Mosquitos & Microscopes

During today's ongoing study of insects, we brought out the microscopes. We have several prepared slides of various insect parts, and used those to further continue studying the insect parts we're reading about this week such as the legs, wings, head, etc. We also have various parts from a wasp which we squashed after he found his way into the house. His legs and wings are by far the coolest we've seen!



We rely heavily on the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock to further our study of various insects. If you enjoy nature studies, this book is a must have. Today we collected mosquito larvae from a container outside and observed their behavior. We read about the different stages of the mosquitos, and made sure to collect both a larvae and a pupa. Then, in the name of science, I added flea spray to their water and killed them so that we could study them under the microscope. It was impossible to do so while they were living because they simply wouldn't stay still long enough. Suffice it to say that I don't think we will EVER look at mosquito larvae the same again. Here is a close up of our specimens. The long skinny one is the mosquito larvae, and the fat rounder one is the pupa. He is getting close to hatching and becoming a full grown, blood thirsty mosquito. Makes me not feel so bad about his death.



In case your interested in doing your own nature studies, I highly recommend doing the Outdoor Hour Challenges hosted here. Our mosquito study was the first challenge in her summer challenge series.

Week in Review - Frogs, fruit & fun!

This week was our first week back to our regular school schedule. If you read my earlier post, we've decided to try a more year round school schedule. I like short sessions with more breaks built in throughout the year, rather than going for 9 months and then getting 2 months off in the summer.

So... some exciting things that happened at our house this week:

The frogs finally arrived! We have been waiting since March 19th for these cute little guys! Here's a look back at their growth over the past three months.




Three days after we collected them and the eggs are already changing!



Two days later and they've hatched. I put this tiny guy into a petri dish so that I could get a good picture of him.



Now the waiting begins. First they just get bigger and bigger, and then finally...back legs appear, we watch as they get even bigger and stronger. Finally, front legs appear! Just about there...



Shortly thereafter, after watching them for 3 months and 6 days, success! A frog!! Is he cute or what?



We have fruit! We have a bunch of cantaloupes and watermelons growing in our small garden. We have tiny watermelons growing five feet off the ground. The largest one is about two feet up. I can't wait until they get huge! What a sight that will be. This is a science experiment in itself! Who thinks the vines will hold? I've been assured that they will. We saw HUGE pumpkins growing about 8 feet off the ground at Epcot. The boys are so excited. The cantaloupes are Ryan's, and the watermelons are Adam's.

Creepy Crawlies and more!

I realize everyone's probably sick and tired of my bug pictures by now, but seeing as we're studying them at the moment, I seem to have created a new obsession. I figure we'll have lots of cool pictures for our insect notebooking pages, or at the very least, subjects to use while drawing in our journals. Regardless, its rather fun to go outside and see what you can find. Even with the unbearable heat, I've managed to drag the kids outside for a few minutes to do a nature study. Here are some of our recent discoveries.



This guy is rather creepy looking, but considering its just the exoskeleton, completely harmless. If you didn't know already, its a cicada. My boys were endlessly fascinated with it, especially since putting it anywhere within sight distance of their sister is sure to elicit screams of pure terror. Somebody please explain to me why someone would be terrified of something that isn't even alive and couldn't hurt you even if it was. After reading about them, and listening to them outside, Adam has announced that they are his favorite "insect music". Better yet was the fact that we had just read about exoskeletons, and then managed to find one of the largest ones around. Not bad for a few minutes walk!



The praying mantis...so cool, yet so freaky. There is just something about an insect that can turn its head and look at you with those bulging eyes and grinding mandibles that just gives me the creeps. I do think they're totally cool though. We even raised a bunch of them a couple of years ago. We purchased an egg case and watched it for what seemed like FOREVER, to wake up one day to find what looked like thousands of tiny mantises crawling all over their enclosure. My daughter and I let them go outside, after she let them crawl all over her ((YUCK)), and I always wonder if the ones we find now are relatives of the ones we hatched. Wouldn't that be cool?



