Thursday, 5:28 p.m. Light fading, beautiful clearing sky after storms. Gabe is playing basketball at our hoop in the side yard, and I see a striking set of what I think are altocumulus and stratus clouds in the eastern sky. Gabe stops what he’s doing—being constantly in motion, Gabe is always doing something—and we grab a camera and he snaps this picture.
Cloud watching is not precisely an activity in The Dangerous Book for Boys, but it has a section on cloud formations (p. 113) and it has inspired us to look for different types of clouds and take pictures of them. One thing I’ve discovered is that letting your child wield a camera can turn a seemingly passive activity (such as looking at clouds) into an active one. Obviously, if your camera is valuable (or even if it’s not), you may have to watch him like a hawk so he doesn’t drop it or wreck it. (One answer is to get him a cheap one that’s his to use as he wishes. Then if he breaks it or loses it, well, that’s no good but at least you’re not out of a bunch of money.) But photography is a nifty and fun skill for children to learn, and the chance to do it might stir some interest in an activity they might otherwise be less than thrilled about participating in.
Turning Passive into Active
March 25, 2009 by Kevin Nelson
[...] junior Ansel Adams has snapped cumulonimbus clouds (see here) and altocumulus and stratus (and here). Now here’s a cirrus to add to his list, taken on a recent outing to Clear [...]
[...] junior Ansel Adams has snapped cumulonimbus clouds (see here) and altocumulus and stratus (and here). Now here’s a cirrus to add to his list, taken on a recent outing to Clear [...]