The Tensions of Considering Nature When Confined to the Indoors Due to Bitter Winter Temperatures

Even with a good snowsuit and cold weather gear, taking infants out in a polar vortex is unwise. It presents particular challenges to our role as caregivers and educators.. The cold weather can foster perceptions of nature as ‘other’. In January in much of Canada this is an annual reality leaving us all stuck inside staring longingly out of the window from our place of warmth. How do we engage meaningfully from this physical and mental space? The answer is simple –  we talk and remember and observe. We sit together by the window and look deeply out at the ever changing view. We take the time and choose to engage knowingly from one side of the glass. Even if it provokes memories (i.e. ‘fishbowl’ thinking) we do it in order to turn our backs and ignore the powerful influence weather can have in further separating us from nature. The effects of winter abound: the icicles on the eaves; the frost patterns on the window; the cold-to-the-touch glass; the howling wind as it whips the snow around the playground become the fodder for experiencing the deep freeze. Still, even the act of sitting in silent reverie with children as we watch winter is a form of being with nature. During this time we talk about the walk we had to  the forest. We talk about the cold and look to the sky to observe the clouds as new snow begins to fall. Through slow observation, sensory exploration and storytelling, the glass between us and outside seems to disappear.

H