May has been one of those busy, rollercoaster months around here. We took an unintended two week break, so my plan of ending our regularly scheduled schoolwork right about... now... had to be revised to go until almost the end of June (when we will be meeting Andy's family on vacation!) The weather this May has been absolutely spectacular, though (especially when you compare it to last May, when we had highs in the 30's right up until Memorial Day!!), and the kids have shifted into summer mode. Around here that means three things: birds, bugs, and botany.
Birds
A couple Saturdays ago, Andy and Katydid got up at 5 AM to go on an early morning bird walk at our local arboretum. Katydid is not an early riser, but for this, she jumped out of bed and was ready to go about in about three minutes. She was the only child on the three hour walk, but that didn't really matter; she more than held her own with the grownups. I made sure they had the binoculars and the camera before they left, but do you know my husband took not a single picture? (Of course, I wouldn't be able to upload them even if he had!) And some of the birds they saw were pretty interesting:
- scarlet tanagers
- bluebirds
- tree swallows
- (heard) ovenbird
- ruby-throated hummingbirds that zoomed right by their heads
I am not doing justice to the list, which Katydid could rattle off for you in about ten seconds if you asked. (She also spotted a male indigo bunting at our feeder a while back.) The other grownups on the walk suggested that she get a homeschool team together to enter the World Series of Birding, and they all wondered how she knew so many birds and calls. That's easy: she's interested and she has time -- one of the greatest advantages of homeschooling.
On a sadder note... we discovered a dead goldfinch beneath our dining room window one morning. Although Katydid is rather sensitive, she was excited to don the purple latex gloves she keeps for just such occasions in order to pick the bird up and handle it.
Poor little bird. When I handed my husband the camera, he said, "That's morbid!" All in the name of science. (I am not, however, looking forward to dissection.)
The kids also planted a hummingbird garden. (Should this come under botany?) I ordered the plants from Seeds of Change, but they sat around for a long time because our theoretical last frost date was not our actual last frost date. (They don't seem to have the plants listed on their website anymore.) When I realized that the plants would never get planted if I was the one who was supposed to do it, I gave them to the kids. (Actually, I had to make a deal with Gareth that if he planted some of the plants he wouldn't have to do spelling. Just so you don't get the wrong idea.) One of the butterfly bushes got clipped off within the first hour of being in the ground, and this weekend when we visited a local farm we noticed they had bee balm for sale that was at least three feet tall (as opposed to our teeny weeny little cutting), but otherwise, we're just waiting for blooms.
Bugs
Gareth is more interested in insects than in birds, and there are several indications that it is now bug season. The first is that all my Gladware containers have suddenly gone missing, only to reappear full of dirt, leaves, and creatures of many legs. The second is that Gareth is often found sitting outside with an insect field guide. He's also been drawing a lot of insects from the book Draw Insects
Botany
This is Farmerboy's area. We all worked hard at getting the garden in over Memorial Day weekend. We planted the pumpkins Farmerboy grew from his sprouted seed and noticed yesterday that one of the giant pumpkin plants was up. The corn we planted is up, too. At the farm I mentioned above, I managed to buy enough heirloom tomatoes to make up for the spectacular failure of my own seedlings this year. (It didn't help that the grow light fell on them a few times, but I don't think I fertilized them enough either. And then I think the sun burned them when I tried to harden them off. Poor little tomatoes. Last year's turned out much better.) In any case, I was happy to find a couple of Striped German plants...
This is Farmerboy holding a Striped German tomato last September. Yes, it's ugly. But look how big it is! And, more importantly, it tasted really good.
Since I'm in the middle of sorting through all of our learning materials, it occurred to me that the time might be ripe (hah) to introduce the botany cabinet which has been sitting in the basement for a long time now. (Don't ask me why I have a botany cabinet and not something more versatile, such as a geometry cabinet. I just do.) A quick look through the Neinhaus catalog today revealed a picture of a botany control chart with the names of all the leaf shapes on it. Now that all the trees actually have leaves (all you Southerners stop laughing) I thought it might be a good time to use the catalog to make leaf cards and get the cabinet out -- not just for Farmerboy, since Gareth and Katydid would be interested in this, too. Then, since Farmerboy enjoys the Montessori animal puzzles so much, I have been thinking that he might enjoy the botany puzzles even more. Since my seedlings are off the cabinets now, I actually have a place to put them!
OH!!! Can we come over? Those are our favorite three 'B's. (You probably knew that already :-) If you like tiger beetles, check out Burning Silo's nature blog (fantastic. http://magickcanoe.com/blog/2007/05/29/in-the-vegetable-garden/
She has wonderful nature photos and info on a multitude of topics. (Note: this southerner did not snigger @ the leaves.)
Posted by: Marjorie | May 30, 2007 at 03:23 PM
The joy of homeschooling! What a post! Incredible learning time!
Posted by: betty | June 12, 2007 at 08:11 AM
The scarlet tanagers were migrating through the Keys about one month ago! They sure travel fast, don't they?
Posted by: Jennifer | June 15, 2007 at 01:28 PM