I think one of the best things about having kids is seeing the world through their eyes. Everything is a new discovery and it is so much fun showing them, even the most simple things.
Back in the summer of 2008, I took the boys to the pond next to our house to explore.
It was full of fun things to look at. We even found the smallest baby turtle I have ever seen. It was about the size of a half dollar. I picked it up thinking it was a rock, and was going to throw it in the pond.
Anyway, I got the idea to catch some tadpoles. We collected some pond water and put it in a small plastic fish tank. Then I did some research to see what to feed our little creatures. I wish I would have taken some notes because I am not sure what I did feed them now, or how long it took for them to turn into frogs, but they did. I can remember one day looking in the tank and our tadpoles were gone. I could not figure out what happened to them. I was thinking the worst, hoping I wouldn't find it in our house somewhere. I happened to glance on the underside of the rim, and there was the frog! Overnight it had completed the last part of it's cycle of a tadpole and became a frog.
We moved frog's house outside and changed it to a plastic container with a rock so it could get out of the water. We had a lizard looking creature left, and I still am not sure what it was.
We let the eventually let the frog and lizard thing go in the pond. After doing something like this with the kids, I can see why people homeschool. You can take things to a whole new level of learning. I'm pretty sure when I learned the frog life cycle in school, we read about it from a textbook. We did get some books from the library so that I that the boys could learn more and answer their questions.
This is a great book, and it is part of a series called Let's Read and Find Out. Stage 1 books are for ages 3-6.
Last summer, we decided to try again at growing frogs. This time I got fancy and bought a plastic habitat for growing frogs.
We went to the pond again and got tadpoles. We had them for about 6 weeks and they never grew. I got tired of having to feed them and we let them go. I still wanted to have a "theme" for summer learning, so we did gardening instead. You can read more about it here.
Here is another Let's Read and Find Out Book:
This summer, I hadn't really thought of a theme, or anything fun to learn about. It seems like the themes for our learning just sort of happen from exploring. David had a big car hauling trailer sitting in our yard getting ready to sell. The boys loved playing on it, and soon they discovered a robins nest with one egg in it. Everyday they checked on it, and each day there was a new egg until there were 4. Cue mommy for a book:
A week later, David sells the trailer. I took the nest down and tried moving it, but the momma bird never came back. We felt so bad for those babies.
I know what you are thinking- I did not try to hatch those baby birds myself. Instead we looked around the yard for other nests to observe. We found a small nest in the ferns I hang from our porch. There were 3 small eggs that were the same and one speckled brown egg that was different. Everyday we took the fern down to see if they had hatched. Last Monday when we took down the fern we found 4 baby birds!
We checked on them everyday, and watched mom and dad feed them all day long. When I got the nest down yesterday, the 4 birds could barely fit in it. They had grown so fast in just 1 week. I took a little too long taking pictures, and next thing I knew the babies starting flying off. Jake and I chased them and carried them back to the nest, but they must have been ready to leave. This morning, there was only one baby still in the nest and by lunch time, he was gone.
I still can't figure out why one egg was different. The bird on the top looked a little different that the others.
So this was the summer of birds. Who knows what next summer will be. I am excitied to see. I am still learning right along with the boys, it is just more amazing to me. When you think about how a bird can make this perfect little round nest or a tadpole can turn into a frog, you realize we need to stop our everyday crazy busy lives and just enjoy the simple things with our kids.
