I made all sorts of efforts to transport some of our daily rhythms and home life routines out to Hawaii with us. And without going into great detail, they all failed. Every particle of our normal, everyday flow was completely blown out of the water, from what we eat, to down time, to hand work, to art work, the list goes on. It was just too new, too stimulating, too exciting, too many people to show off for... it was like day after day on a diet of Pixie Stix and Coke. Adios rhythm.
Save one thing... the nature table. I packed a few surprise items to get our Hawaii nature table started on an empty shelf in the tool shed area where we bunked. Some playsilks to represent ocean and farm. And a few new wooden figures that went along with the surroundings. The boy filled in the rest in his usual manner, plucking and collecting from here, there, and everywhere and happily setting them up.
Coconut husks, animal bones, exotic flowers from day to day, cowrie shells, coral rocks, opihi, sea urchines, and even a dead gecko.
So even though the pile of felt and bag of wool and loads of books and science projects all got re-packed to bring home without ever being touched, at least we had one slice of normal home life with the nature table. Which then required just one more flat rate box filled with shells and coral rocks and sand that just HAD to be brought back home.
7 comments:
wouldn't it be amazing to have a peek inside Zach's imagination as he stores all the wonder and magic of Hawaii away and begins to add it to his everyday life back in Maryland. Awesome!
I'm glad your nature table rhythm sustained through the trip. The nature treasures you brought back are amazing.
Maia read this and wondered why she can't keep all the stuff we find. How do you store everything? There is no way we can add the weight. So far Maia enjoys things for a while (we keep one small, light weight tray) but then has to trade it all off when she finds her next set of treasures.
lovely! when you get tired of the table taking up space, you can make a mobile out of the smaller pieces and hang it in his corner!!
Those are the best kinds of souvenirs! Lovely nature table.
beautiful!!!
we will be traveling for a good part of this month and i've been thinking about what elements of our everyday rhythm might be able to come with us.
i like this a lot!!
~erin
Love it! Our Nature Table rhythm is one of my kid's favorite things, and where ever we go they are always bringing be things "for our nature table", such a special thing!
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