But not quite settled in yet. I have been running around like crazy taking care of the yard, garden (it is amazing the amount of green beans and tomatos we came home to; thank you Jenna for watering for us!), laundry, unpacking, grocery store, playing at home and a great run for me.
It is fun to watch the girls play with toys they haven't seen in a week. They are settling back in too.
While we were on vacation I started reading Omnivore's Delimma by michael Pollan. I will share more about the book and the great stuff I am learning later but one thing that even just a few chapters in this book has made me realize is that I need to work harder to share with Sam where her food comes from and the food of other animals.
We have brought flashcards to life before in this house (here). Not a huge fan of flashcards but for some things they do work well. And kids seem to really like having sets of things. Anyway, I decided to try and see if I could use flashcards to help show Sam who-eats-who.
I had Sam pull out flashcards of animals she thought were big in size. Then I asked her what she thought they all ate. We talked about which ones ate grass (cow, horse, deer) and which ones ate meat (frog, coyote, badger). Then we started looking to see if we could find smaller animals that the bigger ones might eat. I let her flip over flashcards, take guesses and place cards next to each other. I didn't tell her she was wrong right away, I just asked questions. I asked her if those animals lived in the same place. If an animal could eat an animal that was bigger. She only got a couple of the animals matched up correctly but it was a great conversation starter.
Today's activity wasn't earth shattering and certainly not one of my most creative but it did let me know that I have a long way to go with Sam and her understanding of what other animals eat.I need to start looking into how you teach that to preschoolers!
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The Nitty Gritty!
Avery sat on my lap while Sam and I were doing this. She had no interest in what we were talking about but loved holding the cards, trying to say the animals names and practicing her animal noises. She is hilarious right now with how much she is trying to say and do. It makes me really excited to work with her one on one when Sam starts back to school in a few weeks.
Welcome home!
I love your idea of using the animal pictures to start discussion of the food chain. Will try that with Princess Pea! She has some understanding of what animals make which kinds of meat (cows make cheeseburgers, pigs make bacon, etc.), but I think until recently she was picturing the animals working together in a factory, wearing their aprons, to prepare these foods for her! Lol! She's now starting to understand what it really means, and is taking an interest in which part of the animal the food is from, etc. This would be a great activity to further her understanding. We don't have cards, but I will use the animal figurines. Thanks for the inspiration!
Posted by: Mama Pea Pod | 08/13/2011 at 01:37 AM