Noticing Changes

Practical activities and resources for promoting an understanding that:-

EVERYTHING CONSTANTLY CHANGES.

GENERALLY WE CAN:-

Assist our children to be aware of constant change and the need to be adaptable and to move with the changes.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS:-

  • Observe life cycles in nature –plants in the garden, the seasons, the water cycle, the life cycle of family pets bringing both joy and sadness.
  • Observe the changes of the seasons. Go walking in nature; draw the seasons.
  • Lie on your back on a hillside with your children watching the clouds moving and changing -sometimes imperceptibly and sometimes very quickly.
  • Enjoy other short-lived but beautiful natural phenomena such as a sunset or the moonrise over the ocean.
  • Observe and celebrate the changes and milestones in life: birthdays, graduation, New Year.
  • Have a photo album for each of your children that shows the changes in their lives.
  • Talk with your children about the changes you have seen in your life.  Talk about what you know about life in your parents’ time, or, if possible, have them spend time with their grandparents.
  • We can talk with and help our children to be comfortable about death – an inevitable part of life.

RESOURCES

Look for books, songs and movies about: Change, Continuity, Impermanence, Uncertainty, Acceptance, Adaptability, Life and Death.

Here are some suggestions:-

SONGS  about Change

  • “The Circle Game” –Joni Mitchell.  The changes as children grow up.  Video
  •  “Time” -Pink Floyd.  Time is relentless.

MOVIES about Change

  • “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray: Nothing changes for the better for the main character until he changes his attitude and behaviour and so escapes from the rut he is in.

STORIES AND BOOKS about Change

  • The Magic Boots by Hans Christian Andersen.  Asks is change good or bad?
  • The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen -about change and growth
  • Maybe -a Taoist / Zen story.  (Search for it on the internet). Change may be good or not.
  • Grandfather by Jeannie Baker.  PB.  A young girl enjoys visiting her aging grandfather’s antique shop.
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.    YA / Adult.  A family caught up in great environmental and social changes during the 1930s in the USA.  Pulitzer Prize winner.
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  YA / Adult.  A natural world or a technologically created happy world? Futuristic novel written in 1931 yet still relevant.

Ω