“Nature is a tool to get children to experience not just the wider world, but themselves.”
Stephen Moss
As the sun rose in the morning, but the temperature was still low and seemed to have small snow, a group of children ventured outside. They play around a flowerbed, their eyes scanning the environment around them.
Suddenly, Aspen stopped and gasped: “Look, there’s a bee here!” she said, pointing to a small figure lying on the soil.
The children gathered closer and saw that the bee wasn’t moving. “Why isn’t it flying? Did it get too cold?” Rae asked, her voice soft and concerned.
”Maybe it’s sleeping,” Reese suggested, gently using a leaf to brush dust away from the bee.
“Or maybe it lost its home,” said Penny, wrinkling her brow.
The children discussed their ideas.
Then I said, “Maybe it is too cold for them to live in.”
Ace added, “Maybe it’s because yesterday a winter fairy lived here, and that’s why it snowed and made here so cold.”
The children paused and looked at Ace, confused about the snow fairy concept as their eyes widened.
I was still struggling to explain to them why the bee died, as their brains might not yet be able to fully grasp the vulnerability of insects’ lives compared to humans’.
“Does it have a family looking for it?” asked Aspen, her eyes filled with curiosity.
“Maybe!” I replied.
“When the spring comes, he will wake up.” Rae found a big leaf cover on the bee and said.
“Thank you for caring for him.” I appreciate that she noticed the relationship between the weather and the bee and wanted to help him stay warm.
Their curiosity about insects keeps them excited and focused on the world around them. This interest shows how much they enjoy discovering and learning about the environment and non-human species.
Reflects
This moment may be easily defined as “caring for non-human species” for any adult or ECE, as Taylor and Giugni (2012) argue in the article that such moments often translate recognition into ethics of (human) care for other species, which aligns with Levinas’ (1989) Ethics of the Other. Similarly, the children’s approach is easily related to caring for the bee. Their questions, such as wondering about the bee’s family or whether it is asleep, all demonstrate how they frame the bee’s situation in ways that make sense to them as humans.
Their care was human-centred, which is an approach many of us would naturally adopt when facing nature. In my image, most of the ECE would probably satisfied with this moment because of how kind their children are. However, I was thinking about how to help children engage in a bigger scale time concept, a non-human timescale.
As Rooney (2018) stated, “slowing down can offer a chance to notice the long distant pasts of land, animals and people as revealed in the present fleeting life forms of smaller creatures and in the shaping of yet-to-come futures(p. 180).” At that moment, I decided to slow down and explore “why the bee is lying over there” with children together. I carefully avoided telling them the answer directly. Not only was I uncertain about the exact cause of the bee dying over the flowerbed, but I also intentionally wanted to foster their awareness about the connection between different species. Therefore, I invite the weather into our inquiry to encourage children’s thinking and open up the possibility of introducing the common world concept.
The children, such as “Does it have a family?” and ” Is it too cold?” connect with the engagement with the world (Atkinson, 2019, p. 15). These moments show how children naturally wonder about their surroundings and try to make sense of them. Through their questions, they explore ideas about life, weather, and survival issues, combining empathy with this situation.
References
- Atkinson, K. (2019). British Columbia Early Learning Framework.
- Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., & Kummen, K. (2016). Shifting temporal frames in children’s common worlds in the Anthropocene. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 17(4), 431–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949116677930
- Rooney, T. (2018). Weathering time: walking with young children in a changing climate. Children S Geographies, 17(2), 177–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1474172