For the first time, we went to the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night and made no plans for Easter Sunday at all. My husband is severely grieving his brother's death and I wanted to put no pressure on him to have to visit anyone.The afternoon was so spectacularly beautiful and with no big dinner to prepare, I took my little daughter and two year old grandson on a walk in the woods.We enjoyed that very much and although I was ready to walk some more, they both got involved in playing in this little creek.What happened next I think I will remember for a long time.
My grandson went out onto this little bridge and laid down on it. He was able to reach into the water and pull out rocks. This is shale and it is very thin.As he collected many different pieces, he began to pile it up into "towers". My 6 year old was having her own fun IN the water going up and down the little creek. She began to bring him much larger rocks and handfuls of pebble sized slivers of shale which he continued to pile in fantastic ways!
About 10 minutes into their fun, I gave up on continuing the hike and sat down comfortably on the end of the foot bridge.Now I was content to just hang out. I occasionally helped him to place a certain rock in a nook, or start a new pile. But I am not kidding or exaggerating- these towers HE built with the shale that Miss J. was having a blast delivering! We stayed here for close to 2 hours! I was able to see first hand what I think the Montessori philosophy is. Provide plenty of nature and unstructured, un-rushed time and let children create and learn in their own way... I rarely ever sit still for this long and am usually "directing" another activity long before two hours have gone by. Wow... I could have had a V-8!!!!
I was beyond amazed at what a 2 year old could do. Even if we do like to call him a genius!
Of course, I didn't have my camera with me at the time,which was perfectly fine. I took the pictures the next day. During this two hour interlude, I gave my daughter, ( the little guy's mother)a chance to write a paper for school, his Dad a much needed nap and got to spend the best quality time that I have ever spent with my grandson in a relaxed and peaceful,sunny spot. Filled with Easter Joy, I meditated on so many things as I watched him, and was astounded by his creative genius.
