In the Sparrow's Nest - Homeschool Blogger

Independence Day Trip!

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 21:41:00 -0500

The past couple of weeks have been SUPER busy for me! One of the things we have been doing is going out of town for 4th of July visiting my husband's side of the family. We had an absolute blast! Here are some photos from our visit.

This is a video of some bats that were flying overhead during the fireworks!

Nature Club - Wildflowers

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:19:00 -0500

This past Friday our Nature Club met at a local park to learn about and observe wildflowers. The park had some gorgeous wildflower fields. Here are a few photos from our meeting. Sorry there are not many photos, I find it difficult to lead the meetings and take photos.

It was VERY hot and humid that day, so everyone made their way down under the shade of some trees by a creek.

Even though the above photo doesn't show it The kids had tons of fun making boats from natural materials and racing them in the creek. And below is a dragonfly that was discovered along the pathway.

And just in case you're wondering, all of my teaching materials that I use for teaching the Nature Club is taken from the NaturExplorers series.

Clouds After a Storm and Wildflower Discoveries

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:40:00 -0500

The most fascinating and beautiful clouds are oftentimes seen right after a storm. Last night we had some very impressive storms come through equipped with high winds, hail, lightning (which seemed to keep the sky lit up constantly like a flickering lightbulb), and thunder that made me jump out of my seat a few times. When the first storm cleared out, and the sun was setting on the horizon and I grabbed up my camera and took these shots.

In this photo, the storm was just breaking up and beginning to clear.

The next three photos were of the western sky with the sun rays beaming upward and illuminating the clouds into different hues.

Before the storms the kids and I took a wildflower walk and got a few photos to share.

Gorgeous group of Crown Vetch

Crown Vetch up close

New discovery..Trumpet Creeper!

Another new one to add to our notebook...Cow Vetch

I don't know what this is, but thought it was so pretty!

Also, this morning we had another awesome Nature Club meeting, I'll post photos of that soon.

Green Frog vs. Bullfrog, More Tadpoles, and About our Critter Stand

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:18:00 -0500

Well, it finally happened...he has hunted since the beginning of spring, he has sought out almost daily to find one...and today, with his heart beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, my son swiped his trusty frog net through the creek waters and came up victorious with his first American Bullfrog catch!! He has caught several less challenging to catch Green Frogs, but this was the first Bullfrog.

A couple of weeks ago he caught a huge Green Frog that he at first thought was a Bullfrog, but after doing research we knew he once again had himself a Green Frog. Turns out that Green Frogs and American Bullfrogs are similar in some ways, so we have to be keen on our observation skills and armed with research and information to find out the differences between them. So, when he caught his frog today he knew right away that he finally had his prized catch!

So, just what are the differences?

In the above photo that I took you will see the main identifying mark. The American Bullfrog has a ridge which wraps around the tympanum (eardrum), the Green Frog has a ridge which travels straight down it's back. Here are a few other differences:

- A full grown Bullfrog can measure as large as 8"; full grown Green Frogs measure up to 4"

- Bullfrog's eyes are more encaved; Green Frog's eyes are more pronounced, almost like they are little balls sitting on top of their head

- A Green Frog's tympanum is more noticeable than the Bullfrog's

Obviously the Bullfrog he has caught is very small, measuring only about 31/2" which tells us that this one is very young and still has lots of growing to do. And the Green Frog is already 4" which tells us that it is at least 4 years old and fully mature. Both of these frogs that he has caught are females. The Bullfrog is female because the tympanum in the male is much larger than the eye versus the same size as seen on this one. The Green Frog is a female because males have a yellow throat and again a tympanum that is MUCH larger than the eye versus the same size as seen on ours.

If you'd like to hear the calls of both the Green Frog and the Bullfrog, you can visit the following sites:

American Bullfrog

Green Frog

Admist the Bullfrog hoopla, he has also been catching frog tadpoles faster than I can house them! But we are keeping them all for a bit in hopes that we can observe as many as possible turn into frogs. We've been blessed to do just that with one of them. I posted about it previously, and here is an updated photo of our tadpole turned frog. It has just about fully absorbed it's tail.

It is amazing how quickly it has absorbed it's tail! We are fairly certain that it is a baby Bullfrog. We also have three other large tadpoles and two smaller tadpoles that we are uncertain of what type they are yet. Here's is Alex with our tadpole habitat.

Which brings me to my next photo of our critter stand. With all the various "catches" being brought to me, my back deck floor was being taken over by them! So my very supportive husband took his son and they cleaned up an old shelf we had and made him a special place to temporarily keep and observe his pets. What a good dad to do this on Father's Day!! Thank you Honey!

The large blue container on the floor is for the Eastern Box turtle which he will be setting free in a couple of days.