This one is by far my favorite. He was busy eating and pollinating to his heart's content on my butterfly bush. He is a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. He looks an awful lot like a bumblebee, but he flies like a hummingbird. He's quite friendly and will come right up to you just to say hi. The kids were rather intimidated by him because of his resemblance to a bee.



Okay, I do realize that this guy is not an insect, but rather, a spider. I simply thought that anything that can make a web this intricate deserved his spot on the blog. Isn't it beautiful? I wonder why he spins the pattern in the center of his web? Does it serve some purpose? Something to ponder on I guess...

Sweet Shot Tuesday

Since I've been taking lots of pictures lately, I thought I would share a few of my favorites. Firstly, my son avoiding the summer heat in the pool. Isn't he a cutie?





We saved this guy from drowning in the pool. He's drying out on my hydrangea bush.



Lastly, I just couldn't resist this one. Its almost like they're saying hi to each other.

Nature Studies

Today we began our study of Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. Because its summer, we opted to start our study with insects instead of birds, which we'll cover next. After reading through today's lesson, we headed over to the pond near our house. Armed with my favorite nature study book, Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study, and my camera, we braved the sweltering temperatures. I think at this point, I enjoy it more than they do. After many complaints about the itchy grass, the heat, the possibility of seeing a snake (remind me not to warn them about this prior to the trip), and the lack of restrooms, we made some awesome discoveries. This is how they spent the visit, aside from running over to see what I found. Notice that they are in the shade attempting to keep cool.



Meanwhile, with sweat dripping off my nose (quite literally), I found this guy while searching the shoreline diligently. Anyone care to guess what it is?



Give up? Its a dragonfly nymph (with two tiny snails hitching a ride on his head). On previous trips, we had seen them in the water, and their exoskeletons on the grass by the shore, but I'd never seen one in the process of crawling out of the water to dry out and complete its transformation to a dragonfly. Very cool! Here's a better picture...minus the snails.



Kinda creepy, but also cool. Especially if you do your research on these fascinating insects. After drying out, their skin splits open, and out crawls this beautiful dragonfly. I took tons and tons of pictures of various dragonflies, and I won't post them all, but here are a few of my favorites.





I also managed to get a picture of a damselfly laying her eggs in the pond. If you look closely, you can see her body curled around under her, beneath the surface of the water.



Lastly, I'll share some of the other pond residents we encountered during our visit. Enjoy...

Year Round Schooling

This year we're trying something a bit different with our schoolwork. We're not taking the usual two month long Summer break. To be honest, we get bored. Maybe I should rephrase that to say that I get bored. I've been looking into changing our 2010/2011 school year to something resembling a year round schedule. I have found that the kids get so out of the school mind frame that it takes forever to get them back into the routine. Without that long break I'm hoping to avoid that. Another added bonus is that it allows us to take more breaks throughout the year. I really need that. With a year round schedule, we can have a week break almost every month and still go over our 180 days that I'm required to teach. It allows us to have a much more flexible schedule overall.

We finished up our 2009/2010 school year in mid May, took the end of May and the first two weeks of June off, and will be starting back to school on Monday. The month of July will be a bit sparse with the twins' birthday and other Summer activities, but we will be having school none the less.

What does your school year look like?

Week in Review

We had a busy week this time. Tuesday was Haley's 10th birthday, and we spent that day at the mall where we went to all her favorite stores and went to lunch at the restaurant of her choice. That night was a big event too, since Adam's loose tooth finally decided to come out. It had been loose since April, and his permanent tooth was already in right behind the baby tooth. This was his first tooth to fall out, and he's almost 7! He was so proud!



I spent several days toward the end of the week making Haley's cake for her party on Saturday. I make everything from scratch, so it does take some planning. She wanted a dog themed party, and was quite pleased with how her cake turned out.



On Saturday, we had her party. She had a bunch of her friends over for a playdate, with cake, ice cream, and dog bone shaped cookies. She managed to blow out all 10 candles on the first try!



How was your week?