Friday, September 12, 2014

Fact Vs. Fiction (and a little DIY)

Schooling, has surprisingly gone super well over the last 2 weeks. Sometimes we're not on a schedule... other times, we're spot on... all depends on the day. I'm okay with this... because at least the schoolwork/learning/teaching is getting done. Allowing myself some grace, has made a world of difference in how I'm approaching life these days. If we're still in our jammies at 3 pm... that's okay... If we don't get to Math one day... that's okay... If we have to eat takeout food because dinner couldn't get prepped or cooked because Finn needed to be fed... that's okay too.... grace.

One of the things I want to teach Charlotte this year, is fact vs. fiction. It's still hard for her little mind to comprehend a lot of things, but I always want her to seek the truth... a skill for her to take along her way, especially when she's older. She questions a ton of our reasoning, these days... so I always give her a truthful explanation, instead of "well, just because..."

When walking around at the store the other day, we heard a little child ask their Mommy, "Why can't we buy this?" and the Mom answered, "Because." ... "But why?", asked the child... and the Mom completely ignored her child the second time she asked... so over Charlotte goes... and states, "Because it's what your Mommy said... because we can't have everything... that would be having the gimmies." 

So, this isn't the BEST example... I'm sure I have other great ones, but my mind is completely fried these days from the lack of sleep... but I think you get the picture. Kids want to KNOW why... a generic response isn't good anymore after a certain age... and rightfully so. We wouldn't want our kids to NOT challenge things that are unfair/unjust/etc. later on in life... "just because". I'm definitely guilty of answering Charlotte with a "Because I said so..." but, I'm trying my darndest to add a fact/reason to that statement. Most of the time, it squashes other "Why" questions from forming on that topic... sometimes she doesn't quite understand, so she asks "Why" again... which means I usually have to change my wording, and then she gets it.

So we're practicing gathering facts/data in school, through our Zoo Days. Since the weather is cooling off... the zoo is where we head at least once a week. At the Zoo, Charlotte is free to run around and play for most of the time, except during the exercise. During the exercise, Charlotte must choose an animal to listen to facts about, summarize those facts, and then draw the animal... Well, we needed a a quick little book for her to write these in... so off to creating we went.

We crafted the book with simple materials, Kraft paper, white drawing paper and writing paper... 



Before we got started, little fingers played with the markers... needless to say, someone wasn't too happy when they were gathered, and put away from reach from her... 

But handing her a little "washi tape" solved all cries... and we were able to continue with our project. 



























I had Charlotte alternate between blank pages and writing pages... fold them... and then we hole punched. 



After the holes were punched, we strung baker's twine and tied little bows through the holes, so we could always undo it. Just in case we need to add extra pages. 

Next... I let Charlotte take complete creative control over the book... let her color the way she wanted to color it, put tape (and I have a lot of tape) all over it... however she wanted to do it... this is my favorite part... to see what colors she picks... and what she comes up with. 



You can totally use a composition notebook, or a little notebook that's all theirs to write down the facts, but as Charlotte stated, "It's way more fun to make our own... it's different from all the others."... yes little one... fact gathering is super fun now.  


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3 comments:

  1. Love it! Thanks for sharing, Karen!

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  2. So great! :) what an awesome idea!!

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  3. I LOVE IT! and especially love the pic of Finn through Charlotte's elbow :)

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