What's that? A tussock moth caterpillar

This one was a doozy! I actually found it crawling into the bug jar (maybe it had heard how well you're fed there!) and was totally stymied. I figured it was a caterpillar of some sort but since there were so many strange.. err, distinctive characteristics I couldn't use my normal search methodology (ie, Google). So I did the next best thing: I snapped pictures and took them to a nature program we were signed up for. And thanks to the knowledgeable instructor and three books on moths and butterflies, I finally had an ID: the larval stage of a moth in the family Lymantriidae, otherwise known as a Tussock moth, so-called because their tufts of hair are called tussocks.



Interesting facts: Lymantria means "defiler" because the moths are known to defoliate forest trees. The Gypsy moth alone causes millions of dollars in damage every year. Also, many of these caterpillars have sharp hairs that can sting, so don't pick them up!

Week 3: Forest Habitats

We'll be taking a closer look at all the habitats, just not week after week. For last week we focused on forest because, well, it was easiest! We live near a lot of forests, but not too many rainforests or deserts.

This unit was the impetus to get out and explore. Sure, we're generally outside a lot, but we took the extra effort to visit local nature preserves and really LOOK at the different layers of the forest. For instance, we'd stop at a fallen-down tree and talk about what lives under it. We counted and photographed all the different mushrooms we saw and looked at the variations in spiderwebs. The kids collected nuts and then researched the different kinds. We made leaf rubbings and created a little book identifying common local trees. Oh, and we collected bugs, lots and lots of bugs. Our bug jar was like a rent-by-the-hour motel for a while.

Normally I would try to do more of a project-based approach to a unit, but this fit in so well with the weather and our area that I scrapped the planned projects for a larger, more nebulous but more important one -- Get Outside! 

What we're reading:
One Small Place in a Tree, by Barbara Brenner
A Forest Habitat, by Bobbie Kalman

Calendar and weather board

I'm so excited we can finally use this! Ever since I started thinking about homeschooling (before the oldest could crawl, basically), I have wanted a cutesy morning board. I pictured me and my seven kids -- with teeth-glistening smiles and freshly-washed hair -- dutifully sitting around it every morning recording, with great enthusiasm, the date and weather. Shortly after that, I imagined, we would all retire to my French country-style kitchen for the homemade cinnamon rolls just coming out of the oven.

Well, the reality is a wee bit different (still waiting on that French country kitchen -- and the seven kids!) but at least we have a bona fide morning board! And it has pretty much everything I wanted -- activities that engage both a six-year-old and a four-year-old, even if figuring out the date three different ways can get a bit repetitive.

Everything is laminated (for wear and tear and so the kids can write on them). There's a regular calendar where they have to figure out the right number for the date (V-Man's job), then another calendar-type section where MM selects the day of the week, month, date and year. She also has to write the date every day in the correct format.

They can both record the weather inside and outside (thank you Homeschool Creations for the awesome temperature gauge!), and V-Man loves doing "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" and recording the day's weather (both activities from the always-amazing Confessions of a Homeschooler). The clock (79 cents at an office supply store, yay!) lets them both practice telling/writing the time at their own levels. Plus, all the months and days of the week are written in English, French and Spanish.

And as a bonus for those of us who homeschool in the dining room, the tri-fold board folds up easily to slip behind a desk when we're done. 

So, hey, we're getting closer to my homeschooling ideal! And those homemade cinnamon rolls? They'll be out of the oven any second!


PS: Nobody tell me I need an apostrophe between the "c" and "est" in c'est. I know. Captain D bit it off!

Where I got stuff: 
The temperature gauge came from Homeschool Creations.
The awesome (as always) Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and What's the Weather Like Today? activities came from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Mini Michelangelos

Possessing not a lick of artistic talent myself, I do try to expose the kids to great works of art on a regular basis. Lately it has been Michelangelo.

If you're not familiar with Michelangelo, he was the sculptor (of David and of the Pieta) of 14/1500s Florence. He was immensely talented -- so talented that he lived on commissions from the Medeci family and the pope (the Big Guns of the time). One day the pope asked -- more like demanded -- that Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's response was something along the lines of "Heck no! I'm a sculptor, not a painter -- get Raphael to do it!" but then he bent to the pope's will and picked up a paintbrush. It took four years of isolation, fatigue and physical pain, but we all know the beautiful result.

