Jeremy had also collected rocks yesterday when he and Samantha went on their nature walk. He had them in a ziplock overnight and today he wanted to wash them in the sink.
He came running out into the kitchen with a snail-looking thing, similar to the one Samantha was taking notes on yesterday. He held it out in his little hand and said he thought it was alive. I checked it out and sure enough, there was a little something moving around in there. I put it in a cup and we watched it come to life. The whole thing came out of the shell and started climbing up the side of the cup- tentacles waving and shell sliding along behind. Very, very cool.
The kids went and got a nature book to try and identify what this thing was. (I am so confused! We don't have any creeks, lakes, rivers where they found it!) Anyway- they discovered it is some variety of a Ram's Horn Snail. They also wanted to know what "hermaphrodite" meant! I explained to them this snail is both a boy and a girl at the same time. A little bit beyond their level, they both fell into fits of giggles. Really mom? Yes, really.
A few minutes later I heard them discussing this new and very strange concept. They had decided they were going to keep the snail as a pet but it would need both a girl's name AND a boy's name. I overheard them tossing around names and giggled a little bit myself when Jeremy suggested Derick (after daddy, of course). I went about my business in the kitchen, knowing full well they were going to announce that they had named the snail after daddy and me.
Imagine my surprise when they said, "Mom! We've decided to keep the snail and name it Derick AND... Rose!"
Hmmm... is there something he's not telling me? ;)
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4 comments:
LOL! ~ Your kids seem to love learning-whatever you've done,seems right on.
Giggle! Nice to find this blog (through the convention, natch). I love this kind of day. The kind where little things become big things, and you end up with the giggles.
Poppins
So, how is the traffic going?
I just was telling a friend of mine that I feel bad not keeping up in writing what my children do -- and now I see it is the unschooling moments that are hard to put down unless one does a vignette about the moment!
Thanks for this great one on snails! Last time we had a strong Illiois, mid-western rain downpour, we collected worms and worms and worms to check out overnight before letting them go after the earth was not so rain-saturated.
And my children have learned about the water cycle of rain in the process. I even heard the five year old telling her grandfather about how the rain falls and then soaks into the ground and later evaporates and goes back up into the air.
How awesome to share how we share with our children-- and what they share with us!!!
Don't have a blogspot, but I will have to ask my husband to help get me started! He got a website for our home-based business started, so now it's my turn :-)
So this is called unschooling? This is the major way we learn. We turn almost everything into learning adventures. I use textbooks when I feel like we are supposed to be schooling and like for math.
I love your story it reminds me of life at our house.
Marilynn
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