School has begun, or will shortly for all of us! It’s a good time to ask yourself if you have taken the necessary time to Observe your children and record your thoughts in your Observation Notebook. Do you have several little inspirations that have come to you while you have been watching them? Have you visited with your kids about your Observations to get some ideas and opinions from them? If so you should have a list of Environments for your family to try out. I’ve been doing the same thing. Our latest Environment went like this:
My grandson has been looking at books about geodes and is finding them very fascinating. Little brother is generally interested in whatever big brother is doing so it was easy for me to include both of my grand kids in this Environment. I happen to know a gentleman who has a little rock shop in his backyard. I spoke with him to see if I could bring the boys over to polish some rocks. He was very accommodating and even offered to take us on a rock hunting excursion. This made our rock polishing even better because the boys were able to bring their own rocks to the shop.
They listened very carefully as my friend explained how to polish a rock with his equipment.
Next he showed them how to do it and then he let them do it themselves.
I had to give it a try myself and trust me, it is a very addicting hobby. I already have my next visit scheduled!
Environments are that simple. Observe and write your thoughts in your Observation Notebook, then keep track of your little inspirations and visit with your children. Make a phone call or two and you’ll be in the thick of learning in your new Environment!