Ok. I'm about 20 pages from the end of Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. It takes me a while but I finish them either because of this blog or because I promise the book to someone when I'm done. I mentioned it to a new-friend-also-Mom-to-an-8- year-old (yes, and-a-puppy-mom). They like to spend time outside. I mentioned it when I first starting reading it. Now, every time I see her she asks me if I've brought her the book and every time I see her I'm not done. Next time I'll be done.
Here is an example of the parent wisdom woven through these pages. Again, as he's advocating that we find ways to get our kids outside as individuals, as families, as schools, and through other organizations you'll also discover thin golden threads about parenting in today's world.
I was impressed with this:
"Don't just tell your kids about evil; teach them about good - teach them to seek out adults who can help teach them about good - teach them to seek out adults who can help them when they feel threatened. Teaching appropriate trust is more difficult than teaching fear, but just as important." (LCW p. 181-182) Encouraging healthy social interaction with good-hearted, trustworthy, caring adults will help kids learn to recognize the people they can trust.
He goes on for a couple more pages talking about parent-child relationships. He believes that children who are emotionally vulnerable are the children most at risk. (LCW p. 183-186) He says that although the physical dimensions of parenting and protection are important, the emotional bonds can offer even greater protection. Isolation isn't what will protect them, but socialization and healthy ongoing love, communication, and availability from their grown ups. It will help kids learn to discern good and evil. It will help them have the courage and emotional strength to say "no" when they need to and to know who to trust. A difficult task, indeed.
Don't laugh. The same applies to puppies.
Showing posts with label LCW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LCW. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Seasons and Sabbaths 3
We find it so amazing that people survived and thrived without the technology we have today. Before we created maps, map quest, or the GPS God provided seasonal skies and natural landmarks to guide us on our journeys. People got around. They traveled long distances without cell phones or GPS.
Today, we use more culturally and technologically relevant imagery because children are more familiar with the cultural/technologically relevant than they are with outdoor imagery with its times and seasons. I understand the reasons for trading outdoor imagery for examples that children are more familiar with. But what if we take the opportunity to use outdoor imagery in scripture to learn about God and rediscover the outdoor life He created with all it's sensory treasures? What if better understanding the outdoor imagery of scripture will help us better understand our Creator through all that He's created and better understand the Word He's spoken? There are things to learn from what our hands create but as Christian Educators can we learn more about God studying what His own hands have made than we can by studying what our hands have made? I don't know. I'd like to think so.
Maybe writing this is hard because the tangle of elements is so interdependent. Seasons, work, rest, life, care, God, Creation, man and man's creative accomplishments . Maybe it's hard because we can't separate all the threads. Maybe they were never intended to be sorted and separated. Maybe it's not unlike ecological systems. You try to isolate an element and you may see effects in places you didn't expect. You may even see major effects from things that you thought we just small and insignificant.
If you lay aside all the traditional understandings of times and seasons what are the seasons in your child's life? How does he/she tell time of day or time of year? Watch or ask them. You might be surprised. Maybe it doesn't matter but maybe it does.
Interesting times we live in.
Today, we use more culturally and technologically relevant imagery because children are more familiar with the cultural/technologically relevant than they are with outdoor imagery with its times and seasons. I understand the reasons for trading outdoor imagery for examples that children are more familiar with. But what if we take the opportunity to use outdoor imagery in scripture to learn about God and rediscover the outdoor life He created with all it's sensory treasures? What if better understanding the outdoor imagery of scripture will help us better understand our Creator through all that He's created and better understand the Word He's spoken? There are things to learn from what our hands create but as Christian Educators can we learn more about God studying what His own hands have made than we can by studying what our hands have made? I don't know. I'd like to think so.
Maybe writing this is hard because the tangle of elements is so interdependent. Seasons, work, rest, life, care, God, Creation, man and man's creative accomplishments . Maybe it's hard because we can't separate all the threads. Maybe they were never intended to be sorted and separated. Maybe it's not unlike ecological systems. You try to isolate an element and you may see effects in places you didn't expect. You may even see major effects from things that you thought we just small and insignificant.
If you lay aside all the traditional understandings of times and seasons what are the seasons in your child's life? How does he/she tell time of day or time of year? Watch or ask them. You might be surprised. Maybe it doesn't matter but maybe it does.
Interesting times we live in.
