{Nature} :: Carolina Wolf Spider

I wouldn't have noticed these holes in our yard if it hadn't have been for the movement I caught out of the corner of my eye as I was walking by.

I called the kids over to look with me. We waited. We watched. We observed. 

It was a spider. Quite a large spider.

A Carolina wolf spider. Female.

I can just imagine her growling at me from down there!

She would carefully and cautiously approach the top of her hole, which rose like a little tower above the ground.

The following day we noticed a large white "ball" at the opening of the hole. After another short time of observation, we figured out it was the spider's egg sac.

A few days later I saw the hundreds of baby spiders atop mama's back, again on alert at the top of her observation tower. 

The wolf spider is a hunter, so it uses the raised portion of the hole as a look-out for prey that may be passing by a short distance below them.

Not for the faint of heart!
I got squeamish just taking these photos.

We noticed that many of the newly-hatched baby spiders were climbing down off their mother's back and beginning their spiderly activities all over the ground...

 and even commencing to spin their own tiny webs among the blades of grass! 

Amazing.

Entries in our nature journals...
(Alice didn't want to do the spider. She chose something else.)

Royal's

Mine

{Handicrafts} :: Fruit Fly Trap

Ok I just realized this is the 2nd type of trap we have made for a handicraft; however, our fruit flies are ridiculous right now. They are all over my kitchen and generally driving me insane. So I must take some action! 

This handicraft (thanks, Pinterest!) really does not take more than about 5-10 minutes to make (depending on the helpers' ages). 

Does it require much skill? Not at all. In fact, the only real skill would be using a hammer, so this would be a wonderful beginner "project". And honestly there are so many other options for fruit fly traps that require no hammer at all. But we like our tools around here :-)

Needed for this simple trap:

1. Mason or other glass jar with metal lid
2. Hammer and a nail
3. Apple cider vinegar
4. Dawn dish detergent
5. Fruit flies :-)


We hammered holes in the metal lid....

Poured in about 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar and 2 or 3 drops of Dawn, screwed the lid back on...

and placed in the general vicinity of those pesky fruit flies.

Within just a short while, we already had captured a few.


By the next day, there were hardly any left flying around my kitchen!

Morning at the Museum

With time ticking away for our chance to see a special free art exhibition in our area with a small chunk of Impressionists on display, I decided today was the day to go. Hubby was super-depressed his work schedule was too consuming to join us, but he was happy the kids would be able to go.

We have studied Renoir in the past and this term are enjoying the works of Monet. I use the Simply Charlotte Mason Picture Study Portfolios because I just love the added benefit of having the artist's life story in a wonderful narrative already included.

Upon arrival to the museum, I reminded the children I wanted them to see if they could spy a Renoir or a Monet without getting so close as to read the descriptive. I also reminded them to be on the hunt for their favorite painting to tell me about.

children should learn pictures...by reading, not books, but pictures themselves.

A Philosophy of Education, Vol 6: p 214

I was just about overcome with emotion when Royal said, "Mama, that looks like Renoir's son. You know, the one that was upset he had to dress up in a clown costume?" (See this post about our Renoir study.)

!!!!!!!!!!!

oh.my.word.

Renoir's Claude Renoir, a portrait of his grandson

----------------------------------

And then further along Alice started squealing because she saw this painting that reminded her of another painting of a train station she had seen of Monet's. And lo-and-behold, it was a Monet! I was just about to cry with joy!!!

Monet's Saint-Lazare Station

(I would have taken another photo with her eyes open, but then I was told I couldn't take pictures). Sniff-sniff.

--------------------------------

We took our drawing books with us to sketch before leaving the museum.

Despite these two exciting discoveries, both Royal and Alice chose another painting as their favorite of this exhibit (also by an Impressionist, though). It is Camille Pissarro's Close to the Pond, Kew Gardens. Of course by this time I knew I was not allowed to take photos, so there are no more to share.

AND...

Unfortunately, for the life of me I cannot find this painting online to post here for you all to see! Maybe it is quite the rarity, I don't know. But this is where we owe it to Charlotte Mason for passing along the technique of studying a piece of art until we can see it in the gallery of our mind. Even now, I can just close my eyes and see it before me. It is there.

[the mother] carries about with her just such a picture-gallery;

for whenever she sees anything lovely or interesting, she looks at it until she has the picture in her "mind's eye"; 

and then she carries it away with her, her own for ever, a picture "on view" just when she wants it.

