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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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Beverley Paine with her children, and their home educated children, relaxing at home.

Together with the support of my family, my aim is to help parents educate their children in stress-free, nurturing environments. In addition to building and maintaing this website, I continue to create and manage local and national home educating networks, help to organise conferences and camps, as well as write for, edit and produce newsletters, resource directories and magazines. I am an active supporter of national, state, regional and local home education groups.

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We began educating our children in 1985, when our eldest was five. In truth, we had helped them learn what they need to learn since they were born. I am a passionate advocate of allowing children to learn unhindered by unnecessary stress and competition, meeting developmental needs in ways that suit their individual learning styles and preferences. Ours was a homeschooling, unschooling and natural learning family! There are hundreds of articles on this site to help you build confidence as a home educating family. We hope that your home educating adventure is as satisfying as ours was! Beverley Paine

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