Capturing sunrises and sunsets with children…

Songs, stories, legends, prayers and rituals have risen around sunrises and sunsets.  They are ever-present firsts and lasts.

Sunrises and sunsets enchant kids with their colors, their movement, their promises.

So how do you capture these scientific miracles with kids?

– Grab your kids.
– Grab your camera.  Any camera.
– Find a flower. Any flower that is touched by the sun.
– Have your kid(s) snap photos of the flower as the sun is rising.
– Snap the same flower as the sun is setting.

You can get into all of the scientific and geographical stuff of the earth’s hemispheres, rotations and seasons.  You get get into the botanical stuff of flowers.  It’s all good.

Or you can teach one of the most lovely quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson – The earth laughs in flowers.

I say laugh.  Laugh at the flowers as they dance in the wind as your kids try to capture the perfect shot.  Laugh as you sprawl on the grass or reach to the sky for the perfect capture.  Laugh if it’s cloudy or rainy and the sun is hiding… a perfect reason to begin again tomorrow.   

Laugh with the flowers.

It’s the greatest lesson, I think!

Then, you may wish to print and frame your kids’ masterpieces… for the colors, the promises, the movement, the laughter captured.