Science Discovery. Without Curriculum.

If you love gardening and plant tomato plants in said garden, you probably have discovered the Horn Worm. We discovered this little bugger last year as I was planting my first backyard garden.

See that. They actually have a little horn on their butts! Anyway, when we discovered them again this year, James was so excited!!!! He runs inside the house to get his Over & Under Creature Peeper so he can collect it and look at it.

This was the best $2 I have spent in a long time. I went to a local homeschool group book sale and got this gem. We have been on the internet to learn about the life cycle of the horn worm. This green little guy is actually the larvae. They will evenutally become a pupa and then...a moth!!!!

Pretty crazy, huh? But then we got to see one of the interesting things that happen to the horn worm. They can become prey to a wasp that lays it's many eggs on it's back. This will eventually kill the horn worm and there is no need to remove these from your tomato plants. These little non-stinging wasps kill creatures in the garden that do not benefit your garden. Therefore, these wasps are very beneficial. They eat catepillars, beetles, stink bugs and squash bugs. Look at what I found on my tomatoes yesterday:

Isn't this awesome! Science in our very own backyard! James loves his Creature Peeper. Everyday he wants to go out and find a new bug to put in it. We have been letting him keep a bug or creature for about a day then release them back into nature. He's named a couple of them too. "Zeus" was a black bug of some sort.

At the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, the horn worm is prominantly displaced in the insectarium. He is protected in a clear box, munching on a big tobacco leaf suspened in the air. But the really cool thing is that a tiny camera is in the box and kids can rotate the leaf and zoom in and out to really get a good look at the horn worm. However, James was more excited to see them in the garden and then in his Creature Peeper.

James has also made the decision to NOT be in the Five in a Row reading class that I am teaching in our co-op this Fall. Instead, he will be taking a Geology class. He's looking forward to learning about rocks, fossils and gems. And I think it will be very good for him. :)

Getting Ready for Teaching Other People's Kids! Oh My!

Since my last post, I had the pleasure of meeting the woman that I will be team teaching with during the Fall semester of the Legacy co-op and I have to say that I am really excited about it! James and I went to her house last Tuesday so we could have our first planning meeting. We started talking the minute I walked in the door and we never stopped! James played with her 5-year-old daughter who will also be in our class. They hit it off well. We decided on the stories we would read- 8 stories for each of the 8 Fridays we will meet this Fall. Here is what we choose:

1. Three Names by Patricia McLachlan 
2. Mr. Grumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham
3. The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge by Hildegarde Swift
4. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
5. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
6. Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco
7. Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully
8. A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert

We decided to read Three Names first as a way to allow the kids to introduce themselves to the group. It's a story about a dog named...Three Names and he goes to school with his boy. I liked the idea of "reading" Harold and the Purple Crayon because there are NO words in the book! Just Harold drawing where his imagination leads him. I thought it would be great to make purple crayons or use purple straws and go outside and "draw" like Harold. Kids this age can't sit still for a very long time and I would love to see them up and moving...and videotape it all! These stories are all so wonderful it was hard to pick just eight from the Five in a Row list. One of the ones I really like was called Gramma's Walk because I got teary-eyed just reading the synopsis about the story! Here it is on Amazon.com:

Donnie's Gramma gets around in a wheelchair, but through the magic of imagination, the two of them walk to the beach; listen, feel, and smell the sea; identify prints in the sand; and admire the wildlife. The wake from a passing ferry collapses the sand castle they build, leaving only the flag and footprints when they head for home. "'You know what, Gramma?'" Donnie says. "'You're the best walker in the whole world.'" 

Some of the themes we will be touching on include helping others, the 5 senses, using your imagination, relationships, feeling important even though you are little and courage. On the last Friday, there will be a big celebration that all the kids of the co-op will attend. It should be fun! I am looking forward to this adventure and sharing it here!