Of Kangaroos and Icing!

As we explored the wonderful and wacky world of Australian animals, I had to wonder if my husband would be ok, with the pictures I’m about to post…  The boys L.O.V.E.D. pretending to be mommy kangaroos.  Our trusty playsilks came in handy as make-shift pouches for beloved teddy bears.

The boys loved measuring to see how far they could jump, but were a little bummed out that they couldn’t jump anywhere close to the 25 feet that some kangaroos can jump…

Naturally, Treyton wanted in on the action too!  Hearing him try to say Australia is just priceless.  I should try and get that on video, shouldn’t I?

A highlight for them was the discovery of this charming series on youtube that follows two baby joeys shortly after birth until they are hopping in and out of their mother’s pouch.

After reading and exploring thru books at home, we set out for a little bit of real life ‘down under’ exposure at our zoo.  The heat got to us before we made our way to the kookaburra’s (we’ll just have to serenade them later), but we enjoyed watching the wallaby brothers hop around and checked out the new koala exhibit which is set to open at the end of this month.

I was struck by how knowledge really enhances experience.  As much as I tout hands-on experience and learning through doing, this works best if it comes after or alongside knowledge acquisition.

There are two schools of thought.  One is that you do a field trip or activity to pique curiosity in a subject.  The second is to learn about something first through books and then follow it up with an activity or trip.

Many times in my life I visit a place about which I know absolutely nothing.  My curiosity is piqued and I want to explore, but only rarely follow-up on that awakened interest.  There are certainly times when this happens and it can have definite benefits.

But when we’ve already learned about something, real life experiences just come alive as one makes interconnections with information that is already filed away in the brain.

I’ve seen time and time again that it is no different with my children.  We go to the zoo a lot.  We love our zoo and during our good weather months go 3-4 times a month.  But this last week the boys intently watched the wallabies in a way that is altogether different.  They marvelled at how large their feet were because they know that God created them that way, so they could make those long leaps.  Immediately, they looked for that pouch and were disappointed to be told that there were only boys at our zoo.  They took note of the eucalyptus trees that were growing around the exhibit and excitedly tuned into the aboriginal music featuring their new favorite musical instrument: the didgeridoo.

It is beautiful to watch these connections being made.  It was like icing on the cake.  So tasty, but without the book explorations and dialog [cake] to provide structure and a framework, we’d just have a a tasty mess on the cake platter.  Pairing the icing with the baked cake makes for a beautiful and rewarding treat!

And since I can’t leave you all without some book recommendations, here were some of our favorites on the wildlife in Australia!