Nature~schooling

We had some interesting new things going on at home... first of all Vincent and Luciano decided that they want to learn more about the names of plants and animals that live right here in the area. When they told me, of course I got totally excited for two reasons; first, because that is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time now and never got or made the time to do it, and second, because one year after taking Vincent out of school, I am starting to feel him more interested in guiding his learning , and not to be afraid of saying it out loud. Somehow after school he was afraid to try to do something and fail, I see him not wanting to try to write or read because he knows he doesn't do it perfectly, so I'm glad to see now that he gets that he is not being evaluated or compared to others.. he is Vincent and we love him and support him no matter what. I actually LOVE this about homeschooling, the two boys are not competing about anything, they totally know that they are different to each other and just as Luciano is so good with books and he can be siting down working in "homeworks" for a long time, Vincent can be outside during the same time and be perfectly fine.
Well I got so excited that I got the book "Handbook of Nature Study" by Anna Botsford and a friend of mine in a homeschooling group, sent me the link to a blog about this book,http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ ,and it so neat because they have "weekly challenges" and really nice ideas to go in Nature and learn really gentle in the process . Well of course the day that we got the book, Vincent and Luciano were so excited that they starting going through the pages discovering pictures about things that they know, or they have seen... at the end Vincent took his shell box out and starting comparing his shells with the ones in the book in the section of "invertebrates", and without any class or big explanation from me they got out running looking for invertebrates to bring them home!. First grade and preschool understanding "hands on" about the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates, for me that is priceless.
I also realized that they have learned a lot about herbs and plants around the house because of a game that I got the boys for Christmas called "Wildcraft",(An herbal adventure game),http://www.learningherbs.com/wildcraft.html, this is a cooperative game,so they have to work together collecting herbs, to help each other get out of trouble and get to the end. ... So now they recognize plantain, echinacea, dandelion, chamomile, etc, etc..
Almost every day we try to go in our "nature walks", and in each one of them they find something magic. I have been trying to follow the weekly challenges in that blog, and they have really good ideas, like the last time we went out, I ask the kids to draw what was more interesting for them in our walk, and then close their eyes and say what noises the heard, how was the weather, etc.. seriously, I don't put much attention to details, and it was so funny to see how much they notice just by walking!
Also every sunset we do a family tradition here, we turn on a little fire and we sing some mantras , we stay in silence to feel the end of the day, the birds, the wind, I take this moment to think about the day that is ending... I love this moment of the day, I wait for it, sunsets are really important here at home.
Also this past week we saw how our son Vincent discovered a new passion in his life... Skateboard!!... My husband Ashley got him this present after he saw him getting books from the library about this, and he was totally right, he needed one..! he is a natural in this kind of sports, and with Ashley we are so happy to be able to support him, take him to the Skateboard parks and "see him fly".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801493846/ref=oss_product

Tenemos cosas bien interesantes pasando este ultimo tiempo aca en casa, primero que nada, Vincent y Luciano decidieron que quieren aprender mas sobre los animales y plantas que viven aca en nuestra casa y en esta zona. Cuando me dijeron obviamente me puse super contenta por dos razones; primero, porque hace mucho tiempo que yo tambien quiero hacer eso y nunca tengo o me hago el tiempo para hacerlo y segundo, porque recien ahora, despues de un ano de haber sacado a Vincent del colegio , estoy empezando a ver como el siente mas confianza para guiar su aprendizaje y tomar decisiones como esta, de algua manera ese ano que paso en el colegio hizo que perdiera mucho su autoestima, le daba miedo empezar algo y fallar, como por ej, lo veo evitando la escritura y lectura, porque como el sabe que no lo hace perfectamente, prefiere no hacerlo... en el colegio lo estaban dejando en el grupo de los "lentos" porque no leia igual que los otros ninos...Y me ecanta ver ahora como esta dandose cuenta de que nadie va a estar evaluandolo o comparandolo con nadie... el es Vincent y lo amamos y apoyamos pase lo que pase. De hecho esa es ua de las cosas que AMO de homeschooling, es ver como los dos ninos no compiten pero para nada entre ellos, se reconocen distintos el uno al otro y han aprendido que son un buen complemento, asi tal como Luciano puede pasar un largo rato viendo un libro o haciendo tareas, Vincent puede estar afuera por horas si problema tambien.

