Bringing Mythical Forests to Life in Early Childhood Education

In this article, I have sought to develop an understanding of the contribution of imaginative and nature appreciation
in early childhood environmental education dealing with old, cultural nature myths and beliefs. The argument rests
on the belief that the basis of a child-environmental education is in imagination which resonates with play, aesthetics
and storytelling as old, historical nature myths have a story-like power to transform human perception of the world
and our relationship to it. The thinking of the old nature myths and development of early childhood environmental
education is in this article relying on new materialism and posthumanist thinking of intra-action (Barad 2003; 2007).
This article specifically considers the usage of material Whisper of the Spirit, which places educators in the position
of examining their environmental education practices as relative, evolving and emergent situations in which the old
nature myths and the existing material components could have their role and significance.