Garden Sounds

As part of our efforts to get C to speak we have been advised to spend time getting her to listen, so she can clearly hear the sounds that are being spoken.

Last weekend we sat in the garden and listened.
The sun was shining and there was little breeze so we listened to the sounds of spring around us.
The cooing of a pigeon.
The cawing of a crow
The rat-a-tat of a woodpecker from the woods at the back of the house.
The tweeting of a little bird somewhere in the hedgerow.
The meowing of one of our cats trying to get our attention as we listened.
The bleating of newborn lambs in a nearby field.
The whirr of an aeroplane in the distance.


C was especially interested in the woodpecker sound as it occurred randomly and was quite distinctive from anything else.

It was quite nice for me too.  Just to sit and listen, and enjoy the sounds of the countryside that we had worked hard to be able to afford to move to.

This exercise reminded me of a book I used to have as a child.
It's out of print in the UK now I think, but I did finally manage to track a copy down recently.  Reading this book after we had come indoors allowed us to carry on the discussion of the outside sounds we had heard.  It was good to see C linking up the two in her head.

For those that didn't encounter this lovely story in their childhood it is about owl who is trying to sleep during the day but is continuously kept awake by all the noisy animals going about their daily business in the tree.  The tables are then turned when night falls and all the other animals go to sleep...

You can listen to the story in full here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/pat-hutchins-good-night-owl/1086.html