I've also written a blog post on the Shining Dawn Books website titled Frog Metamorphosis, check it out if you have a chance!

CHEK Conference

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:27:00 -0500

I'm headed to the CHEK Conference in Louisville this weekend. If you're in the area stop by and see Cindy and I at the Shining Dawn Books vendor booth!

"Getting ready at the Lexington Homeschool Fair last week."

Nature in the News

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:57:00 -0500

Two interesting news articles regarding nature have been passed my way recently and I wanted to share.

First there was recently a report on Good Morning America on how scientists are starting to look more at ants to learn about improving our traffic systems. Seems ants really know how to cooperate and work together to make things go smoothly and efficiently. Well, our Lord and Creator tells us to "go to the ant," I think that means there's much to learn from them!

Here is a link to the video clip (of course any major news station has to throw in a "millions of years" reference, so I conveniently don't listen to that part!):

What Ants Can Teach Us About Commuting

Secondly, a friend commented to inform me of a cloud photo that was taken by a woman in Iowa that has scientists stumped to label it. Seems we could have a new cloud type to add to the charts eventually; something that hasn't been proposed since 1951. Any news about changes in clouds really makes my ears perk up and listen (Revelation 1:6-8). Below is the photo of the clouds that she took and here is a link to the article: Has Iowa Woman Spotted New Cloud Type?

What is a Fungus?

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 12:15:00 -0500

Recently the children and I went on a fungi hunt. The photos in this post are just some of what we found.

The word fungus doesn't usually make us think of fun nature study. In fact if you're like I was before learning about it, the word conjured up sorta unpleasant thoughts, to be honest. Now, I'm proud to say that I've become amazingly interested in studying all about fungi. Seriously, it is truly fascinating! I've come to find that fungi aren't just associated with things that are bad, there is actually a whole lot of good about them and without fungi as our "clean-up crew", our earth would be in big trouble.

So just what is a fungus anyway? People sometimes think of fungi as types of plants, but they are not. In fact, for a long time scientists grouped plants and fungi together. That was until the invention of the microscope which brought into focus and made perfectly clear the differences between plants and fungi. Fungi hang out in one place like plants do, and mushrooms in particular grow in soil just like plants do, but they aren't green and they do not make their own food using the sun like plants do. The truth is that fungi must seek out their food just the same as humans and animals do. But they aren't animals! And, they don't all grow in soil either.

Fungi seek out their food in living and dying things such as dying and dead plants and trees. They are essentially a clean up crew and take care of breaking down, or decomposing things, otherwise they'd lay around and pile up for a very long time.

So because of these facts and others, fungi has gained a place in the scientific world in it's own category, the Fungus Kingdom.

Fungi come if various forms from the familiar mushroom you may have seen in your yard or on your pizza for that matter, or the fungi sprouting on a dead tree trunk or even the lichen growing on living trees. Other members of the fungi kingdom are mold, such as you see growing on that old piece of food in your fridge, and also the yeast you use to make homemade bread. And of course there are really less desirables ones too such as the ones that cause serious illnesses as meningitis and the nuisance of athlete's foot.

Another thing that makes fungi different from plants and animals is the smallest part of every living thing, the cell. Plants and animals are made up of various types of cells. Plants have different cells that make up their leaves, stems and roots. Animals have different cells, like we do, that make up their heart, lungs,etc. Fungi are different because they are single-celled, their cells are all the same. Plant cell walls are made up of cellulose, while fungal cell walls are made of chitin, the same substance that forms the tough outer skeletons of insects and spiders.

This is just an introduction to the world of fungi that I've been learning about! As I said above, it is very interesting and worth learning more, just as everything in God's creation is!

On our walk, we found many different types of fungi, such as this sac fungi, some type of elf cup mushroom, I think. They were so tiny.

And this furry white fungus that was growing on a small fallen branch.

Oh, and look, Gabby found a mushroom right on her shirt!!

In other news, my posting has slowed down for two reasons, our very fast, but obviously injured computer crashed this past week, and I am temporarily using a very painfully slow computer until the other returns from being fixed, and Cindy and I will be headed to the Lexington Homeschool Fair this Saturday to set up a booth for Shining Dawn Books, and that has had me plenty busy in preparation. If you are anywhere near Lexington, be sure to stop by and see us!

Just Breathe - Comparing the Human and Frog Respiratory Systems

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 20:03:00 -0500

I keep saying it, but it's worth saying over and over again that nature can be used to teach SO many things! The more we do nature study and observation the more opportunities I see.

