Pictures from Galveston

I scanned in these photos from Galveston last week. I might try to scan a better quality.

This first photo is of a large hermit crab Alexandra found. After she found it, we realized there were lots of them crawling around on our mud "path." I've never seen a hermit crab out in the wild before, and this was really neat!

This photo is of Alexandra holding a periwinkle - a type of snail. If you look closely, you'll see lots of them on the tall grass.

This is a photo of Alexandra being carried by David, the man who carried her for so long. You can see our guide (light blue shirt) pulling the net we used to collect whatever we could find.


The above photo is of a blue crab we found in the net. It was neat to open the net each time and see what we'd caught!
This last photo was taken in the much clearer water near the sandy beach. The kids really enjoyed wading in the water and looking for shells.

Washington-on-the Brazos

A couple of weeks ago, we spent the day at Washington-on-the-Brazos, the birthplace of Texas. We had two main parts of our day: first, we spent time inside learning about how children lived in the mid-1800's. Then, we went to a living history cotton farm and got to look at the plantation, slave quarters, cotton field, etc. I got some of our photos back this weekend.

The first photo is of Alexandra carrying two water buckets. She was actually too short to hold them off of the ground, but I think this was a boy's chore anyway.

Second, is a photo of Alexandra brushing the cotton.

After playing inside, we went outside to the living history farm. (I'm having computer problems so I'll finish this later!)

Rainbow in a Cloud

On August 27th, we were swimming in our pool and Alexandra said she saw a rainbow. I looked up, and there was a rainbow ON a cloud - not in the sky! I had just read about these and was amazed to see one. They're called circumhorizontal arcs. I didn't think I'd have time to get my camera, but it ended up lasting for about 20 minutes, so I took a couple of photos unsure of how they'd turn out.

There is a picture of a better one (ours never looked this amazing) at the following site:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html

How neat it was to learn about something and then see one in person within a few months! And, doesn't God make beautiful things for us to marvel at?

This same night was also the night we saw a hummingbird and I decided to get a hummingbird feeder. We've had it up about a month and it is emptied regularly, but we've only seen a hummingbird at it twice.

Changing Caterpillars

Yesterday, on our daily "nature walk" which my dd calls "playing discovery",we found a group of 14 caterpillars. They were on one of our plants (sorry, I don't know the name of it) and they had stripped several branches. I'm wondering if that means they are a pest?

We brought in 7 of them to watch. The caterpillars were very small - maybe one inch long. They were yellow with a black head, some black hairs (or spines?), white stripes along their bodies, and some of them had an orange spot behind their head. I looked for several hours online and in books at the library trying to identify the caterpillar, but I was unable to identify them. Also, most of them had their "tail" ends up in the air and I'm very curious as to "why." (My camera is getting very weak and with the caterpillars being so small, I could not get a clear picture.)


Today, I was amazed that two of the caterpillars who each had an orange spot behind its head had molted and were now black with a large red head and small yellow and white stripes! (see photo) They still have black "hairs", too. Very cool!

And, the ones that didn't have "orange spots" now have them! So, I guess they're the younger ones and they'll all turn black with large red heads. I'm confused as it seems like a smaller black "head" "fell off" and they have new, red heads. Can anyone explain this?

I can't wait to see what happens next! The 7 outside are staying on the same branch, so we've been able to watch them, too. I've also taken a few photos with my in-law's camera of both the yellow and the older black caterpillars and I hope to see if they turned out tomorrow.

Salt Marsh, Sand Dunes, and a Beach at Galveston

On Wednesday, Alexandra and I went on a field trip with some other homeschoolers to Galveston. We were in a class that visited a salt marsh and then went to a beach that had sand dunes. It was a long day, but it was a lot of fun.

We went to the salt marsh, first, and discussed the purpose of a salt marsh (home for marine life - especially babies, protection, filters the water, holds flood waters) and discussed that estuaries are where salt water mixes with fresh water. Then, we headed off through the mud after being taught the stingray shuffle.

The first thing Alexandra found was a large shell - with a hermit crab in it! We were very excited as we noticed these hermit crabs everywhere! Then, we saw periwinkle snails on the grass - 100's of them! They are about the size of a shooter marble and they were climbing up the stalks of grass.
The mud was hard to walk in even before we got in the water. The first few steps into the shallow water were hard to take - it made you feel like you were just learning to walk. As we got into the water, Alexandra was scared (the fact that we had to learn the stingray shuffle and that they said there was a 99.9% chance that you'd fall in the water didn't help). It was also cold and sprinkling. A kind homeschooling dad offered to carry her and his son gave her his jacket. I was amazed that this gentleman carried her for over an hour!