Our project was to paint our own ceiling, which was drawing paper taped to the underside of a table. As I didn't want paint or sharp colored pencils dropping into their eyes, I sent an email to tolerant family members asking for any old makeup we could use to paint the Sistine Chapel. They were more than happy to send over old Clinique freebies.

I like that the kids had to learn the texture of the makeup (I'm sure there is some fancy word like "sensory stimulation" to describe this) and that they had to create art from a new vantage point. It's good to look at the world differently! I had no idea how this would turn out, but they were occupied for at least an hour on their masterpiece, and the result is now decorating our entry way!

What we're reading:
Michelangelo: Master of the Italian Renaissance
The Moral Compass (The Sculptor and the Sistine Chapel), by William J. Bennett
Introducing Michelangelo, by Robin Richmond

What's that? A stink bug

This little guy is from the Pentatomidae family, with "penta" meaning five and "tomos" meaning sections (thank you Wikipedia) because its antennae have five segments. Its body is usually shield-shaped (so it's sometimes called a shield bug) and it earned its stink bug name because it can squirt stinky stuff when it is disturbed.

I can totally picture an upcoming science lesson -- How can you make a stink bug squirt?

Measuring creativity

Once again the recycling box was getting a little full, so naturally I asked myself the question "What fun can we possibly have with these cardboard boxes?" Toss me a couple bottles of spray paint on a lazy Saturday and I had my answer.

MM is always "renewing" -- redoing, redecorating, moving all her junk around -- her room, and I suspect she carries the decorating gene that is sorely dormant in my makeup. So I figured, rightly, that if I said, "Hey, daughter, wanna make this box into a dollhouse room?" she would skip a heartbeat. In purples and reds she decorated the interior with hearts and bright slashes. From there it was a short step to deciding that her room needed curtains, furniture and a rug, and this was when I decided to make the project vaguely educational and incorporate measurement.

With a ruler she measured the windows and the floor, then cut fabric for the spaces. She made a cardboard bed and a "quilt" in the same manner. Meanwhile, V-Man was creating some sort of firehouse alien spaceship and ordered me to cut lots of secret entrances so the aliens could escape from the invading pirates.

When the rooms were finished they played for a while, but then Monday morning I was waiting with rulers, yardsticks and worksheets titled "My big house" and "My little house." The kids had to measure and compare the sizes of their little rooms and our living room, as well as the door and window heights. It led to a pretty good lesson on measurement, and afterward we walked around the house deciding what you would use to measure certain things -- a toothbrush, a bed, the refrigerator, a plate.



All in all, not a bad lesson to come out of a couple of empty boxes!

Week 2: Habitats

Last week's unit of study was the Earth, so this week we narrowed that down to the idea of habitats. A habitat, quite simply, is where things live, and every habitat needs to provide four things: water, food, shelter and space. Throughout the week I would watch the kids play, and I was surprised at how often the word "habitat" sprung up. Once I saw them with their stuffed birds, placing them in a dollhouse chair under an umbrella, with a "beach" of fabric and play food and a jug of water on a little table, and they informed me they were creating a habitat for the birds. "See, Mom? The birds have food, water and space, and the umbrella gives them shelter." Cool.

We also talked about our habitat -- what is it? How big is it? Is it only our house? Or does it include the grocery store and the parks we go to? How much space do we need? Is our habitat a different size than a family that lives in a crowded city?

Various activities we did included:

Project 1: After reading about the different types of land and water habitats I created small posterboards with pictures of habitat types (I cut them out from free travel magazines at the library). The kids took their sizeable collection of plastic animals and placed them in the correct habitats (the pirates' habitat was the beach). There seemed to be several "aha" moments when they understood basic interconnections among animals -- that lions eat zebras in the grasslands, for example. That led to discussions of food chains, so back to the library we went!

Project 2: They each chose an animal from flashcards, created the animal out of felt, then drew in the habitat. V-Man chose a hammerhead shark whose habitat consisted mainly of fish with chunks bitten out of them.

Project 3: We visited a waterfowl park (very very cool!) where the birds were sectioned off by continent, and each habitat was populated with the ecosystems of that particular region. I'd love to think that the kids noticed the colorful plants and birds of the South American region, or that Africa had the most wild-looking birds, but really I think they just had fun. Which was okay, too!

