Cloudy With A Chance Of Worms

The children are having a royal Charlotte Mason day. Throughout the morning and afternoon, their excitement has been building upon itself. First it was the discovery of one black and orange caterpillar. Shortly later, they came back with a bug box of three more. And then, with ever increasing fanfare they were announcing that they had eleven, and that they were everywhere.


Upon this announcement, it was time to look up just what exactly was taking over our front yard. The answer - worms. To be more specific, the Oakworm. They really look like a full blown caterpillar, but a beautiful butterfly body is not in their future. Instead, after feeding on our White Oak tree in the front yard they are dropping off by the tens and crawling all over the driveway and ground to look for a cozy spot to burrow over the winter. It literally looks like and sounds like the sky is falling as they Kamakazie off the tree down to the ground.

I'm in a bit of a pickle myself. Rather than a lovely caterpillar fest, I've got a worm fest eating my tree and burrowing in the ground to do it again next year. But you can't get more in the field! We found a beautiful patch of eggs on a leaf, a worm in the process of shedding it's skin, and of course the migration from host to burrow. Pretty cool...except the whole eating my tree and squishing under my toes part.

Montessori Tray: Vertebrates & Invertebrates

It has been quite awhile since I listed any Montessori-ish activities, but this one counts. The children spent part of the morning today learning about the difference between Vertebrates and Invertebrates. Once they had a general idea, we used this sorting tray to sort out each animal properly. Easy enough, and lots of hands on fun for the children.

Ehem...I myself need to go back to Biology 101 and learn how to spell. It wasn't until after I printed and laminated the cards last week, perfomed the lesson today and THEN took the photo this afternoon that I realized my errors. My head is hanging in shame, but the stubborn streak in me refuses to reprint and laminate again.

What Happens When The Teacher Gets Sick?

Today I was less then capable of being an effective teacher. The teacher has managed to get sick and lose her voice the first week back in school. With the heavy Charlotte Mason emphasis on reading and living books, it is especially difficult to carry out my duties. But it was fun for the kids since they got to swarm around Dad as he read the material for Friday, and Grace was able to show off her narration skills she's developed so well.

I tried my best to rearrange our school day schedule and get the kids to enjoy a little of the good weather in the morning before the storms rolled in by noon. It was short lived, but I was pretty impressed with their scavenger skills. Laid up on the couch, I told them to go outside and bring me back 5 interesting things. Apparently that was too broad, as they were back in 30 seconds, saying they couldn't find anything interesting. So, putting on my CM hat and keeping our current rodent nature study in mind, I asked them to find the remainder of a nutshell that had been eaten by a squirrel. They bolted out the door all excited, and I actually scolded myself for giving them such a hard task (fully thinking they wouldn't find anything). To my astonishment, Grace and Jack were back in 5 minutes with their find: two acorn caps still held together by a small twig - both caps showing clear evidence of being broken on one side by the teeth of a squirrel who extracted the acorn. Unbelievable...they actually found it.

The second request was for a stick that had something interesting. They came back in another five minutes and said they had found a tree that was brown on one side and had green on the other side, but that they couldn't bring that in.

The third (and last) request was cruel. I told them to find a coccoon. I was tired and was trying to have them get a little more air time then 5 minutes here and there. That didn't happen.

So the children huddled up in the green room with me and we watched a Netflix movie called Winged Migration - a full hour of footage with little narration about the migration of various bird species. When the rain hit in the afternoon we cracked open the books.

A Longing for Summer Again?

I'm not sure what triggered the reversion, but the children have suddenly taken up their butterfly studies again. They have been playing The Butterfly Game that we purchased from The North American Butterfly Association for the last three days. And for two days, Jack had the entire Butterfly Fandex (taken apart for better viewing) strewn all over his bedroom. I came in yesterday to find that there was a long trail of butterflies laid out and what appeared to be a pile of discarded butterflies off to the side. When I inquired about the line up, Jack said, those were the butterflies that were beautiful to him.

