It is my goal to raise up an intelligent son who loves life and is full of vibrance, imagination, and eagerness to grow and learn. I want him to enjoy and to continue to learn even after he has graduated from his required courses. I'm sure you know adults who live with that spark about them, who are a joy to be around. In order to accomplish this, I believe he needs to live with knowledge at his fingertips, in an environment surrounded with the best books to learn from (as well as many other things like hours outdoors, and tons of hands-on learning experiences etc.)
Children must have the Best Books––One more thing is of vital
importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good
for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful
to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious
living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent
changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the
child's intellectual life.
- Parents and Children Vol. 2 pg 279
We packed up our trunk with our treasures and headed home. A box of books is still sitting on the living room coffee table and a pile of them is spread out on the floor. We have been reading through little by little over these past days and at bedtime. We're already developing some new favorites.
But this afternoon while playing outside, something exciting happened! We caught our first garter snake! We put it in our critter-catcher box and mama ran inside, over to the box and headed back out with one of our new books in hand. We see these snakes all the time, just had not caught one yet. Boys and snakes = exciting, let me tell you!
I am seeing how much more alive all this is then a pre-planned lesson from a teacher's manual about the 5 senses, for instance. I can tell this experience really meant something to my son. I'm sure he'll also remember tomorrow too, when I make him release this little guy back into the grass where we found him. But first we have to show Daddy!
Ps. Check out our marble-sized chicken egg.... another one of the ladies began laying. How does the saying go, "From small beginnings come great things."