Which came first? The chicken or the egg? I wonder?

My daughter is coming up twelve and quite the young lady. Steiner educated since the age of three she’s no stranger to this alternative way of educating. Whilst toys and dolls are rapidly being replaced with makeup and snazzy shoes she is still thrilled by the wonder of nature, albeit quietly and without letting me think that it’s in anyway cool!

We visited my sister and her two children in Norfolk over the summer. She lives in a busy village and has a large garden that is home to a small flock of chickens and ducks, living happily alongside an abundant vegetable crop. My niece and nephew, six and four respectively attend the local school and will be meeting various testings and learning goals throughout their school career. Little nephew started school just a month ago, and is enjoying it well enough. The pressures of testing young children will be well balnced out in this little boys life as he begins and ends at home with the chickens. He and his sister pull on their wellies, run down the garden and collect eggs. My fast becoming-trendy-young-lady was racing them to get there first! The wonder of a newly laid warm egg sent her running back to the house to show me. She’s learned to write and read (in that order) and calculate and spell along with all the other kids in the country. At school she’s had hands on experience with hens and growing vegetables. They’ve not been brought to her in a theoretical manner, but in a way that has engaged all her developing senses. She, and my niece and nephew, have been introduced to the miracle of the connectedness of all things through this experiential approach to learning. None of them have been taught the processes that happen to create the egg, or the chicken for that matter. They’ve been allowed to discover the wonder for themselves, simply by having it put in their way. Through having these direct experiences they are being allowed to think for themselves and find their own conclusive magic about where the egg came from, but not without having lots of questions about it! But which child needs the direct answers to these questions? My experience as a mother and Steiner Class Teacher has taught me that very often for young children it’s the direct answers that take the magic away for the children. The simple response “I wonder?” will leave and lead young children to wonder. The questioning response is also a statement from the adult. If the adult can wonder, so too can the child.

We can’t all have chickens in our back garden but we can easily give children experiences of wonder and joy through the simplicity of being in and observing nature. An invigorating, or not, Sunday Sussex walk, a bonfire, digging potatoes, watching spring shoots come up through the hard earth, red autumnal sunsets. In short, anything that would make you say “Ah, that’s wonder-full!”