Wordless Wednesday : The Private Eye - Week 1

Gathering items for The Private Eye curriculum

Loupe-gazing

One of the mosses we found as seen through two loupes

A split hickory nut as seen through two loupes

The Great Backyard Bird Count

It started today!  We'll start tomorrow.  We "decorated" our cherry tree today.  ☺

Find out more here.

Mutual of Omaha presents. . .

. . . our backyard.  ☺   (That's a seventies tv reference for those of you old enough to remember it.)  It's been a hotbed of wildlife activity around here since spring.  Here are a few of our sightings, and some pictures, such as they are.

One.

Two.

You guessed it.

We have a hawk's nest in the woods directly behind our house and have had fun watching the three youngsters grow stronger (and louder).  Needless to say, we haven't seen that many squirrels and chipmunks hanging around, or at least not for long. . .

We think this is Mama, keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings.

Wild turkeys seem to be overtaking this area of Massachusetts, and we have one that enjoys a shady corner of our backyard.  She can be seen hanging out there from time to time before turkey-stepping back into the woods.

"Our" robin was back several weeks ago, using last year's nest in our holly bush by our front walk.  This location made it easy for the kids to peek carefully at the nest every couple of days or so.  That blue of the eggs is my favorite color.  And it was such a treat to watch the mother bird give the babies flying lessons.  As they went from hatchlings to being out of the nest and hopping about the yard to flying, it amazed me again how quickly they go from being newborns to fending for themselves.

Other birds love the woods here, and we've had visits from our friendly neighborhood downy woodpeckers are well as a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers, among others.

Downies

We also sighted a snake, a painted turtle, and a snapping turtle, all within days of each other, all on our smallish suburbanish property.

All this busy-ness keeps our own not-so-wildlife happy.

Snapshots from September - Museum of Life and Science, Durham

Our journey to North Carolina in September included our third trip to Durham's Museum of Life and Science.  If you are ever in the Triangle area, we highly recommend a visit!  We arrived just after lunchtime, and, since the main building was fairly crowded with school groups, headed right outdoors to the Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind exhibits.

Left: Exploring river ecology  Right: Learning how seeds fly

Catch the Wind!

Top: using sound cannons to make mirrored discs move (and blow each other's hair back)
Bottom left: mist garden  Bottom right: making vapor rings

In addition to these two trails, the youngest of member of the family much enjoyed the dinosaur walk and train ride.  Indoor options include an insect room and butterfly pavilion in an auxiliary building, and weather, gem & fossil, space, germ, and a whole host of other science activities in the main building.

Snapshots from September - Sylvan Heights

We were recently in North Carolina visiting family, and had the pleasure of visiting Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park in Scotland Neck.  Even though the weather was a formidable 98 degrees, we enjoyed walking around with our intern-guide, Matt, and learning more about birds from all over the world.  It's definitely worth the drive from the Triangle area!

Clockwise from top left: JaneG. feeding a crane; a Nene (Hawaiian Lava Goose); Jazz talking with a Scarlet Macaw; Scarlet Ibis

Left: Boardwalk to the breeding center.  Right: Bebop feeds the toucan a guide-provided grape; unknown berry (still looking for this one's name--its bright fuchsia color caught both my eye and Jane's)

Wordless Wednesday - "Prehistoric" Forest

Owl books and links

We've been watching Molly, the most famous barn owl in the world, as she sits on her nest with first eggs, and now owlets plus eggs at The Owl Box on UStream.  Three of the little ones have hatched, and now we're waiting for the last two to make an appearance.  We've learned a lot just from watching and following the chat, which is moderated and kid-friendly (but the social stream is not, just FYI).  I'm pulling together a list of books and other resources that have been helpful in the past and are currently sources that we turn to as we watch Molly's family expand, hoping that others will find it useful.

Books

picture books:

All About Owls, by Jim Arnosky
The Barn Owls, by Tony Johnston
Owls, by Gail Gibbons
Owl (See How They Grow), DK Publishing (my five-year-old loves this series)
White Owl, Barn Owl, by Nicola Davies (also a five-year-old favorite)
Owls (Animal Predators), by Sandra Markle
Owls, Zoobooks
The Book of North American Owls, by Helen Roney Sattler (gorgeous illustrations and a lot of information--for about 4th grade level and up)
Raptor! A Kid's Guide to Birds of Prey, by C. Laubach, R. Laubach, and C.W.G. Smith (also for about 4th grade level and up)

activity and coloring books:

Owls: On Silent Wings, by Ann C. Cooper (activities, including a lap book of sorts and instructions for an origami owl)
Raptors, a Coloring Album, by Anne Price (lots of written information and realistic drawings to color)
Hidden Feathers, a Creature Camouflage Coloring Book, MindWare

fiction:

There's an Owl in the Shower, by Jean Craighead George (ages 9 and up)
Hoot, by Carl Hiassen (ages 10 and up)
Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen (all ages)

Other resources

The current Hearts & Trees Winter/Spring Kit, which features (among other things), an owl silhouette art project, a felt owl handicraft to make, and an owls' fact sheet.  Great timing!