Seasons and Sabbaths 2
Our livelihoods are dependent on our diligent work no matter what time we live in or what kind of work we do and anyone with any compassion will make exceptions to do the work needed to care for a life. But in most cases, as a culture, our work has become less dependent on seasons and we take no Sabbath. The lines are blurred. Work in our culture is 24/7. Sometimes we experience slow seasons and busy seasons. Sometimes we experience seasons of work and no work. With or without technological conveniences that make labor less tedious, the command to take a Sabbath remains as one of the Ten - the command to rest from all our work. It was Jesus who made a point to remind us that of course you rescue an animal that falls in a pit, even on the Sabbath. I guess my point is that it seems the lines of times and seasons, times for work and times for rest, keep getting more and more blurry - justified or not. The result is that the rhythm of work and rest gets lost in the shuffle even for children. Just yesterday I saw a book by Stanley Coren, Sleep Thieves. Haven't read it yet but I guess a serious lack of sleep is having a profound affect on our culture.
A child's life is divided into day and night, school and summer. Times and seasons. The season is determined by the sport or after school activity. Kids stay up past 8 pm if they haven't seen their parents all day. Kids have activities and commitments in the summer and over the holidays. We work 24/7. We need our kids cared for. We don't want them to be bored so why not maximize the time. We don't want to isolate them. We want them to have enough "socialization". Their lives are scheduled. That schedule isn't dependent on the weather except maybe a rained out game. Kids are going all the time. On one hand the lines of times and seasons, work and rest get blurred. On the other hand our lives and the lives of our children are very regimented and controled.
There are God-given seasons in life - natural life cycles and rhythms. Some of those seasons, life cycles and rhythms we have little control over. Seasons show up in the first chapter of Genesis. God also gives man dominion, though he had very little control over his environment at the time. In some ways we have greater ability to blur the lines of times and seasons, work and rest, than ever before because we're not so dependent on the outdoors. But there are still seasons when everything is going great and seasons when you think everything that matters to you is dying. Some of it we have control over and some we don't.
A child's life is divided into day and night, school and summer. Times and seasons. The season is determined by the sport or after school activity. Kids stay up past 8 pm if they haven't seen their parents all day. Kids have activities and commitments in the summer and over the holidays. We work 24/7. We need our kids cared for. We don't want them to be bored so why not maximize the time. We don't want to isolate them. We want them to have enough "socialization". Their lives are scheduled. That schedule isn't dependent on the weather except maybe a rained out game. Kids are going all the time. On one hand the lines of times and seasons, work and rest get blurred. On the other hand our lives and the lives of our children are very regimented and controled.
There are God-given seasons in life - natural life cycles and rhythms. Some of those seasons, life cycles and rhythms we have little control over. Seasons show up in the first chapter of Genesis. God also gives man dominion, though he had very little control over his environment at the time. In some ways we have greater ability to blur the lines of times and seasons, work and rest, than ever before because we're not so dependent on the outdoors. But there are still seasons when everything is going great and seasons when you think everything that matters to you is dying. Some of it we have control over and some we don't.
Seasons and Sabbaths 1
I'm about 1/2 way through Louv's book. I've been trying to write this for a number of weeks but it still seems disjointed. Not sure know why it's so hard. Probably too many threads tangled up together so proceed at your own risk.
I was thinking about seasons. I was thinking that we take seasons for granted except when we hit the extremes and they seriously impede our lifestyles. The liturgical year is an important part of many faith communities. It presents the opportunity to ponder the life of Christ all year long as a community. Knowing and anticipating seasons was an important part of life in Bible times and in any agrarian society. Back in the days before electricity when most work was hard manual labor people had to rest when the sun went down and light disappeared. They had shorter days and different work to do in the winter. There were jobs they couldn't do in a rainy season and the merchants probably didn't travel. Fishermen came and went in season. My kids learned about seasons in kindergarten. But I'm wondering. Will we have the same sense of season that's expressed in the scriptures if our lives aren't affected by them in the same way?
I looked up the word "season" in Merriam-Webster online . Just for the record, it turns out agricultural season isn't the first definition anymore. Change of season as it relates to the weather outdoors isn't a first definition either.
