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Meet ‘Webington Ringaling’ – a Ringneck Snake

September 7, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

I swear that half the fun of getting a new pet, is naming them!

‘Webington Ringaling’ was rescued by {A}. She was on a job site with her Dad on Friday, when she spotted him, with his tail all caught up in a spider’s web. (Thus his cool name.) He’s a Ringneck snake. He’d probably been dangling there for hours, but just couldn’t break free. He had been in the shade, and lucky for him, {A} saved him before the approaching late afternoon sun got to him.

Aside from our formal lessons, every day occurrences like this, are how Science is taught at our home. Natural, real curiosity leads to research, and research leads to reading, and learning. Real life observation provides even more.

There are 12 subspecies of ringneck snakes found over much of the eastern and southern parts of the United States, as well as parts of the Pacific Coast States. ‘Webington Ringaling’ is just a baby, only about 4 inches long. But adults can range from 10-27 inches in length. {A} has learned all kinds of facts about ringnecks, and exactly how to care for this one for awhile, providing for him a safe and healthy environment while she observes him. She’s handled him some too, but not much, because this variety of snake is edgy and nervous, and shouldn’t really be handled unless necessary. (The photo below counts as ‘necessary’ in my book.)

Not sure how long we’ll allow her to keep him. It may depend on how fast he starts growing. He has everything he needs in his terrarium, and she feeds him small insects and slugs. So he’s in a pretty happy environment for the time being.

Just makes me wonder what lessons God has in store for us next.

Ssshhh…Chipmunks in Training!…by Alexis Grace

July 3, 2008 By A 2 Comments

I’ve trained yet another chipmunk!! Meet my new little friend, ‘Chipmouse‘. You may or may not have read my last post about my other chipmunks I have trained. I really love training chipmunks, and this is my third.

My Mama was the first one to spot this new one. At the time, he was such a youngin’ that she said,”What is that!? It looks like a mouse!” Dad and I said at the same time, ” It’s a baby chipmunk!!” He has grown a lot since we first saw him, only 2-3 weeks ago.

This little one was not as skittish as the other two, and caught on quickly to what I wanted him to do. First, I had my hand, full of seeds, on the ground, and slowly lifted it up until he had to jump in to eat. Then he jumped off to go spit out his seeds at his burrow. When he came back, I had my hand higher. He could jump in easily. Finally , I put my hand so high, that he could not jump in, so he crawled on to my legs, and ran up my arm to get to my hand.

It was only a few feedings later, that he let me start playing with his tail and really having fun with him. The last chipmunk, Flash 2 would only come out to eat if it was just me out there. Chipmouse went back and forth from his borrow to me, passing Mama, and letting her get some photos.

Isn’t he so cute!?

Tide Pool Study Field Trip

June 9, 2008 By Laura 4 Comments

The kids recently went on their Tide Pool Study Field Trip, and this one was also a Mass Audubon program, lead by their nature experts as well. We were really looking forward this study, as the ocean and shores are such a big part of our life. The day sure did not disappoint in any way! It was perfect weather wise, it was such an educational experience, and we just had so-much-fun! I could not take enough photos, and believe it our not, what’s in this post are only some of them. Recording my children’s lives, and ultimately memories, in detail, is just what I do. So there are LOTS I am sharing in this post, because I hope you too can enjoy seeing all of the interesting and amazing things we did this day. As if you were there with us! : )

For a good part of the study, the kids broke up into 2 groups: the older kids, and the little ones. They basically did the same things, but it just made the large group more manageable, and the kids could explore and learn more on their levels.

Throughout the day, we saw some really amazing stuff, up close, and got to hear more about what we found or saw, from the experts. They were really so very informative.

One of the first things the kids learned about sand. Sand in New England started out as rocks, boulders, etc., being moved from the mountains, to the ocean in glaciers. As the glacier moves, rocks are being ground into smaller rocks, and smaller pieces. Rocks get here the same way. When the glaciers stopped at as far as the ocean, the climate warmed, they melted, and receded back to the mountains, leaving recessional moraine – which is the sand, stones, rocks and boulders. Now the stones and rocks at the shoreline, are constantly being moved by the waves of the ocean, causing them to bang together and chip. These chips are known as sand. Interesting, huh??

As shown below by {O}, they dug deep into the sand, to explore the difference between top sand and deep sand. The deeper sand is more course and wet, where the top sand is finer and dry.

They also discovered how the two levels smell differently. So yes, that is {A} below, sniffing the sand. lol. The top sand is easily dried by the sun, evaporating the water and leaving the salt, so it has a salty smell. The deeper sand smells more like damp mud. The deeper you dig, the wetter it is.

Here are some other things the kids happened to see at the ocean, and learned more about as they were spotted and observed:

Horseshoe Crabs….

