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Aug
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Posted by Homeschool_Dad
August 18, 2007 |
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Little kids are fun. They have such a natural curiosity that it is very easy to lead them in learning about nature and science. Kyrie is 4 and she is fascinated by everything from grasshoppers to the funnel clouds we see over head once in awhile. She takes in information eagerly, almost gulping it in with great intellectual gasps. She observes everything around her constantly.
I think that for this age the very best way to learn about science is by reading interesting books and by interacting with nature. The Thornton Burgess nature stories are fabulous, and give lots of real information about the fictional animals.. and they are a great resource for the elementary science program.
Kyrie watches ants. What can she learn from that? Plenty! She sees how they respond to each other socially, she has watched them build anthills, collect food, and attack unwary caterpillars. There were times when it was tempting to pull her away because ants hold no magic for me anymore..they are pesky at best and being bitten by a swarm of fire ants is no fun. As I started to interrupt her concentration I saw that she was learning…a science lesson with God..so I left her to learn what she could.
As with older kids we feel that we need to be involved with their education, we feel we need to direct it, sculpt it to match our own vision for their lives. We couldn’t be more wrong!
Children do not need to be busy or entertained all the time..they need to have time to be quiet, to think, and to observe and interact. If you don’t have a field nearby then a park will do, or even a walk around the neighborhood. See what you can find, how many squirrels you count, for example.
Webrangers is a cool interactive site for kids of all ages. I found it when I was looking at a cool blog called Mudpies And Paint. I want to say, one more time though, that I feel, while virtual programs like this are great, they cannot take the place of real life learning and experiencing nature.
When your child has spent time observign they will often run up to you to share what they have seen. Allow them to share, uninterrupted, because it iwll let you know that, yes, they are learning..and it iwll strengthen the bonds of communication. Let them talk now, and when they are 16 they will be talking as well! You might suggest that the child draw what he has seen and when he does..VOILA! His very first entry in his nature notebook. 
There, that was easy!
This blog has some beautiful nature photography…Progressive Homeschool
Comments
We were just watching some ants today and thinking about conducting an experiment by putting out different types of food and seeing what they prefer. So this was a cool subject, only none of us are preschoolers.
[…] young children has it’s own challenges and Homeschool Central has a neat post on teaching science to […]
Preschoolers are naturally little scientists. They explore everything and learn so much.
It’s a joy to watch.