WE ARE LEARNING ABOUT SEASONS

U (my son) and I talk a lot about weather and seasons these days. This is one of the earliest lessons of science that we can teach our children. It is a lesson we carry for the rest of our life. I feel it is wonderful that  we get to teach our little ones their first science lesson before their kindergarten teacher does JJ.

I would always talk to my son about the weather when we stepped out of the house.  Your little one is listening to you, believe me !! Start early. Every day talk to your child about how the day is. Is it sunny, windy, rainy or cold. In this way, we are encouraging our children to observe their surrounding. We are helping them to build their vocabulary to describe and understand weather and seasons.

U is almost 4 now and I felt that I need to take our conversations about weather into more concrete learning.  Here are a couple of things that we are doing and I encourage you to do as well.

• Right now, we are using a book called “ Watching the Seasons” by Edana Eckart. The reason I picked this book was that, as the name suggests, the book contains vivid pictures of the four seasons.  U and I discussed the pictures and I explained to him the different seasons. Encourage your child to describe each picture  and then explain to them the corresponding season.  I picked this book from the library. Similar books must be available at your library and you will also find them on Amazon. 

• This is another interesting activity that you can do. Give your child your own pictures taken in different weathers. I suggest that you collect pictures taken in all four weathers. These would be, a pictures taken during winter when you are all covered up or some picture taken in the snow, the second picture  could  be of you guys  during spring with flowers and greenery,  the third picture could be of fall with bare trees or colored leaves on trees and the fourth picture of summer spent on beaches or just in summery clothes. Stick  them on your wall. Discuss what your child sees in each picture and explain the corresponding season.
• Fill a box with things like shorts, sunscreen, umbrella, raincoats, flip flops, mittens, sweaters . Discuss which is used in which season.

As with everything else, reinforcing the concept on a daily basis is critical. When you step out and see flowers everywhere, encourage your child to observe the phenomenon and discuss how we see flowers in springs everywhere. Now when you head to the beach during summer, don’t forget to discuss with your child about summer and how we get to eat lots of ice cream and play in water JJ .