Butterflies

One year, at the school science fair, the assistant principal was going around asking each of the kids about themselves and their experiments.  Will showed her his poster and display and she asked him what he liked to do after school in the afternoons.  Will said, “My favorite thing is to play outstide with my dogs.” She was so happy with his answer and turned to me. She waved her hand over the whole cafeteria full of kids and said, “he’s the only one who said ‘play outside’.”

In one way, I felt proud that my kids did play outside almost every day and on the other hand, I felt sad for the other kids.  We live out in the country. These kids do not lack access to fresh air and open spaces. There are woods, lakes, playgrounds and hiking trails.  There are even outdoor basketball courts and soccer fields and a high school track to run around. With all this right outside their back door, none of them said that they like to play outside.

There is another famous quote from Maria Montessori. “When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.” Nature is unpredictable. There are bugs and darting squirrels. There is weather that changes by the minute. None of it is planned for the children. They need to learn to handle the unexpected. They make discoveries and start to feel some understanding of their world.

Nature shows them miraculous things, like butterflies. It reveals vast diversity governed by innate logic and our kids connect to that in profound ways.  Don’t get me wrong, we love our toys, but there is just no substitute for getting outside and being in nature.