{Nature} :: Weekend Days' Discoveries

This has been a gorgeous weekend to be out-of-doors!

I am always looking for ways my husband can be more involved in the kids' school subjects.

His strengths are in art and science & nature, so whenever we have an opportunity to go exploring or hiking with Daddy, 
I know we will all learn something we didn't know before...or notice something we wouldn't have otherwise.

This weekend Hubby took the kids out to a local state park for some hiking and exploring, 
as I was at a women's conference at our church. 

I don't personally have pictures of anything they saw; however, they did observe a beautiful
possumhaw holly
something akin to this one:

image property of www.watershedtexas.org

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Sunday afternoon was enjoyed down at the river with friends, 
exploring among the rocks...

and fishing...

Hubby caught the only catch that day, a 3-pound channel catfish.

Look away if you are squeamish!

We had an impromptu science lesson, as we discovered that this fish had previously eaten a shad and 2 or 3 crawfish 

(as their pinchers were still in its belly).

Also, my good friend (who also happens to love science) wanted to show her son the lens out of the fish's eye,

so Hubby popped it out...

Once dry, the lens bounces like a rubber ball!

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We finished the weekend with another outdoor expedition to the river,

just enjoying the beautiful 

warm weather,

tranquil waters,

rock islands,

mud,

fallen tree trunks,

a too-quick-for-the-camera-buried-himself-in-mud-underwater frog,

a red-headed woodpecker,

and a belted kingfisher.

Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.

We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.

-CM, Volume 1: Home Education, p 61

This post is linked up as a part of Nature Study Monday with Amy in Peru over at Fisher Academy International.