Outdoor Hour Challenge #23- Moth

Outdoor Hour Challenge #23 - Moths

Handbook of Nature Study - pp

We took this challenge thinking it would be so easy :). Most nights - as I'm always late watering my few plants/flowers that need water twice a day this time of year- I'm outside with the lights on and swatting the insects away! Normally my children have completed their bedtime routine and are in bed by this time but I thought this challenge would be a lot of fun SO when you see them in the pajamas -lol - that's why! :)

As I watered my flowers, they were trying to see the moths at our outside light. The problem being that the light is near the top of the house and they couldn't get a great look at the insects. My DH gave the kids a large flashlight to use and we turned off the spotlight on the house. At first they weren't seeing anything but my youngest was also dancing around with the light rather than setting it down :). I decided to turn on the smaller light on the back porch by the door to see what we were able to see. Almost immediately a moth came to the brick. The kids spotted it and as I tried to nudge it onto my fingers - it flew right onto my son's pajama shirt! :)


Chance & Alyssa having a look at the moth that landed on his shirt. They were really excited to be able to look at him so closely.

The moth didn't seem to mind resting on Chance's clothing at all so we all took turns getting a good look at the moth.












I am not very good at identifying moths - I went to Enature but it appears that the moths are SO similar in appearance. I have not identified him. We, instead, turned the conversation onto the differences of moths and butterflies that we could SEE that night. The kids did not do a nature journal entry this night because it was so late. My main objective was for us to have a good time finding a moth and taking a CLOSE look at one which we succeeded at! :)

We had already ordered some Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars a few weeks before. They had arrived, eaten and more than tripled in size and were forming their chrysalides during this time. In the morning all of them had formed chrysalides so we were able to move them into their "butterfly habitat". This gave us a great opportunity for a nature sketch to follow up our outdoor hour challenge.

Here the children are observing the chrysalides and sketching them for their nature journals.

This was a wonderful time to distinguish the difference between a cocoon and a chrysalis.

Cocoon- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupa#Cocoon

Chrysalis-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupa

Other links that explain the differences:

http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/faqs/cocoon.html

"Cocoon/Chrysalis
Cocoons and chrysalides are protective coverings for the pupa. The pupa is the intermediate stage between the larva and adult. A moth makes a cocoon, which is wrapped in a silk covering. A butterfly makes a chrysalis, which is hard, smooth and has no silk covering."

Another good website for coloring pages, printouts, and information:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/index.shtml

Butterfly copywork: http://members.enchantedlearning.com/grammar/paragraph/rewrite/butterfly/index.shtml?p

If they left the morning with nothing else, my DC now know that butterflies do not (as they told thier daddy firmly later :)) form cocoons as most people say - moths do and butterflies form chrysalides.

It was quite a bit of fun for us as always with the Outdoor Hour Challenges! I encourage anyone who's not taking AT LEAST this amount of time out doors with their children weekly to really do so! There - for me- is something so incredibly bonding and important about experiencing God's wonders and Creation together with your children. Anyone homeschooling with the Charlotte Mason method should know from her writing the importance of Nature Study and time spent out of doors.

Let them once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which
will be a source of delight and habit through life.~~Charlotte Mason,
Original Homeschooling Series

Outdoor Hour Challenge #10 Picnics, squirrels, caterpillars, beetles OH MY!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #10---Picnics - ongoing throughout our studies :)
We joined the Outdoor Hour Challenges late so as we go through our family's nature studies - I try to use the Outdoor Hour Challenges as much as possible and "catch up" on the ones we missed as they fit into our focuses and studies. These challenges that Barb so graciously posted for all of us to enjoy and share with our loved ones are TOO good to pass up any of them!! This particular challenge is one that I know we will use frequently and I plan to do at least several times each term (other than winter lol - we'll see ) It will be great to really EXPERIENCE the season by having a relaxed meal outdoors as a family in God's beautiful creation!!!

“The whole earth is full of his glory”.~ Isaiah 6:3

As with many of our homeschooling friends, we will be starting "school" on onday so I wanted to spend some relaxed time this week with the kids. Having breakfast outside was a nice surprise for them. :) It's great when they awaken and I tell them we are having breakfast outside and they all start screaming,"Yes! Yeah! Cool!" Mom's not always that cool :). I was pleased with their excitement. :)

As you can see they are still sleepy but it was so nice to enjoy a meal outside together. Once they were finished, we decided it would be nice to follow up with some outdoor observation and painting- but our poms had to be spoiled first... Here Chance is feeding the leftover eggs to Kilroy and Brittany - our 10 and 11 year old pomeranians. Kilroy was shaved recently by the vet for an allergic reaction which is why you see a bald pomeranian!

