MUD PIE KITCHEN 

(This is a series of Blogs which advocate Nature based learning opportunities for children. The goal is simple: unless children live in Nature, the will not develop any love for it , and  only love can take them to the point of Protection. Providing Nature based learning is the most essential part of creating Environmental stewardship in children, who will take care of this planet )

"Life in the open air, in the sunshine, and a diet high in nutritional content coming from the produce of neighboring fields improve the physical health, while the calm surroundings, the silence, the wonders of nature satisfy the need of the mind for reflection and meditation."

MARIA MONTESSORI

 (From Childhood to Adolescence)

 It was a lovely rainy day, when Nermeen jumped out to play with her favorite stuff.  On her way to the beautiful backyard of her Residential Compound, she found few broken branches of trees. She asked me,"Oh look at it, it fell down from this tree". I replied," Why its been fallen down, I couldn't see anyone cutting them".
She was thinking and wondering here and there ,"Wow ,what a windy day it is!.look at this tree, how the leaves are moving,wind is making them fall, I know that".
I was not surprised by her answer because I truly believe that by interacting with NATURE, children learn everything by themselves.

Nermeen ran to a field full of rocks and pebbles, she started collecting stones , feeling it in her fingertips, then at her palms. She shouted," I always like these tiny stones, I love to touch them, they are so cute".

I saw Nermeen many times counting them, throwing them on the ground and sometimes in a pool of water. A child discovers the Law of Gravity when he throws a stone, his Senses get sharpened when he plays with different sizes, different colors, and different shapes of rocks. He discovers the amazing strength in a piece of rock as compared to a piece of leaf. He may discover the glorious effect on water when he throws in a pool. He discover the whole Landscape all by playing in Nature.

"A child always moves ahead to a different activity when his soul finds satisfaction".

This is what I observed in my years of dealing with children in all kinds of environments where Free-choice is given.

So Nermeen went to the grassy field, hopping and dancing as she was enjoying every bit of  this beautiful garden, she shouted," I love these Autumn leaves, and here I can see many". She started collecting the leaves." I can hear the sound of these leaves when I touch them, its different, I never hear this sound in a green leaf",she explained.

 A child learns about the Seasons, weather, textures, and all about Botany when he plays in a Spring, winter, Summer or Autumn garden. 

She ran to her favorite spot, Tree-House, but she told me that now she would only  picked few leaves for her play without getting in the Tree house.

Its her choice .....

       

And Now we are back in our backyard, Nermeen filled many bags with dry leaves, green leaves, flower petals, rocks, and many other nature stuff. She started working in her beautiful MUD-PIE KITCHEN which she made sometime back last year.

I love her Mud-Pie Kitchen which she made using amazing metalic stove, pots and pans which was just perfect for her play.

(ALL ABOUT CREATING ONE'S OWN PLAY-SCAPE)

Every time Nermeen plays in her Mud-pie kitchen, she tries to add something, renovate , and change the infrastructure which is best suited for that particular day and play. So on that day, she told me that she needed to construct a wooden fence because she loved the Play area her friend had in her backyard which had a beautiful fence, so no one could disturb them.

"I am preparing a soup for dinner, would you like to have it later ?" She asked.

"I would love to have it my dear".I replied.

I saw her busy in her own Imaginative Play ,making everything for a perfect cooking.

She was picking tiny leaves from that broken branch which she picked up from the garden and adding it in the colorful soup.

Fine-motor skills can be seen developing using her little fingers. She had enough of her Gross-motor development when she was carrying and running around.

This was her beautiful play area in a perfect Autumn backyard.

                                       The beans which she collected from a nearby tree, she was using that for her Vegetable menu that night.

While coming back from the garden, she stopped at the Bar B Que area and got few coals for her stove.

I saw her enjoying every single treasure which she collected; thinking different ways to play , preparing for the cooking.

" I like to bake too, I can bake a cake", she shouted, taking a steel tray in her hand and then filling it with the sand, leaves, petals and pebbles.

"Hey, look at my oven, its there", she pointed to an old Bar B Que stand made of bricks and rods.

I was just wondering how she estimated the Area for that tray to get in, but she found the perfect place for it.

