Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs!

What better way to learn about the world than to experience it first hand! We LOVE doing experiments and seeing how everything works. The boys especially love anything having to do with bugs and lizards and critters. Today we received our shipment of Painted Lady Caterpillars, a Praying Mantis egg case, and a tube full of fruit flies and fruit fly larva to feed the mantis when they hatch. Yea!
Here are our caterpillars. We actually have 6 but the 6th one was taking a walk across my kitchen counter when this photo was snapped. The yellow stuff in the bottom is mostly food. It comes with them when you order them from the supply company. The gross part is that the poop looks pretty much exactly like the food. Blech. Anyway, these guys are actually pretty good sized already. Usually when we get them they are really tiny. I will make sure to take pictures once they make their chrysalis and after they emerge.

 

This is a photo of the mantis egg case. It is called a ootheca. (oh-uh-THEH-kuh) It is a very light weight, almost foamy feeling case that was created by the mother sometime back in the Fall. She attaches it to a branch and lays around 100 eggs inside. They can contain up to 200 eggs! After winter, when the weather begins to warm, the nymphs emerge. They look just like the adults except for being very small and having no wings. They begin to hunt almost immediately and have a voracious appetite. As long as they are supplied enough food, they will leave each other alone. But if other insects are not available, they will quickly turn on and hunt their own kind. If nature is left to it's own design, only about a dozen of the nymphs will survive to adulthood, most having been eaten by their siblings. I used a bit of thread to hang the egg case from a small branch in the bug container. When the nymphs first emerge they will hang from the case by silken strands to allow their exoskeletons to harden before descending to the ground. I will do all I can to get pictures of the newborns and post them.

 

Pretty cool, huh? I so enjoy doing this stuff with the boys. They are so fascinated. In about 6 weeks we are going to be hatching baby chicks in an incubator. Can't wait for that. Fun, Fun, Fun!!

Scorpion Weed

We live in the desert and yes, much of our yard is landscaped with rock. But do not be mistaken, this does not mean that we do not have to do regular upkeep to keep the yard looking decent. We have this wonderful little devil of a plant called Scorpion Weed that flourishes here. It needs almost nothing to grow and will take hold anywhere and everywhere. The biggest problem is that there are many homeowners that care little whether their yards are overrun with weeds. The biggest culprits are the vacation home owners, of which there are many in these parts. They just rent out their houses or visit for a weekend here or there. Seldom do they take the time to actually clean up their yards and keep things looking beautiful. This affects us in a number of ways, not the least of which is that the wind blows all the seeds from their overgrown, weed filled, yards into our yards. I happen to live right across the street from one of these lovely homes. The owners are from California and just stop by on holiday weekends. They spend the entire time playing and then split. The home used to be very well kept by it's previous owners but now it is pretty much ignored.

So anyway, now that the weather is warming up and we have had a touch of rain the scorpion weed is growing rampant. My Honey offered the boys $$ to rid the front yard of the scurge while he was away this week. The boys will do almost ANYTHING for $$! The other day we were down visiting my mother. The boys asked me if they could go swimming. I started to answer the way I usually do, by telling them that the pool is too cold right now, but changed my mind and told them to go right ahead. With whoops and hollars they stripped to their undies and ran to the pool stairs. Two seconds after stepping down onto the first step they were back out and screeching about how cold it was. (Surprise, Surprise! Who would of thunk that mom knew what she was talking about?) At that point, my mom offered them each $1 to jump in. After a few minutes of heated discussion between them, they approached my mother and told her that for $4 each they would jump in. My mom agreed and they did it!! Mind you, the pool is like 50 degrees! They whooped and hollared for quite a bit but in the end they stayed in the pool for almost an hour. UNBELIVABLE! But I digress.....

