City Mice, Country Mice

This school year so far has slightly resembled the fable "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse."

In August, when school began, we lived in a smallish brick home on a busy street in the city. For recess each day, the kids played outside in our small backyard, with strict instructions to never leave our property or get too close to the road. They quickly tired of playing in the small yard and yearned for more freedom - freedom I could not grant because of the neighborhood in which we lived.

At the end of September, we moved into our new home, on 5 acres of land in the middle of the country. The kids roam the property, playing in and out of the woods, leaping over the small stream, never tiring of playing and exploring.

Hannah has named her favorite trees, and she constantly shows me interesting bugs she finds. The first day, Hannah excitedly brought me a giant leopard moth caterpillar, and this weekend, we laughed together at the dancing of a colony of beech blight aphids on a tree branch. We also found a particularly odd cluster of bugs, which we finally identified as adult and nymph oak tree hoppers. And, this evening, Becca discovered a walking stick in the living room as she headed up to bed. The kids love looking up and identifying all of the interesting species of bugs.

Of course, the one type of bug none of them like is spiders, particularly the wolf spiders which keep coming into our home. Yesterday, Hannah picked up her sneaker and a large one fell out, and today, one kept creeping out from under the wall in the school room as we worked. Josh finally caught that one this evening and relocated it to the barn, hoping that might keep it from returning to the house.

We also all enjoy seeing wildlife we rarely or never saw in the city - dozens of deer, chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, cardinals, sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees, Carolina wrens, tufted titmice, downy woodpeckers, and red-bellied woodpeckers. Two mornings, we even had a great blue heron land in the yard! And, this is only autumn. I cannot imagine all of the birds and animals that will be here in the summer! Hannah has been begging to work on her bird project again, creating her own bird guide for all of the different birds she sees. I love that all of this nature and beauty surrounding us inspires them to want to learn.

(See the deer in that photo? I am amazed at how well they blend in, especially in the evening.)

We have definitely had to adjust quite a bit to living in the country, but we love it. My kids (and I) may be "city mice," but unlike the mouse in Aesop's fable, we feel perfectly at home in the country and have no desire to go back. This city mouse would rather be a country mouse any day!

Explorer Camp

What a busy autumn we have had! We traveled nearly every weekend in October - to Grove City College for our homecoming and Josh's reunion, to Josh's family's house for a fall festival, and to my parents' cabin in Pennsylvania for a nice visit. In between, we squeezed in Hannah's seventh birthday party, too! Part of our travels included one of my favorite homeschooling weeks so far - "Explorer Camp" at my parents' cabin.

The kids and I packed the car and left home on a Monday morning for the long drive to Pennsylvania. After a somewhat crazy car ride, which we spent listening to our Chronicles of Narnia radio dramas, we arrived at the cabin early in the evening, and the kids helped me unload the car. I placed a cardboard sign on the cabin's door, labeling it as our "Base Camp" for the week.

Because of the light drizzle, I let the kids watch Winged Migration while I made dinner and organized our things. Fortunately, everyone went to bed early to be well rested for the morning's activities.

While they slept, I planned the next day's agenda and created a map of our "base camp." I gave the rooms different names that made the cabin seem more like a camp, and I hung the map on the refrigerator.

Then, I wrote out the schedule for the day and hung it on the fridge as well.

The next day, I began the morning with breakfast and an introduction to Explorer Week. I poured the kids juice in coffee mugs and told them it was "explorer coffee," so they could begin the day like real explorers. This turned out to be one of their favorite parts of the week! Then, in light of our theme, I took our morning devotions each day from Numbers 13-14, which tells the story of the Israelite men exploring the land God promised them. We read and discussed a portion of the story each day during breakfast, and then we moved into the "explorers' lounge" for our lessons, which we referred to as "seminars" or "briefings."

Each day involved some indoor learning. During the week, we studied explorers and Christopher Columbus, eastern forests, autumn and leaves, making and reading maps and globes, finding North using the sun and on a compass, and the geography of the world. All of our curricula seemed to reach a common place at the perfect time for our trip. Our MAPS curriculum introduced real places on the globe, and our science curriculum addressed making and reading maps and finding the points of a compass. At the same time, we began Galloping the Globe by discussing the world and labeling continents and oceans. I also drew quite a bit from a wonderful resource called Woods Walk, which teaches about forests through treks in the woods. Because of the freezing temperatures that week, our indoor work allowed time for the weather to warm a bit before we bundled up and headed outside for our exploration.

The kids loved their time exploring in the woods.

