Wonder
“I wonder how small of a leaf we can find?”
For young children, the past and the future are not urgent; they live fully in the present. Recently I’ve noted moments as a teacher when I feel especially mindful, like when I am considering how each person feels in a conflict happening between playmates, or when I spend time carefully examining a child’s nature discovery. Spending extended time with young children engages me, too, in the present moment. When adults pay close attention to children’s observations and their questions, there is a shared experience of wonder.
Reacting to a question with wonder is validating for the child, letting them know that this is an important question, and you share in their curiosity. With children, it is often more important to engage with the question and remain mindful of what the question brings up (emotions, ideas and theories, more questions) than it is to provide a definite answer. The natural world is full of unsolvable conundrums. It is also so beautiful that it constantly draws us in, even when we don’t understand the how or why. Sometimes we are thrilled to come to an answer or resolution, and sometimes we can be content to sit in the wonder that the world evokes in us.
Solving a problem through trial and error can be an act of wonder.
A great resource on wonder is Rachel Carson’s book, The Sense of Wonder. She describes wonder as “recognition of something beyond the boundaries of human existence.” Wonder starts with mindfulness in the present moment and then asks the deep questions of why or how. It does not demand that we find the answers, but it plants the seeds. Carson describes it as an ability to let the senses guide the intellect toward discovery.
“I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.”
-Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder
Nourishing a child’s connection between their inner sensation/feeling and the external world turns learning into more than just facts. For me, wondering with children and helping children learn how to look in awe at our natural world is one of the most important parts of working with preschool children. Thankfully, the amount of time we spend in nature here at All Seasons inspires me to wonder and helps me share it with the children.
I’ll leave you with one last Rachel Carson quote:
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years … the alienation from the sources of our strength.”
“Where is the sap coming from?”