Friday 9 January 2015

New Year Firsts


After two weeks of complete rest, and a wonderful New Year's Day breakfast, I thought everyone would be as eager as I was to get back to work.  Apparently not.

Monday was a flop.  I tried to get our routine back in order and was met with a mutiny whereby I was told that it was very unreasonable to start lessons on the first Monday of the first week in a new year.  With such a start, the rest of that day was pretty much a gonner.   I was furious, to be it mildly, but there was very little I could do to force the issue, without causing a permanent damage to our relationship, so I directed my excess energy at tidying up the living room and Tiger's bedroom instead. Well, at least something positive (clean rooms) came out of a negative situation!



Tuesday was not any better, for a different reason.  Tiger was (more) ready to start work but our boiler broke down that day, which meant we had neither hot water nor central heating.  It was one of those timely experiences (since we are studying the Victorians) that we would rather not have, especially when outside looked like this:


The plumber was only available the following day.  With the temperature inside the house being not much higher than outside, and feeling rather ridiculous walking around the house in three or four layers of clothes to keep ourselves warm (just like the Victorians), we decided we might as well be outside.


The rest of the week (or what was left of it) was spent mostly outdoors, observing nature.  It was my way of easing ourselves back to a full workload -- hopefully, that means next week -- and to get reconnected back to ourselves and with nature.


Nature study was sorely lacking last term because I thought we would concentrate on other aspects of science.  I did not think that we would miss it too much, but all of us felt less grounded for not being in nature enough in the past few months.  This year I want to be more intentional about making more time for nature study.

With that in mind, as well as being influenced by a book that I have been reading, I introduced Tiger to the idea of keeping a Calendar of Firsts, which is a list of things that we record as we observe them for the first time in nature.  The idea is that, after a consistent practice of doing this over a number of years, the child would begin to develop an awareness for, or start to identify, certain patterns in nature.  In the middle of this page is a clear example of a Calendar of  Firsts.  Ours are less fancy -- we used the simple slim week-to-view diary that can be bought from anywhere that sells stationery.


Our process for this is very similar to that of keeping a nature journal:
Step 1: take a walk or look out of the window;



Step 2: identify on the spot the plants and animals that are familiar to us;

  1. mallard
  2. moorhen
  3. coot
  4. budding snowdrops
  5. Canada goose
  6. berry-bearing holly
  7. budding crocus

Step 3: take photographs of those that we don't know of;

A few unusual guests at the pond.

  • Photos 1 and 2: These two birds are obviously related to the mallards, but we cannot be sure of their specific names, although we are guessing that they might be a male Gadwell (photo 1) and a female Gadwell (photo 2).
  • Photo 3: The tufted ducks are seldom seen at the pond but there were more than 10 when we visited.  Also very unusual were the hundreds of common gulls there
  • Photo 4: We saw a lone Egyptian goose for the first time.  Its markings are unmistakable, now that we know what it is.


Step 4: identify them at home using guide books or the RSPB bird identifier;



Step 5: put an entry in the Calendar of Firsts.


It started off as a simple list, and the photos above show our record for the past nine days (since January 1st).  Tiger's list and my list are slightly different since our rule is to only record things that we have actually seen/heard by ourselves rather than listing down what someone else has seen.  For example, Tiger saw a Yellowhammer out of his bedroom window this morning, but I did not, so it is on his list and not on mine.

Our lists look very full because it is the beginning of the year, and we are listing everything we see or hear for the first time this year.  I expect our list to thin out as the weeks go by, but it is still amazing to note how much wildlife there are around us, if we actually take notice:

Once we completed our list for each two-page spread, I thought our pages would look prettier with drawings on.  For each spread, I let Tiger choose which animal or plant from the list to draw.  He choose ducks and robin.  Not wanting to turn this into a full-blown nature journaling exercise, we decided to keep our drawing time to under 10 minutes each, by following along the video:



While I drew my pictures in the spaces in my Calendar of Firsts, Tiger drew his in a separate sketchbook:


To each his own is the name of the game, especially around here.


