Our Planet

Text : Takuto Kashiwagi

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As I began spending time with the 0-2 year olds at Yamanoko Home(herein after Home), one thing that moved me the most is that there are so many “adventures” surrounding us.

Spending time with the 3-5 year olds at Yamanoko, I have seen children who are not satisfied with the garden or the nearby playgrounds such as KuneKuneYama or Suberidai-kouen I took them to outside fields such as the forest, the sea and the river as I wanted them to move their bodies with all their might, encounter diverse lives, feel the richness of nature and the earth with all their senses, and challenge themselves. 

　*KuneKuneYama: A hill in Science Park where Yamanoko kids play often.

　*Suberidai-kouen: A park with a slide where Yamanokxo kids play often.

These were my thoughts when I first started to spend time at Home: “I want to play with kids in Home, too, in a variety of environments. Even if they are young, once they are out in the field, they will use their own bodies to achieve their own learning. What kind of environment will bring out the fun in them? A large space? A bumpy surface? Would they be able to go to the open space in Keyaki no Mori??” 

　*Keyaki no Mori: A zelcova forest where Yamanoko kids go explore on Forest Days during non-winter seasons. 

However, such thoughts were overridden by the children one day. 

 

It was before the snow. When four 1-year-olds and 2 staff were on the walk taking hands, R-chan cried “the stone!” and stopped. At that time, R-chan was very into picking up rice-ball-shaped pebbles (common crushed stones used as pavement aggregate). As R-chan stopped, all 4 of them stopped there and began to find something to play with. Since they were on the way to nearby Suberidai-kouen,  and where they stopped was right next to the parking lot, the staff called them several times to move on or change places. However, the four never left the spot.

So the staff decided to dive into the children’s world of play, keeping an eye out for the movement of cars at the same time. The 4 of them surrounded the sand that had collected in a slight depression in the street. C-chan sat down on the street, gathered up the sand with both hands, and with one hand began to drop the collected sand into the ditch. R-chan picked up the sand with one hand and collected it in her other hand, saying, “this one, and this one, and….” M-chan held out her clenched hands, and when the staff held out her hand, she sprinkled sand on hand. When the sand collected in the palm of the staff’s hand, she flapped the hand and dropped the sand into the ground. N-chan stirred the sand in her palm, then said, “I’m going!” and after a while, she came back saying, “I’m back!”  Such play has continued in this place for about 30 minutes. The children ended up not arriving at the park that day, but they looked satisfied when they came back to Home.

 

There is another memorable episode.

That day, after a withering storm, there were many dead leaves and branches of zelkova trees on the ground. S-kun, who had just turned one year old, was walking and crawling in the park back and forth. When he came to a small branch, he stopped crawling, stared at it, picked it up, and handed it to a nearby staff. As he started crawling again, another branch appeared in front of him. S-kun stared at the branch again, picked it up, and stared at it as if he were encountering it for the first time.

The look in S-kun’s eyes as he gazed at the branch was so serious that I wondered, “What is so strange about it?” I then aligned my own eyes with S-kun’s eye level and at the same distance. Then I noticed  the unevenness of the knots on the branch stood out and a part of the skin reflected the light a little, making it look shiny. Comparing the two branches that had looked the same earlier, I noticed that they were completely different in length and shape. Of course, the 2 branches were two different “things”. Before I noticed it, I had categorized them as the same “branch” and recognized them as such.

I believe that the four 1-year-olds who continued to play with stones and sand had a similar point of view to that of S-kun. When adults see a stone or a branch on the side of the road, they might respond, “Oh, it’s a stone,” or “Yeah, it’s a branch.” However, for people crawling or standing at the adult’s knee level, they can see those things well and each object as unique things. Everything on the side of the road, I am sure for them is “What’s this? (So interesting!)”.  

 

Looking back, some of my favorite moments while going to the sea and the forest with 3-5 year olds were when they said to me, “What’s this? (Interesting!)”. I named the process of this encounter an “adventure”. For 3-5 year olds, bigger and have higher eye-levels, it was the sea or the forest where these encounters occur, but for 0-2 year olds, adventures can take place on the street (or even inside the house).

Perhaps, I myself also have been seeking “What’s this!(Interesting!)” through travel and encounter with nature. However, through days with the children, I realized “What’s this!” can be found not only from the outer world but by changing the point of view of oneself. If we literally change our point of view and face what is in front of us without categorizing it, it is possible for adults to experience “What’s this? (Interesting!)” which is all around us. Adults can have adventures even on the street.