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Taking
Children Tracking |
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Education
with Nature In Mind |
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To contact
us: |
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Phone:
805.466.4550 |
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I took my child, now 4, tracking in the dunes a little while back. My
intention really wasn’t to go tracking but to experience the dunes and see
what’s there and just play outdoors with him. There is always something in
nature to see, hear, smell, sense, observe, notice, feel, get involved with
and wonder about. Tracking truly is much more than identifying
or following foot-impressions in the ground. To me, tracking brings together
many disciplines to answer a basic question: What happened here? or What does
this mean? Nature begs for inquiry and the best naturalists and scientists
never stop asking questions and searching for answers. Tracking requires one
to be observant of the finest details and of the bigger picture. I will notice a green
ladybug-like insect crawling on a leaf as I walk by or the way a blade of
grass creates in the sand an arc caused by the wind and I wonder if the
person who left the tracks I walk over noticed the woodrat’s nest in the
brush to the left and what the rat was doing with freshly cut coffeeberry
leaves laying about. Tracking requires so much of my senses that it feels
best to do it slowly, so I can absorb and recognize more of the information
my senses gather. To my child, tracking is just fun; he can
follow my footsteps in the sand or the line caused by the stick I’m dragging
to find me hiding, ready to pounce on him if he’s not aware; he’ll show me a
track he’s just found and put one finger in each of the bird’s toes and tell
me it has three toes; he’ll pretend he’s a rabbit on all fours hopping about
and I’m the hunter who has to catch him (and then cook and eat him). The
“tracking” we do is undisciplined, seemingly random, with moments of (I’d
like to think) deep awareness and thought. This is complimented the next
moment by fits of complete oblivion. We wandered aimlessly and “discovered”
the remains of a large shorebird in the sea fig. We got close to it and became
aware of the odor. I pulled on its bones to stretch out its long wing and we
saw where the feathers attach to small bumps along the bone. We saw the ribs.
We saw insects eating the leftovers. We collected a feather and he asked what
happened to this large bird and how birds die. And then he wanted me to chase
him up a steep dune. So I did. And we literally uncovered a couple of worms
in the sand, each about an inch long and yellowish and very thin. He squealed
and giggled as he tried unsuccessfully, at first, to pick up the wildly
squiggling worm until he could cup it with both hands. As we were walking-and-stopping-and-walking
along the beach, Gabriel was collecting more and more items making it
difficult for him to walk well; I thought about the following quote and felt
thankful to be where I was, with my child: “In the end, we will conserve only
what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only
what we are taught.” –
Baba Dioum By David Wilson Coyote Road School teaches lifelong
skills in nature awareness and outdoor living and provides experiences that
create a positive and lasting connection with the Earth. |
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March
07 Newsletter |