Mississippi River Fishing

We are a family of "River Rats". That's all there is to it. And we're proud of it too! There is nothing better than sitting on the banks of the River with friends. Chatting... eating... fishing... We spend many a night doing those things. We've been frequenting the River since before Tyler was born. Once he came into the picture we got him a little tent so that he could play and sleep in comfort. But once he was able to hold a fishing rod he started spending most of his time out fishing with us. He started out fishing for regular River fish... Sheephead, Walleye, and such. Then once he was a little older he moved on to Catfish with the rest of us. We have lots of fond memories from those days.

"River Rat" Tyler got his first Flathead Catfish of the year last night. He was having a silly giggly moment, so we had a hard time getting a decent photo...

It brought back memories, so I had to dig up a photo of his very first Flathead EVER, back in July of 2005, at the ripe old age of 4.

Now don't let that small fish fool you. He wasn't messing around, even back then. Here's a Channel Catfish he caught the week before...

I've enjoyed my little stroll through memory lane. I can't wait to see Emily catch her first fish!!

Thursday at the Park

Today was our weekly playdate with the SMpls-HUG (Home/Unschool Gatherings) group at Lake Nokomis Park. Once again a fun time was had by all! After playing at the park for a bit we ended up hitting the beach. The kids had a blast swimming and splashing. Tyler and some of the other boys found a huge log and they floated around on it a bit, pushing each other around on it. Even Emily enjoyed her first visit to the beach by wading and sitting in the water. My guess is we'll be spending more time at the beach over the Summer... it was THAT much fun!

Here are a few photos that I snapped with my cell phone...

Homeschool Carnivals

I've been busy with gathering materials and making plans for our schooling next year. I almost have it all figured out, just a few loose strings to tie up. These Blog Carnivals will certainly give me some ideas! Both were just posted today. You should check them out! I love seeing what everyone else is up to and how they "do school".

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival (posted June 24th)

Carnival of Homeschooling (posted June 24th)

The other Carnival that I check out each month is Learning in the Great Outdoors. The June edition is right here. It was posted on June 1st.

All three of these Blog Carnivals are in my sidebar if you want more info about them... or if you would like to submit one of your posts to them. That would be great. The more the merrier, ya know!! :)

Starting new - Our school plans for next year

I am SO excited about the changes we are making with our schooling this Fall! Some of you may know that we have been doing the virtual school thing with MNVA for the last 2 years (K and 1st). I have found this to be a great fit for us until now because I was new to homeschooling and I didn't have any friends or connections to help me. But now that I have found my "niche" in the homeschooling community I am ready to go solo! Tyler and I are very excited to be doing our own thing instead of what the school system wants us to do. He was a bit frustrated with the curriculum this past year... a lot of it he already knew and the rest of it was a bit dry for him. I just know he is going to thrive with this.

Anyways, I have been having a blast gathering our materials and supplies for next year. We are going with a Charlotte Mason inspired school. Lots of Living Books.... lots of Nature Study. We will most likely do a few unit studies as well. I think this is going to be perfect for us! I am still reading Charlotte's books and piecing it together in my mind and on paper, but here is what we have planned so far... (I'm hoping if I put it out there in print for the world to see that I will be able to get things finalized! Or maybe think of something I'm missing. Or maybe you all have some suggestions! Please? :) )

US History: (Explorers to Pilgrims 1629)
This Country of Ours (H.E. Marshall)
Along with a few other Living Books and Readers.

World History: (Medievel/Early Renaissance - 400AD to 1600AD)
A Child's History of the World (V.M. Hillyer)
Along with a few other Living Books and Readers.

Geography:
Paddle to the Sea (Holling C. Holling)
Tree in the Trail (Holling C. Holling)
Seabird (Holling C. Holling)
Minn of the Mississippi (Holling C. Holling)
Or some combination of these.
There are lots of things to branch off and study in these books as well... Geese, ponds, iron ore, copper, Buffalo, trapping, Snapping Turtles, locks, dams, and canals... We will work in other Living Books and Readers to study some of these things. This is where some of the unit studies will come in, I think.

Literature:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)
I think our Literature will be our bedtime stories.
Plus lots of other Living Books and Readers for independent reading.

Copywork: This encompasses handwriting, spelling, grammar, and writing
We will do our Copywork according to our studies that day... sometimes a passage from a book... sometimes a poem... sometimes a sentence or paragraph about something we studied...

