Hi Stephanie, I’ve heard you speak to my Mommy and Me group about creating a language enriching environment. Any new suggestions?
Spring is a perfect time of the year to bring Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar to life! Each year at this time, we re-use the Butterfly Garden we received as a gift. We simply order a live butterfly culture refill. Usually when we receive the culture, we have 5 very tiny caterpillars. The food for the caterpillars is included in the jar that has ventilation. All we do is observe the caterpillars crawling around and eating. They quickly grow and suddenly climb to the top of the jar and change into chrysalides. While they are in this stage, I carefully remove the lid and pin it inside the Garden so they still remain hanging.
When they emerge, it is incredibly exciting. Beware! The butterflies have a red liquidy poop when they first emerge (I fondly refer to this as meconium) so keep the pavilion away from anything you don’t want stained. We cut a small orange in half and place it at the bottom of the Garden for the butterflies to drink. After a few very thrilling days of observation, we take the butterflies to our favorite park and release them, to “do their jobs” as my son says.
You can imagine the discussions you will have with your child through all the stages (great for learning to sequence), the vocabulary he will acquire and the fantastic science behind it all. Ask good “WH” questions (e.g., What are the butterflies doing? Where did they fly off to? Why do we give the butterflies an orange?). Don’t forget to take pictures so you can practice discussing remote events. Your child will be so grateful for the experience and you will have provided a solid learning and bonding opportunity while exposing him to new language skills. You may also be reinforcing what is being discussed in his classroom.