Exploring Nature

Exploring Nature

"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you, or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.  Which of all thee does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?  In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."

Job 12: 7-10


Recently here in the U.S., we enjoyed President's Day, it was the most exciting day for me and the kids, we took their Meme along to enjoy the day.  Taking time to have your children explore God's creation is something we don't do enough, mostly because it seems as though we are too caught up in the "We don't have time for that" culture of today... famous last words to kids who are bored: "Go play outside" Remember that one? We should practice saying that to our children more often...and then say it back to ourselves, seriously GO PLAY OUTSIDE! It is one of the things God calls us to enjoy, the splendors of His creation! "In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind" Job 12:10, how wild is that scripture? I mean just take that in and think about it for a minute...

As I've been digging deeper into Charlotte Mason's living curriculum, I had been reminded of my schooling/education as a child in South Africa.  We have a program called "Landsdiens" /Land Service, which my siblings and I loved being part of, and probably our parents before us. The slogan is "Dade nie woorde"/ Deeds not words.  It occurred to me that there is no program like this where I currently live here in California. I know of one site in our county that has a "one-day science camp" type of thing, which is so awesome, by the way.  Not enough though, it only runs on select Fridays throughout the school year.

This year in the current high school academy I teach at, we had the opportunity to take students to be trained as leaders of this day camp. The idea is that high school students can lead a group of younger students for the day teaching them all about their local fauna and flora.  This experience was especially surprising to me... as I observed students I saw one of two things happening, some students came alive and thrived in the outdoor environment, while others kind of just played on their phones, headphones drumming in their ears, hoping the day would end as soon as possible, they had no connection with nature, no want or need to explore, discover, or learn about God's creation. 

This really got me thinking about the current state of education we find ourselves in. What are we doing to our kids? So much so that they have no want or need to be outside and breathe amazingly fresh air? To explore and play outside all day? This is considered not fun, too much, can we please just be done? I really had to take a step back and dig deep into my thoughts about this matter. It all screams against what I have envisioned for my own children's journey in education, and made me really sad for this generation of children.  

Our schools desperately need to connect with nature, we need deeds, not words, we need to learn about the natural world around us! We need a school reform that invests in a living education! We need Land Service!


Check out the website below for more information on the Land Service Program in South Africa.

Landsdiens/Land Service

Written on 9 March 2022.

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