Forest School Reflection from pilgrimage. 6am-6pm Overnight Hike in Singapore.

 🌱Pilgrimage Reflection by Shirin Tan🌱 23 March 2026

The session today was immensely powerful. The 2 questions asked were so simple yet I realised I never take time to think and reflect. We seldom stop and account for our life and story. Thank you to coaches for giving me the opportunity to think about what it means to be me.

When telling my story, I didnt feel much emotion, just emptying my cup. However returning home, barely resting for 3 hrs. I woke up.  Feeling the pain behind my knee after 12 hour hike. I suddenly became emotional, allowing myself to experience the emotions I have felt over the years.

Listening to everyone's story, there is underlying longing for assurance, acknowledge and belonging. Even though we are all adults, we have not made sense of it all. On one hand, it seems our education has failed us as we seek to escape fears and conform rather than spending time to make sense of the world and what our role in it is.

On the other hand, it's also these pains and sufferings we went through that shaped who we are today. Suddenly. I felt a sense of exhaustion, of fighting all these years.  My faith, my studies, my career, childbirth, breastfeeding, navigating parenting, my children's education, homeschooling, worldschooling, and now, my path towards opening my dream school.

It's been an exciting journey yet many a time, tiring.  I have been challenged, beaten yet refuse to give up. Fought for my voice for truth, for my children, for my dream and my life. So much opposing force. So much resistance, so much energy needed to swim upstream and against the tide.

I am reminded that a forest school classmate said something about resistance at our first meeting.

When there is resistance, it brings balance to the force. When life gives u challenges, it trains and shapes us.

I am reminded of a quote I read: "To struggle gives strength, to endure breeds a greater capacity for endurance. We must not run away from our heartbreaks in life; we must go through them, however fiery they may be, and bring with us out of the fire a stronger character.... Love, hate, passion, fear, sorrow, pain–they act on us and spur us on, they develop our qualities and give us colour and individuality...Without extremes there is no contrast and life becomes a dull monochrome, an interminable grey day, with no shadow, to be sure, but always deprived of the glory of the sunlight...we must try to get out of every experience in life the very best it can offer."

Towards the end of the hike, my mind wants to continue and refuse to give up, but my legs cant carry on anymore. Thankful to all to tell me its ok and to recognise physical signs that is telling me its time to stop. I realised I am like this, I will push myself to the end and want to be involve in everything just because I can. All my life, I just go go go, and most of the time end up being burn out. Its time to really take time periodically to really focus on those goals that I want to work on and take courage to say no to the rest. 

PILGRIMAGE  Reflection “Assignment”

1. What's your childhood play memories? 

• * When I was about 4, I loved exploring the cleared land that is meant for new housing development. I remember my dad used to bring our dog and I for walks in those raw Red earth that has ups and downs, jumping over gaps, and climbing to higher grounds. I enjoyed that memory with my father.

• * I enjoyed going to the playground every day when I was in lower primary, playing tag and jumping off the big slides/bridge when the catcher is near. We will play there every evening till 7pm, Sometimes we are so engrossed with play that we forget about time. This is when my mom will come, standing on top of the stairs of the badminton court, she will scream for my name across a badminton court, a basketball court, a volleyball court and a cycling ring.. I will be so embarrassed that I will quietly run another direction and take the long way home.

• * I remember me and another another friend will bring water and things to the sand playground to build a tall mountain and carve out a path for the water to flow down. I remember revisiting the playground every week after our piano lessons to work on an improved version of the waterfall until we were satisfied with the results.

• * We also have a 'bicycle gang' where about 10 of us, including our siblings will ride our bicycle around the 'taman' (garden). I remember there is a road that we love to take, its a long downhill road. We will line up our bicycles side by side,lift our legs up and race down the slope! Loved the feeling of the wind on my skin and the speed that we can go! Untill there is a stretch where the dogs will bark and some will chase us, we will scream and cycle as fast as we can to cross that section. It was so exciting, frightening yet we loved every moment of it.

