Science for the Little Ones
Here is a quick quiz question-What insect family is the ant a member of? I was very surprised! The answer is at the end of this article!
One of the hardest subject matters to deal with, at least for myself, is science. Not only is it difficult for me to figure out a legitimate subject to study, it is also often difficult to find materials to enhance our studies. For example, Jasper and I studied electricity last year, and it was very hard for me to find the small motors, wires, and batteries we needed to work with. I now have a box of science items, and I add to it whenever I can. My husband doesn't dare leave his electrical tape lying around anymore, lest it should "disappear" into the bowels of The Science Box. Fortunately, science for my little guy is much easier.
In the world of the four-year-old, all things are scientific. Tor loves to study everything from animals to storms to bugs. I was surprised to learn that he liked to have books read to him about real animals and other creatures, rather than to hear story books. His favorites this year were books about Crocodilians, and books about Bees. In that vein, I formulated an entire study unit around insects and other bugs.
I went first to one of our major book stores, and bought Tor a very nice copy of a book about how to identify insects. I did NOT buy him the beginners books-instead, I got a relatively expensive book (nineteen bucks!) which has very clear and colorful photographs of the identified creatures in it. A word of caution-I looked all through the book trying to identify a spider from our backyard, when it ocurred to me that he was not, indeed, an insect. He was an arachnid. The book clearly stated on the cover, "Insects". So now, I need another book. Anyway, we had a good time looking at all the bugs together, before the book was put away each night. (Hey, it was nearly twenty dollars!)
I then went in search of a magnifying glass. You might read this and think, well, that's no big deal. Go ahead, ask for one the next time you're at the mall. Good luck, you'll need it! I went to twelve stores (all the obvious ones, the eyeglass places, the book stores, the department stores, etc.) and came up empty handed, my world still the small, unmagnified place it had been when I got there. Before I left the mall, I spotted one of those dollar-type stores, and decided to stop in before my bus came. Lo and Behold! A veritable bonanaza of magnifiers, from the little two inch diameters to the five inchers! They are plastic, not the nice glass kind, but they work just fine for a junior bug chaser and his mom.
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