Butterfly Days

Butterfly Days

The Children's Circle Preschool year end rituals are among the things that I have missed the most in these difficult days of sheltering at home.  One of my favorites involves butterflies and waiting.  Classrooms of children watch for butterflies to open –in their classroom!  It is a momentous occasion.  We pray with the teachers that the butterflies will emerge.  We watch and wait with the impatient children.  The children learn words of waiting, hope, and anticipation to go with those feelings. The butterfly is also a metaphor for the impending end of the school year, when the children will go forth to new places, new people, and new experiences…taking their early learning and stories of becoming with them.

Then, it struck me that these are butterfly days, and how we talk about them with and NEAR our children matters.

Words matter, and stories are memory forming. Parents, we are all aware, acutely aware, of the difficulties of these days. Nothing is the same!   HOWEVER.  What is the “child forward” view of these days? What does the world look like for our children?   Let’s think of this from a concrete point of view that accepts the given context rather than focuses on the lost context.  

What has happened in our children’s worlds?

They have:

-more time at home

-more time with parents

-new ways of learning

-new ways of helping

-going out means exercise

-staying in touch means doing something

-learning that our actions impact others directly

(continue with your own list)

We also need to acknowledge the emotion/action pairings.

They feel/respond:

We are afraid; we are comforted.

We are anxious; we are reassured.

We are lonely; we are connected.

We are sad now; we are hopeful.

How we talk about these days will FRAME our children’s lives.  The stories they hear, and subsequently tell, will frame the value of those things they “have” in relation to what they “lost/missed.” Can we, the adults, help children to talk about the OPPORTUNITY alongside the INCONVENIENCE?  Doing so will help our children see the truth that “All things work for Good for those who love the Lord” (Romans 8:28).

 

Do you remember our butterfly example? Consider making a butterfly illustrated memory book, journal, scrapbook, yearbook, or whatever document suits your family.  It could be a video. Create a narrative of your journey.  Begin with a calendar from say, January or February. Include a weekly or daily breakdown of how you spent your days/times. This is the caterpillar stage. 

Then create an inner section. Include artwork, pictures of Lego creations, prayers, and stories from these days.  These are the chrysalis days…the cocooning of becoming/of transformation.  Ask questions together like, what was new?  What was the same? What was fun?  What was hard?  

 Finally, imagine the butterfly days.  What do we want to keep?  What do we want to change?  What do we miss from caterpillar days?  What will we take with us from the cocoon?  What type of butterfly will we be?  What flowers will we visit?

Finish with a beautiful picture, words or drawings, of your butterfly garden…when you and your children can wander again.

Peace, friends,
Kat.