Learning for Little Ones: Borrowing Nature

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Borrowing nature??? What's that? Well, it's possible that it's a number of things, but let me tell you what I mean by it. Earlier this week, My Beloved found a toad in our garden. Ok, so its really a planter full of dirt and weeds where a couple plants have learned to fend for themselves. Regardless, there was a toad... and it was no small toad either. The thing was 3-4 inches across. Did I take a picture for you all? No. Am I kicking myself now? Yes. I just keep reminding myself that it's been busy, but that excuse is getting old to even me.

Where was I? The toad. Yes, the toad. He found this huge toad and we all (we had company) had to look at it. Sadly, Tornado was already in bed for the night. So, after our friend and her little girl left, My Beloved jumped into action and we borrowed nature for the night. Tornado loves animals and we thought it would be a great learning experience... and let's face it, lots of fun... for him to get to see it. My Beloved grabbed a large mouth mason jar and I grabbed a piece of fabric. Before the poor toad knew what was happening he was riding in a jar with plaid fabric closing the mouth. My Beloved even grabbed a spider for the thing to have as a snack if he got hungry in the night.

(Notice that I have done nothing involving actively touching the toad... you will probably start noticing a trend over the years if you stick around long enough.)

The next morning before he left for work, My Beloved had me get Tornado out of bed so we could look at the toad (i.e. "frog" from here on out).

It was great. Tornado and I sat on the kitchen floor and Daddy brought the jar over so he could see the "frog"...after all... as far as he's concerned at this stage they are the same thing. After a minute Daddy handed the jar off to most unexcited to be holding it Mommy and went to finish getting ready for work.

Tornado loved it. He stared and stared at it. Pointed at the jar and jumped when the thing moved. We looked underneath, pointing at its feet. We looked from the side and above and talked about its eyes on top of its head. Odds are he won't remember lots of it, but he had a great time and was exposed to an animal that we don't normally see in our day to day.

When all was said and done we all went outside and Daddy released it into the wild the garden the planter of dirt and weeds where we'd found it. What fun it was for Tornado to see it jumping! :)

There you have it... we borrowed nature!

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Labels: Learning for Little Ones

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:59 PM