Unfortunately, the line up was situated right in the pathway between his door and his bed, so the "beautiful" butterflies were starting to look trampled. This evening we took 12 of his beautiful butterfly nominees and placed them on a corkboard, so he could have them displayed for his viewing pleasure in his room. Grace also selected 12 of her favs and we squeezed them between one of those cheap plastic large frames you can purchase for posters. In the midst of the organizing, I caught Grace and Jack laughing that they weren't going to pick the stinky butterfly. When I asked which one was stinky, Grace and Jack immediately identified it as the Common Mormon caterpillar. I couldn't believe they recalled that small tidbit of information, from our Butterfly of the Day moments. These little ones are such giant sponges.

Ink Blots...But With Leaves

Today at the park Jack came to me with a small white oak leaf. Showing me the fallen leaf, he said, "Look ma, the leaf looks like one of those sting fish."

That morning we had just watched together as a family our 3rd Blue Planet CD about the ocean. Included in this CD was a clip about an extremely large manta ray combing the deep ocean for food. I looked at the leaf, and Jack was right. It did look very close to a manta ray in form.

The children love the Blue Planet DVDs. They have been so much more educational than a half hour of "Miffy" or "Dora" before breakfast in the morning. Watching their cartoon choice in the morning, the kids become lumps, but with the Blue Planet DVDs they are on the edge of the couch asking 101 questions.

A Glimpse Beyond Imagination

Tonight was a very special night for the children. I had asked Ken to order from Netflix a number of documentaries on tidepool and sea life. So this evening they were treated with an all lights off viewing of The Blue Planet's: Sea's of Life: Seasonal Seas. I think I might have heard a few complete sentences of the narration. The entire viewing was filled with questions and excited exclamations.

Jack watched as the kelp below swayed under a storm above, and he asked if there was wind in the ocean. How do you show that in a book? Other than reading Pagoo, and the usual army of library books, I realized that the kids are really in the dark about the movement of the ocean. And the sounds of the ocean under water. It is amazing how an under water camera can open up and capture a whole new world even on a flat TV screen. Some of the scenes are absolutely surreal. We all sat in awe as the camera panned over hundreds and hundreds of jellyfish.

I'm glad we did a majority of our reading first before turning on the TV. Grace was able to recognize many of the animals mentioned in Pagoo. But it was the TV that placed those pictures on the pages in motion.

New Wall Art For The Room

A bit late in the game, I ordered a sea shell identification poster from Dover. I had debated earlier on purchasing it, but realized it would be quite helpful to the children as we moved further into our study.

The children have an amazing gravitation to posters. I usually have to keep them in a cheap plastic protector and keep on the on the ground for weeks as they "ooo" and "ahh" over whatever is displayed. Today's arrival was no different. They hit the ground with me as I was inserting it into the cover; one tackling and pointing out the seashells they knew, the other inquiring about new kinds of shells.

It was a bit of a test incognito, and fun to watch. Grace started getting out a few shells she knew and laying them over the top of the poster specimens. So, mama feels good that I went ahead and made the purchase.

Neck Deep in Sea Shell Identification

Do you realize how difficult it is to identify seashells? You'd think it would be an easy task. I walked into our Nature Study this term thinking we'd have a blast memorizing and identifying shell types, but what I have discovered is that before I can tell my children what they are, I have to be sure that I have correctly identified them myself! And for some reason, this has been difficult, despite having a condensed Peterson guide next to me.

So last night and for a couple of hours this morning, I laid out all of our purchased shells, personal shells, and a few new ones I purchased yesterday from Hobby Lobby and set to work. Ken even sat down and helped me out for an hour. Grace was ecstatic to be part of the action, and liked to help solve our pile of "mystery" shells.

By noon today, I had two clear plastic craft boxes, full of sorted and labeled gastropods and univalves. And I'm confident that I have everything 95% correct. It wasn't until almost everything was sorted that I discovered a great web site for shell identification (and I've been looking hard ever since this study started). I highly recommend visiting: SeashellWorld.com

It was a big part in solving some of my mystery shells, and correcting my misidentification. Just in case you are losing sleep over it, a Trapezium Whelk Shell is the same as a Horse Conch Shell. If you haven't a clue as to what I am saying - you'll thank me later.