• * We had a close community of Baha'i families who we meet weekly for a children's and teen's program. Those days were filled with joy and fun. A close family friend who live near me will come and pick me and my brothers in in a van to go for the weekly classes. They took away the seats at the back and pack all of us kids about 6 of us in the back, we will have no seatbeats on and will be squating and waiting for the uncle to swerve as he turns right or left and we will push and fall over each other. 

• * When we were in the car and it stops at the traffic light, we will make eye contact with the driver in the car at the back and start shooting him with pretend guns. We were strangers but we had a good connection. 

• * The centre where we meet is a double story bungalow that has a lowered basement area with a piece of land on both the sides. Sometimes the community will organise a celebration with delicious home cooked potluck food, we would a build a campfire and we would sit around and have games and songs and dance during holy day celebration, Some days the kids will play hide and seek and have pretend play at the side while the adults have their sessions. I vaguely remembered seeing fireflies and encounters with snakes. It's not until we started having complaints from neighbours that there are too many cars on the roads that we have to give up the bungalow and move to a shop house. All of the kids have grown and moved away. I really missed those days, I am glad my older 2 boys got to experience that for a couple of years before moving to Singapore. Now, the community have been asked to decentralised and re-build these communities in many other neighbourhoods in JB. Its my hope that love and joy continue to grow in each neighbourhood and continue to create beautiful connections between kids and families.

Forest School Reflection on Knife & Fire

Knife

Today at Forest school, we were given a Knife each and were asked to present a tool talk, like you would present it to a child.

About the tool talk, its very similar to what Montessori education advocate. For children to use real materials and real tools.

To present to them in simple and clear way how to use the tool and to note the important guidelines to it.

According to Maria Montessori, a child has an absorbent mind, especially before 7 years of age and they dont learn like adults do, they absorb what they see. So when we adults show them or teach them, we have to think about the steps, order and exactly how and what to say to them so that its simple and clear as this is what they will remember it.

Children are capable of handling real tools and materials. However in our society, they hardly get to do it. Usually helper or adults will jump in to assist and keep the kids away from breakable, dangerous items and tools. So when we are educating, we will need to access our societal norm and kids may need more time to become confident and independent in using tools.

A knife is a significant tool, it allows human to use hands and tools to create things out of the imagination. It brings ideas to fruition and the power of the human mind is translated from abstract to concrete. Such power that is given to humans. However with great power comes great responsibility. With the same tool, it can build or destroy. With our minds, we can thing of constructive thoughts or thoughts that will destroy and harm ourselves or others. The tools we use is powerful, but yet the most powerful of all is the ability of the human mind. Therefore use it wisely.

Abdu'l Baha said: "When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love."

Fire

My first time starting an actual fire in the wild. Well I have seen my husband and boys played with fire, but I never got involved, I feel its too complicated and troublesome. But today I did it. I failed at the first attempt, being over confident. Thought of getting it done asap and we can pack up and go home. Little did I know, a fires needs care and nurturing. Step by step. My state of mind was also crucial. To think orderly, step by step, to start, maintain and stabilise the fire. I say its pretty therapeutic and I felt a sense of  accomplishment when I finally suceeded the second time.  Fire burns away the veils that blocks our vision, like the fire, I hope whatever that is standing in the way, my preconceived ideas and lack of confidence be burned away so that the future is clearer and brighter.

Forest School Reflections (1st for 2026)

Reflection on the Forest School Singapore article on 'Japanese Forest Kindergarten: Thoughts from Atsuko Sensei' and 'Why Planned Inconvenience?'

Reflecting on the article on Japanese Forest Kindergarten. 

https://forestschooleducationseries.wordpress.com/japanese-forest-kindergarten-thoughts-from-atsuko-sensei/

I fully agree on the part about parents being on board with the philosophy and working together with the educator to support the program. Imparting knowledge and communicating with parents is very crucial not only for the child, but for the whole family's growth and well-being. I love how Atsuko Sensei said the philosophy became the strength for raising kids and giving back to the community. I think we really need that here, to empower parents to educate and nurture the children in our community. 