                                              'FAIRY CORNER '
I could see a Log with some heavenly leaves, seed and flowers. Nermeen put it over there, I don't know whats in her mind when she put these Nature stuff on that log...........can you figure it out.

 Busy in her cooking;  Pretend-play is one kind of an Imaginative play which prepares a child for the real situations without getting the trouble of loosing anything but to gain the control on his environment all unknowingly without any teacher to instruct.

She tried every single moves to prepare food ; she was cuddling her palms as if making Kebabs.
She must have watched her mom or someone doing this in the kitchen.
This is the POWER OF OBSERVATION.

While she was busy in her cooking, she discovered the beans, how it could be opened , how delicately it can be handled and how perfectly we needed to work with it.

I never saw Nermeen feeling tired, she is always busy in her PLAY and we call it WORK as Maria Montessori pointed out," PLAY IS THE WORK OF A CHILD".

"... Does Nature make a difference work and play or occupation and rest? Watch the unending activity of the flowing stream or the growing tree.  See the breakers of the ocean, the unceasing movements of the earth, the planets, the sun and the stars.  All creation is life, movement, work.  What about our hearts, our lungs, our bloodstream which work continuously from birth till death?  Have they asked for some rest?  Not even during sleep are they inactive.  What about our mind which works without intermission while we are awake or asleep?"

DR. MARIA MONTESSORI

( 'What You Should Know About Your Child')

TREE CLIMBING IS AN ART BUT ITS FULL OF SCIENCE

MY CHILDREN LOVE TO CLIMB THE TREE AS THOUGH THEY HAVE CLIMBED IT 1000S OF TIMES

Before capturing the moments of my class activity, I would love to share this INTERESTING FACT ;

The Tamri Goat, a breed in Morocco masters the art of tree climbing. The goat learn the skill due to the scarcity of flora and food. The goats supposedly love to eat the berries of Argan trees. But those fruits are forbidden due to the height until goats learn how to climb the trees to access the fruit.

"In Morocco, goats have mastered the art of tree climbing. Since only one in three of today's children have ever climbed a tree, maybe they can learn from the goats!"

As we finished our lesson of PARTS OF A PLANT, we were planning for the next relevant lesson of PARTS OF A TREE, so we decided to go out look  and observe some trees in the garden.                                             

 I pointed out  the roots, trunk,  branches , and the leaves ...parts of a tree and then they bombarded me with lots of amazing questions.

One of them shouted, " Can we climb  this trunk ?"

My answer was ,"Yes ,why not".

 

And then the children dived into an Imaginary world , where they existed with their own fantacies...its wonderful to witness their wilderness and curiosity.

I was wondering and feeling ashamed how we adult think about children , how much we underestimate their powers, motivation level, their curiosity,and sense of discovery....its like I'm discovering HUMAN BEINGS again...... 

This child was stuck up first ,but never ever felt bad, rather he came up strongly again and again . The key of Children's curiosity is that the word Failure never existed in their dictionary of life, and we have to learn that lesson  from them.

The first few steps are the hardest, but then the NEURONS in the brains work amazingly to give a lift to any newly learned activity.

Tree climbing has a lot to teach a child about Balance, co-ordination of  Gross-motor skills , controlling of Fine-motor skills, eye -hand co-ordination, predictability of height, the perfect Grasping positions, the relation between man and nature (nothing can be taught through lectures and books).

Every child learns in his own way, I discovered that each one experienced a unique way to hold the trunk, grasp it with hands or feet, where to Gaze while going up, what to see when coming down, so its all about INDIVIDUAL UNIQUE LEARNING , which cannot be generalized .That's the beauty of nature interaction.

The "immense concentration of a child" is the  natural outcome when he works in nature , we need not to do anything to  build up the span of attention  in children or  speed up their curiosity or raise their concentration level. Its already there in their SOULS . Stickers (artificial reward systems) never works  in reality, it only makes a child greedy.

 Learning is something which a child does himself in a natural way .

The children can never be seen so satisfied as can be seen after reaching their Goals and targets .And it is not we (adults) who can direct them towards their UNIQUE GOALS , its embedded inside them and they are the best judges and leaders of their destiny, if only we think differently .

