Exploring our Island Home

In our last feature “reconnect children to nature,” (October 2020) we talked about how growing up in the natural world helps us to become more human. In this sequel, we explore the process of taking young children outside, with some suggestions of where to go. Every village, beach, cemetery or old estate in Tobago holds information about who we are and what we may become. Photos by Pat Ganase

Mary Hall, educator and principal of the M. K. Hall Community School in Carnbee, has some easy suggestions to help a class, a family or a group of family friends on mini-expeditions. You would be surprised how much the adults, teachers and parents and guardians, also learn on outings. The most basic rule is to allow the children to explore and find out for themselves, in safe groups. Then encourage them to share what they discover.

 

 

                    By boat: view the island from the sea and feel your perspective and balance shift.

 

Some Guidelines

1. The first thing is for children to experience the area – forest, beach, fort – physically through walks, hikes, tours, picnics. That experience – feet on uneven terrain, moving around trees or rocks - is so powerful with a special impact on children.  Facts and knowledge come later as they ask questions. Teachers and adults learn too as they may have had limited contact themselves.

2. Organise activities before and after visits. For example, flipping through a book of birds familiarizes them with shape and colour. Art projects could involve learning about particular trees or habitats, or endangered species.

 3. Use simple charts that show the layers of the forest and how they all work together in balance, including the bachacs, termites, frogs and worms. There is an abundance of material that has been given to schools by Forestry and Marine and Environmental agencies.

4. Take a boat trip around the coast. Seeing their island from that perspective is powerful. Distances and time are different from what happens on a road trip for example.

5. Fun projects might be designing and creating Carnival costumes representing the forest creatures that need protecting. Children learn through art and craft, and could make glove puppets with simple materials.

6. Music and language are other ways in which children should be encouraged to express how they feel about animals and trees and protecting the forest or the reef. Encourage them to make songs or rhymes.

7. A local hotel or guest house may be invited to participate: they could use sayings or slogans created by the children for hand-outs to guests and visitors. For instance, the children from MK Hall School created poems to go with a chocolate placed on pillows at the Grand Courland hotel.

8. Children can participate in making murals.  Their forest or seashore drawings could be rendered on a wall in school or in the town with the help of a professional wall painter or artist.

 9. Create models of the forest and its layers and animals using various forms of 3D art materials (cardboard, board, plasticine, straws, small sticks, recycled materials)

 10. Books of art, ideas, writing and sketches, poems and songs by children may be shared in the school library for others to see. A copy book is all that each child needs.

11. Encourage children to talk with elders in the village to hear about life when they were children; and eventually to understand the changes that have taken place in their area. Compile these stories for everyone to have access. Guided by adults – be polite, kind and thoughtful - questions from children can elicit unexpected candour and information.

12. Competitions are not necessary. Consider an incentive or celebration – a meal together, a picnic - when the child or group completes the activities which may take a month or a term or a year. There’s no deadline for curiosity.

 

                        Collect rocks on the beach: can you tell which ones were corals?

Where to go

Build on the spirit of exploration. The first could be a short walk along a beach or other familiar area. Encourage children to draw, write and record their findings, talk about what they find interesting. A copybook can become a journal. The students are the art makers, photographers, film makers, writers, game creators. And Tobago offers many different types of outings within short distances from home.

The Main Ridge Forest Reserve is the oldest protected forest in the western hemisphere. It was established in 1776 "for the purpose of attracting frequent showers of rain upon which the fertility of lands in these climates doth entirely depend." The flora and fauna of the forest are fascinating and there to be discovered. Some villages like Charlotteville and Castara nestle in the foothills of the forest and are accessible along river beds and trails. It is always wise to walk with a knowledgeable guide who can answer questions, point out animals and trees, and ensure that the group does not get lost.

 

 Fort King George commanded views in a wide arc around the coast of this part of Tobago. You’ll find a museum here too.
 

Because they might be so familiar, the nearby beach and fishing village may not seem right for an expedition. Watching the boats bringing in fish may already be a pastime.  But challenge your children to find out the names of the fish, to draw them, to ask questions of the fishermen. Children can become eager interviewers when they realise that they are allowed to ask questions; to record the answers and to make their own stories around the information, drawings or pictures they collect.

Children are fascinated by animals: horses, goats, rabbits, pigs, chickens. Take them to a goat farm, a cocoa estate or a place where food is grown. Let them find out how cheese or yogurt is made, how to reap and ferment and dance the cocoa beans. Take them to an old site of industry such as the indigo pits in Parlatuvier or Crown Point. Even in broken walls and ruins, who knows what will spark a child’s imagination. The parents’ and teachers’ jobs are to provide the exposure, to encourage the spirit of exploration; the child will bring the rest.

 

                    Ruins of indigo pits at Crown Point indicate an old industry. Do you know what an indigo bush looks like?

 

On the water activities are considered risky. However, with adequate adult supervision and safety considerations, children should be taken on river and boat tours. Walk up-river to the waterfall for which Castara is named. Or take a boat ride: there is nothing so exhilarating as being in a pirogue on the sea. Every child remembers the first visit to the Buccoo Reef; the guides are knowledgeable and welcome children’s questions. Do they know that reefs may be found at every bay around Tobago?

From an early age, a child’s visit to the Museum opens an understanding that many people, families and communities lived here before. It connects them to the world that came to Tobago: the Amerindians who first lived here; the Dutch and the English and French who fought here and sank each other’s ships in the Scarborough harbour; and African ancestors who persevered. Later on, the library becomes a useful resource, and a book such as Susan Craig-James’ The Changing Society of Tobago 1838-1938 becomes a treasure trove.

Spark a child’s interest and imagination right where he finds himself, at home in his backyard. Then expand until his backyard is the forest and the sea. In this way, he learns to be at home on the island and in the world.

 

Native trees like this silk cotton on the road to Moriah might have been here for over a hundred years. What kind of tree is this?