Measuring a menacing bird

Visitors to our home will currently encounter a long sheet of brown paper, measuring three metres in length, attached to our living room wall. This is the wing span of the Hasst's Eagle.


The MOTH and children with Haast's Eagle wing span sheet, viewing YouTube...

 The children have been fascinated for some months with the Haast's Eagle, discovered in an Encyclopedia of NZ wildlife borrowed from the library before Christmas.

Given their fascination and Keilani's concern for extinct wildlife, I picked up a copy of New Zealand's Wildlife of the Past by Dave Gunson in a book sale. There has been much pouring over the pages of dinosaurs, birds and plants, particularly the Haast's Eagle. Akira had been enquiring why it is called the Haast's Eagle (it's also known as the Giant Eagle, but referred to as Haast's Eagle, as it was first described by Julius Von Haast in 1870, according to Wikipedia)

Measuring the wing span led to measuring people in the house. We know the MOTH is the tallest person in the house and Tama is the shortest. We also have a reference point when measuring other big creatures (like a 2 metre tall Moa, and a 30 metre dinosaur). Unfortunately, there are also some negative aspects to pursuing the interests of small people.

As a rule, the family watches very little television. Keilani and Akira had been asking to see what a Haast 's Eagle flew like. As a resourceful mum, I found a very short YouTube clip of a re-enactment of the Giant Eagle's attack (on unsuspecting Maori). Despite peering at it on my smart phone (which is ridiculously small), and knowing it is extinct (dead, gone, kaput, no more here), neither of them will go to the letter box alone at the moment for fear of the stupid bird! Beware what you share with you kids in the name of learning!

On the upside, we are able to talk through the fear and comfort them when they are afraid. I am reminded that each child has curiosities that still need boundaries, and that their sensitivities and concerns, no matter how irrational may seem to us as big people, are still real and valid for them.

And that a major plus side of home educating is that  everyone in the family gets some benefit....

Tama learns about noise, shape, texture and ripping with the brown paper!