Montessori Tray: Seashell Sorting

Items Needed: Large Grab Bag of Seashells, Sectioned Box, Bowl

We have a wooden box from Hobby Lobby that is sectioned into eight squares. In each square I place a specific type of shell. The child then has a bowl of shells that contain 5-10 matches to eight various types of seashells (example: scallop, cockle, murex, snail, horn, etc) that have been placed in their respective slots. The bowl the child has before them may contain about 50 shells to match. The task for the child is to focus their attention on the shape and style of a seashell, while ignoring variations in color or size, matching the shells from the bowl into the correct bins.

It may be necessary to stress that the child is only to look at the shape of the shell, and not sort on color or size.

This exercise has been performed throughout our Fish and Crustacean study and it is one that my children never tire from performing.

The Autumn Joy Is Blooming

Autumn always makes viewing bug behavior way too easy at our house. We have three incredibly large Autumn Joy plants (really bushes) that attract every type of insect you can imagine, and they are just beginning to open their large heads full of tiny blooms. Right now, there are constantly butterflies in the yard, but the Autumn Joy is attracting some new ones. Our main blog picture above, is a butterfly Grace spotted while doing the Slip n' Slide today. She remarked that it was new to the yard, and the light was just perfect for a photo.

I really like the name of this butterfly, "American Lady".

Microscope 101: Ponds, Webs & Microbes

Grace found the new microscope and prepared slides a week ago, so I promised her that since we didn't have any "school" on the weekend, we could break out the microscope. Today, Grace and I sat down and reviewed some prepared slides to start: insect legs, earthworm cross-section, etc. And then we sought out our fish pond water and some other items to prepare a few slides. This was a blast!

Our first pond water sample was a little weak on life, with only a few paramecium and suckers whizzing by way too fast to identify. Our second sample of pond water had a water mite swimming around that we were able to catch and place on a slide. Here he is:


Next we took a sample of a spider web over the pond, and we discovered that there is much more to a web than first meets the eye. It looks like a strand of pearls with sticky globules that help the prey stick to the web. We also discovered that our web sample had a tiny leg still stuck to it from a previous meal (not pictured):


Our last water pond sample was the ultimate find. There was life and activity everywhere, of which mom is scrambling to identify. I'm still not positive on the identification of the larvae, but my best guess after some research is this is a mosquito larvae. Below are two pictures: the head and a portion of the body. The body was teaming with paramecium and other microbes. We were also able to record video. (I love this scope!) Below are two pictures:

The Discovery Of Mosquito Larvae

Yesterday evening, while the children and I were outside, we noticed that a tarp we have had sitting outside in a ruffled heap had movement in some water puddles that had settled. Upon closer examination, it was clear that the small pools of water had "wrigglers" and other water bugs present. The wrigglers were clearly mosquito larvae, so hopefully, Saturday, can be another "Microscope Day".

Fly! Be Free!

Today marked the official release date of our two praying mantis and the grasshopper. The mantis were happy to be released on a large patch of Black-eyed Susans. Later, we went back to check on them and counted three...so it must have been a popular location. The grasshopper was released into a patch of Lamb's Ear. Below is a picture of Grace freeing the grasshopper.


The release date did include a bit of drama. I originally had placed the first mantis on the daylily leaves seen in the picture. He just had this look...like he wanted to jump. (Note to self: listen to your intuition). I told Grace to watch the first mantis, while I went back into the house for the second. As I was catching the second in the house, I was interrupted by blood curdling screams, sobs, and feet pounding up on the deck. The mantis had decided to jump on her leg while I was away, and the feeling was a bit too unfamiliar for her. Ken had been brought out to the deck as well by the screams, and the looks exchanged between the two of us were almost too much to hide the laughter. (BTW, the mantis was located and found unharmed).

The Season Must Be Ripe For Skippers

Today was a day to just sit by the verbena and watch what came passing by for a drink. We grabbed our butterfly identification book and thumbed through, as this and that butterfly stopped by. Everything we saw was a skipper...but we saw such a large variety. Everything from the large Silver Streaked Skipper to the little Fiery Skipper.

The Skippers are interesting in that they seem pretty fast in flight, but at the same time they'll let you practically touch them when they are on a flower.

