I'm writing this post as part of the TOS Crew Carnival topic Spring Studies. When I thought of spring studies I immediately thought of our recent day that we took off from doing book work.
My son was ABSOLUTELY delighted!
"Mom.. you mean I can help you and look for bugs too?"
Sure can lad. :)
"YEAH!!! This will be the best day ever!"
Our goal is to move the veggies gardens over. We have clay and digging in clay is NOT my idea of fun so when I moved in (after we got married) I set up raised beds to do my gardening. It was otherwise much to hard to work with. I have to say.. between the dirt I originally brought in and the rabbit waste.. I have the best soil around for miles. :) I actually have people come and buy it off me in the spring. :) But I digress.
We are moving the gardens in order to resituate our rabbitry a bit. I'm allowed 20 rabbits in town and was housing them 10 x 20 portable garages but someone complained and now I need to put them in to 10 x 10 shelters... seems silly but hey, it means we can resituate and make it work better in the long run.
My son was ABSOLUTELY delighted!
"Mom.. you mean I can help you and look for bugs too?"
Sure can lad. :)
"YEAH!!! This will be the best day ever!"
Our goal is to move the veggies gardens over. We have clay and digging in clay is NOT my idea of fun so when I moved in (after we got married) I set up raised beds to do my gardening. It was otherwise much to hard to work with. I have to say.. between the dirt I originally brought in and the rabbit waste.. I have the best soil around for miles. :) I actually have people come and buy it off me in the spring. :) But I digress.
We are moving the gardens in order to resituate our rabbitry a bit. I'm allowed 20 rabbits in town and was housing them 10 x 20 portable garages but someone complained and now I need to put them in to 10 x 10 shelters... seems silly but hey, it means we can resituate and make it work better in the long run.
In the process of our digging the lad is finding many interesting critters to study and we often take breaks to discover what they need to survive. Take for instance the big headed ground beetle. The image below is from theBugGuide. My son is finding these guys everywhere in our gardens. We've learned they like to live in moist places and are often found on rocks and other debris. They eat small insects and arthropods.
Click image to go to source, BUG GUIDE.
Having learned that information, everyone one of these nasty looking bugs (though they really aren't nasty as when you find them they "freeze". This means you can easily handle them and discover that they have reddish/brown highlights.. they aren't the solid black you first think they are. They are actually quite nice looking if you give them a chance, and very easy to handle. Anyways, my son built this habitat for them. under that ground cover (he didn't want me lifting the cover off) is a whack of damp dirt with stones, small insects, and rotten wood. The beetles seem quite happy and when you put them in (once they unfreeze) they immediately burrow away. Fascinating to watch how quickly they disappear.
He's also managed to find three different grubs and he's really hoping that this habitat is good for them. Other than the fact that they live in the ground and they come out when the weather is nice, we've been unable to learn much about what they need to survive. One thick white one, one skinny white/yellow one and one brown one that kinda looks like a caterpillar. He's also found what looks to me like a corn grub but he thought that one icky and tossed it over our back fence. I don't like that one mom.. it makes me think of a centipedes and I don't like them.
But we saw some really neat bugs... an iridescent blue one, some tiny springtails, baby centipedes, millipedes, NO snail eggs! WOOT WOOT, some small VERY FAST black bugs, different coloured worms, a flat brown bug that the lad said "he's ugly mom, I'm not keeping him. I'm sure the toads won't like him either". A colony of small brown/yellow ants that we didn't expect to find as there was no outward sign of them. "Watch them mom, they are scared you wrecked their home". Oh, and the lad had the extreme joy of finding his first wolf spider of the season. He just LOVES spiders (whereas I think of them as he thinks of outdoor centipedes).
But we saw some really neat bugs... an iridescent blue one, some tiny springtails, baby centipedes, millipedes, NO snail eggs! WOOT WOOT, some small VERY FAST black bugs, different coloured worms, a flat brown bug that the lad said "he's ugly mom, I'm not keeping him. I'm sure the toads won't like him either". A colony of small brown/yellow ants that we didn't expect to find as there was no outward sign of them. "Watch them mom, they are scared you wrecked their home". Oh, and the lad had the extreme joy of finding his first wolf spider of the season. He just LOVES spiders (whereas I think of them as he thinks of outdoor centipedes).
