Thursday, April 09, 2009

April 9

A dark and rainy day.
How delicious.

A proposition to the children.... "Timeline? George's Key? Fish? Nature Walk in the rain? Really Wild Animal videos?" and a happy agreement.
Ah. A plan, then.

But first...
Clifford on the computer
and stories with Daddy.
And Really Wild Animal videos. Including business with a cobra.
Which brought to mind a few things we've been meaning to look up.... the earthworm's classification (they're Annelids), whether the sow bug is a kind of millipede- which led us to this page, and a site that we're happy to have discovered, Backyard Nature. (We've covered both of these things before, but I think we become a bit disconnected over the winter time, and we forget things like rolypoly's are crustaceans and how worms mate (Cool.).


Chapter 5 of George's Secret Key to the Universe.

The making of a TIE Fighter out of geo sticks and balls.

We finished up our art project.




So fun.

Trev took off on his bike for his daily adventure with our neighbor friend, and Madd watched ScoobyDoo and played Winnie-ther-Pooh on the computer.

Off for a walk, then.

Mmmm, how lovely.

Upon arriving home, and showing Maddie where our own flowers are rising up, she wanted to sacrifice one in the name of Scientific Investigation (or Ssspear-a-mint, as the case is).
Without too much pain, Mama agreed.
We looked at and identified (after a bit of research on tulip parts - and what do you know... we were led to Backyard Nature again!) our tulip bud.
In order, from top to bottom:
sepal (the outer green "petals"), petal, the male stamen (which holds the anther), the pistil, the stigma (the three lobed part), and the leaf. Tulips keep their ovaries hidden and closely guarded, so no dissecting them.
Now instead of just nodding at some mysterious (though lovely!) bud, we know exactly what's going on in there.

Looks like there's quite a stack of books and things collecting, because Mama keeps saying "Just a minute....".... so I think that means my time is up.

A wonderful, full, and lovely day.
'Night, then.


  1. amazing times aren't they???!!!

    by the way, how is george's key...?
    i;ve been eyeing it on amazon japan for some time now. have been undecided. what do you think?

  2. It's on our friend Damek's shortlist of favorites, so we're checking it out.
    The first four we rushed through in one sitting.
    The fifth chapter was a bit more technical, but I found that if I stop and we discuss it in our (mine and Trevy's) natural language, we're doing alright.
    We've decided at least on a chapter a day (more if we choose)... I think we'll do alright with that.

  3. When my niece was young he was known as "we need the pooh." ;o)

  4. Just checked out Backyard Nature-very cool. Thanks for the resource! Looks like a wonderful day of exploring!

  5. I see cherry blossoms....we are on the same wavelength today. :) I'm looking forward to the Pluot post. We get the humming again in May when our Hawthorn tree is blooming.

  6. Oh, nice! We don't have many blossoms yet, but soon!

  7. Denise - I'm pretty sure it just happened today!!

  8. Such a great day! I LOVE those paintings, they came out great!

  9. what a lovely day. love the flower investigations, we are doing botany this year and are going to dissect an amaryllis bulb, that is done bloming next week. very cool to see what is going on inside of there.

  10. so cute her little hand over her eye while she looks into the microscope! I know those times well, with 4 kids collecting up the books & games while I say one moment, they have a way of getting our attention don't they!


Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!