I love going to feed the ducks! It's lucky that I do because I have spent much of the past 10 years doing it! I wanted to write about this simple childhood activity because we have got so much out of it. When our son's were born, our daughter was just two and we lived in a small town. We were lucky to have a great nature area where there were lots of ducks to go and feed and it became part of our daily routine - town, ducks, park! We all loved going, it was something we could all do together and it got to the point where I am convinced that the duck recognised our double buggy!! Well it just kept on until we moved and the boys went to school. Although they had and still do have very little speech, one thing they could both say at that time was 'duck'. They lost this when they lost the consistency of the activity and hearing the word which really highlights the need for repetition and routine in their learning. Now we are home educating and live very close to a different flock of ducks, we're back at it.
This week we have been learning about animals and water so of course we had to go and feed the ducks. Feeding the ducks actually means mum and dad feed the ducks and James and Charlie feed themselves. This is the other great thing that we have got out of it. They are both so restrictive about what they will eat and this was not helped by trying them on a gluten and dairy free diet several years ago. After that we couldn't get them to eat bread at all. They gradually started eating it again over many trips to feed the ducks when they were given a piece to hold and there was no pressure to do so. Yay for the ducks!
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