I gently opened my eyes to the music of the Little Wildflowers (LWF) voices, as they sang their love, appreciation and welcoming of the day. The sun shone through the rustling leaves of the trees, as the LWF children and teacher shared a gentle circle time to start their session at Botanic Gardens. Using their vocal energy and rhythmic movement, Teacher Karen and Teacher Evan brought the children into the circle seamlessly. Earlier, before entering the park, the children and teachers had greeted Mother Earth and asked for permission from her gently. They had paid attention to the movement and rhythm of Nature in her responses.
After circle sharing, the group explored their immediate area, tuning in to the Natural Surroundings, playing, giggling and running around. Some of the kids started to pick up and play with sticks while a few quietly simmered into the space. Teacher Evan very motherly played with the children, bouncing onto a lower branch of a tree gently, letting the morning dew sprinkle all over the little ones who followed her. The joyful smile and glee of the children sparkled through the space. It was a very authentic moment of play and connection without agenda, yet full of deep learning and experience.
The children continued on in their play, uninterrupted by the Teachers. It is evident from the flow that all of them are in a safe space held by both Karen and Evan. As the play moved into the one hour mark, the children gradually shifted from their crossed and parallel plays into a unifying moment, where they began digging sensorially in a little stretch of soil area. One after another, the children fell into the space without any hurry. Both teachers moved around and calmly observed without being intrusive or over-the-shoulder, playing with the children in little pockets as conversations sprouted naturally and the little hands and fingers of the children moved kinesthetically. Every aspect of the early childhood curriculum, and more, we’re being ‘delivered’ and experienced in these moments.
The in-depth play session gradually came to an end, as Teacher Karen sounded out to the children that they were ready to move off to another part of the garden to have snacks and story time. Some of the children stood up immediately, while others took a bit more time, but none were hurried.
Everyone walked to a beautiful garden hidden behind rows of palm trees and flower shrubs. The space was almost like an Eden Garden. Upon settling down, the Teacher took out a straw mat, for everyone to come onto. The mat drew the children in very quickly. Everyone found a space to lie down fully together on the mat as the Teachers sat patiently waiting for the energy to calm down. Once the energy relaxed, Karen and Evan offered to massage the limbs of the children. Many of the children asked for it. It was a magical moment, as Karen and Evan gently rubbed the feets, hands and muscles of some of the children, taking turns. I could see at that very moment, the energy of the children dissipating gently. Sensorially it was also very calming and relieving. Much of the high energy from the previous part of the session melded beautifully into a balance for the child and also the group.
After about 10 minutes, the Teachers assigned the children to various roles and duties to prepare for the next part: snack time together. Roles/duties were announced and assigned in rhythm with the rising energy of the children on the mat. Everyone took a role, from washing hands, to holding towels for friends to dry, to setting up the snack boxes of their friends and others. I’ve never seen such seamless distribution of responsibility, because everyone did their part no matter their age (LWF age group ranges from 3 to 7 years old).
Once the preparation was done, everyone came together, and sang a Blessing song together, before tucking into their snacks. The whole process was rich with meaningful rituals that brought everyone together, naturally connecting with each other and the environment.
The food ritual came to an end through a Thank You song to thank the Earth and Sun, after everyone had had their fill. Some of the children went around the garden to play, while others hung around with little conversations about ‘life’. Teacher Karen and Teacher Evan invited the children to help with a little packing up (as some did), while they physically role modelled it all.
Karen and Evan started setting up their story telling items, which included puppets that were lovingly handmade by the Teachers of LWF. Some of the kids volunteered to partake in the story telling and helped with a little bit of the set up. The story in this session was about Nian (a Lunar New Year story). Karen, being a master storyteller, simply swooned away everyone with her calming voice and lively movement as the children gathered towards her on the straw mats. You know that the storytelling was amazingly done, when everyone’s attention was drawn in so much.
After the story telling, the group gathered together for a little closing circle song and sharing. They finished the day with thanks and permission from Mother Earth for the sticks, flowers and magic of Nature that they could bring back to their homes. With the blessing and magic of Nature in their hands and hearts, they moved off towards the pick up point at Botanic Gardens, where all the parents patiently waited.
Karen, Evan and the Parents were evidently very closely connected. They express the true meaning of what it means to be a village that raises a child. At the pick up, parents and teachers chatted openly about the going ons of their children and the session.
The teachers and community of Little Wildflowers are a precious gem to the greater urban modern space of Singapore, as they represent what we can be inside when given enough space, time, connection and some rituals to bring us together.
I was most impressed during the session by the massage and handling of the children’s energy and rhythm. In the massage part, the teachers were actually doing something many Occupational Therapists would do for children experiencing imbalance, but they did it so naturally as if it’s just part of life, not a ‘treatment’. Yet the effect I could see shares huge similarities to the benefit of many therapies. Their management of the rituals and rhythm also support their children – and parents as well – to balance the different forces of life in our fast-paced Singapore life. Even though they wouldn’t openly say it, to me, LWF is doing a form of learning and development for children that stretches into a wider holistic domain that enhances life as a whole, and not just focusing on academic education.
I’m honoured to be able to witness Little Wildflowers’ powerful practices in action. Thank you Karen and Evan for showing the way to what an authentic Singapore Waldorf-Nature Education looks like.
ABOUT – Forest Pedagogy Research Project (FPRP)
FPRP is a research journey that I, Darren Quek, is embarking on to learn, re-learn and have a deeper understanding of the work, practice, challenges and guiding motivation of various practitioners of the Forest School and Nature pedagogy. I hope that through this project, I will be able to demystify the value and work of those who are practising in this field. The goal of the project is to create a Story Repository where others can connect and find inspiration from. Personally, I also see this as a pilgrimage journey for me to rediscover the magic of life through the experience of reaching-out, connecting, interviewing, journaling, writing and advocating for what I am passionate about.
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