I want to build on one of
the ideas I mentioned in the last post, KIDS OUTDOORS IN THE WINTER, of mums
grabbing moments with the kids “to train the (child’s) seeing eye, the hearing
ear.”
You can play THE EXPLORATION
GAME
1. Send the
children off as a group to explore something
- The rocks at the end of the beach
- A garden
- A small hill
- The hedge
- A little stream
- A group of trees
All
you need to say is – Who can see the most, Who can tell the
most about the
rocks at the end of the beach…
2. Although not
intentionally, to children this is like a
competition. They race off to get
there first. After a short time
they’re back again, yabbering and breathlessly
trying to say what
they saw. The comments start with excited short phrases and
jump
all over the place, as their minds settle. Then sentences become
longer with more detail.
3. The child who has tried hard to describe something, such as a
3. The child who has tried hard to describe something, such as a
tree, deserves to know the name of that tree
or any special
information you know about the tree. Take this perfect learning
moment, while the child is already curious about the tree.
4. The child who
returns with nothing much to say or a lazy, clumsy
description, needs no such
extra information from you. Let them
flounder along until they themselves
choose to race back to look
again and return with a more accurate description
to tell you.
5. You can finish the game by getting the children to take you and
5. You can finish the game by getting the children to take you and
show you what they described.
Children love to do this, as long as we listen while they tell.
Mum is interested, mum came with me,
mum listened to me…
This is a great simple family
experience, playing The Exploration
Game, but it may not happen like this the
first time, so keep
trying it. It is hard if you have only 1 child – you could
borrow
some other children or combine with another family to play.
Here are 3 outcomes that
come from this style of ‘training’ in
childhood.
# They develop mature
skills of observation generally ~
“By degrees the children
will learn discriminatingly every
feature
of the landscape with which they are familiar.” p.47 Home
Education: Charlotte Mason.
Everything in the natural
world is constantly changing, nothing
stays as it was last week. Things grow,
die, are moved by wind and
rain and disappear. The unlimited scope of material
outdoors,
provides children with a huge range of experiences connections,
interests and information gathering. Through simply looking on a
regular basis,
children store up a large amount of rich knowledge,
ready for use throughout life.
# The habit of truthful
observation is learnt ~
Mum “is training her
children in truthful habits, by making them
careful to see the fact and to
state it exactly, without omission
or exaggeration.” p.47 Home Education: Charlotte Mason.
The Exploration Game
challenges children to look quickly, look
honestly and be discerning. Because
they have siblings or other
game-players who may also look and tell about the
same thing, and
because it is MUM (that font of all knowledge) who will hear
all
the comments, there is an obligation to be truthful and accurate.
Developing such traits shapes the growing character of children.
# The increase of
vocabulary, conversation and skills to express
their ideas ~
“This is all play to
children, but the mother is doing invaluable
work; she is training their powers
of observation and expression,
increasing their vocabulary and their range of
ideas by giving them
the name and uses of an object at the right moment.” p.47 Home
Education: Charlotte Mason.
The need to speak and tell
in The Exploration Game, means children
practice using the words they know
while learning new ones. This
adds to their overall success to communicate the
ideas in their
mind as they practice describing what they see.
THISWEEKWITHTHEKIDS ~ play
The Exploration Game.
More on this next post.
Cathy
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