A lesson in biology.

On Saturday morning Mirek went fishing. It always amazes me how he can after working so hard for the whole week and waking up so early every day for work, can still wake up even earlier (at 4 am) on a Saturday and go fishing!

Fishing is Mirek's hobby that he kind of gave up since the girls were born. When we were childless and worry free, he had introduced me to fishing. I could have never imagined that it's so much fun and so relaxing. We used to go fishing together to one of the lakes in upstate New York, we went fishing in the Delaware river catching perch and carp, and even went twice on a boat for the deep sea fishing. Once in NJ, on a boat "Norma K." that departs from Point Pleasant beach, and the other time when we were vacationing on Florida Keys. The first time I so enjoyed the thrill of feeling the fish fighting you, and was fortunate to pull a couple of blue fish aboard. But in Florida I was too sea sick to enjoy even the beautiful scenery. Oh, well.. at least Mirek had a fantastic time! But the next day I again felt adventurous and we went for a night fishing in the lagoon in John Pennekamp camp site. We used alive shrimps as a bait and we had a nonstop action. I was catching the same fish over and over again (we were releasing them back into the water), and then I had to stop because that fish already had a ripped mouth, but was still hungry for the shrimps. I guess it was a very smart fish as it knew that it was safe to go after the shrimp because it would be let go back into the water!

On Saturday morning Ivana woke up asking me where her Tata was. And when I told her he went fishing she was very upset that he didn't take her. She has her own fishing rod and loves to go fishing with Mirek on a boat on the lake in the Poconos.

So, yesterday she was anxiously awaiting for him to come back home to tell him not to exclude her from the fun activity next time. But when Mirek came back with a couple of bass fish and got busy filleting them, she was not that upset anymore. She got so excited to see how Tata would clean the fish and of course wanted to help! Well, what do you tell her? Even for some adults it feels gross to touch a fish, but not for our little girl. She was the most excited about the chance to see and touch the organs that we had been reading about in the books on human anatomy.

Well, I got some looks from our downstairs neighbor when our soon to be 5 yo was running towards them to greet her friend, a 4 yo old boy, and boasting with pure enthusiasm, "Look, I got bloody hands! Do you want to touch the fish?" No, he did not want to...

So, I guess we've had today what they call "hands on" learning approach.