Raising children with an inner awareness of being connected to everything.

I recently watched the movie Avatar. It was an awe-inspiring interconnected amazing movie. Can you imagine a world where we raise our children with an inner awareness of being connected to everything? Being one with our environment? To work with nature and life instead of against it. To have respect for all living creatures in our world?

What if we taught our children to have respect and appreciation for the food that they are eating. For the plants they are consuming. For the value of the planet we are living on. Demonstrating a balanced world of giving and taking. As consumers we mostly take and do not give back to our planet. Some ways you can teach your children to be interconnected to thier environment are:

*Take them out in nature as much as possible, on hikes, walks, camping trips, nature museums, parks. While you are there acknowledge the trees, birds, insects. Have them listen to the sounds they hear. Have them smell the air. Can they feel the wind on their faces or is it calm outside. What does it feel like inside of them? Do they feel calm or excited. This is a great time to begin or refresh tools on intuition.

*Take a vacation to a National Park. Try and encourage a little quiet time in nature. Go on a scavenger hunt. Give your child a little list of things to feel with you and only use signals or expressions to communicate. Your list could include for them to mark down when they've heard a bird sing, felt a breeze, smelled a flower, found a stick, saw a wild animal, etc. Look around you and be creative.


*You could go online and learn about how incredible the rainforest is. How the Amazon rainforest is considered the lungs of our planet. How you exchange the air you breathe with the trees and plants. What they breathe out gives you life and what you breathe out gives them life. Depending on the age of your child you can teach them about helping protect the rainforests by your choices of products you buy. The book "The Great Kapok Tree" by Lynne Cherry is one of my favorite children's book that teaches the importance of the rainforest.

*When my boys were little they collected rocks. At one point in time they had quite a huge collection piled up on top of their dressers. Have your child find a special rock to take home from a local creek or river if possible. I have found a few rocks shaped like a hearts and given them as gifts. I wouldn't recommend taking anything from a national park without checking thier rules first.

*Grow your own plants. Plants clean up our indoor air. They also can be a way to teach children responsibility. They need water, food, light and tender loving care.

*By growing your own garden or planting a vegetable plant you can educate them about how their food grows. This is also a great starting point to learn and teach them about nutrition.

*Learn about your native plants and animals. Take part in a nature walk that teaches about edible plants and poisonous plants in your state. Learn how to recognize the animals in your state by thier tracks and scat.

*Sponsor an animal from a zoo or wildlife agency. When my boys were little we adopted a turtle from "The Australian Zoo" while Steve Irwin was alive. They sent us information about the turtle and an 8 x 10 picture to hang on our wall. The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery center in Wyoming is fabulous place to sponsor a wolf or a bear.   http://grizzlydiscoveryctr.com/

*Having a pet teaches responsibility, and they provide unconditional love. Adopt from a local animal shelter if possible. Even taking care of one little fish in a little fish bowl is a great place to start.

The Earth is a mother to us all. With out her we could not exist here. She provides oxygen for us to breathe, food for us to eat, medicinal plants for our medical needs and more.

Just remember "Everything is energy". Take the time to demonstrate how you are connected to your world around you. Children learn best by watching you!
By: Carol Lawrence