Some of the kids pulled a large net behind them while another child walked in front of the net to "kick up" whatever was at the bottom of the marsh. We caught: lots of shrimp, lots of small baby fish, a few pike fish, some tongue fish (a lot like a flounder), lots of small baby crabs, one large blue crab, and lots of sea snot - which looks like just what it sounds like.

Again, I was amazed at how hard it was to walk around while shuffling in the mud. There were lots of holes - at time I'd step into one and the water would go up to the bottom of my shorts. Also, at times my foot would get trapped. They warned us not to pull our foot out of our shoe or you'd never find your shoe again. We saw evidence of this - unclaimed shoes that washed up on the beach. A few times I got stuck in mud that came to the top of my socks. You have to wiggle your heal, then pull your toe up first to keep your shoe on your foot.

After the marsh, we went to the beach. At the beach, they discussed the importance of sand dunes - both to the animals that live in it and the people who are protected by it. We looked at some of the different types of plants that grow on them - some are not native.

Then, we combed the beach for shells and whatever else we could find. We found: lots of shells (there'd been some flooding about 9 days earlier), a man-of-war, a dead hawk, lots of pieces of oyster, pieces of sand dollars, and our best find: horse manure. Actually, this was kind of funny. I found it when Alexandra and I were by ourselves. I asked her what she thought it was - it was mainly in little round balls. She said she didn't know and picked some up and it broke up in her hands. I called over the gentleman, David, who'd helped us before. David is a farmer and knew immediately that we'd made a wonderful find: horse manure. Yuck! Thankfully, our guides had hand sanitizer.

Photo #1: a piece of oyster on the left and a piece of a large lightning whelk shell covered in worm tunnels on the right side (we learned to identify some shells and things, too!)Photo #2: top 3: shell (I don't remember it's name), piece of lightning whelk piece, piece of sand dollar; bottom 3: piece of sand dollar, piece of shark's eye shell (what's really neat about it is the little hole at the top - we learned that when you find a shell like this, it's because the organism had been eaten by a snail the uses its tounge and some acid to "drill" a hole and then eat the organism!), a piece of an angel's wing shell

Here's a great site I came across to help identify shells and other things found in Galveston:
http://www-bioc.rice.edu/precollege/k12resources/fieldguide/resources/shell.htm

I did a little more research online about shark's eyes also known as moon snails. The teacher told us their tongue has little teeth - the teeth are called radula. These types of snails are predators called "drills." They drill a tiny hole in the shell of their prey. They can also be cannibals and I'm guessing our little shell of a shark's eye was eaten by another shark's eye or some other type of "drill."

What I'm Learning This Week

God has been teaching me two things this week about homeschooling:

1. Homeschooling is not a race.
2. Homeschooling is about more than academics.

Benjamin Franklin Part I

Our museum is hosting a wonderful Benjamin Franklin exhibit. We haven't seen it yet, but we have started reading about this amazing man. Here are a some of the books we've enjoyed so far:

• The Many Lives of Benjamin Franklin by Aliki - a cartoon book - this is where I got the idea to make our own book of Ben's sayings with our own illustrations
• How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer - good book with cute pictures
• A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin by David A Adler - we always enjoy these books
• Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Gene Barretta - cute book that shows a lot about how the world was different in Ben Franklin's time
• Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by Frank Murphy - cute book about magic squares, and they're fun to play with, too!

Friday - Play, Museum, Spider & Genealogy

On Friday morning, we got up to go to a play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was a very cute play done in a small theater. There were suprisingly only about 20 people there, and I think they were almost all homeschoolers (school-aged children & their moms).

After the play, we went to the Children's Museum which we rarely go to these days. We had a coupon for free admission we'd picked up at the library. It was a little hectic until about 1 pm and then it slowed down quite a bit. We stayed until 2:20 and then drove home.

Alexandra fell asleep on the way home and I let her sleep until 4:30. I let her watch CyberChase until 5 & then we went outside to "play Discovery" where we look for critters, etc. We found something foamy on a leaf which I think must have been an egg sac and we found some itty bitty mushrooms, I think. They were so cute - they had little silver, flat discs in the middle.