I looked up the word "season" at Bible Gateway. A really interesting word study. The writers of scripture used imagery from the outdoors, from a life not only dependent on the God who created the outdoors but dependent on the outdoors He made with all its sensory and experiential imagery. God uses it to teach us. The scriptures tell of dry seasons and rainy seasons in the Middle East. Job mentions snow and thaw. Ecclesiastes 3 is a whole chapter about seasons. Here in Upstate NY we still have four distinct seasons. But seasons are becoming harder and harder to distinguish even from an environmental perspective.
Here's a really interesting "season" passage from scripture. The seasons of plowing, planting, and harvest are busy and critical seasons in the world of agriculture. Successful plowing and planting largely determine the success of your harvest. Bringing in the harvest when it's ready before rain destroys it was also imperative. If you get a week of rain (bad plowing/harvest weather) but the Sabbath is sunny (good plowing/harvest weather) yet God says, "Rest! Even during plowing and harvest!" what do you do? Your cow needs help calving on the Sabbath. There's a life at stake. It's work you have to do. These are critical times and seasons. This is your food. Food for your livestock - livestock to help you work or provide food for your own family and others. Your life literally depends on the seasons and your timing - getting your crops in on time and harvesting them at their peak, being there when an animal has a hard time delivering young. Jesus also told people that if an animal falls into a pit on the Sabbath, of course you pull it out - Sabbath or no Sabbath. So when was it ok to work on the Sabbath? Or did keeping the Sabbath diligently make the exceptions more special - more legitimate.
I was thinking about seasons. I was thinking that we take seasons for granted except when we hit the extremes and they seriously impede our lifestyles. The liturgical year is an important part of many faith communities. It presents the opportunity to ponder the life of Christ all year long as a community. Knowing and anticipating seasons was an important part of life in Bible times and in any agrarian society. Back in the days before electricity when most work was hard manual labor people had to rest when the sun went down and light disappeared. They had shorter days and different work to do in the winter. There were jobs they couldn't do in a rainy season and the merchants probably didn't travel. Fishermen came and went in season. My kids learned about seasons in kindergarten. But I'm wondering. Will we have the same sense of season that's expressed in the scriptures if our lives aren't affected by them in the same way?
I looked up the word "season" in Merriam-Webster online . Just for the record, it turns out agricultural season isn't the first definition anymore. Change of season as it relates to the weather outdoors isn't a first definition either.
I looked up the word "season" at Bible Gateway. A really interesting word study. The writers of scripture used imagery from the outdoors, from a life not only dependent on the God who created the outdoors but dependent on the outdoors He made with all its sensory and experiential imagery. God uses it to teach us. The scriptures tell of dry seasons and rainy seasons in the Middle East. Job mentions snow and thaw. Ecclesiastes 3 is a whole chapter about seasons. Here in Upstate NY we still have four distinct seasons. But seasons are becoming harder and harder to distinguish even from an environmental perspective.
Here's a really interesting "season" passage from scripture. The seasons of plowing, planting, and harvest are busy and critical seasons in the world of agriculture. Successful plowing and planting largely determine the success of your harvest. Bringing in the harvest when it's ready before rain destroys it was also imperative. If you get a week of rain (bad plowing/harvest weather) but the Sabbath is sunny (good plowing/harvest weather) yet God says, "Rest! Even during plowing and harvest!" what do you do? Your cow needs help calving on the Sabbath. There's a life at stake. It's work you have to do. These are critical times and seasons. This is your food. Food for your livestock - livestock to help you work or provide food for your own family and others. Your life literally depends on the seasons and your timing - getting your crops in on time and harvesting them at their peak, being there when an animal has a hard time delivering young. Jesus also told people that if an animal falls into a pit on the Sabbath, of course you pull it out - Sabbath or no Sabbath. So when was it ok to work on the Sabbath? Or did keeping the Sabbath diligently make the exceptions more special - more legitimate.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Looking back
This book is full of inspiring quotes like that one. He's not ranting and raving. You'll often hear him sharing alternate perspectives. People may think he's over reacting. In the 50's and 60's when I was growing up the state thought nothing of buying flat land by the rivers. Easier to build a road on that going over the hills but it was bound to be some of the best farmland in the area. But that's ok. There are hi-tech farms in the mid-west. Higher producing. More efficient.
Looking around today, you'll see family farms are seriously disappearing. Fifty years ago alot of people thought that would never happen.
Looking around today, you'll see family farms are seriously disappearing. Fifty years ago alot of people thought that would never happen.
