1. Patience – Nature has a timetable which usually can’t be rushed. Plants take just so long to grow. (That’s why it is fun to plant radishes, because they come up so quickly.) Children take a long time to grow, but grow very quickly when they are young. We use growth charts help keep track of the children’s growth.
2. Wonder – What is there in nature that is not awesome – the beauty of a flower, a tree, a butterfly, or a bird. There is a myriad of bugs of all kinds and sizes that evoke amazement and wonder. Some of them roll up into little balls; some have dots on their backs; some are scary-looking; some weave webs.
Children can see that the sun, moon and stars so far away and yet appear so bright.
3. Serenity – Sitting under a tree, watching birds, feeling the wind, or petting animals brings a sense of completeness and serenity. Poets throughout the centuries have rhapsodized about the beauty of nature. It fills a person with a sense of belonging to the earth, to the world.
4. Challenge – When children have to negotiate a yard with different surfaces that includes rocks, trees, and roots, they acquire good balance and quickness of foot. Our children can run through the yard, around trees, over different surfaces and are so very fleet of foot . . . yet they never seem to trip or fall.
5. Cooperation – When you are outside events often arise when you need help. If it is planting a garden, you might need someone to help weed, water, or plant. When you work with the large snap-walls you need someone to help hold up one piece. You may need a group to play a group game or play follow the leader. Our children learn that often the world is too big a place to handle on your own.
6. To Love – The first essential to loving is to first love your self. When you develop feelings of confidence in your abilities you can reach out to another person in sympathy and understanding. Our children are very concerned about each other. They learn that they are in the world together with others, and understand that it s a important for us all to be involved with one another.
7. Conquering Fear – When you are not afraid of animals that are bigger than you are such as a pony or goat, you have overcome an important fear. You learn that you are up to the challenge. Jumping a long distance, running and climbing to the top of the bars, climbing a ladder all prove to the children that they are actually courageous.
8. Exploration – We are surrounded by a world that begs to be explored. There is the world of dirt and its many states, the world of bugs, the world of working industriously. There is the world of water that flows, freezes, and atomizes. There is the world above us with birds and butterflies. We can put water and dirt together to make mud and clay. Children can make a tunnel for water to flow downhill. So much to try, and so little time!
9. Imagination – Once the children took items from the yard and hung them on the lemon tree to make a very big Christmas tree. Another time they dug a shallow hole about 20 feet in diameter. It took a very long time and when it was finished they all just sat in it. They’ve collected small stones and built innumerable structures. They’ve taken small sticks and a string and gone fishing. The yard can be a jungle, or a forest, or a super-hero haven depending on the perspective of imagination.
10. Responsibility – Our children learn that the yard needs care. Tall the trees and plants need care. The lawn needs care. The animals need care. They even learn that when it rains, the earth erodes, and the dirt has to be to be moved back into place. In all of this they also learn that if someone falls down they may need to be picked up and helped too.
