I mentioned in my previous posts, a child's brain is a powerful spiritual matter that needs to be fed with an abundant feast of ideas. And just as it needs food to digest, it also needs to exercise regularly. In one of Charlotte Mason's books, she said: Do not let the children pass a day without distinct efforts Intellectual, moral, or volitional. Simply said, our brain needs to work regularly so that it will work properly. It supports Lamarck's theory of use and disuse. So even if it's a Sunday today, we still had an activity that will keep the little learner's brain active. But this one she kept saying she enjoyed it and had so much fun .
Since it's a Sunday, it's a great day to visit a loved one who is no longer with us. We went to the cemetery to visit my husband's late aunt. I know if she'd got to meet my kid, she'll surely enjoy all of her questions and my kid would also surely admire her love of knowledge and learning. I've been meaning to add a Geography activity in our homeschooling journey. What better activity than to go outdoors and map the memorial garden.
I am a really cautious mom and I'd like to make sure that all of us are prepared for any emergencies. So when we go out, I usually give my daughter instructions on what to do in case she gets lost. Today, I also taught her where she needs to go if ever she got separated from us. There were quite a lot of people in the garden today so it would really help if she knows her way around.
In our geography lessons, we learned the ordinal directions, how to create a makeshift compass using a magnetized needle, a leaf, and a cup of water. She also learned how to distinguish the Northern star, and knows how to locate East and West by looking at the sunrise and sunset. Today, she had a grand experience mapping out and identifying the different areas of the memorial garden. We regularly visit this place but we have never really looked around past the spots we go to. I also jog here every now and then but I rarely looked at the names of the different areas.
At first, I myself felt a bit overwhelmed about doing the map work. I am a bit of a geographically challenged person so I thought this would be a really difficult activity not just for her but for me as well. So I thought, why not start at the gate? And so we did. She caught up real quick. The way she listened and understood the instructions amazes me. She now knows how to pinpoint where we were standing on the map. It helps that she's been playing DOTA 2 on a regular since we finished our 3rd quarter exam.
This map work activity has been so much fun for both of us the learner and the parent-educator. Creating map work in a blank page was a more lively activity than just coloring in spaces on a fill-in coloring map. We have one of those where she colors in the places that we've already studied about. But making a map work for the places we regularly go to, that's even more fun. It makes going out-of-doors even more fun and exciting than it already is.