We've been focusing a bit on learning more about the human body lately. We've studied the human body in the past, but it had been awhile and we needed to go over things a bit and elaborate more. So this past week we started reading from an encyclopedia of the human body, which we had gotten from the library, about the respiratory system. We've also spent a lot of time the past couple of weeks observing frogs and toads and learning all about them too; so it presented a unique opportunity to contrast the human respiratory system versus the respiratory system of frogs and toads.

Before we released our Green Frog Misty back into the wild we closely observed how the area under her chin expands and shrinks every time she breathes in and out. The following website gave us a demonstration of how that works: Frog Respiration. We also watched the lungs video at the following website to learn even more about the way we breathe: How the Body Works - Lungs Video.

The kids divided a paper in half and compared and contrasted the two different respiratory systems. A couple of the differences that were listed are how we have our diaphragm below our lungs which does the work that the muscles in a frog's throat does and frogs can take in some air through their skin which of course humans cannot. They also listed some things that are alike such as we both have lungs, and breathe in good oxygen and send out carbon dioxide.

In addition, we talked about how the frogs/toads breathed when they were still tadpoles, opening up a discussion on how animals breathe underwater through gills.

We also used the following website to contrast the respiratory systems of birds and reptiles as well: Vertebrate Lungs.

I plan to use this contrast/compare method throughout our lessons on the human body. Such as when we learn more about the digestive system we'll contrast that as well with one of our latest "pets" from the wild! It is truly amazing how much more interested my kids are when things are made hands-on!

Creature Feature

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:46:00 -0500

As I said in my previous post, we've had quite the creature parade going through here lately. If it's at all possible when we find creatures we build them a temporary habitat and try to keep them for just a bit for observation and learning. We also always return them back to the same spot we found them. Since taking all these photos we have let go quite a few of them back into the wild because it was looking and smelling a bit like a zoo on my back deck! On to the photos...

Alex will take his net and simply sweep it through the creek and almost always comes up with something, like this crawdad.

...or this baby Mudpuppy, or it could be a baby newt, I'm not for sure yet. He has come up with three of those this week just from sweeping his net through the creek water.

....and, his most prized catch came up in his net this week....a Bullfrog tadpole!! We measured it, and it's over 3" long! They are huge compared to the little toad tadpoles. We had never caught one of those before. We noticed that it did not have feet yet and Bullfrog tadpoles can take up to a year or more to make the change into a frog!

However, a couple days later we went to a local park's creek and saw this one swishing around, and it does have feet!! So we may try to keep it to see it turn into a Bullfrog if it's eating well.

While we were at the park we visited their wetlands and saw this Water Snake poking his head above water. NO, we won't want to keep one of those even if we could catch it!

A few days later, we went for a walk at another local park and saw lots of these cute little snails.

And you perhaps were introduced to this little fella on my last Nature Club post. This is a baby Midland Painted Turtle, that we affectionately named "Tinker". We kept it for observation and learning for several days before finally saying goodbye to it a few days ago, releasing it back to right where we found it. By the way, a GREAT book on painted turtles is called Turtle Crossing by Rick Chrustowski. Loved it!

And of course there's our Green Frog, Misty. She was with us for about two weeks, she did very well in captivity (simply loved crickets), and we did a lot of learning with her. But recently it was time to exchange her back to the wild and to take in a small male Eastern Box Turtle (which I've not taken a photo of yet)!

And, we were so blessed by a neighbor who found and hatched a Cecropia caterpiller into this gorgeous Cecropia Moth. Our neighbor was kind enough to share her with us for a day. The Cecropia Moth is the largest in North America with wingspans of up to 6"! And simply beautiful! We know it was a female because the males have much large antennae. We read all about them and found out they only live for two weeks as adults, never eating, only mating. So we enjoyed her for only a day and quickly and released her one evening.

I hope you enjoyed our creature feature! I'll be back soon to share with you our lesson we recently did on the comparison of the frog respiratory system vs. the human respiratory system.

Farewell Little Toads

Sun, 31 May 2009 17:15:00 -0500

I admit my house has been a bit like a zoo lately. Creatures are beginning to take over. So even though I will miss them greatly it was time for our tadpoles turned toads to catch a wave back home today. For two days now several of them have been coming up to the surface of the water and even coming out on dry land to try out their new lungs, so it was time anyways for them to head out into the great big world on their own. We'll let them finish the final stage of absorbing their tails on their own. We must make room for new creatures, which I will feature in my next blog post! So, this morning I took the final photos of our American Toad friends and we loaded them up and took them back out and set them free in the vernal pool where we originally found the newly hatched tadpoles. They have been SUCH an amazing learning experience! It's absolutely priceless to see something start out as a speck of black with tiny gills turn into a lung-breathing ground dwelling toad. We have done this two years in a row now; and as long as I'm able I will do it every year! Here are the final photos!