Direct Connection To Nature Is The Living Education That Gets Results

It's October in the Pacific North West. Autumn, but it feels like summer. It looks like we have another week of this weather and I'm going to take advantage of it with my boys.

Today we went on a hike and found dozens of beautiful spider webs with a variety of spiders. We spent moments in pure awe and wonder as we enjoyed the creations of these beings. Questions were asked, exploration and discovery took place. That's a successful day for me as a home learning teacher/mom.

This month Ryder will be building a worm composting bin. This is part of the Gaia studies I am doing with the boys. In Greek mythology, Gaia was the archetype of the Earth. The great mother of all. While we will not be studying Greek mythology this year (we'll save that for next year) I do like using Gaia as it gives a personification and the "proper noun" (part of what we are learning this year) name for our land.

It's fascinating how much we can learn and discover while taking on a simple project such as the worm composting. I will admit, I'm more excited than he is as he keeps his Garfield books or Diary of a Wimpy Kid books close at hand. I pick my "battles".

Some of the other actions we are taking to improve our relationship with Gaia:

• Using cloth napkins instead of paper towels or napkins
• Taking our own dishes and mugs to horse back riding (they use paper cups).
• Buying our food from within 100 miles. (Not sure if Bob's Red Mill counts when I buy our Teff grain but I'm continuing as that's where they at least package it. I'd love if I could find Teff in bulk but my family seems to be one of the few who enjoys it.)
• Walking to the park and as many places that we can instead of driving
• Changing our mentality from consumer to "investor"

A direct connection with Gaia brings more awareness, inspiration and joy as well as the room for real learning and discovery. We learn to listen as well as speak with Mother Earth through the seasons and the woods.

I hope my children will appreciate Gaia as I do and cultivate the well being of her throughout their lives.