It doesn't even take any skill to find opportunities for nature study here... it certainly removes any pride I might have in coming up with great ideas... Kansas was another story. You've got to find subtleties and appreciate quiet beauty... here? Any Tom, Dick, or Harry is going to be steeped in natural beauty.
You can't help noticing the difference between deer antlers and elk antlers. When you nearly bump into deer in your back yard and you narrowly miss hitting elk on your bike on the front walk:
It's the element of chance that makes home education such an adventure, Imagine if I had set out to teach Isaiah the difference between deer and elk? I never could have orchestrated the run-ins a few days apart. (Deer antlers are pointed and fuzzy; elk antlers are blunt-tipped and even more fuzzy.)
Happy accidents are a pretty big part of our "curriculum." Not our
whole curriculum, don't get me wrong, but a big part.
A happy accident from the library book store:
(Ya, 15 HOURS of read-alouds that I do not have to, um,
read aloud.For three bucks.)
And something that's been on my 'want' list for years:
an old-school tape player/ microphone/ recorder found for free in a trash heap... a very unusual one. By our park, people dump useable things and other people take them. Sensible, right? (Yesterday a woman dropped off a vacuum while we were playing and a gentleman dragged it off fifteen minutes later!) Didn't even have to buy batteries, as Isaiah found a compatible adaptor in five minutes by rummaging in the rummage closet. Unlike modern technology, obsolete technology can be hurled down on hard floors by small people and survive unharmed. Nor can smart young people figure out how to connect to the internet or abuse in any way the single purpose design of a humble tape-player. And tapes are super-cheap wherever you can still find 'em.
Coming soon:
Meatloaf (more comfort food!)
and
High-protein Power Bars
"The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Touche, Ralph!
And sorry for the abysmal photos, I'm still making friends with my new laptop.
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