I must mention, my boy loves all things buggy and animaly.. EXCEPT for centipedes. For some reason they just give him the creeps. "you know how you don't like spiders on you mom? I don't like centipedes.. they are red and they can bites and all those legs mom... I just don't like them." He tried to be brave and keep some for feeding the toads but he just couldn't do it. Speaking of our toads. The lad has successfully kept three toads all winter. He did so by feeding them crickets and the other day we fed them some worms. Boy that was funny to watch. They all gathered round with this look of intense concentration and then flick.. a worm would be snatched up. I hope you can see at least one of them in this picture getting ready to have his breakfast.
The lad has discovered how wood breaks down when exposed to dirt. It gets all soft and crumbly and bugs like to hide it. It's such a treasure trove for a lad.
And he had a great deal of fun smashing apart two old gardens that had degraded too much to be moved. "MOM!!!! Look how the worms stick into the cracks! I can't get him out he's so stubborn mom. What do you think the worms thinking with me pulling on him? Do you think he's saying AH.. let go of my butt!!! (giggle). MOM!!! See this huge root that grew through the wood!!! Did you know roots could be that strong mom?"
He has a bucket for worms now to feed his toads. The worms on the table there were picked out for feeding the toads. The lad has so much fun making up conversations for the toads. "ah, we were having a nice breakfast and AH!!! This huge predator has grabbed us AH!!!! oh good, we get to relax, we're not being eaten, hold on ... why are we on this hard surface, what's going on... AH!!! OH No... TOADS!!!! HELP!!!!"
While gardening I asked my lad if he checked the vole traps recently. "Oh no mom, I haven't! Oh.. I better do that we don't want them to die!!!" To his absolute delight there were two new ones today. They joined the rest in our basement tank. The new ones are still quite timid and let my boy handle them nicely. At the end of the month most will go to the raptor rescue to be a breeding colony there and the offspring used to help the raptors get "release ready".
Hmmm.. what else... We talked about the joy of finding the first flowers of spring. It's been a full week now since we discovered the snow drops are blooming. I have to admit.. I don't like this time of the year when it's all mucky everywhere you go. BUT what I like is looking for the beauty of the season...the birds returning, the first flowers of spring and what not. The muck annoys, but hidden within it is beauty. Kinda like how God sees us eh? Amidst the muck of our lives he sees the beauty of his son in us and calls us out of it.
I almost forgot. The lad is conducting an experiment that we really hope works. He found a tiny ground bee. He thinks it's a female since they hibernate over the winter. He put her in this largest jar with the hopes that she'll settle in, make a burrow and then he can let take the lid off and let her come and go. That way he won't have to struggle to feed her, she'll be safe with a good spot for her burrow, and he can watch bees do their thing. I am so hopeful for him that it will work. Bees are threatened in Ontario (and well all over Canada). So many pesticides are wiping them out or weakening them so they are less resistant to disease.
We felt very accomplished by the end of our day...and the lad got to enjoy a chocolate bar as the fruits of his labour. Certainly were tired and sore after our days work/fun.
On Good Friday my lad had the joy of showing his beloved gramma all the bugs that he caught, and she was duelly impressed. :) I so much appreciate my husband's mom and how interested she is in everything about her grandson. Even if she doesn't like 'em, she still takes an avid interest in everything that he is interested in. :) So nice to watch their interaction...I never thought that would bring me so much joy as a mom. :)
Anyways, do come on over and visit us. We, of the TOS Crew, would be delighted to have you learn how we do spring studies in our homeschooling adventures. :)
On Good Friday my lad had the joy of showing his beloved gramma all the bugs that he caught, and she was duelly impressed. :) I so much appreciate my husband's mom and how interested she is in everything about her grandson. Even if she doesn't like 'em, she still takes an avid interest in everything that he is interested in. :) So nice to watch their interaction...I never thought that would bring me so much joy as a mom. :)
Anyways, do come on over and visit us. We, of the TOS Crew, would be delighted to have you learn how we do spring studies in our homeschooling adventures. :)
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