According to Lauren last week seemed to "last forever." After a week of daily fieldtrips and beautiful weather last week did seem rather dull. It rained daily- well more than rained- on some days it really DUMPED! We decided to spend the week doing things at home, which is what we usually did in Enoch so I assumed it wouldn't be so bad. In spite of the constant plea to watch TV or use the computer we survived.
The little kids (Ben and Kate) discovered that rain brings out a plethora of slimy little friends to play with- snails- YUCK! Not my favorite of creatures, but they abound in our tiny little backyard. I'm pretty lenient about my kids "exploring," but I did insist that all gastropods remain outside. I don't like the slimy trails that ensue from snail exploration. If you could see into the little circle of rocks above you would see some 20 of the little critters that the kids gathered.
I'm happy to report that Dallin's little turtle, Slider, is eating and seems to be adjusting well to life with us. I think the problem was that baby turtle's like it to be about 80 degrees, and we keep our home around 74. Once we figured that out we moved him to our window box during the day where it stays warmer, and then put him in a warm closet at night. He is so cute and fun, and Dallin is doing a good job taking care of him so far. Without an adequate aquarium with a filter, heater, and basking area Dallin has to do more work. He takes Slider outside every other day for awhile to get sun and cleans his container every other day as well. We are hoping that when we get home we can invest in more equipment. Slider has been a good distraction for a slow week.
In spite of spending most of the time at home we did get out a few times, in between rainstorms, to the park and library. We made an outing to Bluebonnet Park (above) and collected wildflowers. We tried to press the flowers, but my flower pressing skills are not well developed and when we tried to make our flowers into bookmarks they all molded. Oops!
We attended our nature class on Wednesday and we saw two unusual plants I've never seen before. One is an elegant stinkhorn. I took a picture but decided that because this is a family website I ought not to upload it. Let's just say this is a mushroom from the phallaceae family, and it does stink. We also found some sensitive briar, which my kids decided is the flower in Horton Hears a Who. It is a cool looking flower that is pink and puffy with little yellow tips on the end. It's fun because when you touch the leaves they pull closed.
This nature class has been fun, but I've decided that naturalists and homeschoolers don't always work well together. My kids are real hands-on learners. When we are in museums and stores and such they know they shouldn't touch, but when we are outside in a park/nature I've given them fairly free reign to explore. Unfortunately our teacher believes that the leave no trace philosophy includes not touching, digging, or handling nature.
My kids don't get it. Sticks are to dig with. Rocks are to throw into the river (or collect). Leaves, bugs, feathers, flowers, etc. are all to be gathered and shared with others. I think the teacher might have a heart attack trying to keep the kids (luckily it's not just mine) from "handling nature." I can't get too enthusiastic about stopping them- other than that they must follow the teachers rules during her class, but when she's gone I'm all about touching and handling. (I guess I better be careful what I say on here or some conservationist will probably come and get me.) I don't understand how kids are supposed to learn to explore and experiment if they can't touch, move, and handle things.
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