Welcome to The Educating Parent Beverley Paine's archive of articles about homeschooling and unschooling written over a period of 30 plus years

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Garden Craft - Make 'Binoculars'
A Natural Learning Curriculum Activity

© Beverley Paine, 2004

The objective of this activity is to introduce young children to the idea of focus: by restricting their vision children focus their attention on the subject. Older children may find their 'binoculars' useful as an aid to discovering detail as they sketch in their nature journals.

You will need:

  • 2 cardboard rolls (about 4" - 5" long) each
  • single hole punch
  • quick drying glue ; eg glue gun (used with supervision)
  • ribbon, yarn or string

Help young children punch a hole about a centimetre from the end of one end only of each cardboard roll. Glue the two cardboard rolls together. Tie one end of the ribbon to one hole and the other end to the other cardoard role. Adjust the length of the ribbon to suit the child, so that it is easy to lift the 'binoculars' over the head.

You're ready to use the 'binoculars' in the garden to explore the wonderful world of nature! Try to spot birds in the bushes or flying high. Follow the passage of a snail, ant or beetle. Have your nature sketch book handy and draw what you see, or record as many details as you can about what you are looking at. Later on you can refer to books and see if you can identify the critters and birds in your garden. You can use these 'binoculars' to focus your attention on plants too.

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The information on this website is of a general nature only and is not intended as personal or professional advice. This site merges and incorporates 'Homeschool Australia' and 'Unschool Australia'.

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