Carrying their explorer notebooks, we hiked in the woods along my parents' stream and behind their pond.

We ran down the road to their property.

And, we climbed up the hill into a Ducks Unlimited project with abatement ponds designed to clean the acidic water contaminated by the mines.

The kids drew pictures and wrote notes about the many things they discovered.

Using a variety of field guides, we identified many of the things we found.

Tree Club Moss in the woods:

Witch Hazel blooming all around:

And, after studying a fallen log...

...we identified two interesting varieties of lichen - British Soldiers and Pyxie Cups:

We also identified many of the fall leaves, tracing them on similar colored construction paper and then cutting them out to make lovely fall leaf collages.

Overall, we had a wonderful week and the kids learned so much more through hands-on experiences and exploration. I think we may make this a seasonal event, except maybe winter (brrr!), so we can see how the forest changes throughout the year. This is the kind of learning that makes homeschooling so much fun!

A Creepy, Cool Bug

A few nights ago, I walked onto our porch to put cans in the recycling bin and noticed a strange looking bug on the screen. I called Josh to come look, and he captured the bug in a little bug cage to show the kids.

The kids squealed in fear, and I must admit that the bug looked quite dangerous. About an inch and a half long, it had a long, pointy tube on its back end with another thorn-like point above it. It looked like a very large wasp with two stingers, though I suspected it might use the long tube for laying eggs and not for stinging.

After some creative googling, we identified the species. It was indeed a wasp, though it was a wood-boring wasp and not a stinging one. In fact, this species could do more damage to local trees than to us, though we figured that out after we released it... The bug we found was a "pigeon horntail." It uses its long, slender ovipositor (that scary looking tube) to deposit its eggs into the wood of trees and then infects the trees with fungi in order to soften the wood for its larvae to eat. I hope that this particular pigeon horntail decided to lay its eggs in someone else's trees...

Anyway, after watching it for a few minutes, we let it go in our bushes. I did get one good picture of it, before it flew at me and I screamed and jumped away despite knowing that it could not do me any harm. It certainly looked intimidating!

Later that night, Hannah was excited to find the pigeon horntail listed in her little bug guide in her room. I actually enjoyed examining and learning more about it, even though I panicked just a bit at the thought of it landing on me... What a creepy and cool bug!

Gardening Season Begins

This year, I got an early start on my garden, and I have been very pleased so far. In early spring, I planted peas, onions, carrots, radishes, spinach, broccoli transplants, cauliflower transplants, and brussels sprouts transplants. Oh, and lettuce... lots of lettuce. Actually, I attempted to remove the seeds from the packet and slipped, spilling the tiny seeds into the dirt. I sighed, decided not even to try extracting the nearly invisible seeds from the soil, and waited to see what would come up. As the picture shows, I will be doing quite a bit of thinning, but at least I can tell which kind is which, so we will have a variety of lettuces this year. I also planted strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries in various locations around my house and yard.

This weekend, Josh built me a second box garden next to the one we built last year. We even used some of our worm compost when filling the garden! I have so much more space now, and I also have more opportunity to rotate crops a bit to reduce pests and diseases. I could not believe how easily I filled the extra 32 square feet of space, though! I added butternut squash and two kinds of bush beans to the side garden, and I planted cucumbers, swiss chard, and celery in the old box garden with my spring veggies. I also put one asparagus plant along the side of my house, to see if it does well there. I would love fresh asparagus in the spring, but I do not want such a large perennial plant in my box gardens! In the new garden, I transplanted three kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of bell peppers, swiss chard, and a bunch of herbs, leaving myself plenty of space for a few more staggered plantings of bush beans.

Before we put in the side garden last year, weeds abounded in that spot next to our garage. Once I pulled out all the weeds and put in the veggies, however, I noticed something that was not visible before. The water run-off from our garage roof poured right into the middle of that garden, leaving a trench that eroded the soil from around any plants in that location. On Saturday, as I shopped for herbs at my favorite local greenhouse, I noticed watercress for sale. The sign said that the plants propagate themselves well in wet locations. I explained my garden situation to a person on staff, and he told me that his watercress has grown into a small waterfall in his yard and that it loves water! So, now I have watercress growing all along the edge of the trench in that garden. I hope that it will utilize previously unusable garden space, as well as hold the soil in place to prevent erosion during heavy rains. I really hope it works!

