Nature
(This is an excerpt from University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Nature can be a powerful classroom setting to feel God and contemplate the meaning of life. There are so many lessons in just observing the flow of Mother Nature. Make time to be in nature and point out the beauty. When a child is upset, standing barefoot in the grass can quickly ground them. The following activities are created by Tobin Hart and explained in The Secret Spiritual World Of Children (2003).
Awareness Walk
Purpose: to observe, listen and appreciate environment.
Before taking the children for an outdoor walk, discuss the game rules. Ask the children to focus in the heart and deep heart listen so that they hear and understand all the rules.
The goal is for them to be very conscious of what is going on around them while they walk. Be aware of sounds, smells, and various things to look at. Give the children some examples to be aware of: the sound of leaves crunching under their feet, an animal scurrying away horns honking. They might smell a scent from a flower or smell a fire burning. Suggest that they be silent and stay in a soft heart in order to stay focused.
They will walk for several minutes then the adult will call out, “Deep Heart Listen.”
At that point, everyone stops, closes their eyes, remembers to focus in the heart and is silent. Each person asks themselves: What did I sincerely hear? After a few moments, tell everyone to open their eyes. Ask one of the children to tell everything they heard, saw, or smelled.
Outside Adventure
Pretend that you are new to this world you have been living underground and arrived on the surface. (Hide under a blanket for a few minutes) then go outside in nature and just take in the sights, smells, sounds. Give yourself enough time to do nothing but what is before you. In time, come back and let’s share what we found by using the viewpoint of someone who just arrived on Earth.
Beholding The Moment
Give a piece of fruit to your child and take one for yourself and say, “Take as long as you can to eat it. It isn’t a race to see how long it takes, but instead an opportunity to notice as much as you can about the experience. Soak in the texture, the taste, and your body’s and mind’s reactions to it. Just savor the moment patiently, slowly. This mindfulness slows us down so that we can actually be in the middle of our life rather than racing through it.
Listening To The Living Past Through Nature
(from Curriculum Of Love: Cultivating The Spiritual Nature Of Children 1996, by Morgan Simone Daleo)
In these experiences listening is a whole body process which involves breathing, smelling, touching, sensing, feeling and intuiting. Find a tree or rock formation.
Bring paper, and drawing supplies.
Discuss: Nature is a wondrous teacher of history, development and transformation.
Have each person find a special place and sit quietly with the wisdom of this place. Just relax in the space and allow your whole body to listen. What does it feel like being here? What kinds of smells, sensations, or feelings do you experience when you are here? Is there anything this tree or rock place would like to tell you about itself?
After about 5 to 10 minutes ask the children to listen to this noble teacher for any stories it might have to tell about what it has seen, heard or felt. Is there a message for you?
Children can write, draw or just tell the stories they have heard. Have children begin to write in the first person, “I am tree…I have been in this place a long time…” They can also draw pictures of things this wise being has seen.