Monday, September 10, 2012

Frogs, Snakes and Horses: Interests of the 1st grader ;)


Please do not watch this video until it is mentioned below.


Here eyes were very wide and I could almost see her shivering. "Anna. There's a snake out by the side of the house...it's that long." She held up her hands about three feet apart before creeping into the living room area to find Dad.

(Note. I am nearly shivering just writing this. I hate snakes. The only thing I credit them with is making wonderful stories.)

Little brother tears into the house grinning. "Anna! There's a snake by the side of the house! It's huge! You should go look. It's really cool!"

The differences in people are very interesting (and humorous) to me. Even in one family each member has different interests, different learning styles and different reactions.

Which ties into my gleanings in the world of homeschooling.

A few weeks ago Rebecca and I had a conversation about her pet frog. (She was into frogs.)

Me: "Becca, do you ever water your frog?" (She was talking about feeding it, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't dying of dehydration.)
Becca: "Oh, Elise and I put water in it when she was here...and I gave Katie (that's the frog's name) a bath in Mamma's measuring cup."
Me: "In Mom's measuring cup?"
Becca nods her head.
Me: "Well, you need to water your frog. Katie will die without water."
Becca: "Oh, don't worry. She has two days left."
Me: "What?"
Becca: "You can live three days without water."

lol:)

Anyway, for Science, I was searching for something more interesting than the assignment in the schedule and it popped into my head; "Ah, that frog  Becca's been keeping for the last week."

 See, I happened to read something in a book called "Playful Learning" about studying the random things that one's student is interested in. This way, they're learning, in a painless fashion, all sorts of intelligent things that could, later, be forcibly shoved into the student's  ear and out her other one.

So we studied frogs that week.

Last week, the frog thing was at an end, until I went to the Library for books. Seeing that we had just gone through the "snake scenario" (aforementioned) I thought it might be wise and helpful to look up how to identify poisonous snakes.

It was a hit. Snakes are disgusting, slithering, gliding, hissing, slimy-looking, intriguing creatures that remain mysterious and terrible in the sight of all females. We even had 10-year-old, 13-year-old and 16-year-old (yes, that's me!) students completely enthralled in our little Science lesson.

The video up there is one of the disgustingly intriguing ones that we watched.

On another note:

This week's Science topic is horses. I've scheduled a field trip (an excuse to be around my own interest) to our neighbor's house, where I used to take riding lessons. I'm truly looking forward to it.

What are your interests? Get some books, watch some videos, read some blog posts! Your "education" is as good or bad as you make it!

8 comments:

jesusdied4you2 said...

Great post. Also, if you get bit by a poisonous snake, call me. I brought back a traditional African remedy for snake bites. It really does work too!!

Anna said...

lol:) I'll see what I can do about that, Emily. :) (Welcome back home!)

Elisabeth said...

Wouldn't you hate to live in an apartment where the snakes got out of their cages? When I watched the video, it looks like the man is filming it in his apartment. Ewww.

That last snake has some very interesting markings.

I like your approach to science. It's really fun for the kids when you focus on God's creation.

Anna said...

Thanks for the encouragement, Sister Elisabeth. :)

I know. I thought it was a hotel room. An apartment would be far, far worse. *shiver*


The Brunette in the Kitchen said...

Hello, Anna :) I saw on your profile that you said you're a Message Believer. Is it the kind of Message that involves Bro. William Branham?

Anna said...

@Gracie:

Yes!

Nice to meet you!

The Brunette in the Kitchen said...

Wow! I'm so sorry I haven't replied to this sooner. It's so nice to know that there's other Message bloggers out there! I'm so happy, because I've searched for a long time for y'all :)

Anna said...

@ Gracie: IKR? I've been looking as well! Welcome to my blog - I'm planning to visit yours soon!