Monday, March 24, 2008
LCW: close to home
Let me add this. I think there are a lot of parenting/childhood and culture/social issues raised in this book. Research is research, you can make it say what you want. My husband thinks the author is probably over-reacting. Maybe he is but I don't think so.
When I'm reading a book I like, My poor family has generally learned to tolerate my enthusiasm: "Want to hear this?" Car trip- rapt audience. Or not. But this time after she listened, my daughter told me about a friend student teaching in an eastern NYS urban elementary school. Her friend was amazed when she asked the kids how many had gone sledding. (It's sledding. I used to say sleigh-riding which meant something different to my parents and grandparents.) I can't remember if she said no one raised their hands, only a couple raised their hands, or that they didn't even know what it was. Out of a group of 20-30 kids in a classroom. You get the picture.
This friend was upset because, as she said, it's one of the most inexpensive of winter sports that parents can do with their children. She was upset because she felt like parents just didn't want to make the time. I thought maybe because it's an urban school. I thought, maybe they're too cold. (They had a winter coat drive for city school children in my city this year.) Maybe it's the 20 minute snowsuit ritual followed by, "I need to go to the bathroom." (x however many children you take.) Maybe it's the snowy puddles on the floor in the house or in the car. Maybe it's the fact that by the time parents pick up children and grown-up work is done for the day it's dark this time of year and weekends are full of chores. Maybe.... But this 23 year old teacher was really upset about this.
I will say that the parks in my city post signs that forbid sledding and list the parks where you can sled - a 20-30 minute drive away. You'd have to have a car, money to buy gas, a half a day to kill, and parental supervision. Or you'd have to drag kids and sleds on a city bus that would only run a couple times a day. That's cold! One park I know that posts signs has the best kid sledding hills ever- small, medium, and large slopes. Wide slopes so lots of people can sled without running into each other - if they're careful. In the early days of urban planning (our parks were planned by one of the best) they probably planned these parks for sledding.
Ok, there's the liability issue.
"Dead Man's Slope." That's the name of the hill closest to the rec center and I will bear testimony that it's a slope any adventurous kid would die for. It isn't a slope for the small or inexperienced but you don't have to go all the way up the hill. Yes, I got hurt but I shouldn't have been carrying my ice skates on a metal saucer that I couldn't control after the age of 42 and underexercised. And I didn't know there was a ramp-like bump hidden under the snow. The kids knew. And we had to walk home. It's not that far.
See, you don't have to read the book. That's why I don't think it's propaganda.
Spring is coming. Think about the "wild" outdoor places your parents and grandparents talked about. Think about the memorable places where you played as a kid. (Did you even play outside unsupervised?) Keep your eyes open. Are people still sharing those places with their children and grandchildren? Are kids still playing and exploring outside spaces in their free time?
Oh...free time...yup, that's in the book too.
He talks about fears that keep us inside, too, and shares a great deal of wisdom.
The thought of kids spending time outside alone being a thing of the past hits me hard because it was so important to me as a child. God was there, too, and I learned to be careful. The thought of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren being born into a social culture where they may never have that opportunity just grieves me.
When I'm reading a book I like, My poor family has generally learned to tolerate my enthusiasm: "Want to hear this?" Car trip- rapt audience. Or not. But this time after she listened, my daughter told me about a friend student teaching in an eastern NYS urban elementary school. Her friend was amazed when she asked the kids how many had gone sledding. (It's sledding. I used to say sleigh-riding which meant something different to my parents and grandparents.) I can't remember if she said no one raised their hands, only a couple raised their hands, or that they didn't even know what it was. Out of a group of 20-30 kids in a classroom. You get the picture.
This friend was upset because, as she said, it's one of the most inexpensive of winter sports that parents can do with their children. She was upset because she felt like parents just didn't want to make the time. I thought maybe because it's an urban school. I thought, maybe they're too cold. (They had a winter coat drive for city school children in my city this year.) Maybe it's the 20 minute snowsuit ritual followed by, "I need to go to the bathroom." (x however many children you take.) Maybe it's the snowy puddles on the floor in the house or in the car. Maybe it's the fact that by the time parents pick up children and grown-up work is done for the day it's dark this time of year and weekends are full of chores. Maybe.... But this 23 year old teacher was really upset about this.
