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.

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. 

Hike in the Woods

I forgot to take my camera to the hike in the woods yesterday. And my hiking buddy forgot hers, too.

Of all the unfortunate times to forget a camera!

The kids climbed down into a dry creekbed. As they climbed down, they slid on their bottoms down the side of the bed. They ended up with these really dark stains on their hind ends! I looked down and these blackberry looking things were all over the dry creekbed. Where did those come from? Are they blackberries? Is there a vine? We looked all over and finally found a tree completely covered with these berries. It looks similar to this picture from Wikipedia.  Hmm. Interesting. I have never seen anything like it.

Then. Something even better happened. The kids got back on the trail. Suddenly, they yelled. "Come quick." (They were a little ahead of us, but we could still see them on the trail.) When we caught up with them, there were 4 baby armadillos right there in the woods.

What a bad day to forget a camera!

Nature Study --Observation of a Slug

Many of you know that I love gardening. I even have a blog dedicated to gardening.

In Anna Botsford Comstock's HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY, she discusses "Gardening and Nature Study" in her introductory section. She says that many people erroneously assume that just because they garden, their children are involved in nature study. This is not necessarily so, she argues. Even though gardening is a wonderful and healthy activity for a child, it must be purposely made into a nature study to become one.

She offers many suggestions for making a garden into a nature study for a child. One of these suggestions is to find out "what all these uninvited guests are doing" (page 20.) She advises us to not make the object of study into an item to be destroyed. On page 13, she gives the example of the cabbage butterfly. The child should be allowed to study the life cycle of the butterfly and be awed by this without any pressure that "this is a pest to be destroyed." If later, the child is focused on gardening, we can discuss how the cabbage butterfly is an enemy to the cabbage. The child's focus is on the cabbage at that point, and the child can easily accept the situation.

With these things in mind, we have spent a couple of days studying slugs in our yard. We are not studying them in connection with my garden (in which case they would be the enemy.)

I read pages 417 to 422 in HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY to myself. We brought a slug into the house once before I read the passage and then again after I had read it.

The children observed how slimy the slug is. They were very interested in how it moved and how it could stay on the side of a milk jug.

My son's drawing of the slug after observing it the first time. 

My daughter working on her drawing after the first observation. 

My youngest (2 years old) studying the slug on our milk jug (which
I use to take the compost outside.) 

After reading the article, I showed them the two sets of "horns." One contains his eyes at the end of these stalks. The smaller and lower ones contain his feeling organs to determine the nature of the things he is trying to crawl on. We spent some time putting our fingers in front of his eye horns and feeler horns to watch them get sucked into the body.

We observed the slug's breathing apparatus on one side of his body. We tried to get him to eat some apple, but were generally unsuccessful with this.

All in all, my children were totally engrossed in this study. They spent a great deal of watching this little slug.

Trying to get the slug to eat an apple. 

Barb, at the Handbook of Nature Study, has many suggestions for making nature study a part of your life. This month, she has suggested studying robins, the renewal that spring brings, and buds and catkins.  These are all studies that I want to do, but this slug study is the one my kids have been interested in right now. 

Craft Project for AWANA--tie dye shirts and socks

My children participate in AWANA at a local church. (AWANA is a scripture memory club for kids ages 3 to 6th grade. You do not have to be a member to attend. Churches all over the US host them, and the website will give you the location of the closest church offering AWANA.)

My children absolutely love it. It is one of the highlights of their week. They talk about what they did there all week long and look forward to the next week from the moment we pull out of the church parking lot.

This Wednesday, the AWANA program is doing "Silly Sock" Night. My son suggested we tie dye socks since he received a tie dye kit for Christmas. I thought this was a good idea. (Before I tried it. It was messy and took DAYS to complete the project.)

The end result turned out rather nicely, though, and the kids had a great time. They also love their socks. We made tie dye shirts to go with the socks. They plan to wear them tonight, too.

I kept the youngest busy with watercolors while we worked on the
tie dye. 

These are the original shirts and socks we used and the kit. The
shirts and socks are shown after we soaked them in sizing overnight and
then air dried them. 

I am helping my middle daughter mix the colors to tie dye her socks. 

Tie Dying Socks.

My son working on his tie dye.

The tie dyed clothing air drying. (I grew weary of this and look online for

instructions for dryer drying.)

One of the tie dyed shirts.

My son's finished tie dyed socks. 

The youngest got hold of a (non-washable) marker while I was 

finishing up with the others. She thought she looked "Pretty."

My middle daughter's finished silly socks.