So, having been offered $ we headed out to the front yard with visions of new Bionicles and DS games firmly entrenched in their minds. We ended up plucking the little buggers for nearly an hour and a half! Because the ground is all covered in gravel, you cannot really sit down to work. You have to walk around hunched over to pull the weeds out. It is back breaking work! Oh, did I mention that if the little buggers touch your skin they cause itching, stinging and burning? They aren't called Scorpion Weed for nothing! You have to wear thick garden gloves which makes it difficult to grasp the little suckers from between the gravel and rock. I actually suggested to the boys twice that we take a break but they refused. What little troopers! I would say that we cleared 95% of the weeds from the front and side yards. And we really had a good time doing it together. (even though my back is STILL killing me!) The next day the boys were eager to do more and spent another 45 minutes pulling weeds in the back yard. They really are good little helpers. Below are a few pictures of the boys with their buckets of weeds. We actually emptied buckets 2-3 times each before we were finished.
This first one is of Muffin Man with his bucket.

 

Here is Little Man with some of the weeds he pulled.

 

And here they are, my little munchkins hard at work!

 

When we finished working, Little Man mentioned how good he felt about helping out. I told him it always feels good when we are helping and contributing to our family and home. He just nodded and smiled. I really am so lucky. Both of the boys are so good about doing their chores and offering help when and where needed. I am blessed! And a little scurge called Scorpion Weed reminded me of that today.

The Great Mousecapade

Well, I do not have too much to report. The boys were sorely disappointed this morning to discover that there was no gruesomely, decapitated mouse in our trap. Infact, there was no sign of the intruder anywhere. After an early morning inspection, it was determined that the vent on the side of the house is missing it's flapper thingy. It is a little flapper that is supposed to open outward to vent the dryer heat but close on it's own otherwise. Well, it is not there at all. Not sure when it fell off and we never found it laying out there on the ground or anything. Essentially, we might as well have had a wee door mat saying "Welcome" underneath the vent because it was just wide open and practically beckoning critters inside. """SHUDDER""" I don't even want to think about what else could have made it's way into the garage. I purchased a little cage thing that goes over the vent to keep out the critters. I also bought a new hose to replace the one chewed open by the previous guest. I honestly do not think the critter in question is still in the garage. The garage has no water source available and if it was inside I would think it would have found the peanut butter traps by now. Just to be on the safe side, the cats are still safely cordoned off from the garage. I think I will keep it that way for a few more days. I am crossing my fingers that this mouse hunt is over. ;)

A Mouse In The House!

Today, after returning home from running errands, I entered the garage to find Darth Vader (one of our cats) staring intently at the corner behind the dryer. Knowing that there should be nothing of interest back there I grew curious. I went over to have a peek. Once there, I noticed that the dryer vent tube had a hole in it. This was even more curious to me because I just purchased this vent tube last week to replace the last one that had a hole in it. The previous one had been in use for the last 8 years so when we found the hole we really didn't put much thought into it. We just assumed it was old and had somehow become damaged. But tonight, my suspicions were aroused. I pulled out both the dryer and the washer and found the tell tale signs of a mouse! EEK! At least I hope it is a mouse! A rat would be much worse!!! I did a thorough check around the rest of the garage, behind, under, inside everything, and saw no signs anywhere else. I am thinking that since the cat food bowls were conveniently located next to the dryer, along with occasional lint droppings, that the little critter is visiting for a bite to eat and some fresh nesting material. The boys were very excited over this little discovery of mine. God Bless little boys! I am sure they are the only ones who could ever be excited over a wild rodent in the home! Of course, My Honey is currently out of town so I was forced to act as the resident pest control expert. We headed back into town and returned 45 minutes later with snap traps and poison. I brought the cat food inside the house and locked the kitty door leading to the garage. Poor Darth is forlorn! He is just sitting by the kitty door crying to get out. I think he was very excited about his find and was thinking he was going to get his first taste of fresh kill. I am so sorry to disappoint him! I set up two snap traps and placed a bit of poison both behind the dryer and by the outside vent, where I can only assume the little critter made his entrance. I will have to check it closer tomorrow when the sun is up. The boys went to bed all a titter with excitement over seeing a mouse with "it's head cut off!" Their words, not mine. I would rather not see a decapitated rodent in my gargage, nor do I want to have to dispose of it. I can only hope that this little critter will show me mercy and simply take a bit of poison back to it's home and die quietly somewhere that I don't have to watch. Either way, I hope it happens quickly. I only like rodents when they are neatly caged in clear plastic boxes with brightly colored tubing connecting them. I will post again tomorrow with my pest control results. Wish me luck.

