Foreword by Melissa Hart
Foreword to
Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative and Naturally Curious Children
I met Ginger Carlson first as a parent. She lived with her husband and their young son, Zeal, across the street from me. As I worked from home on my latest textbook for young readers, I listened, enthralled, to conversations between mother and child. “Why is Cody named Cody?” Zeal might ask, spotting my Sheltie in the front yard. This would elicit a question from Ginger, seemingly casual, but deliberately designed to foster critical thinking skills in the mind of her three-year-old son. “Why is Zeal named Zeal?”
Why indeed? Answering such a question with another question asks the child to contemplate not only the origin of a name, but the meaning and applicability of a word. In this case, Zeal is aptly named—with Ginger’s gentle guidance, he approaches the world with absolute delight. Together, they turn a neighbor’s birthday into an exciting lesson in cooking, artwork, generosity, and timing so that the homemade pancakes are warm and the paint on the birthday card is dry just as the honored one awakes and discovers the gift of a breakfast in bed.
A short while after meeting Ginger and her family, I became aware of her as an educational consultant. She offers intelligent personal guidance to parents and children who balk at the borders of traditional K-8 education. Parents frustrated by the limitations of crowded classrooms in public schools come to her for suggestions on how to develop lesson plans based on their child’s real-life experiences. Under her tutelage, they learn how to integrate critical thinking and creativity into their child’s basic daily tasks and personal interests. A unit on owls becomes an opportunity for a field trip to the local raptor center, in order to study the birds up close. Violin lessons take on new meaning during free noontime concerts at the performing arts center downtown.
Parents and teachers hope to instill children with a lifelong love of learning. In this technological age, however, we find ourselves easily overwhelmed with computers, videogames, television, and all those temptations which distract us from a deep appreciation for the natural world and all that it has to teach us. As Richard Louv points out in his Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, our children show an increasing tendency to view nature as more of an abstraction than a reality. The activities in Child of Wonder bring nature back into focus. Maple seed pods become fascinating lessons on aerodynamics, seed dispersal, and horticulture. The tired, overused sandbox gives way to gardens and bird feeders and sidewalk art, resulting in minds that open and expand and create marvels equal to all that they’ve discovered around them.
But Ginger is a clear-sighted, realistic visionary; she advocates a balance of nature and technology, and embraces a multitude of educational possibilities offered by responsible use of computers and the Internet. The book devotes considerable time to the roles that technology and the media can play in the education of young people, offering applicable websites, discussions on how to create media, and how to use critical thinking skills in order to achieve media literacy.
As a longtime educator for a K-12 independent study program, I often field questions from parents concerned about their child’s lack of motivation for a static curriculum. “I want my children to have the opportunity to do creative projects as part of their education, but I’m not sure how to go about designing them,” parents tell me. Child of Wonder provides parents with an abundance of suggestions for projects that nurture a child’s inherent interests. In user-friendly format, with inspiring examples and anecdotes, Ginger encourages parents and teachers alike to see education not as a duty, but as pure pleasure.
Clear directions, supported by theoretical discussions, allow readers a range of options. Adults pressed for time can implement ideas quickly and easily, incorporating teachable moments into everyday activities. Alternatively, parents and teachers with more time to devote to a child’s education can delve deeply into the book, studying the pedagogy that informs each chapter, and using the activities as a jumping-off point to design entire creative curriculums.
Over the last few decades, educational theorists have focused on the importance of educating the whole child. Many have focused on learning styles, pointing out that people learn in a variety of ways. One student may learn best by hearing instructions, while another achieves success with a more tactile, hands-on approach. Child of Wonder considers the whole child in its approach to education, offering activities easily adapted to a wide variety of learning styles. Children are encouraged to run and climb and jump and explore, as well as to read and write and draw and sing. The book pays special attention to how we, as adults, must care for our young people—chapters on the importance of “Yes Days” and the creation of private creative spaces remind readers that we all, regardless of age, respond best to positive feedback and respect for our individuality and personal space.
When last I saw Ginger and her son Zeal, they sat reading about dogs in a large, comfortable chair at a local bookstore. Once again, I heard him ask a question—this time, about the book in his hands. Ginger replied with a question seemingly spontaneous, but designed in an instant to nurture creative thought. Zeal answered his question and hers with peals of delighted laughter. I watched a moment more—the enthusiastic young boy and his mother—and thought of how readers of Child of Wonder will discover their own zeal in the possibilities for an education based on creativity and regard for the world in all its wonder.
I knew Ginger Carlson first as a parent. Now I, along with countless readers, rejoice in knowing her as an insightful and dedicated educational writer.
Professor University of Oregon, educational writer, and award-winning author of 101 Ways to Love a Book