Math:
Miquon Math - Blue and Green Books with Cuisenaire Rods
As well as some other supplements, Math Readers, and real life Living Math.

Nature Study / Science:
Handbook of Nature Study (Anna Botsford Comstock)
Pagoo (Holling C. Holling)
Lots of Field Guides too!
We will do weekly nature walks and study a couple of things from those each week (birds, plants, trees, etc). We will keep a Nature Journal, which we have already started.
We will also study weather, how things work (electricity, light, motion, etc), and how things are made (paper, glass, etc)... and do some pond study with our new microscope. We will use Science Readers and other Living Books.

Throw in weekly Poetry, Art, Music, and Handicrafts... and I think we have a curriculum!

This is the schedule I am thinking of going with... sort of a 4 day school week with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday pretty relaxed. Part of Charlotte Mason's concept is a lot of free time.

Monday
Literature
Copywork
Math
US History
Independent Reading

Tuesday
Literature
Copywork
Math
Geography
Independent Reading

Wednesday
Literature
Copywork
Math
World History
Science
Independent Reading

Thursday
Literature
Copywork
Math
Art - Picture Study and some reproducing. Leaning toward Cassatt, Renoir, and DaVinci (?)
Independent Reading
(Weekly park playdate with homeschool group)

Friday / Saturday / Sunday
Nature Study / Walk
Handicrafts / Life Skills
Music worked in to our day(s) - Leaning toward Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven (?)
Independent Reading

Math was a hard decision. Daddy thinks we should just go by the Scope and Sequence for 2nd grade and do our own thing. I am not so fond of this idea though, because I am not very confident with my math skills. SO I found the Miquon stuff through PaperbackSwap and the CMcurricula Yahoo group and we will see what works for us.

Speaking of PaperbackSwap. Have you all used it?? You HAVE to check it out. The link is in my sidebar over there -->. Its a swap site for books of all kinds. There are over 2,000,000 books listed right now!! You list books when you are finished reading then, then when someone requests one of your books they send you a "credit" that you can use to request another book for yourself. You can also buy credits for $3 or so. Don't miss the Discussion Forum too... you can find deals there 2, 3, or more books for 1 credit! I have become addicted to PBS... I admit it. But I have found most all of our curriculum there! Its awesome.

So that's what we have so far. Its not written in stone... and its a dang good thing it's not because I have worn my eraser out getting this far!! We have already started to implement some of Charlotte's ideas into our days... Living Books and Nature Study. We love it! It can only get better from here...

Farewell, Toad - Toad Study: Part 4

"Whoever has not had a pet toad has missed a most entertaining experience. Toad actions are surprisingly interesting; one of my safeguards against the blues is the memory of the thoughtful way one of my pet toads rubbed and patted its stomach with its little hands after it had swallowed a June Bug. Toads do not make warts upon attacking hands, neither do they rain down nor are they found in the bedrock quarries; but they do have a most interesting history of their own, which is not at all legendary, and which is very like a life with two incarnations."

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock - Page 170

They say all good things must come to an end and our Toad Study is no exception. We released our dear Toad back into the wild last night, ending his week-long stay with us. Tyler decided that Wood Lake Nature Center would be a great place to live if he were a Toad. So that is where we released him. Daddy helped us choose the perfect place to let him go... near the woods and a really nice grassy area (where lots of bugs live) and not far from the pond.

Tyler was feeling both happy and sad as we watched our little Toad friend hop away... sad to see him go, but happy that he was going to live is such a wonderful place. He thinks our Toad will be much happier at Wood Lake than in the urban yard where Daddy found him.

We joked that he was probably glad to have something besides Crickets to eat! And judging by the mosquito bites on Tyler's legs, I think he will be plenty satisfied in his new home!

Farewell, Toad!

Maybe we'll meet again one day on the trails at Wood Lake. Tyler hopes you will hop over and say hello if we do. :)

You can read all of our Toad Study posts HERE.

There will be one more installment coming, when we add our Toad to our Nature Journals.

Also, if you have found our Toad Study interesting, you may enjoy Melissa's Amphibian Study over at In the Sparrow's nest. Her kids collected some Toad eggs at a nearby pond and they got to study them as they hatched and transformed. She has lots of photos and videos of their journey from egg to tadpole to Toad. Check that out here.

Wood Lake Nature Center - Our First Pond Study

The kids and I decided to take a walk at the Wood Lake Nature Center this afternoon. We have been itching to get a pond water sample ever since we got our Microscope.

