This photo is a demonstration of how children, when exposed to serendipity, a stream stroll, become enamored, engaged, and motivated to explore. It is so natural for them and is unnatural for us to enjoy the time with them. Instead we often offer up a discourse of what things are titled, how they connect to other things, as opposed to just enjoying time in nature with them. 

Rachel Carson exhorts us to go outside with children as a partner, not as a person filling them with facts like a vessel. And when they ask what something might be, would it not be a natural outgrowth of their "Aha Moment" to say, "let's try to find out more about this when we get back to the classroom or our home." This is a way of honoring this "wow time" and the energy children use to discover. If our focus is upon children and providing time for them to explore nature, then they MUST have this time.

Why are adults more inclined to tell, to impart when we are in nature? Going with the flow of children's excitement may be a way for adults to begin to feel again, to have the emotion using our senses of seeing, hearing, and feeling. Maybe this is as critical to making a connection to nature as demonstrating our knowledge. Hold back and enjoy the time with children in nature. The adult in this picture certainly did.