably early age. Both O and E have been spending time outdoors from infancy to present day. Every day, most of the day is spent outside, especially in the warmer seasons. That does not mean she shies away from the winter months, instead, they are bundled up from head to toe, warm and snug, the exact recipe needed to enjoy a cold winter day.
“I’m tunneling to Africa.” O, age 4 yrs. A comment made while playing in his sandbox.
His little hands grip the mini shovel tightly. He is hard at work, digging and scraping the sand out of the pit, that to him, is making a tunnel across the Atlantic Ocean to the continent of Africa. It’s a beautiful sunny day, there is a light breeze, but barely enough to move a few strands of hair. He works hard while his little sister sits nearby holding a dandelion right up close to her face, turning it over, smelling it, rubbing it on her cheek and then dropping it, only to pull another one for the very same bewildering inspection. Her tiny physical strength develops even more every time she tries to pull one more dandelion from the scattered patches in the backyard. E only knows a few words, but just because she cannot verbally express her wonders, she can still share her intrigue with her eyes. The eyes are the conduit to the soul and her sparkly, expressive eyes do all the talking for her. Despite her age, together, she and her brother are taking in the gift’s nature offers them and doing their own research. Nature is telling them a story and encouraging them to get involved in that story, to learn more about the world, and eventually themselves. This triggers the “I wonder” questions, and before you know it, their little brains burst forth with curiosity and continues to grow from all the incredible, natural information.
Last week O was outside playing with his Fisher Price™ barn and horses and was pulling bits of grass as feed. After placing it strategically in the trough inside the barn he said, “my horses love this feed.” On another occasion, O shared with his mom, “I just love the world, I hope we always have it.” O can appreciate his beautiful world because he has and continues to have opportunities to explore it. His own world goes way beyond that of the walls in the house and a screen.
My sister, O’s grandma, shared another quote she heard from O last week which shows how he is making connections between humans and animals. “Grandma…those birds sure have a lot to say!” Hearing the chitter chatter of birds on a wire or up in a tree, led him to connect that sound to human chatter. In his own way he naturally personified the conversation between the birds.
“Grandma, I tranquilized the blackbird in the tree.” O, playing in his grandma’s back yard.
“It’s a big pile, I blew it up and pieces are everywhere!” O, after destroying a sandcastle his grandma made him.
“I’m going to tranquilize the bubbles when we’re blowing bubbles outside.” O, to his mommy.
“I love being in trees!” O, while outside climbing trees.
I have many pictures of O playing in mud in his backyard. Some pictures show him head to toe mud and I have caught myself thinking, “how on earth will she get those stains out of his clothes?” That lasts for only a moment. Life is too short to always have clean fingernails and sometimes a child may get some dirt on their “Sunday” shoes. At the end of the day children should have messy hair and dirty clothes. Play, both indoor and outdoor is how they learn, and practice what they have learned. To a child there are a million “I wonder’s” out there, they just need the time to explore them. If a child can come inside smelling like earth, then you know they have had a lot of “wonders” and it has likely been an exceptional day!
