Three Plus Two

A picnic basket for the little ones

 

I was clearing out some shelves in the laundry room today to make more room for storage.  Some things I cleared off the shelves went straight into the trash, and others went into the garage sale box.  Then I ran into this picnic basket.  My sister -inlaw gave us this basket many years ago.  I have always loved it... but have never used it.  There are only four place settings in the basket, and our family quickly grew beyond the four settings.  But it appeals to the reader in me -- having enjoyed too many scenes in books about picnicing on sandwiches and lemonade beneath shady oaks.

So, as I sat on the floor in the laundry room wondering how I should use it (and feeling guilty that I hadn't used it), the boys came in to see what I was doing.   And I decided that I would take a chance and let them use it, as I had often thought of doing when I saw it sitting up there on the top shelf near the ceiling -- lonely and gathering dust.

I see it as sort of a combination Montessori/Reggio material.  The dishes are real china and must be handled carefully.  The basket has latches that must be twisted to close and open.  The place settings fit into an inner basket that can be lifted out of the larger basket.

One of the features the boys found most appealing is the way the utensils slide into the leather strip on the inside of the lid.  (I removed the forks and knives.  I didn't feel like making any more ER visits this week.)

I folded up a table cloth and laid it in the basket underneath the dish insert.  The boys then filled it with toy food and immediately carted it off to have a picnic in the family room.  I think that it will be a way for them to practice manners and social graces.  It will also be interesting to see what sort of "picnics" they have.  I predict that it will be taken "caving" in the closet at least once.

Fortunately, we have a ready-made place for it, too.  (Which is not always the case when I have a bright idea.) 

 

It fits right here next to the toy kitchen. (And yes, that is a stethoscope from a doctor's kit on the toy stove.  I don't know why.)  The kitchen fits in the space between a sort of free-standing room divider that divides our family room area from our living room area (for lack of a better way to describe it).  On the other side of the toy kitchen is the piano.  (It's not a perfect arrangement, but it's the best we could do.)

The twins have needed some guidance with the dishes, but I remain optimistic.  At the very least it was something interesting to do on a rainy day.

The Ecosystem Game

 

For the past week or so, all of the kids (except Chipmunk) have been caught up in a game they call "Ecosystems."  The idea began with Katydid, because she has been reading about ecosystems in the Harcourt 6th grade science textbook, which we have hanging around the house from when we signed up with Kolbe a few years ago.  It was Katydid's idea to read the text, and she chooses the unit she's working on.  There is a whole section on ecosystems, which she wanted to learn about, so she's been reading and explainin, to us and to her brothers, how ecosystems work.  She wrote, edited, and rewrote a nice report for me.  But she planted the germ of a more useful idea in her brothers.

I think Gareth was the one who actually started the game.  Gareth -- since the age of 7 -- has been deeply interested in paleontology.  His birthday request when he turned 12 was for a book about prehistoric mammals.  The only one I could find that he hadn't read, or that wasn't a slim picture book, was a technical book called After the Dinosaurs.  He's been reading this book all year, along with others, and by now he has a pretty good idea of what an "ecosystem" is and how it works, too.  So one day he gathered up all the Schleich animals in his room and set one up.

Of course Farmerboy -- who is currently fascinated with mammoths and dinosaurs and how paleontologists can know anything about creatures that died so long ago -- thought setting up an ecosystem with Schleich animals sounded like a great idea.  So he and Gareth divided the living room up into habitats.  They said they were living on an island, and they each had their own territory.  (Territory is big around here, I have to tell you.)  They divided up the animals so that each of them had carnivores and herbivores.  Then they spent an hour or so inventing natural disasters, migrations of invasive species, regular climate patterns, etc. so the populations of their animals (each population represented by one toy animal) could rise and fall, and in some cases, go extinct.  Katydid and the twins soon joined the game as well, and now that the weather is nice, they often bring their toys outside to play Ecosystems in the ferns.

When I asked Farmerboy if I could snap this picture, he was explaining to me how his ecosystem worked. There had just been a devestating flood, so the horses were having a hard time finding food.  But the hippos were plentiful, and the smilodons (saber-toothed tigers) had plenty to eat, since they ate hippos.  But the horses, he said, shaking his head, were likely to go extinct.

So what was my role in all of this, if none of this learning was "planned"? 

• I encouraged Katydid to read her science book on a daily basis.  She wanted to, but amid multiple distractions, would sometimes forget. So a reminder or a question from me was welcome.
• I allowed the collection of a number of animal toys ;-), including the new prehistoric mammals purchased at Agway last week.
• The animals are always out where they can be played with.
• I let the kids have time to play their game. If they were involved in play, I was a little looser with times to start chores or seatwork, and the amount of seat work.  I didn't allow seat work to squeeze out the game.
• I asked the kids about their game, listened to their explanations, and through questions, helped clarify their thinking.
• I documented the game (here).  The kids like it when I blog what they're doing, because it shows them that I value their work and their ideas enough to share and display it.
• I'll continue to look for ways I can encourage the game -- maybe by suggesting the creation of props for scenery, or by providing playable plants, trees, etc (artificial flowers, toy trees, and/or sticks, etc from outside), or by reading about ecosystems and habitats.

This is why I like the Reggio approach.  We work in tandem, the kids and I, for deep learning.  I learn as much as the kids do -- about new subjects, sure, but also about the way they learn, about what they think is important, about the enormous creative potential of children.  This kind of learning is what keeps me energized and keeps the kids excited, engaged, and happy.