The kids, of course, love the garden and willingly eat anything we harvest - including onions, radishes, and leafy vegetables! They already love raw veggies, but they will even eat food that they typically dislike, as long as it comes from our own garden. I cannot wait to see how everything grows this year. I chose plants more wisely this year, after seeing what pests and diseases struck last year, and I think we will have a better harvest because of that. In a society in which many kids cannot even identify common vegetables, I love that my kids beg for things like eggplant and radishes! I cannot imagine a better way to teach kids about healthy eating than allowing them to harvest their own food directly from the family garden. Now, if only we lived in a neighborhood that allowed me to raise chickens...

Bugs at School, Bugs at Home

For those who do not already know, we had some tough educational decisions to make this year. Our elementary school received a low rating on the state report card two years in a row, which qualified Hannah to apply for a voucher to attend the private school of our choice. She would only be eligible this year going into kindergarten, however. Otherwise, she would have to attend the public school for a year before she could apply. As we have no interest in sending her to a failing school, this would be our only year to consider this option.

Before we found out about the vouchers, I had often told my friends that a certain private school in our town (From here on out, let's just call it "Private School" since I'd rather not post my child's elementary school on the internet!) would be the only school that would make me consider not homeschooling. I love the learning style and I had a feeling that Hannah would thrive there. Hannah also seems a little socially immature at times, so I thought that interacting a bit more with other kids her age would be beneficial for her. So, we applied, and she got the last place open in kindergarten. We officially received the voucher in August, and she started school last week.

Of course, I felt nervous about sending her off to full-day kindergarten after having her home with me for almost 6 years. But, we love her teacher so far. (We'll call her "Ms. K.") The evening after the first day of school, I received this email from her:

"Just a note to let you know how much I enjoyed being with Hannah on the first day of Kindergarten! She is just a sweetie! She is also my number one bug finder! I love a girl that loves bugs---since I am not a big fan of the creepy crawly pals! She found all kinds of activities during free choice time! She loved my magnetic picture case! You can switch the picture around and use different magnetic shapes! She loves to investigate! How cool is that! We will work on the bathroom routines so she doesn't spend too much time---although even in there you can hear her singing and being happy! She is a doll and I am just so happy to get to know her! :)"

How could I not love a teacher who has figured out after only one day how much Hannah loves bugs?!

Apparently, Hannah can locate every spider web, earthworm hangout, and wasp nest at the school. They had their first library day on Tuesday, and of course, she brought home a Zoobook magazine about insects. She told me that she loves bugs more than any other animal. In fact, she squealed with delight when I accidentally stumbled across a page that identified the strikingly pretty bug that was crawling up her arm in the garden last month. She begged to see picture after picture of the somewhat uncommon Whitecrossed Seed Bug.

Then, this morning, Hannah got up early for school and was ready to go a bit early. We put her backpack in the car and walked out to the garden to inspect the vegetables for a few minutes. As we turned to head back to the car, something white and dew-drenched caught Hannah's attention.

"Mama," she asked, "is this a spider web?"

I looked at the web and replied, "Yes, and see the cool shape? It's called a Funnel Web Spider, because it makes this web in the shape of a funnel."

Hannah bent down very close to the web to study it in more detail just as a tiny bug snagged itself in the sticky threads. Suddenly, a pretty brown spider, about the size of a lima bean, rushed from the hole to see what had disturbed his web. Hannah jumped up and down and shrieked excitedly, gushing on and on about the amazing spider and how he raced out of his web into her face.

I checked my watch and hurried Hannah to the car so we would not be late. The entire way to school, she chattered about the spider, exclaiming that she would tell her teacher and principal all about it as soon as she got to school.

I am not exactly sure how a child of mine learned to love bugs so wholeheartedly. I do not especially like spiders or bees in my house or too close to me when I am outside, but I do think that they are interesting and often very beautiful. I typically prevent the kids from killing bugs when they are outside in their own habitat, though I do kill most bugs in our home. And, I am the one who purchased the Audubon bug guides in order to learn about the many bugs we have seen, so I guess I would say that I have a healthy appreciation for them. But not like Hannah - I think she is in love! Perhaps she will be an entomologist someday... At the very least, I know she will never be an exterminator!

Vacation in Bar Harbor

How can I summarize a wonderful 11-day vacation in just a short blog entry? I will do my best, but I can only share the highlights of our trip to my favorite place on earth...

Josh surprised me this summer by planning a vacation to Bar Harbor, ME and Acadia National Park. We honeymooned there, and I absolutely love it! We went one other time, when Hannah was only 8 months old, but we could not do as much with an infant. This time, Josh suggested that we stay in a large cabin and bring along his mom, to help out with the kids and even give us a chance to get out alone once or twice. We ended up having a wonderful time!

