Plummer Post: A Whale of a Tale!

I am playing catch up today with my posts, hopefully by the end of the day, I will be all updated from the past couple of months. Sometime around the end of January, I read Noah the book, "10 Little Rubber Ducks," by Eric Carle as one of his bedtime stories. He had previously disliked the book, however he was very interested this time and wanted me to read the page about dolphins over and over again. Since he was expressing an interest in dolphins, I figured I would see if he wanted to learn more about them. I am always worried that I am boring him to death and have been wanting to start learning projects with him. I am by no means an educator, but I figured I could put together some information about dolphins and maybe entertain him for an afternoon. I had no idea what my little project would turn into.

I found some coloring sheets online and some fact sheets about dolphins and we spent the afternoon coloring, cutting and putting our project about dolphins on to a cork board. We created Noah's dolphin pod (his family) which consisted of Noah Dolphin, Mommy Dolphin, Daddy Dolphin, Ava Dolphin and Dozy Dolphin (the other dolphin he sleeps with every night). We also went to the library and checked out some books on dolphins. Noah loved the books and the learning board. He would sit and sing to his dolphins and he would have to take one of his dolphins out with him when we left the house (We have since lost most of the dolphins in various places). Since he loved the first set of books so much I went and got a second round of books, which I figured would be much to advanced for him, but I figured we could look at the pictures. I underestimated him and he turned out to be fascinated by the books learning his new favorite word on how dolphins communicate echolocation.

We got some music Cd's with ocean music which featured the song Baby Beluga, which started his next wave of marine obsession whales. So we went and checked out more books about whales and learned all about whales. John and I have actually learned quite allot about whales and dolphins from our little Noah and his oceanic obsession. We started listening to whale music in the car and now he requests whale's singing when we are driving around. We also purchased the DVD series Blue Planet for him from the BBC. Nature can be a little bit harsh so sometimes we fast forward to the happier parts.

About two weeks ago we were at the library and Noah spotted an encyclopedia about sharks. He insisted that we check it out carrying the heavy book to the check out line himself. He loves the book and can now identify about 25 species of shark from sight. His favorites include mango sharks, nurse sharks, Port Jackson sharks, tiger sharks, cookie cutter sharks, leopard sharks and hammerhead sharks. One of his favorite games for John to play with him is pretending to be various types of sharks, its pretty funny to watch, John does a great hammerhead shark.

I am not sure the next direction his interest will take, but I am always listening to see what our next learning project will be. It is an amazing (and exhausting job) being a mom, but I am so happy that I can help my little one learn and grow. Its wonderful that we have time to explore what he is interested in. Who knows maybe someday Noah will realize my dream of being an oceanographer and we can go map blue whales together or go scuba diving with sharks. Whatever he decided to do, I am proud to have been able to spend this time helping him learn and grow. I am so proud and happy that we could go on our learning adventures together.

We decided to take Noah's to the Sea Life Aquarium on February 8, 2010 to let him see some of the sea life he had been reading about in person. It is a very small aquarium, but it was perfect for him to get a taste of what an aquarium is like. I am hoping we can take him to a big aquarium soon, but until that time he loved seeing all the sea life and still talks about the sharks he saw.