Our Planet

Text : Naomi Ida

This year I realized that going for a walk is indispensable for the life of Yamanoko Home. Feeling the sun, soil, water, grass and flowers as friends, and feeling the changing seasons with the children has been so vital. It’s been a year since I became a childcare worker for Yamanoko. For me now, going for a walk is a time when I feel comfortable, and full of happiness, and also a time to look back on my childcare experience in other facilities. In the past childcare where all the children are expected to do the same thing at once, and is chased by the busy-ness of annual events, I do not think I could fully play in nature while feeling the beauty of the four seasons with children. There are days when the sun invites us to ask “Where should we go today?”, and there are days when we go on a big adventure to enjoy the particular changing weather of Shonai and sometimes to experience the harshness. At first glance, Yamanoko’s walks may seem like tough training in a severe natural environment, but that is clearly not the case. Please let me elaborate.

S was playing on the gravel road in the middle of winter. She was struck by a sudden strong wind and started crying, Neina, who was watching over it, took S’s hand and started running together as if she became friends with the wind. After a few seconds, the crying face turned into a big smile, “Ahaha!”. The moment when S became friends with the cold winter wind. Where was the S crying a moment ago?
Every time the cold wind blows, SEI asks to be held after feeling his body temperature change, saying “ouch, ouch”. The wind stopped as I was holding him so I asked him, “SEI, can you walk?” and he started walking again with his own feet. After many walks on the winter road, he no longer says “I want to” and he doesn’t say “Naomi-san, dakko(hold me)”. I was surprised at the appearance of SEI, who grows up both physically and mentally day by day.

On the way back from the midwinter walk, a very cold wind blows that makes even adults feel disappointed. When they are tired of playing and are hungry, the little children in 1-2y.o. group continue to walk down the snowy road step by step, spilling tears and sometimes stopping. When you open the front door of Home and go inside, you can smell the warm air and Yamanoko rice being cooked. As children as relieved to be back, they started to crying again. Tomoko smiles and accepts the children, saying, “Welcome back, you did your best, as you’re the one who has the sensitivity to live on the earth!.” After that, they warm their body from the core with a footbath, and return to a smiling face with delicious rice. It is an unforgettable sight that I myself witnessed. The appearance of children was exactly like the wishes (childcare goals) of Yamanoko Childcare Center.

To grow in nature. While crying in the harshness, children proceed to go forth while feeling nature and reach a place where they can feel at ease. They are learning so much while feeling the cold, and the warmth, and repeating it. In my childcare experience in the past, I thought a lot, “It’s raining, so what should we do today? Origami?” This is the first childcare I have ever felt that we were spending so much time outdoors. There are many activities that adults think about indoors, but it seems that children are unleashed and relaxed outdoors (and walking). Rather than being prepared by an adult, the child finds their fun, notices them, and becomes friends with the outside world and nature. It’s only outside that you can fully enjoy the puddle of fluttering and muddy sensual play, and I find it interesting when the children’s antennas are heading toward such places.

In addition, children’s voices such as “water puddle, did you go up? Because there is a sun today” and “there are no water puddles at Kunekuneyama ” are heard in the field because they continue to be outside and connect with nature throughout the year. The weather and the four seasons change, and the things we see change every day, but it seems that they are all connected among the children.

Even in the same winter, there is not only the harsh freezing cold, but also the beauty of the glittering silver-white world, playing in the snow at my favorite playground, and the brilliance of ice on the walking path. I felt the thrill of winter with the children this year. This spring in Yamanoko, where the warmth of the sun makes me excited, the flowers will be in full bloom and I will enjoy reuniting with small creatures.

When Fuki class gets to Kunekuneyama and the Slide Park, there are children who move by crawling, who enjoy moving by walking, and who observe well by sitting down and looking. They feel the warm air and wind in the spring sunshine, touch the grass and flowers, and enjoy themselves. In Warabi class, when we headed to Nihonkuni Park where the snow had melted for the first time in a while, we walked along the paddy field and T said “this is such a good road” and “what a nice view” while looking at Mt. Chokai. While walking, X always picks up dandelions and deadnettles and holds them as “souvenirs for Mommy”. S always calls out for pill bugs by saying “it’s spring time now” and digging the soil by the tree root with a wooden branch.

I find it fun, interesting, and impressive that children are able to perceive the world and the present moment. I always keep in mind that there are wonderful learnings that far exceed the expectations of adults in the casual daily activities and behaviors of children, and I want to be able to accept the present moment of children here and there. Every day I feel that the appearance of nature is different throughout the year, but the appearance of children is also different from just a moment ago.

And I myself have changed a little. I try to observe what the children want to do and wait, don’t stop them as much as possible. The other day I saw a child putting water in their rainboots and walking home with them on. There are moments like this where an adult would go “why?” but I’m less likely to stop what the child likes at the discretion of an adult. If there is no danger of life, I have come to want to watch a certain amount of adventure and be enthusiastic about what I watch with “What will happen to this?” Of course, sometimes and often it is difficult to identify, and I was wondering if this was all right, but it was a year when I wanted to value the children’s interest in what they liked.

There are so many things in life where if we do not pay attention to them, we simply pass them by and go on with our lives. I find that these things hold great beauty.  These simple things like taking a walk or feeling nature and having a changing environment, that is childcare I want to create. Yamanoko is a place where children challenge themselves after they separate themselves from their parents. However, I also wish Yamanoko to be an existence where each child, like nature, no matter what state they are in, can feel comfortable and welcomed.