This post is linked up to:
  1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 1/6/15
  2. Virtual Refrigerator
  3. My Week in Review #19
  4. Collage Friday: Learning About the Civil War
  5. Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with all the Painting
  6. Science Sunday #11: Vegetative Reproduction
  7. Keeping Company: January Link-Up

21 comments:

  1. I love your honestly. We all have days/weeks like that. It's the blogs that are "homeschooling is perfect" that are such a turn off. :) Praying next week goes better.

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    1. Thank you for visiting and leaving your comments. :-) I think most homeschooling blogs try to be encouraging and inspiring with beautiful pictures and words, since most people read others' blogs to be inspired by what they can potentially achieve. Things are alright most of the time, but every now and then, we hit a bump. :-)

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  2. Your tone always cracks me up, Hwee! I can completely relate to the discrepancy between your keen back-to-learning attitude and Tiger's desire for a more relaxed start to the term! We solved the issue by skating at the Royal Pavillion in Brighton with some friends who had an inset day. But I must confess I was exhausted by the end of the week just from all our activities starting. I could have done with another week of lazy lie-ins, really!

    Anyway, it looks like you had a fabulous week in the end. I love the idea of a book of firsts, and both your drawings are wonderful. I remember trying to draw birds when we were doing our pond study. It's more challenging than one would think!

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    1. You're a lot wiser than I am, Lucinda! You'd think I would have learnt by now, having been in this homeschooling business for a number of years...! Oh well. Yes, I'm happy that we have at least the list of nature things to show for our week.

      We have never been able to draw moving objects on the spot, so we always draw from photographs when we get back home. The new how-to-draw videos look like fun and the man sounds like a nice chap, so we gave them a try. They worked for us, for the most part. :-)

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  3. If ever there was a potential independent student Tiger is him! It looks like you had a lovely start to the year and I am sure it will be all up from here on. You still managed to get lots done. I love the way you are able to make the most humble diary beautiful with your incredibly gorgeous sketches. I love the idea of writing down all you first sightings.
    As I said, a great start to the year.

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    1. I hope it will be, as you've said, Claire, up from here on! It was a very strange first week back, I must say, but let's hope it's gets better! Fingers-crossed for today (the second Monday)....!!! :-)

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  4. Well, you certainly know how to make lemonade from lemons! It is wonderful all the outdoor time you had this week and I love his journal!

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    1. I've had a lot of experience with lemonade-making in this respect over the years, Phyllis. :-) It'll be nice to not have to make them though.

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    1. Thanks, Chareen. :-) I hope that by simplifying the process, more people will be encouraged to try it, because nature study is really a very enjoyable way to learn.

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  6. Love how you've kept this so simple & do able, Hwee.

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    1. Thanks, Carol. :-) Things can be as simple or as complicated as one makes it out to be. We like it simple here. :-)

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  7. The step by step is really helpful! (It looks like our step by step too. :)) And that Egyptian goose is so striking--I ave never seen one. I love your Calendar of Firsts!

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    1. It was our first encounter with the Egyptian Goose too, so that was very exciting. :-) Thanks for your encouraging words, Celeste. Having a link up to share our nature notebooking is one way to keep up our motivation, so thank you for hosting the new link up!

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  8. I really enjoyed your post! I've been intrigued by a calendar of firsts, especially to get my two girls more involved, but one thing at a time for me, ha! I, too, appreciated the step-by-step.

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    1. Thanks, Angela. We are finding the calendar of firsts to be much more doable than regular nature journal entries, so that has worked so far. :-) I hope it'll catch on with you and your girls at some point in the future.

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  9. I LOVE your calendar of firsts, what a great idea. Now I kind of want to pick up a calendar like that.

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  10. Okay, I got so excited about your calendar of firsts I think I headed off to add it to a post I've got in draft form before I actually commented, yeah I'm totally stealing that and stopping by our local bookstore to find some clearance calendars.....

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    1. LOL! Go ahead and do it, Ticia! It's totally doable, and very easy to implement. I shall wait to read your post about it. :-)

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  11. The calendar of firsts is something I was aware of only on the fringes of my mind, but this makes it so much more approachable. Thanks!

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    1. You're welcome, Dawn! I hope you and your children will enjoy making your own calendar of firsts some time soon! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

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