Long Time No Blog!

So, here we are, over a week since my last Blog. I really am going to try to update more often, HONEST! We have been very busy and I have been feeling very old! You see, I turned 41 a few days ago and I think it was more difficult for me than 40 was. Not to mention that my 40th birthday just could not possibly have been a full year ago. Nope! It is simply impossible that a full year has passed so quickly. It seems like only yesterday! I can not believe how quickly time goes by. Too fast, really!

So anyway, we have been busy with school and activities and what not around here. We finished our bean experiment. I made mention a few weeks ago that we planted beans in different pots. One pot had soil, water, and sunshine, one had soil and sunshine but no water, and one had soil and water but no sunshine. So which one would you think would grow the best? Well, one would think it would be the one that had all of the above, but one would be wrong! The beans that were given soil and water and put into a dark box grew the fastest! Now granted, they were quite pale in color, but they out grew the other by inches!
Here is the one that had no sunshine.

 

Here are the other two taken on the same day as the previous photo.

 

And here are all three together.

 

Now mind you, all these beans were planted on the same day in the same potting soil and fed the same water. The only thing we can figure it that the beans in the box were so desperate for sunshine that they put EXTRA energy into growing in order to look for it! Very interesting. The other interesting bit is that within 24 hours they had greened right up just as bright as the others. We also "planted" a number of beans in a clear glass with wet paper towel so we could see the sprouting occur and look closer at the roots. Here is a picture of those beans beginning to sprout.

 

The good news is that we now have a number of bean plants that have been transplanted into a garden in the back
yard and we will hopefully have some home grown beans to eat in a few months. We have also returned the earthworms to the back garden. They had been living in a pan on my kitchen counter for a good 6 weeks, and while they were interesting to look at and watch, we decided they would do better back out in the garden where they belong.

Beyond the beans and earthworms, we have also been learning about evaporation, rain, snow, hurricanes, and tornados. We watched evaporation while boiling water on the stove and caught the evaportated water in a large, inverted, glass bowl and watched it drip right back down into the pan. The water cycle in action! We also discovered that an empty bottle is not empty at all and that solids in water do not evaporate. Fun stuff!

Next week we will be receiving a shipment of Painted Lady caterpillars and a Praying Mantis egg case. We have done the caterpillars every year for a number of years now but it is always awesome to watch them grow, create their chrysallis and emerge as butterflies. The Praying Mantis egg case is a new one for us. Apparently the case holds about 100 eggs! Yikes! That may be enough to give me nightmares! We will be able to see them hatch, grow, molt and hunt. I also ordered a fruit fly culture with fruit flies to feed the Mantis. Neato!

So that is about it in a nut shell. The weather has been really nice and we have spent time at the park a number of times this past week. We did have a freak storm pass through on Wednesday evening and we did get rain today. We really needed it! But over all it has been beautiful and in the 70's. Spring is most assuredly on the way.

Hope you are all healthy and happy. Many Blessings to you and yours.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Did you spend the day showering your family with love?

My Honey is out of town, but I will be sure to shower him with love when he returns. I snuck a card into his suitcase with a message on the envelope to not open till today. I sure miss him when he is gone. It really makes me appreciate him so much more.