Kilroy is still begging Chance for more eggs - I didn't realize until I was looking at the pictures last night that he was feeding him from one of our FORKS! With an apple in one hand feeding the dog eggs from a fork in the other! It was too funny for me to say anything!

We took a walk through our flower beds and garden bed to see how things were progressing. They were so happy with thier plants. In hindsight - I will handle garden plants and flowers much differently next year! I just let the children run wild with seeds and we were so excited that we didn't really label anything on thier end of the garden so we're "waiting to see" what plants develop into on several of them. We will be more organized next year. This year was our first summer here so I was so busy planting in the beds my DS and DH were building and the kids and I reading about so many different plants and flowers that the labels seemed to get left out somehow.

This is the kids' end of the garden bed - we essentially built up beds this year and this one was already here. Initially the dirt was hard and unmanagemable with small, "rooty" vines that were killing what was left in it but it wasn't our main "focus" so I worked with the kids to till the dirt by hand and gradually add compost and rich topsoil throughout the summer. We have weeded to our heart's content to rid it of the choking vines and it worked out much better than expected. It's actually produced for us which is more than we thought it would do! :)


cherry tomato - not yet ripe

Cucumber

Basil Chance's 1st green/string bean

Chance standing beside Alyssa's bean plant to show how TALL it has gotten!!
Alyssa was still sleepy and being camera shy :)

We looked over my garden flowers (see all of them under the "plants in our backyard" slideshow on the right side of my blog) and then I brought out books, watercolors, and insect nets and jars for the children to work on some nature study.

My DH had found Chance a HUGE beetle that he had been observing. We tried looking him up in several books and websites and since his color was metallic green and copper - we continuously found "Japanese Beetle". He looked quite a bit like a Japanese Beetle but was SO large. We ended up labeling him from the book - "Peterson First Guides - Insects" We identified him as a Shining Leaf Chafer but nothing further than that. I'm not certain if he is just a really LARGE japanese beetle or another chafer that we didn't have information on.
Either way, this beetle, like the Japanese Beetles that I pluck from my roses constantly is an agricultural or garden pest. According to the guide,

"Shining Leaf Chafers are often extraordinarily beautiful,
but are also often very destructive both as larvae and adults. Few of us can appreciate the color pattern of the Japanese Beetle as it munches through a rose bush or an orchard. Its larvae, like others in this group, eat roots and are especially destructive to lawns."

I'm not terribly mortified about my lawn but I can tell you - its frustrating as a rose gardener at the FAST and FURIOUS destruction on my rose bushes. This is my first year as gardening roses and they have been a constant "thorn in my side" - no pun intended.

Here's an example from one of my own roses -

Chance did an excellent journal page using watercolors to paint the chafer.

Briana wanted to read about and identify two caterpillars that we found at the park. Using "Princeton Field Guides - Caterpillars of Eastern North America" we were able to identify them both. The black caterpillar with white hairs covering his body is a Walnut Caterpillar.

My photos of these caterpillars are not very good - I couldn't seem to focus well on them. I found a better picture online here.

We identified the second caterpillar as a Banded Tussock Moth Caterpillar.
He has

"conspicuous black and white lashes extending from anterior end of his body."
Caterpillars of Easter N. America page 471
Again- my photo is not that good. I found a better picture of the Banded Tussock Moth Caterpillar here.

Here is Briana with the walnut caterpillar.

This caterpillar fell out of one of the tall trees at the park last week and right down my back! It frightened me until I realized it was a caterpillar. The girls couldn't wait to get him home and put him in their butterfly pavillion. Shortly before that I looked up and saw a very hairy yellow caterpillar crawling on my camera. We left the park with two caterpillars for our nature studies! All of the children (even their playmates we'd met there) were so excited to see these beautiful caterpillars.

We read about the both of them and realized that we hadn't been providing them with the proper nourishment as they both consume woody shrubs and trees-

The walnut caterpillar feeding on: butternut, hickory, pecan, and walnut.

