Birds of a Feather

It's been a quiet week in our house... some reading, a little crafting, and a lot of learning! Our 7 year old son is still fascinated with birds. All day long, nearly everyday, he watches them, reads about them, feeds them, draws pictures of them and wants to listen to them. I was going to start a unit on the weather this week, but he asked me if we could continue our study on birds.

So, now we're making a bird lapbook. If you're not familiar with lapbooks, here are a few links that might help explain what they are and how to make one:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Lapbooks_at_HSS.php

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/backyard_birds_lap_n_note.php

Youtube even has some videos with lapbook examples and how to make one. If you have a child that loves to craft or scrapbook, or loves hands-on learning, this would be the way to go!

The other morning my little ornithologist woke up and stumbled into the kitchen. He found me sitting there with my bible, a concordance, and a notebook. He recognized the bible, and the notebook, but had to ask me what a concordance is. I told him it's a book that lists words and then lists all the verses in the bible where that word appears. People use a concordance when they want to study a certain subject in the bible.

He went over to the bookshelf and found another concordance and then got his bible; he sat at the table with me and proceeded to look at a word in the concordance, then try and find all the bible verses listed for that word. He was fascinated with the whole thing and spent about 20 minutes looking at both books.This was wonderful for me-I was able to continue on with my study while he did his.

Well, this afternoon, after a full morning of school work, I went into the kitchen to load the dishwasher and bake some bread. I noticed Barrett (my 7 year old) sitting at the table, again with a concordance and his bible. This time he had a tiny notebook layed out next to the bible on the table and was writing furiously. Wanting to let sleeping dogs lie, I did not ask him what he was up to. I loaded the dishwasher, threw 2 loaves of bread in the oven, de-cluttered the counters and the table, and then went on to straighten the livingroom. He followed me, lugging all 3 books and his pencil to the couch where he continued his study.

Finally, after a long time of sweet silence, he chirped, "Mommy? What other birds are listed in the bible? I wrote the verses about sparrows in my notebook, but I want to write down the verses about other birds too."

I should've known his bible study would have something to do with birds! But as he sat there writing, reading, and thinking, I realized something. That boy is learning so very much right now!

-he's practicing his handwriting
-learning about alphabetizing words ( I had to help him with this a few times)
-learning where the books of the bible are and what their abbreviations are
-learning about birds and what the Lord has to say about them
-practicing spelling
-the Word is being absorbed
-he's taking his first tiny steps into studying the bible

I have a feeling it's going to be very hard to keep one step ahead of this boy.....