Insects and reptiles are my favourite animals (Project II)

'Do you want your children or students to love learning? Don’t say “Here, we know what’s best for you — sit down, be quiet, and listen.” But also don’t just say “Go, do whatever you want.” Do better than that. Support their interests and their self-chosen work fully — with your attention, your time, your space, and your cold hard cash. Invest in their interests. Invest in their talents. Instead of letting them ride in the back seat while you take them on a wonderful adventure, show them how to drive the car.' (Project Based Homeschooling)

Over the last few months, Mr A's main interest has slowly shifted from Sea Life (Project I) to Terrestrial invertebrates and Reptiles (Project II). 

I am learning to step back and observe. Then I help him find real material of interest (soil with earthworms, stones with woodlice, caterpillars, frogs), tools for exploration (books, magnifying glass, microscope), take him to places (museums), show him online resources documentaries, you tube videos). 

Mr A makes it very clear whether he likes something or not. Whenever we pick up a book, he bluntly ignores all the fluffy mammals and feathery birds saying 'I don't like those!'. Also, he always speaks about specific group/species which I find quite fascinating; Johnston's chameleon, Tokay gecko, gharial, dung beetle, stag beetle, trap-door spider, orchid pray mantis,... Even Miss R can recognise a gecko now... She has been told so many times :)

And this is what we have been up to.

We watched our caterpillar turning into a chrysalis and then into a moth. How lucky is this! And how precious to witness those AHA moments in your children...

 

We had a gecko birthday cake. 

We did a little bit of alphabet work (very little indeed). See how the selection of animals reflects Mr A's current interests :)

 

We explored various crocodile species at the crocodile zoo. Children were able to handle a baby Nile crocodile, which was exciting. 

                                                

                            


We visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, which reopened after 14 months of renovations works. Mr A really enjoyed exploring various animals, while Miss R just kept running around and poking her nose into heating vents. On our visit, they had a workshop with live insects, which fitted really well into Mr A's current interests. 'Leaf insect is my favourite.'

We painted, sculpted with playdough and played with loose parts.

                                

I drew a gecko outline for Mr A to paint, decorate with glue and fabric, colour in,...  And this is want happened. He picked up a red felt tip pen and scribbled all over. And then he explained: 'The dots mean this is a Tokay gecko. The circle on the tail is an egg, where a baby gecko will come from. The red lines are veins with blood, which carries oxygen. Some of the veins popped out.' 

We were pretending to be geckos climbing trees (barefoot of course) and hiding under a suspended bench. And much more animal pretend play with daddy... Usually fairly noisy...

                               

We love love exploring our garden. There is never a shortage of earth worms, spiders, woodlice, ladybirds and if we are extremely lucky we even get frogs, toads and newts.

                            

We have been watching youtube videos about a range of reptiles and terrestrial invertebrates and Mr A finds this dung beetle video absolutely hilarious. There is so much giggling that I end up laughing just watching him...

Sharks, manta rays, giant squids, mud skippers... (Project I)

For weeks Mr A has been carrying around a handful of magazine cut-outs of ocean animals and all the nature books that have anything to do with Sea Life (Project I). We even borrowed a book about sharks from the library, which he refuses to return back.

                                       'This is MY shark book!' 

Some of our favourite books:

- Maurice Pledger: Sounds of the Wild, Ocean (Miss R loves this one too)

- John Norris Wood: Nature Hide and Seek, Oceans

- Usborne Discovery, Sharks

Since then, we have been pretend playing sea animals on a daily basis. Daddy is really god at that - it gets a bit loud at times, but Mr A  and Miss R absolutely love it. 

We also watched several episodes of Blue World by Jonathan Bird. These are great for children; each episode is only 10 min long, discusses one animal and does not seem to be too scary for my boy.

We visited the local pet shop, National Salife Birmingham and then built a sealife centre at home.

                  
                                           


Mr A painted a whale shark and a manta ray (I should probably mention that painting activities only last for about 5 min and then he is off), while his little sister was happily munching on her art...


                            

We made the Atlantic Ocean in a glass bowl... This process took so much patience and focus; he was trying to stack all the large stones into some sort of tower and it kept collapsing over and over again.

  

  

We sculpted numerous manta rays, lionfish, hammerhead sharks and squids... And ate some playdough...

                            

I love how we are learning together. For example, I have never heard of a wobegong shark before.

Map reading

It all started on an afternoon trip to an arboretum. I was struggling to keep Mr A motivated, so I asked him to lead the way using a very simple map of the arboretum. He was adorable, as he was trying to act as an adult using very mature voice.  And he loved it...

'Mummy, we need to follow this yellow path. Then we will see a pond. And this is our street.'

 

Since then, I have been using very simple sketch maps when we go out and about. Sometimes we make the map together, so Mr A can help to decide either about what we will be doing together on a certain day or about trivial things such as the colour of symbols. For obvious reasons, I try to include a choice of different options on the map; for example a trip to the park or to the pond. 

I am trying to create a literacy rich environment at home and map reading just seems to be an hands-on extension to this. Mr A is able to recognise more or less all the letters of the alphabet now and actually loves spelling out the words or reading the numbers on the map.

The Hundred Languages of Children

It was one of those perfect peaceful spring days. I sat in the garden with my children, observing them immersed in exploring. I am always fascinated by their curiosity and ability to absorb the knowledge. 

A poem called The Hundred Languages of Children came to my mind. 

The Hundred Languages of Children (by Loris Malaguzzi, Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach)

The child is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.

A hundred.

Always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.

The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.

They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.