I have a question about being drop off at a young age. I think before a certain age, there is a natural attachment with parents and depending on individual child, we cannot be sure what is the best age for drop off. I feel very sad to see children (babies) are being drop off at infant care/ child care at far too young an age. They grow up prematurely without healthy attachment to their parents and family, and we are doing this in masses and its as though that's  the way it should be. Any child not in school by age... lets say 2 is considered odd. Parents also believe they are not capable to educate their own child and education should be out sourced to a professional institution.

With my own experience with my children, each grow at their own pace and we have to respect their emotional attachment need. As a parent, I also wanted to share first hand experience in the forest with my child and not listen to their stories after. As an educator, I feel parents should be very much part of the space so that they are part of their child's growth and learning experiences. I am curious how it will look like with different age group of children as a drop off program, and how parents can still be very much part of that village that raises the child. The nature group that I run for the homeschoolers have always been a co created space with the parents. Maybe it's the briefing I give prior to the meet up or the fact that homeschool parents generally are present and more willing to give their children the space they need to explore and grow, so far our nature program have been quite smooth and children have been given the respect and space to explore the forest and grow. But I am open to learning and understand why it has to be drop off.

Reflecting on the article on 'Why Planned Inconvenience?' 

 https://forestschooleducationseries.wordpress.com/why-planned-inconvenience/ 

Living in Singapore, not many realise it but we are a super efficient, almost perfect country where everything works, no shortage of electricity, water, public transport on time, safe, super super conveinient.

No complaints about this, I am grateful. But growing up in Malaysia and travelling the world a bit myself, I see that this reliance on convenience may become a problem for my children. That is why I constantly travel back to Malaysia and travel to less developed countries to allow them experience the inconvenience of life. We start to grow when there is inconvenience. I believe there is merit when we accustom ourselves to hardship.  When there is a shortage in electricity, we learn to be creative and work with what we have. When there is a shortage of water, we start thinking about others and use less water when we shower, we wash things and start planning ahead to see if there is enough water for everyone to use. What is essential and what is not essential.

When the train breaks down, or our bus is delayed, we learn to be creative and think of other ways to get to our destination or if really cant help it, we learn to be patient and wait. 

I feel this is when our brain starts thinking and working. Our characters are strengthen when we think of others, think of ways to solve the problem. 

In Singapore, it's a little difficult to find inconveniences, but being in the forest helps to remind us to let go and accept the seemly inconveniences. However these inconveniences is actually the key to inner happiness, something that is good for our soul.

This year is a year of learning!

After 2 decades of motherhood, I have decided it's time to take steps towards my dream of establishing a school. A school with a real difference. 

So this year I am taking both a Master's in Education and a Forest School Diploma! It sounds crazy, but I need to do both, and the timing seems to be right, so here I am, deep in the mud, literally.

The first 2 weeks have been really tough. I doubted myself, asking whether I am qualified enough, whether I have enough experience, whether I am cut out to study again. My brain feels so rusty, and I struggled to cope with the expectations of the Master's. It's one thing to study, it's another to be homeschooling a kid, managing a household of 6, plus commitment to neighbourhood community building endeavours. And on top of that, I am struggling to keep up the energy to do all the above while fasting. ( It's the Bahai fasting month.)

I have been running a homeschool nature co-op group for 9 years now, so forest school diploma should be a walk in the park, oh so I thought. I realised that while I was running the program over the years, I myself wasn't really immersed into the forest myself as I was more observant of the kids and trying to connect with them, thinking ahead of risk/decisions to make/how to guide the group. Since last year, I felt that I was at a standstill, like what else can we do? How can we go deeper into the forest, and how can we connect more with Mother Nature? I wanted more, I feel the need to deepend myself and grow while I guide others.

The first session of forest school diploma training was surprisingly tough. I was too conscious of myself, I felt I should be connecting with the forest but I found myself thrown into the situation... without control of the environment and unable to see what lies ahead. A range of emotions swelled up, and I became scared, as if I was in the forest for the first time. At one point, I felt tears coming into my eyes, which I tried to hold myself together and kept them in. Maybe I should have let it out, all the bottled-up feelings, empty my cup so I can start experiencing and learning.

I feel like if I tell other people of my feelings at this point, it would be like "You ask for it ma!"
Yes I asked for it, I have to survive this no matter what. I need divine assistance to pull through this year! God please help me!