I used glass markers to decorate the boys bathroom mirror last night with big hearts and an I Love You! I left their Valentine goodies on the sink for them to find first thing this morning. I heard Muffin Man get up and go into the bathroom. That was promptly followed by him waking Little Man in excitement over his discovery. We still have our baby monitor set up in their bedroom. Not that we really need it anymore, but honestly, I enjoy listening to their discussions when they are alone in their room. It is just so sweet to listen to them talk together. They really love each other so much. So anyway, back to this morning. Once Muffin Man woke up Little Man, that must have reminded Little Man that they had a card hidden. I didn't know that. I listened to their sweet banter as they got out the card, both signed it and prepared to come wake me up. I pretended to be asleep when they climbed into my bed and presented me with the card. It was just so sweet. We lay in my bed for the next hour or so just talking and cuddling. I could not have thought of a better way to start my Valentine's Day. Later when I talked to My Honey he told me that Little Man was very serious about finding just the right card and had spent time reading them in the store until he found just the one he wanted. That just makes it all the more special! I just love my kids so much!!!!!!!!!

This afternoon we met some friends at the theaters to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was really good. The boys really enjoyed it and so did I. It had some good lessons in it.

So, all in all just a really nice day. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have My Honey here with us. Oh well. He will be home the day after tomorrow. I can't wait to see him.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. God Bless.

What a Lovely Day!!

This past weekend was our town's annual winter fest street fair. The weather was just perfect, a breezy 75 degrees. The boys and I headed down around 10:45 and did not get home until almost 4 pm. We had a blast. At the Arizona Park Ranger booth the boys were able to make a few neat crafts and see skulls from a number of animals found in the desert. They were able to feel the pelts of a number of those animals as well. They especially liked the claws that were still attached to a number of the pelts. I purchased a few crafty type items but mostly just browsed and "window shopped". The boys really made out and were able to do almost all the activities this year. My pocketbook took a hit but it was worth it. They rode the mechanical bull, went on the big blow up slides and obstacle course, rode the train, and jumped on the jumpy thing where you are strapped to a bunch of bungee cords. They were both beat by the time we got back to the car. I am really sunburned on the back of my neck and cheeks but the boys only got a touch of pink. I guess Spring is already here and I need to pull out the sunscreen again.

On a different topic, I am unable to post pictures via the little icon on the new post page. It will simply not let me. I cannot figure out why and it is driving me crazy. The only way I can get a picture to show up is by using my Picasa program and then it posts every picture as a new post. I am determined to fix that! I would really like to be able to include the pictures in the post. If anyone is able to help me on this, I would greatly appreciate it!!

 

Muffin Man coming down the slide.

 

Little Man coming down the slide.

 

Little Man on the jumper.

 

Muffin Man on the jumper.

 

Little Man riding the bull.

 

Muffin Man riding the bull.

 

Here is a picture of the boys identifying the bones we found in the owl pellet. It looks like Darth Vader would like to get involved!

 

Here are all the little bones we found. The skull was still whole and intact. Really cool!

 

Here are the boys dissecting the owl pellet. Muffin Man doesn't like the smell!

 

These are those same flowers after soaking up all that food coloring. Aren't they purty? ;)

 

This is a picture of the white carnations that we have put in water with food coloring in it to show how the plants suck water up through the stem to the leaves and flower.

 

This is a photo of some beans we have planted. One gets water, soil, and sun. The second gets soil and sun. The third gets soil and water and has been sealed in a cardboard box with no sunlight. We will watch to see how they grow.

Homeschooling

We homeschool.