One of the moderators posted this link to a pdf of DK's From Egg to Owl.  Thanks, Jessica!

This art journaling idea from Art Projects for Kids.

An owl reading comprehension sheet from abcteach.

The Young Scientists Club kit #30, Owls (part of set 10, which also includes kit #29, Eggs)

Molly's Box on Wordpress, with more links on the Barn Owl Resources page

The Owl Pages

The Barn Owl Trust

eMINTS page about Barn Owls

Hoot, the movie (ages 8 and up)

Hope you enjoy studying owls as much as we have!

Mollywatch

The kids and I have been watching Molly the Barn Owl on UStream and got to see Max (owlet 1 of 5) hatch this afternoon.  It's been great fun!

The Owl Box

A couple of blurry captured screen shots:

Book Sharing Monday - Eggs!

Our part of New England has been fortunate (in my eyes) to have both a mild winter and an early spring this year.  Though it may be 38 degrees and rainy today, in two days it's supposed to be 59 and sunny, which sounds like heaven.  

Nature study is a big part of a Charlotte Mason education, and while we may not get outdoors quite as much as I would like, the type of science my kids gravitate toward lends itself very well to the study of nature.  Recently, I've been putting books about birds, eggs, and life cycles in their workboxes, and they've been a big hit.   Here are a couple of our favorites, with a more exhaustive list at the end.

An Egg is Quiet, by Dianna Aston (author) and Sylvia Long (illustrator)

From the same team that brought us A Seed is Sleepy, this beautiful book is short on words, but long on enjoyment.  The pictures, from endpapers to endpapers and everything in between, are meticulously drawn and softly tinted.  And while there isn't a ton of information presented, what is here is apt to provoke some interesting observations and discussions.

Eggs, by Marilyn Singer (author) and Emma Stevenson (illustrator)

This book about eggs has much more written text than the one above, and was enjoyed by my eight- and twelve-year-olds.  Published in 2008, it is the illustrator's first book.  I hope we see more by her!

Other books and resources we used in this unit: 

Ducks Don't Get Wet (Goldin & Davie; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
Falcons Nest on Skyscrapers (Jenkins & Lloyd; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
A Nest Full of Eggs (Jenkins & Rockwell; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
How Do Birds Find Their Way? (Gans & Mirocha; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
Lemon the Duck (Backman & Cleyet-Merle; for a teacher's guide for this book, go here)
From Egg to Chicken (Ganeri)
Animals in Flight (Jenkins & Page)
How Animals Grow (Llewellyn)
The Egg (Jeunesse, de Bourgoing, & Mettler)
Bird Songs (Franco & Jenkins)
What Bluebirds Do (Kirby)
A Duckling is Born (Isenbart & Baumli)
The Life Cycle of a Duck (Hipp & Kuhn)
From Egg to Bird (Reidel)
Duckling (Magloff)

DVDs:
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Birds
Birds of a Feather (Reading Rainbow)
All about Birds
All about Animal Life Cycles
Life of Birds





Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Serendipity Home School.

Impostor

This friendly visitor was too small to be a Monarch, so E. and I are pretty sure was a Viceroy (Limentis archippus). Plus it has the black line across the hindwing that distinguishes it from the Queen of Butterflies.

Playing around with iMovie

(Video fixed--uploaded the wrong file the first time.)

Hemaris thysbe, or the Clearwing Hummingbird moth, likes hanging out at the butterfly bush in our yard. I tried out iMovie for the first time with footage from outside today.

Playing in the background is "Strange Days," sung by Beoga on their cd, The Incident, as otherwise, the not-so-sonorous sounds of the neighbor's weedwacker would have been apparent.

A seasonal quote from Charlotte Mason

"A girl who knows something about wildflowers, for example, will be a popular walking companion with all kinds of people in various circumstances." ~Home Education in Modern English: Volume 1 of Charlotte Mason's Series

Love it! Thanks to the Hearts and Trees newsletter for the quote. A new blog entry at the Hearts and Trees blog titled A Few Spring Nature Study Ideas is worth checking out!