Outdoor Hour Challenge #4 - Focus on Insects

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew vi, 19).

Outdoor Hour Challenge #4 - Choosing a Focus Area - Insects

Once again, I feel as if we are "out of order" with our Outdoor Hour Challenges but I want the children to be able to enjoy them all and not miss out on any of Barb's wonderful ideas. This worked great for us because we started "school" last week and our first term's nature study "focus" is going to be insects. I love Barb's ideas so much - we essentially created our term "focuses" based on what she had planned :).

So - we have been focusing on insects. You can see from our last few blogs about the squash bugs, butterflies, and moths - we've been QUITE enjoying it! I can NOT wait to work on this week's Bee's Challenge! They are fascinating to me so I'm excited. I think today will be a library trip for more books on bees since our Outdoor Hour Challenge happened accidentally last night!

If you read many of my posts - you will see that I prefer the Charlotte Mason method of homeschool. And the more I pray on my homeschool decisions and topics - the more natural things seem to occur. As a mom who feels "called" to homeschool - this only encourages me and I LOVE IT! There is nothing better than feeling the Lord's presence in important things that you do! And for all homeschooling moms -- what WE do to me - is one of THE most important things that women can be called to do!

What does this have to do with our Virgin Tiger Moth? Not much :) but since I have been so incredibly blessed to have these challenges fall into our laps almost - I wanted to give praise to our Creator for making things so clear to me - and hope that helps someone else!

Our focus then is going to be insects and we have been blessed to have Barb's challenges every week for an extra "umph" to help us out! The kids have really enjoyed it and just like with every other Nature Study term - hop right in! I'm always amazed at the knowledge they soak up when we do indeed use the CM methods! From my son identifying the squash bug nymphs to all three of them narrating to me the differences between arachnids and insects during our nature study on the golden orb spider last week simply because the Lord put the beautiful creature there so we caught him to sketch and observe and then it NATURALLY led right into the discussion about the differences in our spider and the insects we'd been learning about.
I can not express to you (especially those that have never tried the CM method before) the joy and peace that I find when they absorb so much information from the "gentle art of learning" style!

Objective #3 for this challenge states, "Be alert to ideas for further research in your focus area." I think (I'm very long winded as you know) my point is that the good Lord seems to be making this SO easy for us lately that I just KNOW we are on the right track.


As my husband is getting a drink last night, he looks out of our kitchen windows and exclaims, "What is that big bug on your van?" I (of course lol) take off to the window PRAYING its a NEW insect to study!! Afterall - this is our FOCUS area! Sure enough it was. And it was rather large - I'd say a good 3 inches. I immediately (to my husband shaking his head as if to say, "I should have known better." lol) take off outside in my bare feet to my van and WOW! I was so glad I did!

Here was a BEAUTIFUL moth! And large to me - at least larger then the others we'd been watching around our lights at night. It was just striking. I grabbed the bug jar and brought it in so I could WAKE UP ;) my children to see it! They were ecstatic and not at all upset to be awaken.

It's a great feeling to get "Wow! Thanks mom!" at the end of the day over a part of our Creator's world.

Again- I feel so inclined to say - letting me know in MY HEART that the Lord is at work in our studies! After they were able to look at it- it began to flutter around in the jar and we were PLEASANTLY surprised by a brillant red color on its hind wings and body. It was quite an amazing moth. Probably the most attractive we've seen. I allowed them a few minutes to ooh and aah and talk about it then told them I'd get pictures so they could sketch it in the morning and put them back to bed.

The children's nature journal pages.

I could not find this moth in the HNS but I did find some fairly generic moth observation ideas on page 324 which I used to discuss it with the children.

1. Where did you find this moth? Was it flying by daylight or in the dusk?

2. What is the shape of the moth's body? Is it stout or slender? What colors has it? How is it marked?

Since my children are so young (5, 5, & 6 yo) I used these to get us started in our conversation as they are sketching their journals and we went from there. I had downloaded a free lapbook about butterflies just yesterday from Homeschool Free Share for those of you that enjoy lapbooks. I have never used a lapbook but had been contemplating one over the weekend to add to our studies - we normally notebook but I thought it might be fun and considered giving it a try. We used the Venn diagram to discuss the differences in butterflies and moths.

The kids really enjoyed it! I think we will continue to use this lapbook as we work on our butterfly and moth studies. Here is the excerpt from Homeschool Free Share for this topic:

Butterflies Versus Moths

Butterflies and moths may look alike, but they are very different insects.

-most butterflies fly during the day while most moths will be out and about at night

-butterflies have knobs at the end of their feelers (on their antenna), but a moth's antenna end is feather like or plain

-most butterflies rest with their wings held up above their bodies while moths rest with wings spread out flat

-butterflies usually have bright wings and moths usually have dull colored wings

-most butterflies have slender bodies; most moths have fat abdomens

-butterflies are usually hairless; moths are furry

-butterflies form a chrysalis during the pupa stage of their lives; a moth's chrysalis is usually contained inside a cocoon

-insects, birds and spiders eat butterflies; bats eat moths

Lapbook Component: Butterfly vs. Moth Venn Diagram

I also created an insect "running list" sheet for the back of my kids' nature notebooks. I created one for my son and another for my daughters. I do not have the latin names on here although there is a space for "information". This is more for younger children as mine are 5, 5, and 6 yo's. Please feel free to use it as a running tally for your own kids. :)

http://www.savefile.com/files/1748912

my_insect_list_boys.doc -

Thanks, Barb, for another great study!!!!

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!