I'll tell you about our walk, but first a little celebration...
Emily fell asleep in the van on the way to Wood Lake (of course). When we got there I got her out of the car seat, into her Ergo carrier, and onto my back. And she stayed asleep! Yay me!

Ok, back to the walk, sorry about that interruption... it was just a big deal for us!

We love Wood Lake. You just never know what you might see there! And this visit was no exception. We got to see a couple of mama Mallard Ducks with their babies in tow. This one was watching over the chicks as they took a rest in the sunshine...

We saw one other mama Mallard standing on the trail. As we walked up I told Tyler to stop for a second, and sure enough up over the bank came a chick. Mama escorted it across the trail and then we continued on our walk. I told Tyler that must be the Duck Crossing. :)
We wonder why we didn't see any male Mallards?

We saw a lot of other birds as well... Red-Winged Blackbirds, Robins, Grackles, a Cardinal, and a Canadian Goose... We also saw a couple of Mourning Doves in the trail ahead of us at one point. This was our first time seeing this bird species. I will have to remember to add it to our Bird List.

There were Dragonflies everywhere! Well, at least we thought there were Dragonflies everywhere. It turns out they weren't all Dragonflies. These Blue Ringtail Damselflies were all over the place there. So beautiful...

We walked onto the floating boardwalk and it was time to gather our pond water sample. Tyler picked a good spot and dipped our jar into the pond...

Looks like he got a good pond sample... we got water, critters, and seaweed! See?

As soon as he stood up and we peeked into the jar of water we could see two little "bugs" swimming around. They were bright RED... their bodies were perfect circles with little legs sticking out all around. These were fun to look at under the microscope when we got home. We found out that they have really hairy legs! We have identified them as Eylais using a book I got from PaperbackSwap called Adventures with a Microscope. Great book, by the way! It turns out they are a water-mite... and those hairs on their legs? They use them for swimming.

The other two creatures we found in our jar haven't been identified yet...

The first one was also visible with the naked eye. It appeared to be a tiny little black water beetle of some sort. When we viewed it under our microscope, though, it looked quite odd! It still looked like a beetle, but it had a long elephant-like nose!! Very strange looking!

The other creatures were very interesting and we found ourselves observing them for quite some time. There were two of them together on our slide. They were a worm of some sort, we think. They appeared to be a clear jelly-like substance that we could see through. We could see several spots on them, like something was in the "jelly". Some of the spots were black and some were reddish in color. Their appearance wasn't the only interesting thing about them though. They were on (or maybe even attached to) opposite sides of a piece of seaweed, and they would stretch out once in awhile around the edge of the weed and bump "noses" with each other. We have no clue what exactly they were, but they were very fun and cool to watch.

Tyler thought it was all very cool looking. I think the pond creatures look like something from outer space or a science fiction movie or something!! Its so strange to think that there are millions more like them, and some even odder looking, swimming in that pond!

As I was checking these things out I was so wishing I had a way to share what we were seeing with you. I began to wonder what would happen if I took a photo through the microscope lens with my digital camera. Hmmm... I decided to try it. They didn't turn out real great, but its sort of interesting. There might be a way to play with it and get them better too. Here are the photos of the "elephant-nosed beetle" and one of the "jelly worms"...

We had a fun time with our microscope (Thanks Dad!) today. We can't wait to look at more interesting things with it!

Natural Behaviors - Toad Study - Part 3

This is just a quick update on our Toad Study...

We've been having fun watching our Toad's natural behaviors. Eating, soaking in his water dish, kicking the ground cover around...

Feeding time is always a fun experience. Yesterday we picked up another bag of Crickets for him as well as a container of Wax Worms. He seems to like the Waxies! At feeding time today Tyler threw a couple of Wax Worms in for him and then I put in some Crickets... and a funny thing happened. One of the Crickets ran over and started eating a Wax Worm!

A peek around the aquarium found quite a few of the other Crickets chowing on pieces of leaves in the chipped bedding that we spread on the bottom of the tank. These Crickets are quite a bit bigger than the first batch were, and they seem a bit more active as well. And aggressive. And hungry.

AND

Did you know that Toads don't have ribs?

"The toad has no ribs by which to inflate the chest, and thus draw air into the lungs, as we do when we breathe; it is obliged to swallow the air instead and thus force it into the lungs. This movement is shown in the constant pulsation, in and out, of the membrane of the throat."