The banded tussock moth caterpillar feeding on: alder, ash, birch, blueberry, chestnut, elm, grape, hackberry, hazel, hickory, oak, walnut, willow, and many other woody shrubs and trees. After studying and sketching them, we decided this morning to let them go so they could obtain better nourishment - they'll need it for their metamorphasis. Here is Briana's amazing watercolor and journal page:

Alyssa caught her favorite insect - the ladybug. She has been in love with these little beetles for some time now. :) She's fascinated with them in a way only a young child full of heart and imagination can be :). As you can tell - it's dear to me. Here you will find a great ladybug picture.
I did not get a picture of the ladybug Alyssa caught because she flew off as soon as she was free from the butterfly pavillion. I have a link to the right side of my blog that is a slideshow of "backyard discoveries" where I thought I had a picture of Alyssa with a ladybug but I couldn't find it. We used the same Peterson First Field Guide - Insects to read about Alyssa's ladybug as we used for Chance's chafer. The ladybug is actually a lady or ladybird beetle. We've seen this before but its so easy to slip back into calling them ladybugs.
According to the guide,

" they... are familiar to everyone as "ladybugs." Their popularity is well deserved as they are among the most helpful insects. Of the 400 North American species only 3 feed on plants. Most of the rest devour vast quantities of agricultural pests such as aphids and scale insects. "

We also looked the ladybug up in a book, National Audubon Society - First Field Guide of Insects

This is actually a nice book - much clearer and easier for young children such as mine - Praise God for the library so that I can review all of these before making purchases. This book had a nice page on the ladybug. Pages 94 & 95 are devoted to the ladybug beetle and its look-alikes. Alyssa was SO pleased that her favorite insects were a help to gardeners! This book give similar information as the Peterson Guide but it was a bit clearer for her.
"One of the best places to find ladybug beetles is on a plant
that is infested with aphids. By devouring these sap-sucking pests, the adult beetle and its black larvae help to protect the host plant. The number of spots a ladybug has depends on the species, not the insects age. Some ladybugs have no spots at all - still others are striped."
This was good information for us both since we've seen so many that have either few spots or no spots and we were curious as to the differences.

Here is Alyssa's watercolor and journal entry:

Another wonderful entry!

I decided to take Barb's advice and paint with the children. To let go of the fact that I'm really not good at it and just enjoy the morning with the kids and relax with them. I was amused the entire morning by our backyard buddies (and sometimes pests!) - the squirrels. We've found we have a lot of "frequent visitors" of both the squirrels and birds that we can expect each day now and I LOVE IT! The squirrels, however, amuse me - that is until I'm filling holes back in with compost, top soil, and mulch where they have dug and pulling out "peanut plants" from my flower beds!! LOL

We were looking at all of my DC's ideas when we noticed our little burgular-

He had decided to send the birds away and jump in their platform feeder to have an extra snack. I had already fed him - mind you. I had filled up a feeder with peanuts, sunflower, and corn kernels and also put out an ear of corn for them. I guess he was still hungry! He stayed here for quite some time - then another joined...

keeping in mind - this 2nd little acrobat is EATING out of a SQUIRREL PROOF feeder!!



Our next little visitor was thirsty and decided it would take time to drink and relax in the bird bath.

This squirrel is one of 2 or 3 that we see that are much smaller in size and have a much thinner, less bushy tail. My DC and I wondered if it was because they were younger - possibly born in a huge mass of leaves and sturdy branches in a pine tree out back that we've been watching. I tried searching online but didn't really find anything. I didn't see anything in the HNS concerning this either. Maybe someone knows and would like to share?

In The Handbook of Nature Study I found this great picture~


I just LOVE the quote I found from The Handbook of Nature Study on page 233 when she opens up her study on squirrels:

"We ought to yield admiring tribute to those animals which have been able to flourish in our midst despite man and his gun, this weapon being the most cowardly and unfair invention of the human mind. The only time that man has been a fair fighter in combating his four-footed brethren was when he fought them with a weapon which he weilded in his hand."

SIDE NOTE--

This is NOT to start a debate on guns or hunting or gun control - afterall my brother is a police officer and MANY of our closest homeschooling friends are military - I just found her introduction o squirrels quite bold and passionate. My opinions on weapons are for another spot - not this post but I thought this really lead into the antics and intelligence of the squirrels - especially since for most people - they've went from the dinner table to the hearts and amusement of their outdoor time. :) She goes on to explain her opinion further - much of which I agree to - but again for a different type of post.

How could anyone resist the antics of these creatures? I sometimes think they are God's comedians when I need a smile or a laugh. They really are quite amusing!

