More nature from our week

My camera is cool- pictures under water I love the view at our pool
Fighting over the hose

Helping me water

Spider making its home in a bucket in our sand box

Our garden

The only thing we have been able to harvest so far is lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, and 3 pea pods Olivia ate. We are on the verge of harvesting a couple tomatos, which Olivia will also probably eat.

Velvet ant, which is really a wingless wasp, that Nyah caught in our sand box.

Butterfly having a snack

Video of same butterfly

Moth "puddling" at the beach

Nature is all around us!!

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants #2 Green Beans

Green beans, green beans-- these are certainly a dinner favorite with all 4 of my kids so we eat them many nights. We did plants some in our garden, but a bad hail storm chopped all the seedlings to bits (peas, cucumber, zuccini, canteloupe, and pumpkins included- oy, mother nature!). We replanted, but I'm not sure these plants will have a chance to get very big before the end of the season. The green beans in this picture are smaller than a quarter.

We also decided to do the Zoom Experiment- after about 5 days our first bag of beans turned to mold and mush, and ended up in the trash. We are trying again with an extra paper towel and less water.

And when a neighbor didn't promptly mow their lawn we discovered a small patch of clover to examine for last week's challenge. Other nature study activities from this week:

A neighbor boy brought out his pet turtle. Grasshopper catching continues

Today is a holiday in our state (Pioneer Day-Utah), so we went to our local beach- a small reservoir in our neighborhood. Imagine our surprise when my oldest daughter exclaimed she had found a seashell, and it really was!! These are ones we collected- they are all smaller than a pencil eraser.

Looking for shells-

Western Tiger Swallowtail- I watched this one "puddling"

(scroll down to "Habitat/Behavior" section after pictures)

My husband found this creature hanging around his feet while sitting in the water-

We've identified it as a Water Boatmen

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants #1 Clover

This picture illustrates the closest we have been able to get to Clover this week, and certainly not from a lack of trying. We've checked all the yards around us, the church, elementary school and a couple parks, and they must all be very well taken care of or so new clover hasn't found its way into them. (And yes, that is my toddler dancing on the counter in the background!)

I think my neighbors are starting to wonder what we are up to walking through lawns with our heads bent in concentration. I didn't think clover would be this hard to track down, but we will keep looking for it in the coming weeks. It puts our plans to pick and dry some for our nature journals on hold for now. The kids decided to draw four-leafed clovers instead. I wonder if a few of the farm fields around us are growing red clover or alfalfa-- I guess we will have to stop and check soon.

In the meantime the kids continue to explore the world around them-- watching and catching grasshoppers and other bugs, playing in the mini "river" we have running through our backyard by building dams and making boats to race, and helping in the yard and garden.

The river is the result of our yard being the lowest on our street, and our next door neighbors over-watering their lawn (I think it goes through the watering cycle 4 times a day!!).

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

This challenge is about drawing and creating a nature journal, with the subject of what to draw open for our choosing. I wasn't sure what we were going to learn about when my kids had a fascinating experience with a Daddy Longlegs. They caught one and put it into a bug terrarium. Then they caught some small moths in the yard and put them in as well. What a surprise when the Daddy Longlegs began munching on one!! So we learned more about these backyard favorites. I read to them a few parts from Handbook of Nature Study (pg. 432), and there were a couple times they exclaimed "we saw ours do that!" Nature study is really much more exciting when you can be up close to your subject.

Our Daddy Longlegs eating a moth

I have seen a daddy longlegs hold food to his jaws with his palpi and
he seemed also to use them for stuffing it into his mouth. (HNS pg.433)

Nyah's journal page

The most entertaining thing which a "daddy" in captivity is likely to do is to clean his legs; he is very particular about his legs, and he will grasp one close to the basal joint in his jaws and slowly pull it though, meanwhile he industriously nibbles it clean for the whole length to the very toe. (HNS pg. 433)

Austin's journal page

We also looked this insect up on the internet and learned it is not a spider,
but belongs to the Opiliones order, is known as a Harvestman, is not poisonous
and does not spin webs.

UPDATE: For more info on the diferent spiders/insects called Daddy Longlegs check out Barb's linnk in the comments for this post.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

Bull Thistle- HUGE plant- 4 ft. high, 4 ft. wide

Because Barb at Handbook of Nature Study is taking a summer break, we have decided to start at the beginning of the Outdoor Hour Challenges. These early ones have given me a lot of great information and we are having a good time doing challenges again. We used our backyard visitor, the Least Chipmunk for Challenge #1.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

We went for a walk (or bike ride for the kids) around our neighborhood this morning. Before we left, the kids and I reviewed the 5 senses and talked a little about what we might see, hear, smell, feel, or taste.

I have been searching for and taking pictures of wildflowers or native plants to identify, and the kids are always trying to help me with this. We found 3 new ones today.

Teasel- Will have tiny pink blossoms coming out from between all the spikes

What made today's walk a memorable adventure wasn't because of nature, but was when Austin was speeding down a hill on his bike, across an intersection without stopping or looking for traffic, and a dump truck was also approaching the intersection on the street he crossed. I knew the dump truck wasn't close enough to be a real danger, and the truck also had a stop sign, but it was just scary enough for him to be a good learning experience and be the highlight of their journal entries.

Prickly Poppy- And it was very prickly!!

Once we were home we did the following exercise in their journals: One word to describe something they heard, two words to describe something they saw, and three words to describe something they felt. I also asked if there was anything else connected with their senses they wanted to share, and then they had the option to draw a picture about our walk if they wanted.

Austin

Truck

Driving By

My Bike Handle

Nyah

Dog

A Bush

I felt flowers

Nyah's Picture: