How many ways can you ribbit?

Yes, the joke is on me! HA! The last time you saw me here, I was joyfully writing about spring fever. Of course, at the time I wrote the article we were enjoying a taste of spring. Briefly. By the time the article was published, we were experiencing a snow storm with a bunch of snow piled on the ground! This past week as I was considering my topic for an article here, guess what season we were in? Spring! Yay! HA! Good thing I took pictures then as it's been snowing like crazy all evening and the ground is once again covered in white. Of course, by the time this article is published it could be spring again. Who knows?!

How does a mother keep her sanity when life goes from spring fever to winter blues to spring fever to winter blues to :::::whispering:::: hopefully spring because it is almost the end of April? She puts away the school books on a beautiful sunny day and allows her children to do some child directed delight learning.

And that is exactly what happened this past week. My kids wandered outside during the day - and no, I don't remember their excuse this time *wink* - and ended up down by our pond which is very full this time of the year after the snow melts. Our water table is still quite low, so the kids love to putter around by the pond before all the water slowly fades away as it is soaked into the dry earth. And spring is the perfect time for them to catch sluggish frogs. It was only a matter of moments before an excited four year old came running to the house to come and get me for a frog had been captured!

Of course the most giggling happens while watching the girls take a turn holding a squirming slippery frog since their brothers are pretty ho hum :::yawn::: about the whole thing. And they spent much time in a catch/release program with the girls giving each frog a name (and yes, they assured me that it wasn't the same frog they kept catching over and over again) and anyone who has girls understands this whole naming things thing that they so enjoy doing.

The next day after they had spent some time scouting the pond, they came indoors to scout the bookshelves for books about frogs. The search pulled up a variety of nature books which included not only information about frogs, but also about other wildlife in our area.

Over the next days the weather turned rainy and cooler, but they stayed on a frog theme as they pulled out drawing books that had frog pictures in them. Out came the paper, crayons, and markers. They kept busy with their pictures (yes, those are pink frogs) and talked about frogs as they sketched and colored. Perhaps they'll write the stories down on paper to keep with the pictures.
So, how much planning did I do for this lesson about frogs? Umm, none. The kids found something that interested them and followed their natural curiosity to learn more. My only task was to gently guide them to the resources they were looking for to learn more. So, do I do this all the time for our lessons? Umm, nope. Our curriculum is more on the structured side which works well. So, is one method better for a child to learn than the other? Umm, not necessarily. Use what works the best for you and your children as the basic curriculum and be flexible to allow teachable moments to do just that....teach! learn! apply!

"Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge." ~ Proverbs 23:12. And for children and parents alike, isn't that really the heart of the matter when it comes to learning whatever the season you are passing through?