As I read through Ms. Comstock's notes on squirrels in the HNS- as I usually do when we come in from a nature "walk" and have something I want to research - I quite enjoyed all of her squirrel chapter. If you enjoy squirrels in your backyard or park or otherwise- I STRONGLY suggest you read pp. 233-236 at a minimum. I won't go into all of it now as I would probably be copying all three pages here in type! I found myself grinning and giggling and nodding my head in agreement as I read these pages despite myself. My DC must have thought mommy had "lost it" until I explained that I was reading about our "backyard, fury friends" :). I could feel Ms. Comstock's passion for these little creatures that was so similar to my own. We will be studying mammals in the winter so I will obtain more books and information at that time. I started this little ramble here to just express my own interest in them and reason for MY watercolor. Keep in mind - this is not for my talent (or lack of :) but to take Barb's advice (which was spot on) and paint for my enjoyment, positive modeling for my DC, and for thier enjoyment. They really took to mommy painting with them.

Again- I MUST thank Barb for a great challenge. I truly believe starting the morning off with a loving, peaceful out door breakfast was the way to get this nature study rolling. I realize this was a long entry and forgive me but once they were outside - everyone took off in their own direction of interest! It was GREAT! So much knowledge and enjoyment in one morning!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #22 - Chasing Butterflies

Outdoor Hour Challenge #22 - Chasing Butterflies

We'd had some recent encounters with small, brown butterflies feeding from the children's marigolds for a couple of weeks now as you can see from my most recent post.

Barb thought they might be skippers and after checking enature.com I was in 100% agreement with her. I have yet to really narrow them down to a specific skipper. I was leaning towards the Cobweb Skipper but my DS pointed out that our skippers do not have the required prominent white "web" markings. When I type in our zip code (22405) into enature - I'm leaning more towards the Sachem (Atalopedes campestris).

Briana chose this particular skipper to put in her nature journal. She was able to catch several of these in her bug jar and observe them briefly before setting them free again unharmed. There just appears to be so many that are so closely colored/marked.

Briana's Nature Journal Entry

Alyssa has been chasing around a little white butterfly all week. She's also quite petite and white with a flash of yellow on her wings. We've yet to really see her up close because she's quite flighty but Alyssa (who is just turned 5 yo) seems to have more fun skipping around the yard after 'her' butterfly anyway :) She did her nature journal on her and we simple labeled her for now as "white butterfly".

Alyssa's Entry

My DS Chance had not sketched out his nature journal entry for this week yet. He and I spent some time together (see the last post - Outdoor Hour Challenge #1) sitting outside and happen across several of the skippers (the ones Briana sketched) and had an enjoyable conversation about the proboscis and watching these interesting little animals unroll, probe, and then roll back up these proboscis. We were thinking and discussing that he would probably journal about that this week when we had a nice surprise. He and I walked outside to check on the flower gardens and stumbled across this beauty: I was so incredibly excited. She's BEAUTIFUL :). I told him to watch her, to notice what flowers she seemed to be most attracted to, and I ran off into the house for my camera. I was so nervous that I wouldn't get pictures but she hung around. She mostly touched down on flowers- tasted them with her "feet" - and then headed off for another. This was a great time to discuss their tasting habits with my son.

Female butterflies often have important chemoreceptors on their legs to help
them find appropriate host plants for their eggs. These chemoreceptors are at
the base of spines on the back of the legs, and they run up along the spine to
its tip. Females drum their legs against the plant, which releases plant juices.
The chemoreceptors along the spines tell the butterfly whether they are standing
on the correct host plant. Monarch females test host plants with all six legs
before laying eggs. They also probably have chemoreceptors on their ovipositor.
Monarchs invest a lot of time into finding the correct host plant for their eggs
because it is essential for the eggs' survival. - from http://www.monarchwatch.org/biology/sense1.htm

I believe we have identified her as a female spicebush swallowtail HOWEVER - she also closely resembles the black swallowtail but with more blue than the black swallowtails seem to have. Any opinions or ideas on this? Chance, of course, decided to journal about our little swallowtail adventure

Chance's Nature Journal Entry
Here's his nature journal page for the challenge. We had a really fun time with this one. One of my 5 yo DD's is now saying that she is, "Studying Butterflies" to learn more about them so this is great :)!! I love when their interest is peaked and I can just run with it :). I'm looking at ordering some eggs and raising butterflies again. We did this when Chance was quite young but the girls were too little to remember. I'm going to have to find out when a good time to do this is in Virginia. I had planned on waiting until closer to next Spring and planning our curriculum/nature study accordingly but we'll be starting school in the next 2 weeks so I may take advantage of it while I have such a big interest from them :). Have to "catch it while I can" - that's the whole point of "natural learning"!!!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #1 - yep #1

After reading Barb's email a few days ago about going back and working the first few Outdoor Hour Challenges before 'jumping in' - I realized that was something we did not do. Since we've been working on the new flower gardens and :) my DH has been working on my bird feeder 'station' I thought we'd start back a bit.

