Properties of Sand and Horseshoe Crabs Field Trip to Cedar Key

Today was our last Earth Kids meeting, for this school year. Next year, I have made some changes. Most lessons and activities will be online on Facebook, and once in a while a field trip. I have many reasons for making this decision.

Today, we headed out to Cedar Key, a tiny resort town on the Gulf about an hour from our home. The weather was breezy and warm, then the breeze left and it was just hot, lol. We studied Horseshoe Crabs, which surprisingly we did not see any. We always see Horseshoe Crabs at Cedar Key. The tide was coming in when we got there, and usually we are there at low tide, so that might have something to do with it. The kids also did an experiment on the properties of sand. That was very interesting. It was to complete DJ's Marine Biology project book, for 4H, but I decided to make it a group project too. Then the kids get to chill, swim, look for shells, or just walk the beach. Another thing we found, that we have never found at Cedar Key, are small perfectly polished and smooth white rocks. We have been to Cedar Key lots of times and never seen these particular type of rocks there.

All in all it was a beautiful day.

A Quiet Week

It has been a quiet week, this week.  No Run Club, because it was raining, and then medical appointments, so we got quite a bit of school in.  Today was the last day of Bio-fuels class, for DJ, and they finished their project books.  This was done through 4H. 

DJ had his first real paid job this week, also.  He got to detail my mother's car.  Now if you think big deal, he worked for his grandmother.  His grandmother is not easy to work for.  She is a perfectionist and she expects things done the right way.  He did very well, and earned 50 dollars.  We do not have much time left before Summer break.  Like six weeks and that is it.  We are right on track and I am so happy with that. 

Yet, I am antsy.  Antsy because DJ will be in High School next year, and Caitlin will be going into Middle School.  I think I have DJ pretty much set up with his curriculum and choices of class for next year.  Just have to plan out how the day will run.  Caitlin is a different story, however.  I have decided to focus on Reading, Writing and Math and that is basically it for her.  She will get Science through 4H, and she is doing Geography over the Summer months withe her brother. 

I am really leaning towards Life of Fred, and the Abeka Math book we already have.  There is a Language Arts Life of Fred also.  It is new, and I had no idea.  It is for high school only.  DJ did 9th grade Math this year, so he won't do a formal Language Arts next year, but in 10th grade, I am considering Life of Fred.  I really love, My Father's World, but I can not see me ever paying that much for a curriculum no matter how much I love it.  I also really like Learning Language Arts through Literature, and that is always in the back of my mind.  DJ is also using Free Rice, to strengthen his vocabulary, and it helps feed the hungry.

Caitlin, for the past two weeks, or so, has been using Easy Peasy Homeschool.  I have noticed that it is very boring for her, and she does not particularly like it.  So, we will be phasing that out, though I really like the format.  For the remainder of this year, Caitlin will be using the websites below, for learning games, and her two Math workbooks. 

We will also be making some other changes, next year.  I love Run Club, but it just eats up too much of the day twice a week.  So, we will cut back to once a week.  Also, we are at the end of our second year running Earth Kids Club.  I run the club, and meetings.  This too has become too time consuming, and we only have four active children.  I will be changing it to a Facebook group only, with maybe a field trip here and there.  We have 19 members on the Facebook group, and hopefully they will be able to be more active. This is completely free, and a great way for your kids to learn about the Earth and living creatures on it.  You can find the group page by clicking here.   We would love to have new members to join us.

http://www.math-play.com/

http://www.abcya.com/fourth_grade_computers.htm

http://www.turtlediary.com/grade-3-games.html

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/

http://writingfix.com/traits_primary.htm#forkids

http://www.storyit.com/Starters/ststart.htm

http://www.manythings.org/

Earth Kids Meeting: Mediterranean Monk Seal and Making Water Colors

Well all my pictures would not load again, but you will get the idea. When we do Earth Kids, we have two teens, and then two younger kids. So I try to do an experiment one month, and then an art project, or craft the next month. This month was both an experiment, and an art project. DJ picked the Mediterranean Monk Seal, as the marine topic. You will find links below, to learn about them and repeat the project too.

