As we walk through the forest, we stop every now and then to think about how we can continue to live deeply in our forest experiences when we are not physically there. In our minds and hearts, we search for meaningful experiences and materials that would satisfy our curiosities, nudge at our comforts a little, and maybe even pull at our heartstrings. Passions, connectedness, meaningful, exciting\u2026 all the words and concepts make their way into our discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think about what inspires me to come to work\neach day\u2014what excites me, what drives my curiosities, where I find joy. Some\ndays it\u2019s easier than others to realize these things. Thankfully, today is one\nof those \u201ceasy\u201d days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cForest Five\u201d (a simple handle I use to\nreference the small group of older toddlers) have been exploring flashlights,\nlight, and shadows for the past few weeks. Could this be the bridge between\ninside and outside for us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bitterly cold winter day sets us up to test\nthis idea with the group. The plan is to project images from our forest adventures\non the wall and invite the \u201cForest Five\u201d to engage with flashlights. My initial\nthought was to project images of the forest only\u2014sans humans<\/em><\/strong>\u2014and see how\nthe group responded. However, we eventually projected images of the children in\nthe forest, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some interesting notes and observations\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Seeing images of peers who were not\nphysically there for the shadow exploration in effect invited them into the\nexperience on a different plane. Makes me think about the liveliness of the\nforest when we are not present. (Just because you are not physically in a space\ndoesn\u2019t mean you haven\u2019t left your mark with others\u2014human and nonhuman\u2014who\nremain there.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n *The toddler triplicate…or at times\nquadruplicate! Seeing a projected image of someone, then their shadow\nsuperimposed on the projection, layered with their physical presence…and\nsometimes another projected image cast on their body! Different layers of\nconnectedness\/ presence in a space or experience…something to think more\nabout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Problem-solving strategies: At times a child\nwalked in front of the projector, causing the image to go dark. One response\nthat we noticed again and again was the attempt to \u201cswipe away\u201d the shadow to\nreveal the image. Is this a simple strategy to move something or does this\nspeak to the influence of technology on even these very young children: swiping\nscreens to reveal something else???<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we walk through the forest, we stop every now and then to think about how we can continue to live deeply in our forest experiences when we are not physically there. In our minds and hearts, we search for meaningful experiences and materials that would satisfy our curiosities, nudge at our comforts a little, and maybe even pull at our heartstrings. Passions, connectedness, meaningful, exciting\u2026 all the words and concepts make their way into our discussions. I think about what inspires me to come to work each day\u2014what excites me, what drives my curiosities, where I find joy. Some days it\u2019s easier than others to realize these things. Thankfully, today is one of those \u201ceasy\u201d days. The \u201cForest Five\u201d (a simple handle I use to reference the small group of older toddlers) have been exploring flashlights, light, and shadows for the past few weeks. Could this be the bridge between inside and outside for us? A bitterly cold winter day sets us up to test this idea with the group. The plan is to project images from our forest adventures on the wall and invite the \u201cForest Five\u201d to engage with flashlights. My initial thought was to project images of the forest only\u2014sans humans\u2014and see how the group responded. However, we eventually projected images of the children in the forest, too. Some interesting notes and observations\u2026 *Seeing images of peers who were not physically there for the shadow exploration in effect invited them into the experience on a different plane. Makes me think about the liveliness of the forest when we are not present. (Just because you are not physically in a space doesn\u2019t mean you haven\u2019t left your mark with others\u2014human and nonhuman\u2014who remain there.) *The toddler triplicate…or at times quadruplicate! Seeing a projected image of someone, then their shadow superimposed on the projection, layered with their physical presence…and sometimes another projected image cast on their body! Different layers of connectedness\/ presence in a space or experience…something to think more about. *Problem-solving strategies: At times a child walked in front of the projector, causing the image to go dark. One response that we noticed again and again was the attempt to \u201cswipe away\u201d the shadow to reveal the image. Is this a simple strategy to move something or does this speak to the influence of technology on even these very young children: swiping screens to reveal something else???<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5,13],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tracks-tracings","tag-materiality","tag-paying-attention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}