Noticed "heat lightning'' tonight on the way home from church,
The Boxcar Children should be required reading for every child.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxcar_Children ) It was one of my favorites and I read it many times. I also read it to my older children, and now Dilara and I are about halfway through it. It is just wonderful in so many ways. Tonight when we were reading about the children preparing to make a swimming pool by damming up a brook, she asked me how they would keep the fungus and leaves out of it. I love her "interruptions" while I am reading. That is something you can't do in a group setting, like a classroom story time, because if every time a child had a question or comment they were allowed to interrupt, the story would never get finished, and the whole story would get thrown off. Dilara is so full of such wonderful ideas I am very glad that in the flexible setting of a home school, she can express herself freely. We also stop videos and discuss points that she notices in the movie, or things she has questions about. One day when I was sick we watched "Finding Nemo" and "Flipper" (with Chuck Connors) and by the time we were finished, I had 5 pages of notes of things we had discussed, and could explore later, such as why children should be obedient; how some people can be annoying, but still be valuable friends; hurricanes and the damage they cause; the Florida Keys (and what "key limes" are and how a "key lime pie" is not a lime pie with a key inside, which is what she thought at first!); how nice it is when a man hugs and kisses his wife when he comes home from work; how important it is to never swim alone, etc., etc.---Lydia "Actual observation of Nature and her operations
are of primary importance in this study. The teacher should understand that the pupil is interested in anything which seems to be related to him or his interests. Nature Study touches the normal child at every point. The burden of the assignment of the lesson is to place the pupil and the subject to be studied in such relationship that the pupil will be eager to investigate and learn. Sufficient interest should be established in the mind of the pupil that he will be able to read the lesson in the text for its value as Nature Study and not simply as a reading lesson." (From a Teacher's Manual For Nature Study For Boys and Girls, page 11. 1921 http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/HstrcTxtbks/id/49018 |
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