Bravery

Bravery is so different for each individual child. In the forest we see lots of different kinds of physical bravery. We may see a child that feels safer on the ground begin to climb on small limbs close to the ground or we may see a child climb the tallest tree! Today we saw a lot of bravery surrounding a large tree that fell over the summer the children usually swarm around it with some climbing on top while others play underneath. I was really happy to see some new friends take some brave steps and begin to climb on the trees. It all started with ZW. She cam running to me, "Ms. Beth will you please help me climb the tree? I'm scare to do it by myself." I said, "of course" and we went together to figure out our plan. While over at the tree several other children joined our work. ZW held my hand and looked at the tree. I asked, "what are you thinking?" She said, "where should I get on?" I replied, "I'm not sure what do you think?" She then noticed a couple of children climb up the tree in a spot where there was a branch to place her leg. She smiled the biggest smile and said, "I'm going up there!" She then took her time and climbed the tree! Once she got onto the trunk she exclaimed, "I did it!"

 After seeing ZW climb up the side of the trunk we had several other friends join in the fun! CH was very intimidated by the tree at first and would only climb if I was right behind her but once she got the hang of it she decided that she didn't need me anymore and climbed up and down the trunk all by herself!

 Some friends were great helpers! EK easily climbs up and down the tree and walks across the trunk. She noticed AC struggling to figure out how to get up on the trunk and  walked over to him. She said, "if you put your foot on the branch you can climb up easier." AC looked around, checked the branch out and then hoisted himself up on to the trunk! EK continued to do this for other friends as well!

 HB was a little bit nervous about climbing on the trunk too but EK was there to help out! He kept asking me to put him on the trunk but I told him he had to figure out how to get up there. We talked about different paths that he could take and then EK came over to point out that he could climb up on the branch too! He was elated to figure out how to get onto the trunk and crawled back and forth on the top for quite some time!

 MY kept walking by the tree as all the kids were climbing on it. He looked up at me and said, "I want to go up there too." I asked, "How do you think you might get up there?" He said, "I don't know." A couple of children heard him and said, "come up over here" showing him the amazing climbing branch that they had all discovered. He eagerly climbed up the branch and jumped off with excitement! He did it over and over, laughing the whole time!

 Other friends found different parts of the tree to be brave in! SS climbed up a big tree trunk and then to get even higher he climbed this smaller branch and screamed, "I'm at the top!"

 GM climbed up into this tree that was quite a bit higher than the others (I stayed close by to keep an eye on her). She encouraged others to climb up with her!

 MD yelled to me, "look Ms. Beth I'm being brave, I'm swinging on the vine!"

As I said everyone's bravery is different but they are all proud of what they are doing and they are all doing amazing things! We love the forest and what it brings to our kiddos!!!