My students and I were truly lucky to have the possibility of having Linda Rose, teacher and administrator of Out and About Preschool. The power of nature and outdoor experiences in the lives of young children must be advocated for over any other experience, skill, and knowledge in earl childhood education, but so far removed from children's experiences. We truly must question the lack of scientific inquiry and hands-on experience that children used to naturally have. Linda discussed the role of emerging themes, building on children's interest and engaging them in the "skills and knowledge" deemed necessary in meaningful ways. Consider this, how many preschoolers truly understand the life cycle. Linda took the teachable moment of a deer being hit outside of her preschool classroom and provided numerous experiences that build upon social skills (moving the deer off the road and into an area for investigation); science (decomposition and what leads to decomposition); social studies (the animals that live within the region of Ohio that live off of the deer); and language (oral discussions, vocabulary, observation drawings, etc). While there is still so much I wish to share about her visit with my students and the power of projects I leave you with this at this time, when a parent responded to the documentation of this experience with young children in a repulsive way. "oh, that's gross", her daughter came up to her and said, "mom, that's not gross, that' life". When do we stop protecting our children and begin to provide experiences that teach them how to engage in the content of the world and support them as the competent individuals we know them to be.
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