“Take the kids to play in nature? Better do some learning at school!!!” A mother once shouted at me. Her son was an extremely intelligent boy. He had many talents – creativity for arts and music, logical thinking for maths and science. He had phenomenal memory. And yet he had learning difficulties.
Why?
He had no self-confidence. He did not trust himself or his ability to be successful in whatever he did. Once we went to the park to try walking on a slackline between trees. The slackline was about 30 cm above ground but he would not try. He had lots of excuses – I don’t feel well now, I will try it next week, I like physics and arts not sports, I don’t want to hurt the tree….
He was the same at school and this was the reason he was not doing well at his studies.
Eventually I persuaded him to try. I held his hand and helped him walk. He fell many times and wanted to give up. I told him he must reach the tree on the other end. We tried again and again and again. After almost an hour he finally walked on the slack-line all the way from one tree to the other.
I wish you could see his smile when he realised he could do it! What more he did it without my help!!
We, parents, know that courage is a key to dealing with life’s challenges. We know that without courage to tackle things that seem hard we can never learn. As experienced people we know that when we fail we must try again… We all know how important this is.
Courage is key to learning anything – whether it is walking on a slack line or English, at school or at home, without it we can never learn.
We would all like to give this to our children but when we look at the school timetable we find that there is no such subject. Neither at kindergarten nor at school. This means that it is for us parents to teach. And the sooner the better.
As a teacher I have met many children who did not have courage to tackle what was difficult for them. In the classroom they are passive or disturb during lessons, often they cannot concentrate on a task or they fidget in their chair.
Power to learn
Kids with learning difficulties must first learn to trust themselves. They must know that they have the power and skill to learn. They must believe that what seems impossible is possible. Only then they will learn those y/I or equations or English.
Walking on the slack-line in the park became one of that boy’s favourite activities.
As he slowly built his courage and confidence, his performance at school also improved.
How can we teach courage?
Taking young children to nature is the best (and natural) way to do this.
In nature kids encounter many situations when they need to overcome obstacles or deal with a challenge. When they are really young it is simply walking on uneven terrain, falling and getting up again and going on.
When they climb a tree they learn that height is dangerous only when you are afraid of it and that being careful does not mean not climbing. They learn to judge their own skill – climb only as high as you trust yourself.
When they make fire, collect herbs and make tea they learn can support themselves in case they are lost, that they can find the things they need to survive and they learn to control fire.
For us this seems trivial – but for them these are all great challenges. A small creek to cross can seem to them as an ocean does to us. To climb over a fallen tree trunk for them is like to scale the Great Wall of China to us. All these are lessons that seem small – dealing with danger and fear, not giving up, and getting up again. We all know how important they are in later life.
Take your kids out to nature!!!!
