In everyday life, when we see a bird, we say, “Oh, a bird!” and move on. Some members of the family don’t even notice them.
At Kirindy, it was completely different.
One Book, and the Whole Family Joined In
What we enjoyed most on this trip was bringing along a book covering the birds of Madagascar. The idea was simple: try to identify every bird we saw, one by one.
And this time, everyone got involved. Each of us scanned the branches, flipped through the pages, and compared colors, beak shapes, and sizes. We stopped saying “a bird” and started asking: which one is it?
It’s a wonderful way to learn. Observing, being patient, comparing, getting it wrong, trying again. But it also created moments that bonded us even more: everyone shared their finds, we had friendly arguments over identifications, and we celebrated together every time we named a bird. That’s what worldschooling is all about: learning together, in contact with the world.
The Sifakas: Way Too Cute
Besides the birds, we also saw lemurs, especially sifakas. They are simply too adorable! Watching them leap from branch to branch, so close to us, was a real joy for the whole family.
And they have a special trick: sifakas can bound on two legs, just like a human being. Seeing them hop upright across the ground, as if they were dancing, made us laugh and marvel at the same time
A Night Walk
We also went on a night visit, flashlight in hand, to discover a tiny lemur. The forest at night is nothing like the forest by day: the sounds, the shadows, the eyes glinting in the dark. It was a magical moment the children won’t soon forget.
Information we are happy to share
Kirindy is about 2 – 3 hours by road from Morondava. To get there, you pass through the famous Avenue of the Baobabs, which makes the journey a spectacle in itself.
This is also the region where you can encounter the famous fossa, the predator many people know from the Madagascar animated film. Seeing it in its real habitat is something else entirely compared to a screen!
Our Takeaway
Kirindy reminded us of something simple: we live among countless things every day, and we see them, but we rarely pay real attention. A bird in a tree, a sound in the forest, a movement in the branches: all of it passes by unnoticed.
But once we decide to look more closely, to listen, and to try to understand, everything changes. The world becomes richer, more detailed, more alive. All it took was a simple book and a bit of curiosity to turn a trip into a learning adventure, and to change the way we see things.
The next time we see a bird, we won’t say “Oh, a bird.” We’ll say its name.
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