Adding to our Vacation

We recently returned from a family vacation to the Oceanside, California area. About a month ago, in anticipation of this vacation, the kids and I started learning about beach and ocean life.

The first book we started to read was Pagoo by Holling C. Holling. We tried this book a couple years ago and the kids weren't interested, but this time around they kept begging for me to read more, and even now that we are home they still want to finish the book.

We also checked a number of books from our library by searching under subjects like "tide pools" or "marine animals." A couple favorites were A Harbor Seal Pup Grows Up and Hermit Crabs and other Shallow-water Life, but there were lots of wonderful books to choose from.

We also found another great book at the Handbook of Nature Study blog in the post called "Creating Anticipation in Nature Study." The book is called One Small Square: Seashore by Donald M. Silver. This book has beautiful illustrations and wonderful information, and my kids have enjoyed comparing the shells we brought home with the shell illustrations on page 36.

We also watched a couple documentaries about the ocean. Coral Reef Adventures, which is an IMAX move, and The Blue Planet: Seasonal Seas (episode 5) and Coral Seas (episode 6).

And of course we couldn't miss my toddler's favorite: Finding Nemo, which in addition to the movie also has a couple special features showing real footage of ocean dwelling creatures.

Charlotte Mason said, "They must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of earth and heavens (Home Education, pg. 44)" At times it was hard for me to follow this advice, especially when they would rather ride the waves at the beach instead of closely examining the kelp or seashells (not hard to imagine, is it?). But for the most part I was able to stop myself from saying "come look at this," "remember reading about this," and "did you notice." And then later I would over hear them talking to each other about the kelp or what kind of shells they found.
The part of our vacation that warmed my heart the most was when we went to the Birch Aquarium in San Diego. They spent longer periods of time lingering over tanks with ocean life that they were familiar with- watching the jellyfish swim up and down in a tank, trying to see the octopus' mouth, talking about the ocean camouflage exhibits without needing to read the informational signs, and even talking about Bruce from Finding Nemo while watching the feeding of the sharks.

As we walked through the tank exhibits we ended up behind a tour bus group, and I kept trying to pass the group so we could go faster, until I realized my kids were intentionally lingering to listen to guide and then looking closely at the tank to find what he was speaking about. At the tide pools the kids were delighted to able to touch the live animals- large smiles when touching the starfish and sea slugs, and the quick looks of worry that crossed their faces when asked if they wanted to touch an anemone or sea urchin until they were assured their skin was too tough to be hurt.

We would have had a wonderful trip without learning anything beforehand, but our little bit of knowledge greatly enhanced our overall experiences. and as Charlotte Mason says " . . . there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in. Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life."