2 days before the meeting, we collected some flowers of different colors. We already had some daisies that we had bought, and put in a vase. So we saved a couple of them. They were already colored enhanced, so they were very vibrant. There was blue, purple and green. Then I got a hot pink Azalea and a light pink Camelia, from my garden, and one yellow rose bud, also from my garden. We had no orange, those roses had not opened yet. Then we crushed them up a little, using a rolling pin, put them in a zip lock bag with hot water, and let them sit until the meeting. Each child was supposed to guess which color they thought would be the most vibrant. Two picked the blue, one green, and one purple. You can see from the paintings that the blue definitely one. Of interest, the hot pink Azalea actually turned an orange color, very pretty, but definitely not pink. The light pink Camelia, released no color what so ever, and the water was clear. The green, and purple, though they looked very vibrant in the bag, were not so vibrant on paper, and the yellow rose bud was a very pale yellow.

All in all, a fun activity, and good learning experience for all. We also discussed who would have used this to paint and went over vocabulary terms in the reading.

The kids don't know it yet, but I am picking the topic next month.  We will be going to Cedar Key and we will study the Horseshoe Crab, and then do an experiment on properties of sand.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/pinnipeds/mediterraneanmonkseal.htm

Earth Kids Meeting: The Mantis Shrimp

Today, was our monthly Earth Kids meeting, and thank goodness it warmed up.  We learned about the Mantis Shrimp today, a peculiar critter.  It has a punch so strong it can break glass.  That is what stood out to me the most, and they get fairly large too.  The video below shows their beautiful colors, plus reading material can be found by clicking the highlighted link.

We usually do a craft, but this time I decided on an experiment, that actually was two experiments in one.  The one thing about experiments is sometimes they take longer than a few hours, and this was one of those. If you leave this experiment for about a week, it will go all the way to the leaves. To help learn about how plants get nutrients from their roots to their leaves, you can do this celery experiment.  You could actually use white roses or carnations, which would be really awesome, but we didn;t have any of those.  The second part of the experiment, which we have actually done before so we sent it home with the other family is to take the bottom of the celery, the root basically, dig a hole and plant it.  It will magically grow back.  This actually works for onions, potatoes and lettuce as well.  We even had broccoli and cabbage grow this way.

We got in a nice nature walk too, and lots of play time at the park.

Earth Kids Meeting: Make Bird Seed Dough

We finally got our Earth Kids meeting done. It has been cold, and with kids having colds, we just have not been able to do it. We did do it at the house, rather than the park, this one time because it was raining and I did not want to cancel again. We only have four active kids in the group right now. So, if you live in the Gilchrist County, FL area and you want something fun to do drop me a message and I will let you know when our Feb meeting is. We are on Facebook too at Tri County Earths Kids Club. For this meeting DJ practiced his 4H demonstration, for this weekend, on the Leatherback Sea Turtle. Then we made these very interesting bird feeders. This was an extremely messy craft, but it did work and we have them outside to see if they birds will love them. I followed all her directions for making the bird feeders, and you can too by clicking the link.

Earth Kids: Leafy Sea Dragom

Friday was our Earth Kids Meeting. We were meeting bi-monthly, but for now meetings will be once a month, on a Friday. There are several reasons for needing to do this. If it becomes feasible to go back to bi-monthly we will.

This time around, the kids learned about the Leafy Sea Dragon. The Leafy Sea Dragon is found only in Southern Australia. There are very strict laws about catching or hunting them. There are several aquariums that have been allowed to have them. They are related to Seahorses, but they don't have the tail that allows them to curl around plants and hang on. They have leafy appendages to help them camouflage themselves. The Leafy Sea Dragon is a perfect animal to teach camouflage to kids.We made a Leafy Sea Dragon pizza.  If you thin your dough out more, because it rises and swells when baked, it will look a little more realistic than ours.  We used lettuce tears to make the leafy appendages.  One of the kids, and I each made a Seahorse wire and pearl piece.  Mine will become a Christmas ornament, and I am not sure what she will decide to do with hers.  The two little ones did a coloring page, and DJ is working on a drawing.