After the climbing session, they all relaxed. At that time, I introduced them the lesson on PARTS OF A TREE through pictures and culture cards.

If you  look at this picture in a bit detail, you will  find out a PIECE OF TRUNK from the tree which one of my children had pulled out from the tree he climbed .He came to me and asked," Miss Erum, can I pull out one of those part ? I want to see if I can pull it ? It was amazing to witness how children CHALLENGE themselves ,they don't need artificial or externally induced  Challenges ,they know exactly what to challenge and how to challenge....Speechless!

 And then the boy asked me that he wanted to put that piece of trunk on our NATURE TABLE . So  he took out the Nature tray, put that piece over there , brought it to the Circle area and then announced proudly, "Look at this ". The children shouted ,"wow ,you have pulled out one, how did you do that?" Is'nt it amazing what IMPORATNT AND RELEVANT Questions kids ask .

So he got the Magnifying glass and took the Trunk piece to every single child for Observation.

Everyone explored differently according to their unique sense of Appreciaton and curiosity , they talked , and talked and talked about it the whole day ...

UNIQUE STYLE OF OBSERVATION

And it goes on.

  And thats not the end of the CURIOSITY JOURNEY , thats the BEGINING infact.

OUTDOORS BRING SELF-AWARENESS, CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING AMONG BOYS...........

"When children come into contact with NATURE, they reveal their strength".

Maria Montessori

Whenever I see kids in nature, I feel as though they are enjoying every bit of it and nobody is forcing them to  pay attention, engage, interact and involve but they are doing it on their own. That's the power of nature.

It all started with a Rainy day in Riyadh, that I found kids running out of their homes, apartments and doors, just to Play and play out. It tells us about the nature of man himself who notices every change in his surrounding which leads to curiosity, inquiry, and then discovery in the end.

Some boys started playing with the water itself, some chased each other, some ran after their sticky balls, some jumped trees, some traced their fingers on the newly formed mud, some were wondering at the sight of the changing color of  the trees, leaves, and sky because everything was fresher now.

Some decided to pick rocks, some jumping on the puddles, some started thinking what new play they could invent ........

I saw few youngsters on the tree house, trying to get to the top, communicating about the tree climbing tips, making new connections with their friends , helping each other, balancing their eye-hand control, getting the strength, exchanging new ideas about the relation of tree structure and tree houses. Once they got there, they started looking for new ways to climb faster and on that they talked many things which just opened up the window of new learning ....all unknowingly.

One of them looked around as if he was capturing the sounds, the rythm, the beauties of nature and analyzing it's relation with humans and solving the problems just aroused in the mind.I saw another boy on a branch of a tree, he found himself stuck up but he never gave up and continued trying out new possibilities. That's the power of nature which challenge young minds to come up with the most creative and workable plan.

 That boy was deeply immersed in the nature and became extremely curious, he showed amazing concentration level while in school he might be labelled as ADHD. Nature has the power to attract attention until the discovery is made by the child.

Another boy was running towards them,and I was amazed to see how he jumped to the tree realizing his potentials and strengths all just by interacting with the nature.

After sometime, the rain stopped and the weather was just beautiful enough that the boys decided to play there all evening.

 Few boys found a cardboard box at the backyard, so they started exploring it, looking at every possible corner and opening of the box. One of them shouted, "I got an idea, let's skate with this box".

Other replied," wow, let's make it a perfect one, and we will play with it".

So he ran into his house, brought the skate shoes, fixed it under the box and sat inside it just to discover how fantastic a cardboard could be. So they started the play, one pushing the other, and taking turns.


      Children love Free-play , it’s a way of grasping the new world, investigating new ideas, exploring the unleashed powers of the environment, examining the differences of facts and fictions, digging the strength of human potential. Play is the way a child enters into the world of reality although it seems that he exists in a fairytale world. It’s a process of natural transformation into an adult life. Let's give our children the opportunity to play, it's a real learning..... Boys need it too and they learn those life-skills through Outdoor- play which no school can teach and no teacher can even imagine of making such a lesson plan.