These times

Well, the headlines say it all.
Scene: Little Bear reading the Wall Street Journal during breakfast

The Bird House

The Bird House was built at the Build and Grow Workshop at Lowes by Little Bear with a little help from Father Bear.
We are enjoying watching the cardinals and sparrows. There is a lesson to be learnt from them - how patiently they sit and wait for their turn on the railing when they see another bird pecking at the seeds.

About ants, snails and earthworms....

Its Spring here in Hotlanta and with temperatures in the eighties and quite a few wet days, there have been a lot of outdoor creatures on the yard, the deck and some venturing right into our house.

This spring Little Bear is spending a lot of time outdoors and has emerged into this bold and curious little boy who loves nature but much to our chagrin has a a nasty habit of 'crushing down' ants, snails and earthworms.

But why? I ask him everytime he proudly proclaims that he stamped a fire ant. "Oh! because it may bite me" is his response. Yesterday, when I picked him from school he said ..."Amma! I crushed up a snail shell..Buts its ok, the snail was not in the shell." A quick zoology lesson followed where I explained that a snail always carries its shell around with it because it is like its house. "But Amma, I'm sure the snail was not in the shell when I crushed it into pieces"

Later that evening after a fresh downpour, we went outside to see earthworms. I thought this would be a great opportunity to teach him to respect other living things and let them be. We got on our hands and knees to see the earthworms lazily crawl around. When one of them came too close to him, he threatened to stamp it. Frustrated I tried to explain with another angle - this earthworm is going back to its mother and we must let it do that, I said. He gave me a quizzical look and said -"No, this earthworm does not have a mother. Its independent" Not sure if he says that because he knows so or just because he wants to have a counter-argument about everything I say ..

Needless to say, in the coming weeks we hope to try our best to teach him the valuable lesson of respecting all other living things.

The Penguins in Antarctica

We recently bought "Antarctica" for the Little Bear.

The main reason I bought it was the beautiful illustrations and bold colors.I had very little idea about the actual story and did not expect it to be more than a geography/nature book.

We decided to read it at bedtime. The story is about the cold Antarctica and its inhabitants- the penguins, seals and skuas.It explains how the female penguin lays her egg and goes out to sea to feed while the male penguin cares for the egg. The male penguins huddle together to stay warm in the cold winter. Suddenly helicopter whirrs above and the noise frightens them causing them to panic and flee, leaving the eggs behind. The skuas then swoop in and eat the eggs. And this where my sensitive son started crying. As he choked and brushed away his tears, he asked me how the penguins will get more eggs? I explained that the mama penguin will lay more eggs from which babies will come out. Humans need to be more respectful of other animals and be conscious of how their actions affect other animals. Another learning here is about the food chain. Skuas feed on eggs and penguins feed on fish ...the food chain is what feeds everyone on this earth.

This is a wonderful book and has become a family favorite. It is full of valuable lessons and sparks a discussion everytime we read it.

“The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.” ~Maria Montessori