Bueno estaba tan entusiasmada con esto de aprender de nuestro entorno, que compre el libro "Handbook of Nature Study" de Anna Botsford y justo una amiga mia de un grupo de homeschooling me mando el blog the este libro, donde tienen ideas muy buenas para aprender de una manera super sutil y hasta tienen "desafios semanales": http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ Bueno el libro llego a la casa y los ninos super emocionados se dedicaron a buscar fotos de cosas que conocian y una cosa llevo a la otra hasta que Vincent trajo su caja de conchitas y las comparaban con las fotos del libro en la seccion de "invertebrados" y sin ninguna clase o gran explicacion de mi parte salieron corriendo a buscar distintos invertebrados en el patio y traerlos a acasa para identificarlos y compararlos.... y asi primero basico y pre kinder , descubriendo a traves de experiencia la diferencia entre los seres invertebrados y los vertebrados.... que bonito fue..

Tambien me di cuenta que saben harto de hierbas y plantas gracias a un juego que les regale para navidad, se llama "Wildcraft", es un juego cooperativo,donde tienen que ayudarse los unos a los otros para llegar todos juntos a la meta , recolectando hierbas que los ayuden a salir de distintas situaciones.. bien entretenido el juego: http://www.learningherbs.com/wildcraft.html.

Ademas todos los dias tratamos de salir en estas "caminatas en la naturaleza", donde siempre aperece algo magico que quieren traer a casa.

Tambien esta ultima semana con Ashley tuvimos la suerte de ver como nacia una nueva pasion en la vida de Vincent : Skateboard.!! Ashley le regalo el Skateboard desues de ver como Vincent traia de la biblioteca libros sobre esto y lo hacia leer en las noches. El es super natural en este tipo de deportes y con Ashley estamos tan contentos de poder apoyarlo, llevarlo a parkes y verlo literalmente "volar".

Our own dandelion revolution...

(make click in the picture to see the rest)

We have been enjoying and focusing in learning through nature, specially in this time of the year, when we are experiencing this explosion of flowers , plants and trees, with all their colors, smells and textures ... We try to be outside of the house most of the time, and I just let the kids play. Of course we are the only family in our neighborhood that doesn't kill, pull or poison the dandelions. It is just so funny to see our big patch of white and yellow flowers covering our grass against those immaculate and perfect lawns in our neighbors houses; I bet they are not really happy about this and all the seeds flying all over with the wind... but who cares!.. we just love to see it, and isn't the best to be a child and be able to go blowing this flowers all the time?? there is something magical about that. ( plus I harvest and make tinctures and teas with my dandelions, and I also put them in our salads.. so they have to be totally natural).

We made our own "nature journals" and each kid glued their favorite things from Nature and tried to draw it, and then we talked about it...It is so nice to see how much they know about nature just by spending time by themselves IN nature...Vincent is the one that spends more time by himself ... and I can totally see how he is the more connected with the cycles of the day and the weather .

(Haz click en la foto para ver el resto)

Hemos estado enfocandonos en aprender atraves de la naturaleza, especialmente en este tiempo del ano, cuando estamos siendo testigos de esta explosion de plantas, flores y arboles, con todos sus colores, aromas y texturas. Tratamos de estar afuera de la casa la mayor parte del tiempo y dejo a los ninos jugar. Por supuesto somos la unica familia en nuestro vecindario que no mata, saca o envenena los diente de leon. Es super divertido ver nuestra casa con una gran mancha de flores amarillas y blancas, en contra de esos pastos inmaculados, todos verdes y bien cortados que tienen nuestros vecinos. SEguro que no estan nada de felices con nuestro paisajismo salvaje, mas encima con las semillas de los diente de leon volando con el viento por todo lados.. Pero a quien le importa!! A nosotros nos encanta!.. es maravilloso estar en esta pradera que es nuestro patio, ademas no hay nada mas lindo que ser ninos e ir soplando estas flores todo el tiempo... hay algo magico en estas semillitas volando. ( ademas yo cuido los diente de leon para hacer tinturas, tecitos y uso las hojas para ensaladas, asi que tienen que ser super naturales)

Hicimos nuestros propios cuadernitos para aprender sobre lo que nos rodea en la naturaleza en este momento y cada uno pego ahi sus objetos favoritos del patio y trataron de dibujarlos y conversamos sobre cada uno de ellos. Es tan lindo ver cuanto aprenden los ninos sobre la naturaleza solo por pasar tiempo EN la naturaleza, en vez de aprender todo por libros. Vincent es el que pasa mas tiempo solito en la naturaleza y obviamente es el que esta mas conectado con los ciclos del dia y el clima..

