Renthead Mommy Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 there is a dog skull in my garage and a (very tightly sealed) jar of mosquito larvae on my kitchen counter! LOL! I admit I've always been the scoop up the tadpole, bug, snakeskin mom (to the great relief of many other IRL moms at our homeschool groups) so I've always loved the idea of nature. My son is no where near as excited about these things as I am (we won't talk about my husband's feelings on these things....) But I have a hard time putting Nature Study in practice. Now I'm on a 'just go with it' kick. And boy did that pay off last night! We went to dinner with friends on the North Shore of the island. There is a 30 foot long "beach" sandwiched in between a park with high sea walls and the restaurant we ate at which is on the marina. No other beach area to be found there for a few miles. After dinner I took my (incredibly patient son who put up with 6 boring adults for a very long dinner) down to the beach part for a few minutes. He found a skull! Actually both the skull and the lower jaw with all the teeth. They were held together still by what I thought at first was some trash caught up, but I realized it's actually a piece of now basically tanned animal hide that was still attached. (Okay, even I admit that's sort of the yucky part!) The 3 dentist of the group all agree it's a dog skull based on their dental exams! The husband, in his long suffering 'i'm married to a wacko' voice says "I'm sure we're now taking this home." Me: "Of course we are! YOu don't get a find like this too often! I didn't dig through a public park trash can looking for something to put it in for nothing you know! And think how lucky we are! It's only a 30 foot beach! And to have it wash up here! Just now! And look! If we'd waited 10 minutes to walk down there, that 10 year old kid and his mom would have found it an taken it home!" Okay it was pointed out to me, that no, the other kid and his mom would most probably NOT have taken it home. Or for that matter even touched it. And for that matter I'm the ONLY one who does things like that! I told him I knew of a whole room full of people who would have done the same thing! (Okay, perhaps he is a long suffering husband, but he'll survive!) But it's home, sitting in the garage waiting to be bleached. Oh and then when we got home, I checked our pool. My chlorine from last year must have lost some of it's potency because it's got mosquito larvae swimming in it. So I hit it hard with more chemicals, but scooped some swimmers up into a peanut butter jar (with a VERY tightly sealed lid!) to watch them a little. Off to hardware store for more pool chemicals and bleach! Then wondering if I can convince my son to start 4th grade today because I'm just so excited about all my great finds this weekend! LOL! (Meaning finds in both curriculum at Valley Forge as well skulls! LOL! ) Doubtful he'll be anywhere as excited at that idea as I am.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_l_e_0..Q_c Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 We won't be doing the dog skull thing, but I hear you on wanting to start right away with the new material! I'm still on a high after that convention, I want to change all our planning for high school ;-) My son won't know what hit him! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 :lol::lol::lol: When I came home I discovered a container of plants in water and some dirt in the backyard, and the plants were still growing and had curved upward to reach the sun. I called the girls over to show them and talk about it, and we realized there were loads of mosquito larvae in it too! I scooped a bunch up and put them in a jar too, but I couldn't bring myself to bring it inside, so it's on the table in the backyard! Then we started plucking some mushrooms to examine and compare them, and we discovered one had tiny little white worms inside, so we talked about how they'd gotten there and why a mother bug might lay her eggs in a mushroom. I was all, "I did it!!! Just like Laurel said! And in my own backyard even!" :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Laurel will be ecstatic! I love mosquito larvae. They are very interesting to watch. Also compare them to butterflies, ladybugs, and praying mantis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug's Mom Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 My dd would have loved to find such a thing on the beach! She found an intact squirrel skeleton a couple of summers ago. She yelled for her dad so loudly, he thought she was hurt or something. We've got a couple of bat skeletons that HAD to be brought home. I try to always have a gallon-sized zip-lock bag in my backpack. We do some geocaching and find "good" stuff while doing that. She found this deer jawbone and a snakeskin last summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I would be happy if it was just a dog skull. a year or 2 back my kids dragged up a cow skeleton into the driveway with the 4 wheeler for closer examination. The Jehovah's witnesses that came up to the house were impressed! It laid there for a few weeks till dad got tired of it and told them to drag it out back somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gailmegan Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I didn't get to hear Laurel's talk. But I'm having the same enthusiasm issues. I just can't convince my sons to start MCT Island with me! They just roll their eyes and say, "Mom, it's SUMMER!" They aren't buying my insistence that poetics is really cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renthead Mommy Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 My dd would have loved to find such a thing on the beach! She found an intact squirrel skeleton a couple of summers ago. She yelled for her dad so loudly, he thought she was hurt or something. We've got a couple of bat skeletons that HAD to be brought home. I try to always have a gallon-sized zip-lock bag in my backpack. We do some geocaching and find "good" stuff while doing that. She found this deer jawbone and a snakeskin last summer. Awesome! Did you bleach it? What was your bleach to water ratio? How long did you soak it? We found a great snake skin once too. We were at park day and I had a bunch of kids down by the water. The park was busier that day and there was a dad and his about 8 yo down there too. When I mentioned to the kids that over there (by where the dad/daughter were) is where last week we saw a decent sized snake, the dad tells us that the snake skin is over there by the rock they are standing on. He picks up a stick and tosses the skin across the water to where we were standing. I was showing it to the kids, and all excited asked the dad "Did you want it??? Or can we take it home???" He looked at me like I was crazy. Suddenly I realized it was April-ish, and the park was much busier than usual. I asked him "You aren't homeschoolers are you? It's spring break isn't it?" He told me it was indeed spring break. Then I'm sure he went home and told the mom about the freaky homeschoolers he met that day! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug's Mom Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Awesome! Did you bleach it? What was your bleach to water ratio? How long did you soak it? We've not done anything with it yet...other than keep it in a box in the garage where it gets looked at now and again. We found a great snake skin once too. We were at park day and I had a bunch of kids down by the water. The park was busier that day and there was a dad and his about 8 yo down there too. When I mentioned to the kids that over there (by where the dad/daughter were) is where last week we saw a decent sized snake, the dad tells us that the snake skin is over there by the rock they are standing on. He picks up a stick and tosses the skin across the water to where we were standing. I was showing it to the kids, and all excited asked the dad "Did you want it??? Or can we take it home???" He looked at me like I was crazy. Suddenly I realized it was April-ish, and the park was much busier than usual. I asked him "You aren't homeschoolers are you? It's spring break isn't it?" He told me it was indeed spring break. Then I'm sure he went home and told the mom about the freaky homeschoolers he met that day! LOL! :lol: You've got to love "the looks"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Ha, well, we do roadkill science all the time here. My kids always want to take home the various bones but it is a fairly often occurrence to find them I usually just have them leave them. Our best nature time is just winging it as well and seeing what we find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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