A Stroke of Genius

Dana brought over 3-ring binders for the boys a few weeks ago. They are smaller than normal 8.5 x 11. so I had to cut down paper and change the setting on the whole punch... but the end result were research binders, complete with their names on them. The boys loved them.

The last weekend in January, we went to Cabrillo National Monument, and the boys took their binders. It was a beautiful day, and the boys were so good. Roman sketched a big navy ship, a prowler jet, and the lighthouse. Isaac counted the ships that he could see in the harbor below, and Aaron scribbled furiously in his book.


I was pretty proud of my good parenting idea, I feel like they are few and far between, but this was a hit. And the key was to let them take their time whenever they decided that they wanted to write something. Also not a forte of mine, waiting, I usually rush from one thing to the next. But being patient and letting the boys direct the day really made for a good time for all of us.


After the lighthouse, we headed down to the tidepools. They aren't the most exciting tidepools, but they are very accesible, and the shoreline is really pretty.
We saw a lot of mussels, hermit crabs, sea snails, limpits, and 2 sand crabs. As we were leaving, one of the volunteers pointed out a brittle star. It was pretty cool, and we never would have found it on our own!