Archive for August, 2010
Sand Play
August 23rd, 2010 | Author: Shannon
Let’s head outside…
It’s raining here and the seasonal transition from the warmth of Summer to the windy, cool air of Fall, has started.
My son caught a falling leaf yesterday which marks for him the season of his birthday.
Yet, there’s still time to play at the beach, feel the warmth of the sun (it’s one of the best kept secrets about RI- the beaches are best here in September!- shhhh), and last week I went with my son and we made up a new game for playing in the sand called:
Rock Memory- and here’s how to play it.
1) collect some rocks.
2) dig holes in the sand and hide them.
3) try to remember where you hid them and find them!
For an almost four year old this was the “funnest game ever”.
What are your favorite sand games?
** That’s captain Shannon driving the boat!
Learning….
August 9th, 2010 | Author: Shannon
Last week I officially decided to really enroll my son in preschool for the upcoming year. He’s almost 4 and has been home with me since he was born.
As I considered the different types of school in our area and what would be best suited for him, and me, I was faced with really delving into my beliefs about education.
See, I like that my son doesn’t know how to write his name; that he’s more interested in building with blocks or running in the forest then learning to read; I like that he can play by himself with a few trucks or trains and be completely content for hours. I wanted to find an environment that would nurture this, rather than just academics.
I was delighted when his future teacher asked me “if I minded that they took a walk to ‘grandfather’ tree each morning”. She cautioned me that the teachers don’t spray the kids with bug spray, if that’s important to me I need to do it before hand.
We discussed the need to limit TV exposure so that my son would have the sounds of nature reverberating through him rather than the jingles of commercials.
Sound like paradise?
When I walk outside with my almost 4 year old and he can name the trees “that’s an oak tree mama!” and the flowers, “aren’t these beautiful tulips, mama” I feel so excited that he loves the natural world like I do. That he distinguishes our chickens by bread: maran, orphington, americana, or RI red and knows the various colorings. He strongly believes that his special chicken {the americana} lays green eggs just for him.
He tells me “I want cow milk” because he knows that milk comes from cows.
He like swiss chard, when I bring it in from the garden he identifies it as “his chard”.
Nature is delicately interwoven into his identity… and I know that Mother Earth will always be important to him, because he feels so close to it.
He’ll learn his letters and numbers and will {hopefully} decide that going to college is important to him in 14 years… maybe he’ll even follow in my foot steps and study the Earth, but in any case what’s important is right now… he feels connected to the greater world, to something bigger than himself. He cares about this world.
A couple weeks ago we were in town walking down the road and he saw some garbage in the bushes. He asked that we go and get some garbage bags so we could clean up the street and then that’s what we did. We picked up cans and wrappers, old drinks and bottles.
That showed me he was ready to go out into the world. He’s already thinking about how to make it a cleaner and more beautiful place … for all.