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock - Page 174

This is another natural behavior we have been able to witness. The constant in and out pulsation of the throat swallowing air. Pretty neat... although it looks tiring!!

The one natural behavior that we would love to witness, and haven't gotten to yet, is the Toad's call. This guy is a silent one. We're hoping to hear his voice before we release him.

AND

Tyler read Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel yesterday. Of the five stories in the book he liked The Story the best. He laughed out loud at all of the things that Toad tried to help him think of a story to tell Frog. Standing on his head, pouring water on his head, banging his head against the wall, and all sorts of silliness.

I hope you are enjoying our Toad Study and that you are learning some things along with us. I'm not sure how long our friend, Toad, will be with us, but we will keep you posted!!

~~

Not really Toad related, but also in the feeding department...
When we first researched what Toads eat we also came across a fun tidbit of info. Hamsters will, and like, to eat Crickets! A Cricket each week is actually good for them, adding protein to their diet. Well, we just happen to have a pet Hamster named Killer who got to enjoy a fun treat last night!

Come and get it! - Toad Study - Part 2

"The toad's tongue is attached to the lower jaw, at the front edge of the mouth; it can thus be thrust far out, and since it secretes a sticky substance over its surface, any insects which it touches adhere, and are drawn back into the mouth and swallowed. It takes a quick eye to see this tongue fly out and make its catch."

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock - Page 173-174

Have you ever seen a Toad stalk its prey? Well, now you can say you have! Here are a couple of videos of our American Toad eating his Crickets today. Watch closely... not only is his tongue super fast, but Toads swallow their food whole so there is no chewing going on here!









Toads are smart! Did you see how he watched the Cricket in the first video... kept his eye on it until it was in the perfect spot for him to strike? I noticed that he seemed to know where the Crickets were even if he wasn't looking right at them. When he had the chance he would silently turn his body toward it. Pretty neat! The second video was the very last Cricket in the tank and I think he was getting impatient. He ended up running right up and snatching it! Did you know that one of the differences between Frogs and Toads is that Toads can walk and Frogs only hop?

We did a little research on the Toad's body parts and learned that they have nostrils, which are pretty easy to see. Their ears are flat , oval spots behind the eyes and a little lower. They are actually eardrums... they don't have external ears like us. I am guessing these body parts help him know where his prey is and exactly when to strike. Here is our Toad showing off his nostrils and eardrums for you.

After he chowed down on all of the Crickets in the tank, he hopped into his water dish for a soak.

He was in there for a couple of hours. We noticed after a time that the color of his entire body had darkened considerably and his skin appeared to be more moist than before.

"The toad never drinks by taking in water through the mouth, but absorbs it through the skin; when it wishes to drink, it stretches itself out in shallow water and thus satisfies its thirst; it will waste away and die in a short time, if kept in a dry atmosphere."

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock - Page 174

More Toad Study to come! You can also see all of our previous Toad Study posts HERE.

We have a critter! - - Toad Study - Part 1

Weeks and weeks ago we rearranged our aquarium situation here so that we could have a larger aquarium for fish and a small one for critters that we may find during our nature walks. We thought it would be fun to bring something home once in awhile, study it for a week or so, and then release it back into the wild. Frogs, Toads, Snakes, Salamanders, Newts... anything cool and interesting.That was our plan... BUT the problem was that we couldn't find a critter to save our lives!! Well, Daddy came through for us today! He found us a critter while mowing a lawn this afternoon.

Meet our new friend the American Toad...

Daddy carefully captured him and put him in his minnow bucket for us. Meanwhile we were at the park playing with our SMpls HUG friends... so he delivered the Toad to us there and then went on with his work. After we all peeked in at him, I made sure he was in a safe, and shady, spot while we finished playing at the park and then we loaded him up for the ride home. After a brief stop at the pet store for some crickets we quickly got him inside and set up his new temporary home. Here are a few things we learned about Toads just in researching how to set up his habitat...

• Toads need a place to hide... a shelter made from driftwood or rocks will work fine. We grabbed a shelter from the pet store that is a half of a hollow log. Toads like to hide and lie in wait for their food. We bought some crickets for him to eat.

• Toads need dirt or some sort of material in the bottom of the habitat. They like to bury themselves, so the material should be about as deep as they are high. We used some chipped wood that we had from a fallen tree that we ran through our wood chipper. I'm not sure if this was a good idea now that I read how they like to bury themselves, if he seems unhappy we'll switch to dirt.