Here are two that are….ummm….very close? Self explanatory.

Here is one of my favorite shots of the day. This is an eggshell we found, that most likely was of a baby Least Tern, or possibly a Piping Plover. Sadly, it looks like a predator, probably a crow, got to the egg of the developing bird. It made us so sad! But isn’t it’s shell just beautiful?

All of the kids, both big and small, spent a lot of time exploring, and as they did and brought their findings to the experts, the experts taught them all about what they found.

Seaweed particles….{O} and {S} just loved collecting these things. They are so interesting, with different patterns and colors. Some almost seem to glow, and are a little translucent. They made me think of Christmas ornaments in royal colors.

Below, {A} shows her little siblings all of the treasures of the sea that she found. Some of it is just junk, but to her, it’s all exciting treasures. Trust me on that.

Shown below is a sea snail one of the leader experts was showing us and telling us all about.

It’s amazes us to think that all of these fascinating things of nature, big and small, were created by God. What a wild and incomprehensible imagination He has, and how it is represented in so many ways throughout His Creation. I know I talk about it on this blog all of the time, but it really is a very powerful realization, when you really stop to think about the details and cycle of it all, and how it all works together in such a perfect way. There is no end to the amazement of what He has done.

Anyway, somehow, our kids managed to get some real one-on-one time with the experts too, as the rest of the group were exploring or doing other things. They just had lots of questions and wanted to see and hear about all they could, and the experts were happy and eager to teach them.

{J} had 2 big rocks in his hands, and when he clunked them together, one of them broke into 3 pieces! The look of surprise on his face was priceless. He was feeling pretty strong that day!

What we then had was a 3 piece rock puzzle, to take home! As you can see below, {J} spent some more time playing with it later. It’s pretty cool, and he’s pretty fascinated in the 3 parts and how they fit together, and still kind of in disbelief that he broke it! This is one of those things that we’ll keep in our sun room. These are the kind of things I love to have around our home. Special momentos that remind us of special times together. Our days of learning, laughter and happiness.

At the end of the exploring and learning, we all gathered together as one big group, and were read a story about a sand piper. It was a really nice way to wind down and close such a great, great day by the sea. We all were smiling in the van all the way home, talking and laughing about all of the fun we had, and the great new things we had learned. Hands full of treasures, of course.

We are so grateful to live by the sea, where we can return for new exploring, new adventures, or just hanging out, anytime we want. (Photo taken by Daddy, who is always just another kid at the sea shore!)

Re-potting Our 6 Tiny Potted Plants

June 1, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

potting soil on garden shovel

If you’ve been visiting us here at our blog for awhile, you may remember when we planted these 6 tiny-potted plants, and later when we gave an update on their sprouts growth. Well the time came re-potting our 6 tiny potted plants.

We initially thought when that time came for transplanting, it would be outdoors into the ground, but we don’t think their quite ready for THAT yet. The thing is, they kind of seemed to stop growing pretty much after that growth update, and we decided they must be root-bound. So we bought some cheap (but pretty!) pots and got to work.

First, the kids gathered some rocks from the driveway and put them in the bottom of each pot, to ensure proper drainage when watering. Then they put in some potting soil, some plant food, and a little more soil. Then they transferred their plants from their tiny pots to their new pots.

tiny-potted-plants

Below, {O} transplants hers.

child re-potting plant

{J} transplants his.

boy re-potting plant

{A} shows {J} all of the roots bound up at the bottom of her plant.

kids-looking-at-plant-roots

{S} makes sure his plant is all snug and pressed down into the new soil, after the transfer.

boy re-potting-plant

(O} gets hers in there just right.

little girl re-potting plant

{A} had to 2 of hers to re-pot; one being not of the 6, but another she had from awhile ago.

older girl re-potting plant

Just a shot I had to take. : )

potting soil on garden shovel

Here they are all done! You can kind of tell they’ve just been through a bit of a traumatic journey, but we know they will settle in and thrive in their new pot homes, once they get comfortable and used to their new surroundings. We hope eventually they will be big and strong enough to go into the ground, but for now they are lined up along the windows of our kitchen sink.

re-potting-little-plants

Did you notice we transferred our initial letters too? Where competitions go, it’s never over until there is no hope of winning, and none of us lose hope very easily! We’ll let you know if they really start to grow and thrive, and be in need of being transplanted again. Who knows…they may just make it to God’s rich earth someday! At least we’re all hoping so.