I will say that the parks in my city post signs that forbid sledding and list the parks where you can sled - a 20-30 minute drive away. You'd have to have a car, money to buy gas, a half a day to kill, and parental supervision. Or you'd have to drag kids and sleds on a city bus that would only run a couple times a day. That's cold! One park I know that posts signs has the best kid sledding hills ever- small, medium, and large slopes. Wide slopes so lots of people can sled without running into each other - if they're careful. In the early days of urban planning (our parks were planned by one of the best) they probably planned these parks for sledding.
Ok, there's the liability issue.
"Dead Man's Slope." That's the name of the hill closest to the rec center and I will bear testimony that it's a slope any adventurous kid would die for. It isn't a slope for the small or inexperienced but you don't have to go all the way up the hill. Yes, I got hurt but I shouldn't have been carrying my ice skates on a metal saucer that I couldn't control after the age of 42 and underexercised. And I didn't know there was a ramp-like bump hidden under the snow. The kids knew. And we had to walk home. It's not that far.
See, you don't have to read the book. That's why I don't think it's propaganda.
Spring is coming. Think about the "wild" outdoor places your parents and grandparents talked about. Think about the memorable places where you played as a kid. (Did you even play outside unsupervised?) Keep your eyes open. Are people still sharing those places with their children and grandchildren? Are kids still playing and exploring outside spaces in their free time?
Oh...free time...yup, that's in the book too.
He talks about fears that keep us inside, too, and shares a great deal of wisdom.
The thought of kids spending time outside alone being a thing of the past hits me hard because it was so important to me as a child. God was there, too, and I learned to be careful. The thought of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren being born into a social culture where they may never have that opportunity just grieves me.
Friday, March 21, 2008
LCW: spectating
Somehow, I don't put Louv's book Last Child in the Woods in the propaganda pile. If you love kids, if you love the outdoors, if you only love one or the other this is a book every parent and anyone who works with children should read. Though the author feels very strongly about all that he covers in this book he's quick to site other people's opinions. And I have to say that he writes with a lot of basic common sense. His stories and the research he includes is interesting. Some of it is scary.
I started this post on March 4th. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book. Lots to quote. Lots to think about. I probably won't go chapter by chapter. The bottom line for me is this: What if we were to stop interacting with all that God's hands have created? I think the first ways I knew God, even when I wanted to be a doubter, was God as Creator and God as Father. Think about your understandings of the Creation story or the story of Noah's ark if the only way you interact with the environment is through movies, TV, or computer. Think about all the Biblical imagery from the outdoors. What if you only saw it through a glass window. What if children didn't know what the sea smells like or fresh cut grass? What if they never crumbled the grains of wheat from the top of the wheat stem. What if they never rubbed a donkey's nose or rubbed their hands through a sheep? Far-fetched?
Gee. Maybe you're reading this thinking, "I've never done those things!" It's not too late!
As he starts the book, Louv talks about a series of books written for boys in 1915. "...[W]hat really defines these books, and the age they represented," he says, "is the unquestioned belief that being in nature was about doing something, about direct experience - and about not being a spectator." [LCW p. 15]
What does it mean, "not being a spectator"? You go to a park and the guide tells you that every place you step in forest or meadow is someone's home. Look, don't touch! If everyone touched, it would be destructive. Does that mean being a spectator is the only way to protect our environment?
For centuries Native Americans and other peoples lived off the land yet with deep respect for the land and wildlife surrounding them acknowledging their mutual dependency. They used only what they needed to live - no waste. Their interaction was wise and respectful. Their stewardship mattered because their livelihood was at stake.
Today men, women and children still hunt and fish respecting the wild life systems they visit and love. They too for the most part are respectful and appreciative of the opportunity they have to interact with the natural world.
Then there are the people whose thoughtless wasteful interactions with the natural world ruin it for everyone else. No one who cares about the natural world wants people like this interacting with nature and destroying it for this generation or all the generations to come. But they were born into this created world just like everyone else. Excluding them denies them a significant portion of their God-given heritage.
Can I learn to interact with the outdoors without ruining it for the creatures who live there or for other people? Can we teach others so we aren't limited to just being spectators? Can we respectfully steward this God-created learning environment and still be able to immerse ourselves, interact with it, and enjoy it? The television screen or the glass window might protect the outside from the spectator and visa versa but when that becomes the only way we can interact with the outdoors and the only way to keep the outdoors in tact, it will be a sad day indeed. It means we've failed as stewards.It means we've failed to educate.