• Toads need a bit of water... not a lot like frogs. They need a dish of water big enough for them to sit in. They absorb water through their skin, so you will not see them actually drinking the water. Never us tap water since it usually contains chlorine. Use distilled water... or you could boil tap water to remove the chlorine. We used bottled water and a spare food bowl that we had here for our Hamster.

• Sort of off topic, but we also learned that Hamsters can have crickets once a week or so as a treat. Most really like and enjoy them... and they are a good source of protein for the Hamster. Looks like our Hamster, Killer, might have a treat coming later this evening!!

Learn more about American Toads and listen to their call HERE.

So that is the start of our Toad Study. We hope you learned a bit about Toads. They seem to have been given a bad, creepy, name... but I don't think he's all that bad!!

To be continued...

Check out all of our Toad Study posts HERE.

Sharing our view...

live in the basement so our view is a bit limited. We also live in the city, so wildlife is a bit sparse. But I thought I would share a few of the things we see from our window on a regular basis. (Keep in mind these photos were taken through the screen on our window.)

This is a normal, and fun, sight from our window. Tyler and Daddy made this funny Squirrel feeder that looks like a table and chairs. We have had lots of fun watching these cute guys this year. This particular Squirrel is one of several babies that were born in our eaves earlier this Spring.

These little House Sparrows are plentiful outside our window. There always seems to be a crew of them nibbling on the seeds in the feeder and on the ground around it. Tyler and Daddy made this bird feeder as well.

We also have plenty of these guys outside our window... in a wide array of colors and patterns. Pigeons galore!!

That's about it for our view.... other than a glimpse of a Cardinal now and then. I hope you enjoyed looking out our window with us!


In other news:

• Our socks did not sprout. Disappointing, but we'll try it again in the Fall!

• We got our microscope today!! So far we have looked at paper, salt, human hair, tap water, cheek cells, a dollar bill, and a penny. I can't wait to get out and get some pond water to peek at! Until then we'll be running around the house like crazy people looking for things to look at under our microscope!

• We discovered Minneapolis Public Radio today. They have a Classical music station! If you live in the Twin Cities it is at 99.5 FM. We are loving it in the car!

Sprouting Socks - Part 1

Today we decided to try out a fun experiment that I found in a book called 365 Nature Crafts & Activities. Basically, you put a pair of old socks on over your shoes and walk around in the tall grass and weeds. Then you bring your socks home and put them in a shallow pan and keep them moist. After a few days any seeds that got on your socks when you walked in the grass should begin to sprout. Sounds fun, huh? The book says the best time of year to do this experiment is in the early Fall, but we decided to try it anyway. I think we'll do it again in the Fall... in the same spot so that we can compare.

So here is Tyler walking in the tall grass and weeds in his socks...

I took a couple of pictures of some of the things growing there so we could compare them to our sprouts when they start popping up...

and

And lastly, here is our pan of grass stained, dirty, and wet socks. The things we'll do in the name of education....

I'll let you know when (and if) we see sprouts!

UPDATE 6/9/08: We are sorry to report that our socks did not sprout. :(
Discouraging, I know, but we will try again in the Fall!

Meet Mr. Question...

Let me introduce you to Mr. Question...

Yes, that's my Tyler. Here are just a few of the questions I have had to ATTEMPT to answer out of the blue over the last couple of days...

Why are Flamingos pink?

Why do things cost money? Its just paper.

How do Chameleons change colors?

Why do girls shave their legs?

How do things look different through 3D glasses?

How do fans make air?

Yard Sales, here we come!

The kids and I were able to get out yard saling today, for the first time this year. I love sales! We didn't find a whole lot though. There were a ton of sales yesterday but not today, figures. We were able to find this shelf though. At $3 I thought it would make a nice plant shelf below our window. We live in the basement so I figured the only way to successfully grow a few plants would be to have them right in the window.

The two little plants on the shelf came from the sales today too... one is a Spider Plant and the other a Bloodleaf (or Chicken Gizzard). Eventually there will be more plants, but these little guys are looking cute up there for now.

Those are Nature Prints made from Sculpey Clay hanging down from the quilt rod. We made those with our homeschool group a few weeks ago. I got the idea from Melissa over at In the Sparrow's Nest.

Now to decide what else to grow!