The REAL Science Field Trip – Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary

May 19, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

The kids finally had their real science field trip, to the Mass Audubon Society Wildlife Sanctuary, on the RIGHT day. Michael and I were not as excited to go anymore, feeling like we’ve ‘been there, done that‘. But the point was to meet and experience a homeschool co-op that was having a day there, and the kids were all for going again. So we went, and were all really glad we did. I must say, the weather wasn’t quite as nice as the mistaken day, which was so warm and sunny. This time it was on the cool side, and pretty cloudy and grey out. Rain was expected later that day. (And it indeed started sprinkling before we left.)

But what a great field trip it was anyway! As I mentioned in the post about our accidental trip, the place consists of tons of conservation land, which includes various kinds of habitats: grass plains, marshland, and ponds. These habitats are home to all kinds of birds, animals, reptiles and amphibians. There were experts there from Mass Audubon, who took us in groups and taught us and showed us so much.

I didn’t really get any great photos. Again, I would have needed that big tele-photo lense for some really fascinating shots. But also, our kids were always in groups with other people who may have not wanted their photos taken, and it wouldn’t be right to post them on my blog with their faces showing, (without permission either)…..so my camera did a lot of resting. Although I did get a few simple photos, one of course of the boardwalk bridge, which I probably took one similar last time too.

boardwalk bridge

The first thing we did was go out on a tractor-pulled wagon hayride with a group, and a very nice and informative woman who was a wildlife expert, right out into the grasslands, where she taught us much about the birds that habitat there. The little ones enjoyed the ride, and learned quite a bit just listening to the talk. {A} brought along her notebook and sketchpad. Remember I told you {A} was ‘a bird expert as far as I could tell’? Well, she’s a bird expert as far as a bird expert can tell, too! lol. The woman had large laminated cards of various kinds of birds, not all the kind we see every day in our own yards. The woman often started with ‘Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?’, and {A} always did. She also knows more about their behaviors than I even knew she knew. The woman was impressed! Some of the birds we saw and/or learned all about were Osprey, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Swallows, Bluebirds, Flycatchers, Bobolinks, and Orioles, as well as red and grey fox, raccoons, and some rodent of which I forget the name of or what it really looks like. (Maybe on purpose. lol) ) We saw LOTS of Bobolinks darting around, there was an Osprey there as well, and we learned that Orioles fly all the way to and from South America every year! (Wow!). We have seen them in our yard several times in the past couple of weeks, and I just LOVE them. The woman said if we put a string out on our deck, the Orioles will take it to build a nest. If we put one out every day for them, they just may build there nest in your yard and stick around for the whole season! I definitely want to keep them around….so we did just what she said today. But it was still there last I checked.

When we got back from the hayride, we learned about bird-banding Tree Swallows. The woman explained how they catch the birds, how they harmlessly band them, measure their wing span, weigh them, record all of that info, where they send, and why. She had different strings of leg bands, as shown below, each of all the same size, but with different identification numbers on them. It was fascinating to hear the woman tell us how some years she would have birds she had banned the year before come back, or get notice in the mail from another sanctuary that a bird she had banned had been at their habitat thousands of miles away.

After that little information session, the kids moved on to learn more about bugs and insects. They even went into the tall grasses to catch some in fabric nets, put them in containers, and learn more about exactly what they caught. (You can bet I did a tick check after that little activity!) After {A} transferred what she had in her net, into a container, she discovered she caught syphrid flies, aphids, a spider, beetles, and ants. Did you know there is a difference between bugs and insects?

There were games to play, a bubble blowing table, and a little craft table as well. The kids made these dragonflies out of pipe-cleaners, beads and tinfoil. Pretty cute, huh? I don’t think they’ve much put them down since.

All in all it was a fantastic day. We all learned LOTS, had FUN doing it, and met so many wonderful people. There’s another co-op field trip coming up soon too…….a tide-pool study at the ocean, with more Mass Audubon experts there! We have a few of our own field trips planned as well, but I am sure we’ll be sure not to miss the co-op tide-pool study! The kids will really, really LOVE that, and so will us big kids! We love the beach and ocean, and feel so blessed to have a private beach within walking distance of our home.

The next day, {A} had a parish youth group activity planned. They were having a beach clean-up, and then gathering at the parish center for a cookout and some volleyball. It initially was cancelled that morning because it had been raining and was still drizzly. But some kids showed up anyway, so the leader called {A}, and she was happy to go and help. I did not take photos activity either, because I didn’t go. Michael took her. But I did some shots of her ready to go (one of which is below) with her own trash poker stick, and one to share. She had a really great time, despite how the weather was less than ideal at first. Of course she makes everything she does fun. The sun did break out once they were done cleaning up. As if God was pleased with their work. : )

The rest of our weekend was spent doing some work, some house-cleaning, and some shopping. You have no idea how excited our kids can get over bubble wands and water-shoes! Good golly. We are all knee-deep in enjoying this warm weather season, and still have so much exploring, learning, relaxing and FUN to look forward to.

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