We were on the way home from gymnastics and tae kwon do classes yesterday afternoon and I mentioned to the children that with all of the outdoor time we'd had as a family in the past couple of weeks - we hadn't taken time to work on our nature notebooks(journals). I asked each of them to tell me (narrate) their favorite nature 'memory' from the past couple of days. They AMAZED me -I am always surprised by the knowledge these little ones hold in and after giving all glory to God for creating such amazing children - I just have yet another confirmation of the educational road we are travelling. The time spent out of doors and the Charlotte Mason style education we've been using has always surpassed my expectations and constantly wipes out my doubts and fears. With Barb's Outdoor Hour Challenges planned out for us - it is just one more step to making things easier and giving us more time to be out of doors together versus sitting inside while I create these nature excursions on my own.

"Be anxious about nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6, 7

As I pray on these things - the Lord undoubtedly answers my prayers. First - with Barb's recent emails of old posts about not becoming overwhelmed and then my discussion in the car with my DC.
As I asked them to narrate their favorite experiences to me - they all had something different that had appealed to them.

Chance (my 6 yo DS) - described his close encounter with our friendly, little Black & White Warbler. This little bird is quite brave in his interactions with us. He appears to be just as interested in us as we are in him.

Chance described (orally) the black & white warbler in surprising detail. I asked him questions about where he saw him and what he was doing and I was quite delighted at the accuracy of his answers.

He then went on to tell him he also LOVED seeing one of the male robins that frequent our feeders.
Tenderly named "Mr. & Mrs. Robin" by dear mom :) these joyful birds visit us daily with such an accurate schedule!! We can ALWAYS anticipate them as SOON as the heat wave breaks in the evening. They begin with a cooling bath/drink in our bird bath and then some hopping all around the feeders' overflowed and spilled seed on the ground. He again described the Robins in detail and went on to tell me about the differences between the male and females. He then couldn't WAIT to sketch both of the birds out for me.

Here are two OLD entries he made in his nature journal from May when we first began studying the Robins...

HNS - We've been studying Robins since the spring when we found the robin's nest in our front tree. They are a common visitor and we've reviewed most of the HNS information on them but it was nice to work on p 62- series g -Summer reading and observations - this was a nice lead in to the summer observations. I LOVE how Ms. Comstock did this section with the robins as we can follow them thier entire season here.
Warblers were not in the HNS but I did manage to find some information on them in All the Birds of North America page 133-

Mniotilta varia 5 1/4" - Numerous in deciduous and mixed woods. Migrates early when trees bare; gleans insects from tree trunks, large limbs. Striped head and body. Male has black cheek patch, female gray. Spring male has black throat. Song: Weesy, weesy, weesy, high-pitched song.

Alyssa chose to tell me about a bird she saw. Unfortunately - I missed the bird so I can only go by her description. She is one of my 5 year old twins and probably
has the least descriptive narrations of the three but she was rather excited
about her bird and rambled on about it :).
She described it as black and white on its head, wings, and back and a yellow breast. She is looking through the All of the Birds of North America book now to try to identify him. This is one I have NOT seen myself outside. :) It is difficult to find anything in the HNS since I'm not quite sure which type of bird she observed. We'll spend some more time together outside trying to look for this bird and pray we observe him again together so I may help her in identifying him.

Briana chose to narrate to me about a butterfly she found and caught. She described a small, yellow butterfly to us that she managed to catch in her bug jar. She then caught a moth and looked at both of them very closely before letting them both go. She found the both of them on the children's marigold flowers.

We have not yet studied butterflies or moths so it brought a new interest into our nature study. She seems very interested in learning more about them.

Here you will find one of the children's marigolds that she found her butterfly on.

I looked up the butterflies in the HNS and did not identify her butterfly to be any located in the book. We pulled out our Usborne Spotter's Guides - Butterflies. We discussed the butterflies' proboscis and its importance.

Amazingly enough- later on in the day - my son and I were outside sitting and we looked at the marigolds to see four of these butterflies on the flowers. As we sat there - we were able to observe the butterflies' 'unroll' thier proboscis and begin probing into the marigold flowers with them. I've known what a proboscis was since I was a child but never really took the time or had the opportunity to sit and watch it in 'action'! It was quite the delight of the afternoon. I am posting some pictures below.

Here's another that really shows his proboscis

Now we need to try to identify these guys! :) It looks like we've got a lot to work on!! :)