Observing is seeing. Hopefully, we observe with a willingness to recognize opportunities to interact for the good of another. Sometimes seeing means gazing with awe. But being a spectator is observing with no intention of interacting or participating.
The scriptures tell us to be doers. In Genesis we were called to steward all that God created. We were creates as just a small part of something bigger, not as spectators but interacting and participating. We were also the part of creation that God made in His own image.
Jesus came interacting and participating. We express our faith through our actions and our choices. Jesus came living faith as God incarnate. What was it about Jesus that made His disciples follow Him? Was it just some overwealming urge to obey? Or because they loved the interaction they had with Him? When Jesus was no longer around to observe - did they find someone else to follow or did they find ways to continue that interaction with Him?
As I say, this is an interesting book. More to come.
I started this post on March 4th. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book. Lots to quote. Lots to think about. I probably won't go chapter by chapter. The bottom line for me is this: What if we were to stop interacting with all that God's hands have created? I think the first ways I knew God, even when I wanted to be a doubter, was God as Creator and God as Father. Think about your understandings of the Creation story or the story of Noah's ark if the only way you interact with the environment is through movies, TV, or computer. Think about all the Biblical imagery from the outdoors. What if you only saw it through a glass window. What if children didn't know what the sea smells like or fresh cut grass? What if they never crumbled the grains of wheat from the top of the wheat stem. What if they never rubbed a donkey's nose or rubbed their hands through a sheep? Far-fetched?
Gee. Maybe you're reading this thinking, "I've never done those things!" It's not too late!
As he starts the book, Louv talks about a series of books written for boys in 1915. "...[W]hat really defines these books, and the age they represented," he says, "is the unquestioned belief that being in nature was about doing something, about direct experience - and about not being a spectator." [LCW p. 15]
What does it mean, "not being a spectator"? You go to a park and the guide tells you that every place you step in forest or meadow is someone's home. Look, don't touch! If everyone touched, it would be destructive. Does that mean being a spectator is the only way to protect our environment?
For centuries Native Americans and other peoples lived off the land yet with deep respect for the land and wildlife surrounding them acknowledging their mutual dependency. They used only what they needed to live - no waste. Their interaction was wise and respectful. Their stewardship mattered because their livelihood was at stake.
Today men, women and children still hunt and fish respecting the wild life systems they visit and love. They too for the most part are respectful and appreciative of the opportunity they have to interact with the natural world.
Then there are the people whose thoughtless wasteful interactions with the natural world ruin it for everyone else. No one who cares about the natural world wants people like this interacting with nature and destroying it for this generation or all the generations to come. But they were born into this created world just like everyone else. Excluding them denies them a significant portion of their God-given heritage.
Can I learn to interact with the outdoors without ruining it for the creatures who live there or for other people? Can we teach others so we aren't limited to just being spectators? Can we respectfully steward this God-created learning environment and still be able to immerse ourselves, interact with it, and enjoy it? The television screen or the glass window might protect the outside from the spectator and visa versa but when that becomes the only way we can interact with the outdoors and the only way to keep the outdoors in tact, it will be a sad day indeed. It means we've failed as stewards.It means we've failed to educate.
Observing is seeing. Hopefully, we observe with a willingness to recognize opportunities to interact for the good of another. Sometimes seeing means gazing with awe. But being a spectator is observing with no intention of interacting or participating.
The scriptures tell us to be doers. In Genesis we were called to steward all that God created. We were creates as just a small part of something bigger, not as spectators but interacting and participating. We were also the part of creation that God made in His own image.
Jesus came interacting and participating. We express our faith through our actions and our choices. Jesus came living faith as God incarnate. What was it about Jesus that made His disciples follow Him? Was it just some overwealming urge to obey? Or because they loved the interaction they had with Him? When Jesus was no longer around to observe - did they find someone else to follow or did they find ways to continue that interaction with Him?
As I say, this is an interesting book. More to come.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thinking and Reading (LCW)
I've been thinking alot about Noah but I'm not going to post about it.