Project 4: Something I wanted to do but didn't get around to was to draw a map of our family's habitat on a posterboard. Oh well -- someday!

What we're reading:
"Land Habitats," by Bobbie Kalman
"Wildlife Atlas: A complete guide to animals and their habitats," by John Farndon
"Who eats what?" by Patricia Lauber

Homemade Challenge: Cheese sticks

I confess that I am a cheese freak. Chocolate I could live without, but give me my salt. As a kid I remember asking my mother to bring popcorn instead of cupcakes to my classroom on my birthday, and she complied happily, popping multiple bags -- and delivering them in a giant black trash bag. Appetizing. Thanks, Mom.

And cheese... well, I think I have passed this trait on to V-Man, who frequently turns up his nose at Kroger's shredded cheddar and demands instead Gouda and Edam. At a babysitter's house he opted for her jalapeno-infused mozzarella over those bright yellow Kraft slices. Obviously, since I like cheese, I'm also a big fan of cheese-flavored crackers. Problem is, I'm never quite sure what's in them... I mean, just what is "cheese flavor"? Plus (my real reasoning) those boxes are getting pretty dang expensive.

So I was super excited when I googled "homemade cheese crackers" and came across this recipe at Smitten Kitchen. I have now made it multiple times, and each run-through they get eaten a little faster. I have taken them to picnics, the pool, parties, teas... and many a time they have served as a late-night snack (blamed on my husband, of course).

The kids love them, too, except that V-Man, true to form keeps asking me to make them with Gouda.

Natural disasters, part II

This time around the fascination is hurricanes. What to do to indulge a four-year-old's obsession? Well, read books, first of all, and then patiently explain again and again that hurricane categories only go up to 5, and that there could not possibly be a Category 917. And then you just give in and say, "Yep, absolutely, a Category 917 hurricane is possible and would wipe out the whole planet. You're right, son."

And then you come up with a project using the simplest materials possible, execute, and call it a successful study.

Paper plates, blue paint, a Q-tip and cottonballs. Doesn't get any easier than that. Tell the kids they're satellites looking down into the hurricane, outline the eye and the swirls of the wind, then shred cottonballs and stick 'em on the circling lines. And just for extra fun I made the six-year-old write hurricane-related vocab words on another painted plate. Easy, fun, cute, and quite possibly educational.

What we're reading:
Hurricanes, by Gail Gibbons
Hurricanes, by Seymour Simon
Hurricanes (What on Earth?), by Catherine Chambers

What's that? A White Dove

I was so excited to see this bird... I couldn't figure out what it was, and I couldn't find it in any of my bird books. But then it dawned on me that it was a white dove, an easy ID, and that it had probably been released at a wedding ceremony. Then it further dawned on me that the poor guy probably had no survival skills and would be an easy mark for an predator. And then I wasn't nearly as excited, but I was thankful that I got the chance to see it up close.

Slugs at all hours

You know you're a homeschooler when... at 2 a.m. you get up to let the dog out, and you notice a slug has slimed its way inside, and yet your first thought is not Exterminator! Help! but Cool! I'll just pop this little feller in the handy-dandy bug jar the kids pre-packed at bedtime.

Yes, pre-packed. We were millipede-hunting yesterday and V-Man was quite distraught that we had to let his new pet go home at night, so he stuffed celery leaves and lettuce in the bug jar in anticipation of finding his millipede in the morning.

Well, morning came a little early. Lucky for me (and for the slug), we had been studying slugs just this week. Our activities included slug-hunting by watering down a gravel pile and placing a tarp there overnight to lure the creatures in, turning over every rock and flowerpot in our yard to find slugs and snails, studying them up close and doing nature notebook drawings, and capping the study off by making a Slug Book. MM wrote three pages (each page had info about slugs, like SLUGS NEED WATER or SLUGS ARE MOLLUSKS) and drew a couple more of slugs and snails.

I thought my 2 a.m. find would be quite the highlight the next morning when the kids woke up, but it was not to be. Although I put him in a secure bug jar, somehow or another he wriggled (slimed) his way out and is now on the loose in my kitchen. He'd better watch out -- no pre-packed bug jars tonight!

What we're reading:
Snails and Slugs (Nature Close-Up), by Elaine Pascoe
Slugs in Love, by Susan Pearson
Some Smug Slug, by Pamela Duncan Edwards