To the Country for the Day

On Sunday we went to a friend's house in the country for the day. She has four horses and a long-horned cow, a big yard to play in, and a barn!

My suburban-city kids were just about in heaven!

We got to pick blueberries from her bushes. The kids ran and ran in that big open area. They petted the horses. They walked down to the barn. They played in the horse's watering trough. They have several watering troughs, but this one was near the house behind a fence and the kids could not fall in, just get wet. My youngest was so excited to get to play in the water that she kissed the garden hose.  

All in all, it was a great day.

On the drive to my friends' house

Petting the horses

Picking blueberries

Review of Unashamed to Bear His Name By R T Kendall

I have never read any of Dr. Kendall's work. The author description says that he has written more than 50 books. This was a surprise to me, since I haven't even heard of the author.

I liked what the author had to say about the stigma of following Christ. I liked the way he pointed out the different stigmas associated with different parts of the God head. From page 158, "The truth is that all three persons of the Trinity have their own stigma. The stigma of God is that He is the most maligned person in the universe. He refuses to clear His name in advance of the Final Judgment. ... Second, there is the stigma of the Son of God--Jesus Christ. ... [W]e examine the stigma of the Holy Spirit--the Third Person of the Godhead."

There were many points I could agree with, and much to ponder in this book. It is well written and fairly concise at 200 pages.

I did find that many of the things were so deep or heavy that it bogged me down and I would have to put the book aside for a few days until I was ready to continue.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Bethany House for free in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation.

Slug and Snail Study

This month, one of the challenges listed in the newsletter section of the Handbook of Nature Study, was a snail study.

My children and I studied slugs on April 10, 2012. The thing is, the kids all were totally engrossed in the lesson. For this month, we re-read the information in the HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY. We brought another slug inside and studied it again, looking for all the parts listed in the book.

We found what gardeners call a "banana slug" and studied for a moment before we had to leave for our latest nature walk. It was huge. The foot on that thing was quite obvious. (Edited because I found out that this is not a banana slug, but a "great gray slug" that can reach 4 to 8 inches on maturity. There are banana slugs, but they are found in the Pacific Northwest, and are yellow with brown spots, like an overripe banana.)

We really were in a hurry, so we didn't have enough time to study it correctly, so we put it in a jar to study later. Unfortunately, it died in the jar before we returned home.

The kids were still enamored with slugs and snails. They were still studying them carefully every time we walked out the door, so I gathered several slugs and snails. I added some green bean leaves and a few drips of water. I put all this into our glass jar we always use to observe insects. And I set it on the table where we do our school work.

For several days now, we have had the privilege of observing these snails and slugs. They have been very interesting to watch. The children are still interested in these creatures, so I guess we will continue to observe them until either the snails and slugs die or the children lose interest.

I am submitting this entry into the Handbook of Nature Study Blog's Outdoor Nature Hour.

Serendipitous Nature Study of a Grasshopper

The other day, we were sitting at the kitchen table when we spotted a very large grasshopper on the window. There ensued a flurry of action and discussion which resulted in me going outside with a glass jar and capturing the bugger.

My oldest and youngest were completely entranced by this strange creature, but my middle daughter took one look and then went calmly to the other side of the room. She was a little freaked out by it.

We got down the HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY, and I read them everything the book had to say about grasshoppers. I guess if we had been more familiar with them, we could have identified which type of grasshopper this was, but we had to be content with the information she provided in the general grasshopper section.

We were able to view the different parts of the grasshopper. Because this creature was so large, we were able to clearly see the different parts of its leg listed on page 339, the two sets of wings, the simple eye and the compound eye.

We totally agreed with Ms. Comstock's assessment that "the grasshopper's face has a droll expression; would that some caricaturist would analyze it! It is a long face, and the compound eyes placed high upon it give it the look of solemnity"

We tried to feed it, but it wouldn't "bite."

It was fascinating to see, and for me, a little disconcerting. A grasshopper that big could make short work of my garden by itself.


You can see what others are learning from the HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY at The Handbook of Nature Study blog. Barb has an excellent Blog Carnival every month. I learn so much from my fellow homeschoolers and their nature studies.

I am submitting this for her blog carnival.

Spring Nature Walk-- Building Fairy Houses

We went on a nature walk with several homeschooling families on April 23, 2012. We went to the Mobile Botanical Gardens. There was a good turn out, with many boisterous children, and moms trying to keep up with their broods.

This was an interesting trip, since the leader set it up as a fairy and gnome "hunt." After walking around the Botanical Gardens, she sat with the children and shared a couple of books about fairies and gnomes. Then she had them try their hands at building "fairy houses."

The boys were sitting, rolling their eyes during her talk about fairies and gnomes, but you should have seen it... the boys were more interested in building the fairy houses out of available nature materials than the girls were.

Watching a Garden employee feed the fish

The Garden employee pointing out a frog just under the water

Kim telling the children about fairies and gnomes

Walking to the fern garden, where they were going to make their fairy houses

My son's fairy house

Two boys gathering moss for their fairy house

I am linking up with Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study for this month's Outdoor Hour Blog Challenge.

Paint Like Monet

I decided to start a new artist unit study with my kids. I have 2 children's books about 2 Impressionist artists, so I decided that I would start work on one of these. Claude Monet will be the first one we study.

Here's the cute book we are using as we study Monet. This whole series uses the idea of a school class studying an artist and has a "student" tell what he or she has learned about the artist. There are reproductions of several of the artists main works. (Singly, this is a cute idea, but when reading many of the books, I think the repetitive nature of the books gets tedious.) Anyway, it works for my children studying Monet right now.

Today we decided to paint like Monet. We looked at the reproductions of Monet's paintings in Sunshine and Waterlilies.  Then we went outside to try our hand at painting.

I set up the paints and covered the table and the children. 

The youngest working on her painting. We always use nontoxic watercolors
for her. 

Here's the scene we were attempting to paint. 

My son had the right idea. He simplified his until he was able to
get a good picture of a tree. 

Here's mine. It's been a long time since I have worked with water color, and I
am definitely out of practice with it. 

Here's the youngest's painting. She said that was a tree. 

Here's the thing my middle daughter came up with. The thing at
the bottom actually looks a good bit like our crepe myrtle. 

The idea for this project came from the wonderful book:

Swallow Tail Kite Sighting

I have seen swallow tail kites about eight times in two years. They are a rarely seen bird, and their species is under pressure. They are simply stunning to watch as the swoop and soar on the wind currents. They hardly ever flap their wings.

In all the times I have seen them, I have never had the opportunity to photograph them. Yesterday, while I was attending my middle daughter's soccer game with my camera around my neck, I saw one. I was able to get a few photos.

I was able to observe two of them. They appeared to follow each other. One would soar very high, to the point that they were only a very tiny speck of black against the blue sky. Then the other would follow. Then they would both glide gracefully down to a point just above the trees. They stayed in view for over 15 minutes.

It was absolutely breath-taking!

My daughter lost her game, but I could not get very worked up about it, because I was sitting where I could watch these fascinating creatures for a longer period of time than I have ever been able to view them.

Were they mating?

If you are interested in joining a Citizen Action Committee for the Swallow Tail Kites, you can go to this site.  
My husband and I participate by documenting every time we spot the swallow tail kites. Last year they contacted us by phone for more information and they sent us a summary of the things they learned from their research.

Here are some other pictures of this amazing creature. None of these others are as good as the first one.

Do you see the black smudge on the cloud? That's the swallow tail kite.

Top left corner in this photo. 

About center of the photo and a little low to the right.