Kids Learn to Fish

One of the many things that I love about the arrival of spring, is the many community events.  I regularly read the newspaper looking for events of interest and also try to locate events that may add to the children's schooling.  Yesterday we attended a "Kids Learn to Fish" event which is held annually in a neighboring community. We got up in the morning, I told the kids we would be going on an adventure and off we went. Normally I would have given them a lot of prep time and listed out exactly what we would be doing but as the weather didn't look the greatest I didn't want to get their hopes up if it didn't work out.   Out of the 9 children that attended with me only 2 had ever tried fishing so this was something different for most.

At this event they had many booths set up teaching a variety of skills.  They also had St John Ambulance their in case of an emergency, this was especially neat because 2 of my adult children where there as volunteers.  It is touching to me that events that my children attended years ago they are now volunteering at so others can have the same enjoyment they did.  

First we practiced casting with fishing rods - the fishing rods had small balls on the end of the line instead of hooks and they had a variety of targets that you could aim for as you practiced casting. We moved around to many booths learning a variety of skills - fish identifications, understanding fishing regulations, fly tying, knot tying etc.

 We then worked our way down to the lake where they had well stocked tanks of trout immersed into the lake off of the dock.  There were many volunteers that helped the children put their new fishing skills to work and they each had the opportunity to fish. By the time we got to fishing it had really started raining hard but 4 were still up to fishing.  Within about 10 minutes all 4 had caught their first fish.  The kids with sensory issues were  not eager to touch the fish, luckily they had a bucket for us.  They even gutted the fish before we brought them home.  

After completing all the events they had a kids "fish pond" where the kids won a variety of prizes.  One of our children won her own "fishing rod" which was very exciting.

shared at http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/