Learning Story – The Transitions of the Seasons
The Week of October 1, 2024
What Happened?
Today we welcomed Cathy Modeste Short and Tom Short to share Cathy’s stories and knowledge and Tom’s artistic skills with the Bushkids. Cathy is originally from Dèlı̨nę and shared her mother’s teachings of plant medicine with us. Tom is a painter and spent time painting rocks with the Bushkids. The Bushkids were given the opportunity to be creative with themes of Halloween, avocados, flowers and Northern scenes.
Today we asked: How do the animals and how do we adapt and change during the transitions of the seasons?
A fox came around during our morning circle to bury its snack nearby. It is definitely being fed, so we discussed whether or not this is good for the animal and talked about animal safety. They named him Swiper. “Swiper gonna swipe”
The weather kept us on our toes all day! We ended the day with great excitement! We were finishing up in the tent and suddenly we couldn’t hear each other talk! Hail!!! The bushkids streamed out of the tent to experience hail pounding down!
Why is it Important?
It is very important for us to develop relationships with Elders and to make lots of space for them to share their knowledge with children and youth and to practice the language of the Land we play and explore on. We want to uplift the teachings from the Dene Kede curriculum and a significant way to do this is through child-led play. One of the Dene Kede concepts is to trust in the child.
“Because there was a belief in the inherent dignity of the child, from the time it could walk the child was given respect of being its own person. This respect took the form of the trust in the child’s natural curiosity to learn and the child’s need to learn… In any experience, the child could be trusted to learn what it was ready for.” Dene Kede xxvi
Throughout the day, the Bushkids are free to consider what they are interested in. Week after week, they have space to practice new bush skills or come back to their familiar activities, but each week their understanding and skill will broaden.
What Does This Mean For Next Time?
We will continue to develop meaningful relationships with Elders and knowledge holders at Bushkids. We will embrace all weather and model that playing, exploring and learning can happen everywhere, even in the hail!
We will give the Bushkids more opportunities to learn from each other. It creates an opportunity for the youth volunteers to experience roles of leadership and the younger Bushkids to recognize that we all have the ability to share knowledge and stories.