I just love our lives...

We just had a great couple of weeks.. I have been so tired that actually made it harder to keep on posting here, but well... Vincent is so excited of creating this record of our lives that I have to keep on trying!..But man, this kids have busy lives!! I love to try to keep track of everything we do and actually don't have time for it.
We have been busy playing, going to classes, working in our garden,playing more, going to play dates, park days, today we went to a play of "The Little Princess"..( I just love theater), and the last weekend a Chilean friend stop here for a couple of days in his way back to Chile after traveling through Asia... it was so nice to see him here and be able to show him our life and friends and it was also great for Luciano (4 yrs old), that got some bills from China for his first collection of "money from around the world".. it is so funny, when he starts talking to our friends , at some point he will ask:"Do you have money from around the world?"... he just has money from here, Mexico, of course Chile and now China... not that bad right?...

And after something so simple as getting money from China, Vincent and Luciano started asking where is China? What continent is that? Can we see pictures? etc, etc and actually I was impressed about the knowledge they had from China without never even made a "unit" about it....

They started talking about the big wall of China, how you can see it from the moon, how long took to build it, what language they speak in China, what are the traditional foods and clothes, about Pandas and what they eat, what herbivores are and at some point Vincent brought one of his ASK magazine,(http://www.askmagkids.com/), with a whole article about the Terracotta warriors , how they where found and their history... we read over an hour about this subject , I love how my active child ,(the one that never sits) can actually be quiet, concentrated, for over an hour and then jump in talking, yelling, laughing, pretending to be the archeologist that found this warriors...How nice, it gives me so much peace of mind to see him being able to do this...learn about his interests and them jump on being active and nobody asking him to sit still and put attention to the next subject to be taught...

Hemos tenido unas semanas super ocupadas y entretenidas, yendo a clases, parques, a jugar con amigos, deportes, incluso ayer fuimos a una obra de teatro donde los ninos se portaron excelente.. Con Vincent empezamos este blog para mantener un registro de lo que hacemos juntos y me encanta darme cuenta de que estamos tan ocupados y activos todo el tiempo que casi no tenemos tiempo para seguir con este blog, pero el esta tan entusiasmado en mostrarle a nuestra familia sus actividades que tengo que seguir intentandolo!.

Durate el fin de semana pasado vino de visita un amigo Chileno que viajaba de vuelta a Chile despues de haber andado viajando por Asia, fue muy lindo verlo y tener la posibilidad de mostrale nuestra vida aca, nuestros amigos, etc, y tambien fue muy lindo para Luciano, (4 anos), porque recibio dinero de China para su primera coleccion de "dinero del mundo" , (solo tiene billetes y monedas de USA, Mexico, Chile y ahora China).

Y despues de unos dias de algo tan simple como recibir unos billetes de China, Vincent y Luciano empezaron a hacer preguntas como "Donde esta China?", "En que continente"?, Podemos ver fotos?, etc, etc.. y fue impresionante para mi darme cuenta del conocimiento que ellos tienen siendo tan pequenos sobre este pais, sin nunca haber hecho una unidad de estudio al respecto!... Empezaron a conversar sobre la Gran Muralla China, cuanto se demoraron en construirla, que puede ser vista desde la luna, que idioma hablan ahi, cuales son las comidas y ropas tradicionales, Terminaron hablando sobre los Pandas y de como se alimetas solo de hojas de eucaliptos, que son los herviboros, etc, etc!! Y luego en un momento Vincent trajo una de sus revistas ASK ,(http://www.askmagkids.com/), donde salia todo un reportaje sobre los Gerreros de Terracota y de como fueron encontrados y la historia detras de este descubrimiento, leimos sobre este tema por mas de una hora... Me encanta ver como mi hijo mas activo,(el que nunca se sienta), puede estar concentrado por mas de una hora y luego saltar, reirse , actuar pretendiendo que es el arqueologo que encontro estos increibles guerreros... Es tan lindo verlos asi, y me da mucha paz interior y alegria saber de que puede aprender sobre lo que a el le interesa y despues saltar y jugar sin tener a nadie al lado que lo obligue a sentarse callado esperando empezar a ser "ensenados" sobre el proximo tema... estoy segura que estos guerreros estaran dando vuelta en nuestra casa por un buen tiempo.