Weekly Wrap-Up: September 7

This was our first official week of "school".

Monday afternoon, the girls and my husband went for a bike ride.  I had things I needed to do around the house (like make sure we were prepared for starting our school year), so I stayed home.  They didn't get far when Turtlegirl spotted something that made her come to a dead stop.  "Dad!  Is that free?!"  Sure enough, there, on the side of the road, was Turtlegirl's holy grail: a backyard pond liner and pump - free for the taking.  She's been wanting one for years, but we told her they were too expensive, not to mention a lot of work.  She's been contenting herself with a wading pool in the backyard for the turtles to enjoy during the daytime hours of the warmer months.  So they called me and I drove the car over and brought it home.

When they got back from their bike ride, Turtlegirl and her dad started digging.

The turtles like it!

So Turtlegirl will be doing nature studies for her science this year.  She and Swimmah will be continuing to volunteer at the nature center through the school year, so that, plus the pond and tanks here, will give her plenty of hands-on work.

We decided to go with Math-U-See for pre-algebra.  She doesn't like watching a video lesson, so we just won't use the DVD, unless there is something that doesn't make sense from reading the book.

Swimmah is also using Math-U-See for geometry, continuing where she left off at the end of July.  She will also be continuing Marine Biology.  This is the first year that they are studying different things for science!  I'm a little nervous about keeping them both on track in different topics, but they are older and more independent now, so I think it will work out fine.

For history, I had planned to get The History of US by Joy Hakim from the library.  Apparently, someone else had the same idea, because when we went to the library to check it out, the first 3 were not there.  I hadn't bothered to put a hold on it because I figured that it's always been there before when I have looked in that area.  Oh well, I found a couple of other books on Native Americans to use instead of the first History of US book.  I did put a hold on the second book, however.

Both girls start an essay-writing class this afternoon, taught by an aspiring writer and teacher to a group of homeschooled teens in our area.  There was not much interest in a book discussion group this year, which my girls have always enjoyed in the past.  So we decided to have our own family book discussion group.  Our September selection is The Giver by Lois Lowry.  We'll have the discussion meeting the last weekend of the month (whichever day of the weekend my husband is not fishing!).

 I won't say that everything this week was perfect, but overall things went pretty well.  It's been a fairly quiet start to the year, with no writing homework, as class isn't until Friday afternoon, and no  nature center volunteering until next week, when someone will be available to train them on the morning routine. And swim team starts next week, so we'll really be into the full swing of things then!

Field Trip to Mystic Aquarium

Last Monday, we visited the Mystic Aquarium to kick off our study of marine biology.  As usual, we saw some amazing sights!  Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of two of my favorites sights: a penguin with a sprained ankle, with a bright blue cast/bandage on his leg.  As if penguins don't look funny enough when they walk, this one had a limp.  Poor little guy!

Another really cool thing we didn't get a picture of was an octopus' tentacles spread across the glass of his tank.  They usually spend most of their time hiding, but the tank was being cleaned, so I think that's why he was out.  We had an excellent view of all the suction cups on his tentacles.

Now for (some of) the pictures we did get:

We checked out the beluga whales first, as we always do because they're closest to the entrance.  They're in an outdoor habitat and the sun was shining on the tank glass, so the pictures didn't come out great.  The youngest one (9 yrs. old) was in a particularly playful mood that morning!  He had what looked like an indoor/outdoor rug and was swimming around with it in his mouth, dropping it and grabbing it again.

I love how they look like they're always smiling.

Almost missed this close-up!

Now you see it....

Now you don't.

The moray eels are so creepy, yet strangely intriguing...

There were a couple of loggerhead turtle hatchlings at the aquarium.  They will be released when they are ready back to the wild in North Carolina.

The last thing we did was check out the Titanic exhibit, which we have seen before, but this time we watched a video of  Dr. Robert Ballard's ongoing exploration of the ocean floor.  It was very interesting and we learned that the next expedition will be July 1-September 1, and will be streamed live online here.  We will definitely remember to watch that!

All in all, it was a great day!

This post is linked to The Homeschool Field Trip Blog Hop

Turtlegirl's Nature Center

I believe I've mentioned before that Turtlegirl has a veritable nature center here in our "all-purpose" room (sometimes called the piano room, sometimes the turtle room).  She has done this previous years, but this year's is the most extensive to date.  Here are some pictures:

One of the newt hatchlings

Some of the toadlets

This one's very shy.  He also has lots of algae - you can see it if you look closely.

The littlest turtle.

The new 40 gallon tank she bought with birthday money.

There are also adult newts, who laid eggs right after she brought them home.  That's where the newt hatchlings came from.  She also has a couple of wood frogs that metamorphosed from tadpoles she caught.  All will be released back to the wild.
Update: The toadlets were released to our garden today, June 7.

This post is linked to Science Sunday.

Aquatic microorganisms

So Turtlegirl is responsible for the rotating population of critters in our home.  A week or so ago, she got a couple of newts, who promptly laid some eggs, from a nearby pond .  Yesterday she asked to go back to the pond to collect some small aquatic animals to feed her newly hatched newts.  She collected some pond water and scooped up some muck from the bottom and brought it home.  Then this morning, she put some pond water on a slide and looked at it under the microscope (nothing fancy, we got it at Wal-Mart for about $160) and took a video of what she saw with her digital camera:

We're still trying to figure out just what it is - we're thinking it's some kind of freshwater microscopic crustacean, based on our preliminary research.

And this:

And:

Very cool, huh?  We were surprised she got such good results with the equipment we have!