Butterflies and Symmetry

Our homeschool group took a field trip to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.  The girls loved it!  We will definitely be going back.  These are the books we read over the previous week.  We also covered symmetry because it fit in so nicely with the butterflies. 

Backyard Nature Study

We found a different type of mushroom growing in the backyard's mulched area.  They were a tad dried up by the time we found them.  C wanted to see if watering them would help, so we did that.  It also rained later in the day, so we'll check in a few days to see if they revived at all or if any new ones sprouted up.  It was neat, because this was her first self prompted science experiment.  I love that these nature studies are encouraging that type of thinking.  We also happened upon some tiny spiders.  C was amazed that within a few square feet of us at one point, were about half a dozen spider webs that we could see.  We also noticed quite a few dragonflies flitting around as well.

Green Gilled Mushroom

These popped up in our front yard after a lot of rain from the previous week or so.  I took the girls out in the heat to do a quick nature study.  We talked about the parts of the mushroom and the environment's conditions that were favorable for it's growth.  We identified it as a Green Gill Mushroom, which apparently is extremely poisonous, but we discussed why we should never eat wild mushrooms.  I had C sketch this as her very first entry in her nature journal.  I'll have to scan it in later.

Tiny Creatures

While working on the front yard, Daddy found four cicada shells for C.  She was fascinated by them and immediately wanted to look them up online. This was her favorite video:


Later while helping Daddy, we also found a small common toad in the bushes.  She loved looking at it for a while, and finding it in our wildlife book.

Duck Pond & Aquarium

Hubby found a great little business park that was really a nice nature spot in the middle of the city, so we took the girls one morning.  They enjoyed being able to freely explore.  C was enamored by the ducks.  She kept wanting to get up close, but since she didn't have bread, they were not interested.  D loved tailing behind her big sister.  We also saw a lot of dragonflies, and even a huge group of caterpillars all on one tree branch.  We did a bit of bird watching as well.  The girls truly enjoyed themselves.  Too bad it was insanely hot, or we would have stayed longer.  We also had a trip to the aquarium planned.