I also just finished the Barbara Woodhouse book Talking to Animals. If my prose sounds a bit stilted that's why. Mrs. Woodhouse was born in 1910. The book was written in 1954. I enjoyed it alot! I read it because she grew a reputation working with dogs in the UK. Turns out that her work with dogs got started about the time she finished this particular book so there isn't a lot about that. Talking to Animals is actually more about her work with cows and horses. LOL! God's joke on me? (I laugh because I grew up on a farm and there's a side of my working with Ellie and Nyah and helping at the Humane Society that is reclaiming part of the person God made me to be.) I still really enjoyed it. I'll spare you endless comparing of children and animals, though I could...
So, unless you want to hear about dog books, I've started another book ... I mentioned this book awhile back because it looked intriguing. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006. Mr. Louv is chairman of the Children & Nature Network. His author's website is here.
Why is this important to a faith-based blog like Emerging Kids?
1) I already believe that our interaction with the natural world is important to our faith. He promises to tackle ways that "faith-based organizations can help reclaim nature as part of the spiritual development of children." I'll share quotes with you!
2) There are so many images and experiences in scripture that are tied to the God-created world. What if we lose touch with that world? What if we lose that point of reference? What will happen? Will it make the scriptures seem more irrelevant and obsolete than some already claim? What lessons will we miss?
Louv says, "...as the young spend less and less of their lives in natural surroundings, their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically, and this reduces the richness of human experience." [Last Child in the Woods, p. 3]
"Yet, at this very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature- in positive ways. Several of these studies suggest that thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can even be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorders and other maladies." [Last Child in the Woods, p. 3] Therapy or not, the out-of-doors is definately an alternative learning environment for kids diagnosed with ADD and for those facing other personal challenges. The out-of-doors as a learning environment is definately a consideration for Christian Educators.
More to think about: For centuries and generations, when children and adults wanted to "escape" or "get away" to ponder or recover or just to get a break where did they go? What did they do? When a child wants to escape today or if he needs to retreat and "get away" what does he do? Where does he go? I suggest the effects are different.
And yes, I realize that we're living in a world where few people feel safe anymore, especially outdoors and we don't let our children roam and explore the way other generations did. I hear you but I ask you, are the dangers outside all that different from the dangers of incessant video gaming or exploring the internet?
Ponder with me...
I also just finished the Barbara Woodhouse book Talking to Animals. If my prose sounds a bit stilted that's why. Mrs. Woodhouse was born in 1910. The book was written in 1954. I enjoyed it alot! I read it because she grew a reputation working with dogs in the UK. Turns out that her work with dogs got started about the time she finished this particular book so there isn't a lot about that. Talking to Animals is actually more about her work with cows and horses. LOL! God's joke on me? (I laugh because I grew up on a farm and there's a side of my working with Ellie and Nyah and helping at the Humane Society that is reclaiming part of the person God made me to be.) I still really enjoyed it. I'll spare you endless comparing of children and animals, though I could...
So, unless you want to hear about dog books, I've started another book ... I mentioned this book awhile back because it looked intriguing. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006. Mr. Louv is chairman of the Children & Nature Network. His author's website is here.
Why is this important to a faith-based blog like Emerging Kids?
1) I already believe that our interaction with the natural world is important to our faith. He promises to tackle ways that "faith-based organizations can help reclaim nature as part of the spiritual development of children." I'll share quotes with you!
2) There are so many images and experiences in scripture that are tied to the God-created world. What if we lose touch with that world? What if we lose that point of reference? What will happen? Will it make the scriptures seem more irrelevant and obsolete than some already claim? What lessons will we miss?
Louv says, "...as the young spend less and less of their lives in natural surroundings, their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically, and this reduces the richness of human experience." [Last Child in the Woods, p. 3]
"Yet, at this very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature- in positive ways. Several of these studies suggest that thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can even be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorders and other maladies." [Last Child in the Woods, p. 3] Therapy or not, the out-of-doors is definately an alternative learning environment for kids diagnosed with ADD and for those facing other personal challenges. The out-of-doors as a learning environment is definately a consideration for Christian Educators.
More to think about: For centuries and generations, when children and adults wanted to "escape" or "get away" to ponder or recover or just to get a break where did they go? What did they do? When a child wants to escape today or if he needs to retreat and "get away" what does he do? Where does he go? I suggest the effects are different.
And yes, I realize that we're living in a world where few people feel safe anymore, especially outdoors and we don't let our children roam and explore the way other generations did. I hear you but I ask you, are the dangers outside all that different from the dangers of incessant video gaming or exploring the internet?
Ponder with me...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)