Australia for Kids

About Leafy Sea Dragons

Horseshoe Crabs, and A Baby Turtle Egg

Today, we headed off to Cedar Key, with our Earth Kids group, to hunt for seashells. We got there just as high tide was beginning so finding seashells was a bit tricky. However, we did get to dig for some and found some. Cedar Key is not one of my favorite places to swim on the Gulf, the water is not clear and I can not see what is in there. Caitlin didn't mind though. The Horseshoe Crabs were mating and nesting. This means while they are mating the male is fertilizing the eggs that the the female was dropping into the sand below her. What I did not realize is that they do this right along the shoreline. They lay up to 120,00 eggs at a time, really! Unfortunately birds eat most of the eggs before they mature. Well duh why don't they bury them in further? I don't know either. Anyway according to the sign posted, they do this until July 1st so they don't all do it at the same time like Sea Turtles do. We saw like 15 Horseshoe Crabs, but they were not all mating. When I got home I just had to look up when the eggs will hatch, so hopefully we can catch it. Of course it has to do with moon and tide cycles, but in about two weeks they will be ready. Of course that doesn't mean anything, they can actually wait months to hatch. Ugh how am I supposed to witness a miraculous event on such a weird schedule? Then we found what appears to be a turtle egg that someone stepped on or something stepped on it. It was open and obviously not viable anymore. At first we thought it was a baby bird, but when I cleaned it off in the water it actually appeared to be a baby turtle. I brought it home so we can look at it under the microscope. Neat huh? Anyway back to the Horseshoe Crabs, which btw are not really crabs. Their eggs are so tiny that one picture I looked at showed like 15 eggs on the end of someone's finger. They are teeny tiny. I hope to get to witness the event of them hatching, but I am not optimistic. Cedar Key is about an hour from my house and well you know what that means.  Oh and that barb thing they have it is not dangerous.  We didn't know that either.  It looks dangerous.  The kids had a ball and we ended up learning about stuff we didn't even mean to. Love it! To learn more about Horseshoe Crabs and see their eggs visit the two links shown.  Oh and speaking of moons this weekend, with Sunday the optimal day, is the Super Moon.  I hope it stays clear so I can get some awesome shots.  Don't miss it if you are geek like me.
http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/horseshoecrab/History/lifestages.html
http://horseshoe-crabs.com/are-horseshoe-crabs-dangerous/

Yay Tadpoles!

I got some tadpoles, yes! These are for our Earth Kids Group, and the kids will get to watch them change into a frog. They are in a large recycled pickle jar. We added some rocks and decorations for them to hide. A friend had them in her pool and she brought them to me today. I hope this will be a success. I have read all the info on how to keep them and raise them, and it isn't hard. Keep your finger crossed. We have four of them. I would say they are about ten days old and they will stay tadpoles for about four to six weeks. Ooh how exciting! I know I am a nerd.

Nature Scavenger Hunt #3

This is our third Earth Kids Scavenger Hunt. We have one more in three weeks, then we will be moving on to other projects. The bugs will be good and ready to bite by then. Since the springs are still flooded, I am sure the mosquitoes are having a field day lying eggs. We didn't see any, but then again I don't know what they look like. It was a beautiful, warm sunny afternoon. We had a good turnout for this meeting, and the kids had a blast. They had quite a long list of items to find. They found most of them, and a few we didn't expect to find. No Pileated Woodpeckers or White Tail Deer. Unlike Manatee Springs, where the deer come right up to the springs basically, Fanning Springs they stay in the more wooded area and trails. I have never actually seen any there the times I have been there. As you can see in the photos the water is dark and murky, so we could not see any manatee either. We did see a lot of baby fish, teeny weeny baby turtles, and a couple of medium sized turtles. The springs, when they are not flooded, are so beautiful and you can see right to the bottom of the water. Maybe for the next one they will be cleared up.  The kids had to get pictures of all the items on their list. 

Red Hair!