Home Education, Vol 1: pp 49-50

Royal's sketch of Pissarro's Close to the Pond, Kew Gardens

All in all, this morning at the museum was a phenomenally successful one!

{Keeping} :: April's Firsts

A little late, but wanted to share our April firsts.
And what a delight of firsts we witnessed!

From assassin bugs to tornadoes... and lots of beautiful things in between! 

1 - wheel bug (assassin bug) nymph on our bird bath

2 - leaves on redbud tree

6 - beans on redbud

     

6 (cont) - leaves on chinaberry trees

15 - cottonwood seeds floating through air

16 - bluebonnet seed pods

16 (cont) - mama cardinal building nest
                 See our Nature Diary post on Glory & Mrs. Cardinal here for a more in-depth look at this bird family!

22 - amaryllis bloom

23 - cardinal egg in nest!

24 - 2nd cardinal egg; mom sitting on them on and off

25 - 3rd cardinal egg; mom sitting on them most of the day

26 - storms, tornadoes, lots of rain, hail

27 - lots of trees and branches down, river raging

28 - record low-high of 59 degrees today. Brrr!

How's it going with your Calendar of Firsts?

{Nature Diary} :: Glory & Mrs. Cardinal

Glory & Mrs. Cardinal

Aren't they a cute couple?

Glory was giving his wife a seed. It was so adorable to witness!

..........................................

April 12-18

It was an amazing morning to notice that the Cardinal family was building a nest in a small bush just outside our kitchen window.

After each piece was brought in, be it twig or leaf, Mrs. Cardinal would do a little tamping and molding. One day after the work was finished, Glory came over, perched on the edge of it and tweeted. I don't know if he was looking for Mrs. Cardinal or just doing a final inspection, but the nest was complete.

............................

April 23

This morning Royal peeks through the blinds and exclaims, "There's an egg!!!"

.....................................

Logically, we decided to enter this into our Nature Journals.

Royal's

Alice's

Mine

.....................................

April 24

We woke up to another laid egg. Then Mrs. Cardinal spent time on and off throughout the day sitting on her eggs.

.....................................

April 25

There was yet another egg in the nest. Today Mrs. Cardinal sat on her nest almost continually throughout the day.
After a quick break, she would return. It was so cute watching her get situated, shuffling the eggs around within her underbelly feathers.

..........................................

In addition to entries in our Nature Journals, we kept a running log of happenings with the Cardinal family in our Calendar of Firsts.

....................................

April 26

A scary, too-close-for-comfort batch of tornadoes ran through our neck of the woods. 

During the time our family was bunkered in our inner-most, windowless room, I pondered:
Would our Cardinal family survive?

We were all so happy that on the morning of April 27, Mrs. Cardinal was found sitting on her eggs, nest still intact :-)

...................................

May 7

Fourteen days after the first egg was laid, Baby #1 hatched!

May 8 

We awoke to see Baby #2 and Baby #3 already welcomed into the world.

Later Alice spotted Mrs. Cardinal eating her babies' eggshells. Apparently the calcium is very beneficial to her during the nesting season.


Royal decided to enter the baby cardinals into his Nature Journal:

..................................

How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24

This has been the most awe-inspiring nature study we have ever experienced.
We are so grateful for this very personal account the Lord has allowed us to witness of His creation, 
and we will continue to monitor and document this amazing study in nature as the baby cardinals continue to grow.

However, I think the babies deserve a post all their own, so thus ends this chronicle of Glory & Mrs. Cardinal. 
Oh, and if you haven't read the story from the Burgess Bird Book, go have a quick read here and enjoy some more particulars about Glory & Mrs. Cardinal!

{Handicrafts} :: Minnow Trap

If your boys (or girls!) like fishing as much as my 8-year-old son does, this is a simple way to make a minnow trap. The minnows can be used as bait for catching bigger, eating-sized fish. Our fish of choice around here is catfish (blue, yellow or channel), although we catch alligator gar and gasper goo from time to time as well. But we love catfish!

So cutting the top off a juice bottle and inverting it (sans lid) serves as the mechanism.

Dad helped Royal drill a few holes around the top in order to sew fishing line through and around the opening to keep the trap from falling apart.

Two holes were also drilled on the side in order to string fishing line through to cast and anchor to shore.

White bread crumbs are dropped in and used to lure the minnows.

to get the trap to sink more, we dragged it through the water to fill it

Literally within minutes of throwing in the trap we had minnows, but we left it and came back later to quite an amazing amount!

Now to go fishing...