Identify This Seashell

The children kicked off their aquatic studies this term with a shell identification tray. The goal being that they find a shell and then try to locate a shell similar in the Peterson guide. Below is Grace deep in thought (not really).

We marked pages in the guide with a small sticky that we felt best represented the shell. Later, as the kids become more familiar with the names of shell families will move on to more difficult games. But for at least the first month, they really seem to be enjoying the individualities of the shells themselves.

Moth Riker Mount Completed

The last two moths were identified by Grace today and copied to be added to the riker mount. It is rewarding for all of us to see this process completed and surprisingly professional. Pretty cool.

Spread 'Em!

For this terms butterfly and moth study, I purchased a wonderful sample of about 35+ butterflies and moths that are native to the Southeast region of the US from a venor online. This has been a big hit with the children, and has caused much excitement and anticipation. It has also resulted in at least two pulverized butterfly specimens.

The specimens arrive (dead, of course), and with their wings closed. Each one is invidually wrapped. It feels like Christmas all over again to reveal what beautiful specimen is underneath the paper. To open the wings, you relax them by injecting boiling water into their abdomens, and placing them in a humid relaxing chamber for 24-48 hours. Once relaxed, their wings can be laid flat on a spreader and pinned down with paper and pins to dry.

After experimenting with a number of samples graciously included in the set, relaxing the butterflies has worked out surprisingly well. Yesterday was my first attempt at relaxing the butterflies and moths that I would really like the children to focus on. And this morning we set about spreading the moths that had relaxed well(The Sphinx varieties).

For prep, the kids cut on straight lines to make strips of paper to lay over the wings. For Grace (5) this is a breeze, but for Jack (3), being lefthanded with no lefthanded scissors this was more difficult and frustrating. Note to self...buy lefty scissors. We were able to successfully spread the Tobacco Hornworm Moth, Pink-spotted Hawk Moth, White-lined Sphinx, and Rustic Sphinx Moth. These are all HUGE moths that were able to take on a lot of the injected water, which is why I think they relaxed the easiest.

Tomorrow Grace will have the task of identifying the moths from a group of pictures, and then for copywork, labeling the moths that were place this evening in a riker mount.

Am I Going To Lay An Egg?

Taking advantage of a huge painting bonanza that seems to be going on in our playroom this week, Grace and Mom traced around some of our wooden half eggs of different sizes and then made 2D replicas of a number of bird eggs including: the chickadee, mockingbird, loon and robin. Tomorrow we'll be cutting them out and adding them to paper nests for display. Grace used a number of field guides for reference and did an excellent job of working on matching the colors of the eggs to the field guides. After using a lot of brown and beige, she let out a big sigh and asked when she would get to use her orange, purple and yellow paint on an egg. After wrapping things up, she had free reign over painting and entire page of bright neon eggs.The highlight of our conversation during egg painting (and one that will stay near and dear to my heart):

Mom? Am I going to lay an egg?
No, hun you are not going to lay an egg.
Is my gerbil going to lay an egg?
No. Gerbils are like people. Their eggs stay inside.
Mom?
Yes?
You had two eggs!
Me...and Jack.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of...

...bird song. As the kids are out on the swing set, and our back door is open, the air is a-buzz with our daily visitors. Our most frequent birds are still the chickadees and tufted titmice. The red finch and sparrows have also dropped by for a bite. My personal favorite are the chickadees who do a fun swooping toward the feeder (as if they were riding an air roller coaster).We have another new visitor who has just popped up today, which may be the same bird Grace was trying to mention to me today. I've never seen him before in this neck of the woods. Just a little guy, with white, black and brown on his head...back to the bird books.

I Heard A Bird Mom!

Grace and Jack have a new sensitivity to bird sounds. They will run in from various rooms in the house, saying, "Mom! I hear a bird!" while the radio is playing loudly or Ken and I are talking. Today I watched from a window as they turned instantly in the direction of a blue jay screeching while they were outside. With interest, they began to creep up the stairs on our lawn to see how close they could get to our neighbor's birch tree (the retreat for the birds between seeding collecting).