Of course, a trip to a national park is both fun and educational at the same time. I bought the kids two books while we were there: Discovering Acadia: A Guide for Young Naturalists and Who Pooped in the Park? Acadia National park: Scat and Tracks for Kids. Hannah fell in love with them and tried to identify many plants and animals we saw. In fact, plants, animals, and the ocean became the overriding theme of the trip.

The first day, we took a whale watching boat trip out into the Atlantic Ocean. All three kids loved it! After seeing boats, puffins, and a variety of sea birds, we finally found a group of three finback whales swimming nearby. The kids squealed with delight every time they surfaced.

After a wonderful three-hour boat ride, we returned to Bar Harbor. Poor Becca was exhausted from the excitement and the cold and slept the whole way back, bundled up in a few coats to keep the wind and spray off of her face.

We also took several hikes while we were in Acadia. The kids favorite trail was Wonderland Trail near Seawall on the quiet side of the island. The first day we walked on it, the kids enjoyed stopping and looking at all of the flowers along the path.

We scrambled over rocks by the ocean, picking up shells, and enjoying the view.

Ben even saw a fox when he and I hiked a little further down the trail. He asked me about the kitty with the fluffy orange tail! We returned on a beautiful morning at low tide so we could see all of the tidal pools. The kids loved climbing from pool to pool looking for snails and crabs among the seaweed.

We also enjoyed driving Park Loop Road. One day, after a morning of heavy rain, we saw dozens of waterfalls pouring over the rocks off of the mountains.

We could even see streaks of white down the mountainsides where additional waterfalls drained away the water from the heavy rain.

Along the road, a turtle laid her eggs in the damp earth. The kids laughed excitedly as we watched her deposit several eggs into the hole.

Another day, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Jordan Pond House. After we ate, we hiked the nature trail through the woods and along the pond. We stumbled across a pair of loons. We quietly watched, afraid to breathe too loudly, lest we frighten the shy birds away. Instead, the loons swam right over towards us and then swam the length of the pond beside us, staying far enough away, but providing beautiful views. They even made their haunting calls repeatedly for us to hear. Even Becca can identify loons now!

Overall, we had a wonderful trip. I could write about all of the amazing birds we saw, from warblers to falcons to sea birds, or about the Margaret Todd, the boat the kids called a pirate ship the whole time we were there, or about the fun ice cream shop we enjoyed in downtown Bar Harbor, or about Somes Sound, the only fjord in the US other than in Alaska. But, I do not have the time or space. However, I greatly recommend Acadia National Park as one of the most beautiful and educational places on earth. It will always hold a piece of my heart!

Spring Science Update

Just a brief update on our spring science projects...

The flowers are continuing to grow. We will probably plant them in the garden sometime in the next two weeks.

A week or so ago:

Today:


And, this afternoon, I glanced over at the praying mantis egg on our mantle and noticed what appeared to be movement. I jumped up to examine it and discovered this:


We have babies! We cannot catch aphids to feed them, so we will have to release them tomorrow. I am afraid the birds in our bushes will have a feast, but we see many praying mantises in those bushes each year, so hopefully a few will survive and grow. They should blend in quite well with the branches on the bushes, so that should protect them somewhat as long as they are still. The kids were very excited!

Entymology and Camouflage

Wednesday, while the kids were napping, I found this on our back porch:

Knowing Hannah's love for bugs, and finding this one pretty fascinating myself, I recruited my husband to capture the insect in a jar and put it in our butterfly habitat until the kids woke up. The first thing I did was look it up in our Audubon guide and identify it as an Angular-Winged Katydid. In looking it up online, I believe it is more specifically a Greater Anglewing Katydid, which are often found in Ohio, and which have a distinctive clicking call that I have heard at times outside our house.

Once Hannah and Ben woke up, we took the jar (with the katydid still in it) out of the butterfly cage and let them look at it. Hannah confidently announced that it was a katydid. I handed her the field guide, open to katydids, and let her try to identify it. After looking for a few moments, she also decided it was the Angular-Winged Katydid.

Once both kids got a good look at the insect, we took it outside to release it. The book said that it liked the leaves of trees and bushes, so we carried it across the yard to one of our lilac bushes and placed it on a leaf. Immediately, Ben cried, "I can't see it! Where did it go?"

It blended in so well with the leaves, that unless we knew where to look, we could not see it at all.

In fact, a few moments later, Hannah tried to pick it up and it jumped to another leaf, vanishing so completely that we could not find it again. What a cool lesson about insect camouflage!