Gone to the Birds...& the stars

The boys attended a class at The Enviromental Education Center called "Wintertime Birds". They learned to focus binoculars properly and identify certain winter birds. They filled the bird feeders and listened to bird calls. They learned information about other winter animals, fur and winter animal behavior. At home, we set up some bird feeders and a bird watching station (no one has a bird at the feeders yet). We are also completing some activities on eNature.com.

We will be participating in The Great Backyard Bird Count - maybe you'll join us!

We also went to view "Wintertime Night Sky" at Raritan Valley Community College's Planetarium. It taught us how to look for 'asterisms' in the night sky. We got to see the sky at different times of night and it was really helpful - so helpful that we were able to come home and use our "Star Chart" and binoculars and actually find a bunch of stars we learned about - including Betelgeuse.

Sometimes kids just need a little exposure to something to get the wheels turning. Sometimes they don't care less what they've seen. Sometimes it comes up days and weeks later in them asking for another class or books on a topic. I don't see myself as my kids' teacher, I'm their mother - and I choose to spend my time introducing them to all that's out there.

"Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he is not interested, it is like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating." ~ Katrina Gutelben