Studio's Window
The heart of creativity and curiosity in early childhood
Monday, March 20, 2023
Walk With Me
As a Studio community, we nurture moments that allow us to be the most present to the child's process of discovery. As we head into spring with our children, we can reflect upon the quality of our daily journeys and the pace of our walking as we move through our environment. In this most natural activity, there are so many opportunities to connect with our child with more presence through the joy of walking together.
By just slowing our steps and walking without rushing, we can better tap into the emotional and perceptive experience unfolding for our child as they move through the world. Here exists another terrain of interaction and sharing on which to discover and become a greater part of each other’s inner and outer experiences.
If we don't rush, we allow for noticing and witnessing our surroundings with a more attentive eye. With our child, we can lead purposefully while we also follow. Here again lies the heart of play: allowing ourselves to partner in the experience of another, bringing energy, ideas, and encouragement while creativity and the fruits of
observation emerge.
Walking is a time when we can share our thoughts and imagination. When our children begin the major developmental milestone of walking, it means they are capable of exerting self-direction, independence, will power, and discovery. They are further creative in motion. To walk with our child at a pace that allows for equal sharing is an offering of loving companionship, and it celebrates their wide-eyed and burgeoning creativity and noticing. We support the child’s
experience by walking with them and extending a hand.
Here are some mindful walking practices for you and your child.
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Make a scheduled time to walk with your child at least once a week.
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Think about the walk the day/night before you embark upon it. This is a visualization that will aid the best outcome.
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Take a deep breath with your child before you set out for your walk. This walk can set the tone for the day.
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Wherever you are going, determine to walk more slowly than normal. Ask your child to set the pace. Commit to not rushing.
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Leave behind or turn off your cell phone to give an entirely new energy and focus--being fully involved and present to your activity.
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Ask your child if there is a specific path that they want to take, or something that they want to see or walk by.
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Share with your child that no matter how short the walk, you are happy that the time is “just for us.” Special utterances of affection can aid the softness and magic of the journey
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Stop and take moments to look at a place, structure, or object of interest.
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Ask a question that will help your child feel seen, understood, and heard. “What do you love most about the park?" "What do you want to go see up close?"
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Strive to touch or hold hands at some point – it encourages positive chemistry and exchange.
Compassionate Awareness Through Pacing
Whether we walk to school, to the store, through the forest, or to the car – we can be careful to pace ourselves along with our child's steps. With this intention in mind, we can nurture the way our child experiences an environment through walking.
Moving forward
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Make an ongoing effort not to rush so much with your child, for you and for them.
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Start off for destinations earlier, so that there is time to fall behind, stop and look, and enjoy a moment in between the starting point and the destination.
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Sharing fluidly is a practice. Interest and motivation for walking together will build with time and get easier the more often it is practiced. Stay consistent.
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Aspire to leave behind worries and allow this short time to help you escape your own pressures, stresses, and the demands upon you. Take pleasure in this time you do have with your child.
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Continue to make the happening special. Allow your joy to be witnessed and shared with others. Tell family and friends about your walks! You can start a sketch journal, drawing to document where you go, what you see, feel, and do.
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Make a mental note of what is different as a result of the walk and any positive outcomes or specific challenges. How did you and your child feel or express yourselves differently after the walk?
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How often can you return to the walk? Is there the possibility of taking a walk monthly with your child, and/or as a family?
There is a compassion and art to learning to walk with someone - and our children will feel this…Walking with them teaches them how to fall into harmony with others and how to be compassionate. It inspires them, fuels and feeds that which they are not always aware needs fulfillment, and we are more greatly bonded through it to our children.
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