The Beginnings
We would like to propose that together we focus on the arts of slowing down, paying attention, and noticing.
hat it might mean for us to support children to notice and slow down when we go to the forest. How might we invite children to slow down rather than “consume” everything they find/see in the forest? How do we invite children to focus, slow down, and notice? If a child picks up a stick, we might become curious about what it is about this particular stick (and not others). Can we stay with what children notice about this stick (and challenge them to think beyond) rather than moving on to the next object that children might pick up in the forest?
You might be wondering why we have chosen to bring charcoal and paper to the centre…
The invitation to slow down, notice, and pay attention to the liveliness of what charcoal offers and the potential connections to the beloved forest sparked many thoughts of practicality and curiosity in myself as an educator.
It matters deeply what materials we invite into our classrooms. For the past few weeks we have been observing children’s engagement (even fascination) with sticks in the forest. We propose that, to challenge the divide between nature and culture (see Word document attached), we create continuities between the centre and the forest. Paper and charcoal are forest – they start in forests… The sticks that children are fascinated with become charcoal through industrial processes. We don’t necessarily want to tell children about these links, but we want to immerse ourselves in these deep connections – which might (or not) become visible for children in a few months from now (as I mentioned above, we want to practice slowing down, which entails allowing the time and space for these connections to simmer). In other words, we don’t need to tell children that these are the sticks that come from the forest.
Practicing the arts of slowing down, paying attention, and noticing with children is not easy (we know!). We will do it together, and our work will always be imperfect. To begin, we ask that you stay close to children’s processes (sit down with the children, actively engage with their questions (without rushing through them), invite children to follow the movements of a charcoal stick, to think with charcoal, to stay with the difficulty of charcoal, to wonder with charcoal/paper, to be curious about what charcoal stick might do). Bring children together, follow the movements that take place between charcoal and children. Yet, support children to notice, to focus, to pay attention. Please note that the arts of noticing, paying attention, and slowing down does not mean that we follow children and are passive observers. Our role as educators is paramount – we are deeply present in the classroom.
