Life Cycles

Finally, we had decided to complete our 2 interlinked homelearning themes of "Earth Sciences" and "Space" (with the exception of one final craft!), and progress to another new theme - "Life Cycles"! I truly enjoyed the themes of Earth Sciences and Space, hence my reluctance to touch on another theme, but I guess we need to move on!

Little Bee's depiction of a sunflower's life cycle

Which also meant re-looking at the sensitive but fundamental issues of .... mating! This literally life-changing word popped up everywhere we read. It is a quintessential element of any life cycle, and the Bees had been asking, "Mummy, what is mating, and what is a mate?" I told them a mate is like a wife or husband. 

And in this theme, it is inevitable that we will be revisiting the origins of human life through discussions about the birds and the bees - again! Big Bee is becoming more aware (and curious) about such issues in her tweenhood now, so it is essential we keep the dialogue open on this crucial aspect of life. 

We had read many books on life cycles these couple of weeks - ranging from spiders (a fascinating look into a spider's unique life affirmation cycle which we read tonight), turtles, crocodiles, ladybirds, butterflies, sunflowers, etc. It should be a fun theme!