Seeing Creation Through the Eyes of a Child

Posted by Hannah | 0 comments

Among the many and varied reasons for choosing to teach our children at home, right at the top was our desire to give them a Biblical world view.  Down the line somewhere under that was the desire to not bore them with learning.  When we brought those two desires together with the subject of science, I was a bit apprehensive and felt under-qualified.  Science lessons in the private Christian school I attended involved reading a chapter and answering the questions at the end.  That. Was. It.  I detested science.  It was dry.  It was boring.

Obviously somewhere along the line I figured out that some of it was enjoyable, and spent several years working as a nurse before our children began arriving.

A good friend and I were talking about teaching science one day and she (much wiser and experienced) told me to forget about a science curricula since our children were so young and to teach them to enjoy creation.  This, she said, brings about an appreciation for the Creator, since all creation points to Him.  It was the best advice I ever took regarding homeschooling.

Here are some of the things we’ve done as a family and enjoyed.  Perhaps you can include some of them in your science lessons, whether formal or informal, and please share with me what you have been doing to bring science alive for your children.

Away from city lights on a clear night, stand outside and look up.  In the summer bring out a quilt and lay back.  If you own an i-phone check out these free apps to help you navigate through the night sky.  We’ve enjoyed finding planets, watching the international space station float by and traced constellations with our fingers.

Find your way to the shore. We chose the Atlantic ocean.  Find a quiet area instead of a busy beach, take off your shoes or wear water sandals and explore.  We spent hours examining life forms living on rocks, seaweeds, snails, crabs, clams and shells.  Meeting a new seabird is like meeting a new friend and after watching the antics of them, our children knew their names without a workbook page or answering questions at the end of a chapter on ornithology.  I will say that it advisable for mom and dad to quickly read up on local animal/plant life before such an excursion.  Anything we were asked that we didn’t know we looked up together with the kids.

Find a beaver pond if you live in the northern USA.  Check back every so often to see how it is coming along.  If you are very still and quiet maybe you’ll see the inhabitants at work.  A great read along for younger children is the book Ben the Beaver by Daniela DeLuca.  If beavers aren’t in your corner of the world, choose another animal that’s local to watch and learn about.

Build a bird feeder together.  There are so many instructions online for building a feeder out of a plastic jug.  We did this and the kids started hanging out by the window, asking questions, keeping lists of what birds they’d spotted, and learning the bird calls.

Listen to Jonathan Park Cd’s together.  Our family loves these and they made long road trips this past summer enjoyable as we listened to Jonathan Park and his family and friends on adventures together exploring God’s world.  You can listen to a broadcast at www.jonathanpark.com

Another media resource our younger children have enjoyed are the Creation Celebration DVD’s.

Go on a nature hike. Have no agenda, no lecture to give, just allow the children to be free to explore as they like.   Let them lead with their questions, rest where they like.  We’ve rested on benches of thick mossy logs, poked inside to see the bugs the bears look for, taken off our shoes to cool our feet in a brook, examined animal scat to see what was for dinner, been as quiet as possible to see if we could sneak up on something.  I was hoping not a bear or skunk or mountain lion but thankfully quiet in the minds of six children is much different than mine – I’m pretty sure our sneaking up was very pronounced!  We’ve gone fishing, swimming and wading in mountain streams, caught crayfish, found a spider that catches small fish to eat and on and on.

Seeing creation through the eyes of our children has been such an incredible gift to my husband and me.  One night I was ready to scold our eight year old son for dallying outside and that’s when I heard him give a big contented sigh and say in a whisper, “Thank you God for this beautiful night…”

Hannah Hagarty is a relaxed homeschooling mama of five. Her and her family are big on the outdoors, big on family days, and big on making memories in everyday small ways. She loves handcrafts, iced lattes, re-arranging furniture and counts falling into bed exhausted a sign of a really great day. She and her husband make a home in upstate New York with their energetic children and a menagerie of animals. Hannah blogs at Cultivating Home.