I know that homeschooling is a bit outside the norm, but it is becoming more and more mainstream everyday. Homeschooling is not for everyone and there are even occasional days I am not sure it is for me, but we trudge on. I take it day by day and as long as it seems to be working for both my children and myself I will continue. So, how did I come to the decision to homeschool? Well, I put my oldest son in public school for Kindergarten. That pretty much did it for me. For the entire year, our lives were ruled by his school schedule. I felt that every moment I had with him outside of school on weekdays was rushed. I rushed him to get up, get dressed, get his teeth brushed, and eat his breakfast, and then I rushed him out the door. At the end of the school day I rushed him through his homework, through dinner, through sports practices, through bathtime and then I rushed through a nighttime book so that he could fall asleep in time to wake and do it all over again. On top of all that, I was involved in the PTA, constantly doing fundraisers,(Can you say cookie dough?) and helping in his classroom 2-3 times per week, often for 2-3 hours at a time. I dragged poor Muffin Man along with me for all the frenzy. So what did we get out of the year? Well, obviously, Little Man got an education and I LOVED his teacher, but beyond that, the most notable things he gained were attitude and questionable vocabulary from other students. I gained a lot of stress in my life, and we lost out on enjoyable time to spend together. I had children to enjoy them not to spend every waking moment rushing them off to the next activity.

Today, our lives are mush more relaxed. The kids wake when they wake. We start the day with reading. I read out loud to them and they read to me. We then work on our written work, do experiments, look things up on the internet, etc. We are usually finished by around 12:00 or 1:00. At that point we are free to play games, go to the park, run errands, go shopping, or whatever else we decide to do for the day. We still have sports practices in the evening but I am no longer stressed out if the kids are up a bit too late. Life has slowed down for all of us. On top of that we have the added benefit of being able to make schedule changes as needed. My Honey travels quite a bit for work. When he is in town, he will often take a weekday off to make up for all the time he is away. We are able to rearrange our schedule to accomodate these days. If Dad is home on a Friday, we can always do that day's schoolwork on Saturday so that we can spend Friday with him. The boys are also able to work ahead on those subjects they excell in and get extra time if needed for other subjects. This is often not possible in public school.

Although I do use a well known curriculum (ABEKA) and I really love it, we are also able to add in our own activites that enhance the given lessons. For instance, in science we are currently learning about plants, chlorophyll, what plants need to grow, how we benefit from them and how all things that God made are interdependent on each other. We were discussing how birds help scatter seeds of plants and also eat many destructive insects and rodents that would otherwise destroy the plants. I just happened to have an owl pellet that I had purchased from a science supply company some time back. We spent an hour dissecting the owl pellet (The undigested remains of an owl's meal) and identifying the bones of the little critter that had been eaten. It was a vole. In the Fall, when we were learning about the 5 senses, we dissected a cow eyeball. VERY COOL! Now how many Kindergarteners and 2nd graders do you know who are doing that in public school?

Some people question me about the social implications of homeschooling. I can assure you that I thought long and hard about everything involved when I was making the decision to homeschool. I have read many studies and done my research. The fact of the matter is that homeschooled children are no less socialized than their public schooled peers and in fact are often better at socializing with age groups other than their own. We are members of the local Christian homeschooling group in our town. The group has over 100 students. We meet at the park for organized physical education, we have planned park days, play days, bowling days, swim days, and field trips. On top of that my boys are involved in seasonal sports and martial arts. We also have friends that we get together with on a regular basis and friends at church. We are hardly what you would call hermits.

So there you have it, my reasons for homeschooling. I am forever thankful that I have the choice to do so and I love the time I spend watching my boys learn and blossom. I will post a few pictures of some of the experiments that we are currently working on. Fun Stuff!

Finally! A Picture!!

So, I finally called my friend in Idaho who is a bit more Blog Savvy than me and asked for her help to download a picture. For whatever reason, I was not able to get a picture to download no matter how many times I followed the given directions. I now have a new file on my computer that will help me with this problem. It looks like it will be very helpful in other ways as well. Thank you Bridget!!

So this is a recent picture of my two boys. We went to Knott's Berry Farm at the beginning of the month. We had a blast! Muffin Man would only go on the rides in Camp Snoopy but Little Man was VERY BRAVE! He went on roller coasters that I wouldn't go on! I used to love them but I think I am a bit too old for that now. So anyway, now that I can upload pictures, I will be updating daily and adding more pics. as often as possible. Enjoy!