The most exciting find was a small spider. He was so cute! (this isn't my photo, of course, but ours looked just like the red one - I know they're spiders, but don't they make you want to smile? Photo from: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6506/1290/320/SpinySpider.jpg) I'm just amazed at God's diversity! And the beauty He's made in even a spider!

This spider was about the size of a half of a pea. He was a bright red and had black "horns" sitcking out all around him (Alexandra called him a sun bug, because she thought they looked like sun rays) and a happy face in the middle! I was so excited to once again find a name for our new find. (Again, we used www.whatsthatbug.com) He is a spiny orb weaver. They come in lots of bright colors. We're just having so much fun with nature! Isn't God's world amazing???

Later that day, a lady called me about genealogy. I haven't done much genealogy in about 5 years, but this lady got me very excited about it. I spent many, many hours doing research before I became a mom. Anyway, we talked for about 30 minutes and then, that night, I stayed up very late and did research online for 5 hours!!! Online research is a lot easier than it was 5 years ago, and I'm having a lot of fun. I think I'm getting back into it, but we'll see. I don't want it to eat up all of my time.

Thursday - Decluttering

Well, today I decided we needed to declutter. I let Alexandra watch tv this morning around 8:30 while I got to work. About 9:00, she wanted to join me. We worked hard and I finally went upstairs to have a shower at 11:30.


After that, we had lunch, Alexandra read me a book, and then we had rest time. When we got up, we finished putting some stuff away and did about 45 minutes of "school" - just Bible study & some workbooks that we'd "found" today.


We went outside for about 20 minutes to "play discovery" as Alexandra is now calling the time we look at nature.

1. First of all, we found four mushrooms! It's been raining a LOT the past few day and I guess they enjoyed the rain.
2. Secondly, we looked at the moss that is growing on our tree. There is also some kind of fern-like plant growing off the side of the tree that I'd like to know more about.
3. And, lastly, we found a bug. I went to www.whatsthatbug.com and found out that it is a true bug called a leaf footed bug. I was proud of myself for identifying him! (It's the same website I used to identify my assasin bugs.)

We then ran to the grocery store, came home and gobbled some dinner (didn't have time to cook, so grabbed some fast food, unfortunately), and then we were off to ice skating lessons. After lessons, we came home and had dessert, and then it was bedtime!

Wednesday - Ben's Sayings

I thought I'd just continue this week to show more about how our days really work.
(photo above of Alexandra working on Phonics while our dog, Pandy, watches on)

Today, I let Alexandra sleep in since I thought she needed it. She got up a little after 8:00. (I usually wake her at 7:30.) After breakfast, I read a book about nutrition (something we needed to do for a Keepers badge) and then read a book about Ben Franklin. I was excited to have a "Mommy Inspiration" - one of those rare times when I get an idea of my own, not something I've read! We are now making our own illustrated books of "Ben's Sayings." Alexandra did "An apple a day..." and I did "Early to bed..." I'm very surprised at how many of our sayings are attributed to Ben!

After that, we played a game on the computer about plant dichotomy. Then, I took a late shower while she played on the computer. Then, we went downstairs to practice the piano (My new system of teaching her songs by ear instead of reading music is really working. I'm doing this because she was complaining that it hurt to play with her left hand and it hurt to play with her pinky. Well, now she can play real songs and there is no more complaining!)

Then, we did Bible study and it was time for lunch. After lunch we had rest time and then we did phonics (2 lessons to make up for Tuesday). We then got started on math. I've been copying all of the worksheets and finally asked myself, "Why? Just so I can resell it?" So, we decided to write IN our workbook. Alexandra wanted to go back to the beginning, so now we're having a pretty major review. She did get through a lot of worksheets today, though.

After math, we gathered our library books & dropped them off & then went to a ceramics studio to paint pumpkins. We did this last year, and when I unpacked them they meant so much that I thought we should do it again.

We painted our pumpkins (we can pick them up on Monday), then came home and cooked dinner & ate. Afterwards, Alexandra read some SOTW to me. Then, we had dessert & she took a shower. In bed, we read some more SOTW and part of another book about Ben Franklin.

Now, she's in bed and I'm on the computer checking emails, catching up on my blog, and researching Charlotte Mason.... more changes???