Squirlers

There was something about just saying, "I'm afterschooling," that made me much more attentive to the learning that was already happening in our house prior to starting this blog. JillyBoo is the daughter of two scientists. The girl doesn't have a chance-she's a geek born to two geeks! She is full of questions and observations, and will gleefully point out the many innovations that engineers have contributed to our lives.

I am a firm believer that children are naturally programmed to love animals, and that starting with animal behavior and structure as studies in early science learning makes for a natural hook to science.  Having wanted to be both a veterinarian and a firefighter as a child, I can understand JillyBoo's intense joy in watching a "fat little bird" land on our rose bushes, or a fox darting across the fields of our German village, the flash of red burning a trail in the verdant green fields.

Last weekend, as we anxiously awaited the arrival of favorite friends from the States, JillyBoo spied a ChickMunk from the window. "A chickmunk," I commented. "Hmmm....look at that tail!" "Oh, mama, that's maybe a squirler." Besides 'skabetty,' 'squirler' may be the number one word I hope she keeps in her vocab into perpetuity. 'Chickmunk' also makes the top ten. As I dusted the furniture and vacuumed, I encouraged her to get a picture of the squirler in her learning log. Off she darted to draw our yard and the squirler's "dream;" a yard full of acorns floating all around.



Squirlers and acorns in our yard, RP, Deutschland



After her drawing, I encouraged her to write about her observations. She embellished (a little), but came up with: "I saw a squirrel on a branch. There were five squirrels and they were cute in Germany." Oh, that damn schwa. Ger-mu-ny. 

JillyBoo's commentary about the squirlers that she observed

We are working on multi-letter phonograms right now, such as "aw" and "igh," and she's really starting to see how frequently these phonograms occur in words. We continue to read science readers, as I believe that they introduce challenging, but important words, to learn by repetition. It occurred to me today that she would benefit from a trip back to some BOB readers, as we sometimes need to see those sight words many times, too. Maybe this week?