I had the pleasure of hosting students from Autana Montessori School at our house recently with the purpose of learning about bees, chickens and other living things. Eight 3-5 year olds hopped out of three cars and right away introduced themselves and said “Hi Blair!” “I’m Julie, and I’m wearing a tutu”, a sweet little girl proudly exclaimed. Jewels around her neck and a big bangle. I was impressed by the politeness–the confidence and the sheer wonder of these children! They were eager to see the bees, but first, right by the cars were some rose bushes… I turned quickly to see the little boys and girls fascinated by the inchworm dangling on a rose branch.

“Oh can I feel how sharp the thorns are?”

“Let me feel can I please have a turn?”

They wanted to see what bugs were in the roses, so I lifted them all up to see the bee in the middle of one. “Oh, don’t touch the dandelions,” said a tender voice and seconds later, her friend said, ”Can you make me a necklace with the dandelions?” “Sure”, I said, “if you go find me some”–and off they ran in all directions. Now they had flower necklaces and crowns. A roly-poly was spotted right by a dandelion. Somehow this caught their attention, and I chuckled thinking we weren’t even 50 feet from the cars and if we didn’t do another thing–it would be a success.

Remembering about the bees, I took them back to the hive. They were mesmerized for awhile and then I heard “Let’s go see the chickens!,” and we were in the coop, collecting eggs and oops–the hens were sitting on six of them. With eight kids it meant that two of them didn’t get a fresh egg–but just for a minute because we had collected some this morning.

I thought of how valuable time like this is for kids. No real agenda. Time outdoors. Being led by their own curiosity and awe, and, most importantly, in their own time. Entertained by the littlest things like the roly-polies. By the end of an hour of an egg in their hands, two had cracks in them.

“Ohh, they are hatching!”, they exclaimed in delight.

“I’m taking my egg home to share with my family.”

“I want to hold it in my hand and warm it until it hatches like a chicken”.

They left happy and tired with smiles, muddy feet, dirty hands and an egg in one hand, and a flower chain and a super big appetite. Sweet reminders of the healing powers of the natural world.

Funny that our focus in my herb school classes is developing powers of observation. I was blessed to have eight wonderful teachers, innocently and powerfully showing that we all have keen powers of observation, but sometimes we need a little prodding to remember this.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

Pablo Picasso