My favorite philosopher ;0)Homeschooling is percolating along. This week we have begun an experiment that involves growing 6 different (we hope) kinds of mold. We’ve also dug up and brought into the house 5 earthworms, which are living (we really hope!) in one of a pair of philodendrons, to see which one will grow better – the plant with worms, or the plant without worms.
Because these experiments will take time to develop, we’ve also begun a study of spiders. (I guess Aunt Tami won’t be visiting any time soon… sorry!). The boys managed to catch, in very short order, 4 web-building spiders. We are trying them in different living conditions, to see what they like, and how they deal with their webs and prey. They also caught 3 jumping spiders and are enjoying watching them hunt. Gruesome, but fascinating.
Good thing we started the worm-compost bin, because it has an accessory purpose of being a great source of flies, to feed the spiders.
Then Gunnar caught a little tree frog at the end of soccer practice, so “he” (who knows?) is living in the fishbowl. He is also a fun hunter to watch. Tate threw something in there – a large fruit fly or a small mosquito, it didn’t last long enough for me to get a good look at it.
Me, I’m glad we’re grazing higher on the food chain.
3 comments:
Hmm... if you have an American green tree frog, the males are 1 1/2-2 inches long and the females are 2 1/2-3 inches long. The males croak and the females don't. And I totally looked that up, because I don't know a thing about frogs! LOL.
Then it's probably a "he". We catch them all the time, and this is a smaller one - thanks for the tip!
We like feeding them. They'll eat flies or small grasshoppers... but only if they're ALIVE and MOVING.
Big fun for the boys :0)
He's been very quiet so far, which is fine. We had fire-bellied toads for awhile and they made a lot of noise - kind of like squeaky bike brakes.
What a GREAT lesson for your boys! I remember doing something similar in 7th grade, which was awhile ago for me, but as a girly girl, I totally remember being both "intrigued" to run into the class everyday to see what was going on in our ecosystem yet "eeewwwwy" about it all too. haha! I also had my fourth graders build an ecosystem in a 2 liter bottle every year. We always started out with just a plant and then would introduce a new species each week. THEY LOVED IT! I had no problem getting predators, the spider, which all my boys were so proud to bring in!
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