The children have a book titled "Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Do You Know Me?". The general format of the book is that on each two page spread there is an insect on the left page accompanied by a short verse about the flower which is pictured on the right page of the spread.
When I go through the book with the children they do quite well on naming the insects. Out of nine insects shown, they easily identify six of them: bumblebee, butterfly, cricket, ladybug, spider (not an insect, I know!), and dragonfly. They don't know the june bug, katydid, and leafhopper. Those are not bugs we see in Alaska and they are not common in books.
The trio does abysmally on naming flowers. The only sure i.d. they give is the sunflower. They do name the rose a rose, but they often call the tulip and poppy a rose, too. (These flowers come before the rose in the book.) Rose seems to be their generic term for pretty red or pink flower.
On a really good day the group can correctly identify the daisy and poppy, but the daffodil, tulip, iris, lily, zinnia and morning glory baffle them. Morning glories are rare in Alaska and zinnias are not currently sold by most nurseries, but daffodils, tulips, lilies, and irises are very common--we have the first three in our flower bed!
The score is bugs 6/9 known to flowers 2-4/10 known. That's sad. Flowers are much prettier and (in my opinion) much more deserving of full recognition. I've looked online for flower flash cards, but I could not find any.
I've told Mark there is a (dire!) need for a flower identification game for the iPad and he ought to create one. I'm tired of flash cards, memory tiles, puzzles and computer games that feature zoo animals, pets, farm pals, sea creatures, dinosaurs, even dragons, unicorns, and the like. Mark probably wouldn't make a fortune with a flower game, but maybe he'd make enough money to purchase a new camera to take more flower photos.
P.S. There's a lack of children's books about flowers, too. This is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Flowers are BEAUTIFUL and many of them smell wonderful. What animal can you say that about?
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