Tuesday, for our Earth Kid's meeting, we met at a fellow members home rather than one of the local springs. The girls had asked me at the last meeting if they could make up their own Nature Scavenger Hunt at their home. They have a lovely five acres of land, and I agreed to let them. The kids found everything very easily and then played ping pong, ball, and even some archery. It was a very good evening. Two of the trees had something on them called red lichens, or at least that is what everyone thought it was. I did not notice it until I downloaded the pictures, and it stood right out. I have not had time to research it yet, but I will. I will share what I find out. Us moms got to visit, which is always nice for us.

Technically we are on Spring Break this week and next. DJ did have to do a bit of Virtual School, but next week he is off completely. We have been doing a lot of Spring cleaning, and I am ready for Spring any day now. We had a mild winter, but I am not happy about twenties at night in March. I feel for all my Northern friends suffering through a March snow storm. It is so cruel this time of year.

I have tried to dye my hair red before, a strawberry blonde. It almost seemed to orange to me, and since I am blonde naturally as soon as I would go out in the sun it would go right back to blonde. Well, I decided to try an auburn color. Right now as I type this it is shocking to me. Hopefully in a few days I will love it. Everyone else seems to like it, but who knows if they are being honest, lol. I will share pics in a couple of days when it tones down a tad.

Happy Wednesday!

OK, well Blogger has changed yet again the way in which I upload pictures, grrrrr!!!!!! Anyway now that I have that off my chest, on to the real good stuff. Yesterday, was our first painting class, with my mom, since before the holidays. Neither one of us had the time to do it. Even though Caitlin and I still paint, DJ doesn't do much, so it is nice when we all do it. He doesn't paint, he draws,and for some reason his fish he drew managed to not get in the pictures. He drew a pretty mandarin fish. Everyone got to do their own thing yesterday. My mom painted a huge pickle jar, that she will be putting homemade dog treats in to sell at the Farmer's Market. I have been cleaning and then upcycling old salsa jars into candles. First I clean them, paint them and then add the candle. They make cute gifts and reduce waste. I am hoping they will be popular in my Etsy store. I have done two Easter theme ones. One has a brown bunny, and the other this sable colored bunny. On the opposite side of the jar is a cross with a wreath of flowers. To see all the pictures be sure to visit Melissas Jewelry and Gems. Caitlin painted a picture of her very own bunny.

Then, later in the afternoon, we had our Earth Kids meeting. This was our second nature walk, and this time we went to Manatee Springs. They were supposed to be looking for specific leaves, but unfortunately there are not a ton of them out yet. However, we did see Manatees in the spring inlet, look you will see it. And a ton of deer, which are quite smaller than the deer I am used to in NY. They blend in so well with the drab surroundings, you could easily miss them if they were not moving around. Manatee Springs is one of the more dangerous springs to swim at. There are signs everywhere that say no swimming, and swim at your own risk. Yet, people still do it. There are a lot of snakes and even some gators at this particular spring. Last year, because there are diving caves under the springs, a diver got lost and died. We don't swim there.

All in all a good week so far. And tomorrow, which is Thursday, seems to be my day to relax from here on out. The only day we don't have something planned for the rest of the school year, or at least right now, lol! Kids of course continue with their book and course work, and the third semester ends in just a few weeks. Almost over, already!  Oh the first painting is my very first attempt at an abstract painting.  I kind of like it!

Basketball, Math and Earth Kids Club

Seems like I get to do own one or two posts a week now. Just too much going on. Anyway, I wanted to share my very talented dog, Biscuit. Some of you know Biscuit from reading this blog. She has taken up basketball with Caitlin. When Caitlin throws the basketball, Biscuit actually jumps in the air like she is shooting it, then retrieves it and runs off with it, when it comes down. Now if she could learn to dunk, we might be famous, lol!

If your homeschooled child likes the Math they are currently using, don't change it, even if you hate it. Over the Christmas break I decided to try different Math with DJ. We have been using Saxon and it works for him, but I was getting annoyed with it. Anyway for three weeks I have been fighting with him about Math. This does not work for either of us, and achieves little. So, back to Saxon we go. He is comfortable with it, does well with it, and ultimately that is what matters.

We are about half way through our Earth Kids year. Each child finished up their snake demos, and in two weeks we will be doing a nature scavenger hunt. I am especially excited about this, and I hope they have a ball.

That is it for now.