Fifty-five years ago, Woman’s Home Companion published an article from by Rachel Carson called Help Your Child to Wonder:
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and dis-enchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gifts from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.”
Ways to Keep Alive a Sense of Wonder:
:: Spend time in nature, not with facts. but to experience nature, which will enliven the “sense” of wonder.
:: Take time to be present in the moment.
:: Look up at the sky.:: Value the daily and the ordinary, “What lovely clouds this morning.”
:: Find joy in the ordinary, in housekeeping and chores, sing or hum as you work.
:: Find the value and the goodness, in situations that do not work out as planned, ” I wonder if maybe we were meant to take a wrong turn because now we can see the rainbow.”
:: Let children get bored, boredom is the springboard for wonder and great play and projects.
:: Be the example and model wonder, “Gee, I wonder…” “Hmnn…” and wait when a child asks a question.
:: Remember that wonder is all around us and reveals itself to us when we are free of fear, safe and silent.
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” ~ Socrates
Trust that children know, children are capable of asking questions and finding the answers and trust that it is within you too.
How do you keep alive that sense of wonder?
