This is a picture of three ticks in a paper cup sealed in a plastic bag from 2018 when I found them on our black lab. They were all three camped out in a row on his back. They hadn’t embedded in his skin, they were just lined up ready for a feast. Surprisingly, I […]
A lot of sightings from the last couple of weeks: The kids said they were seeing blue jellyfish in the water when they went surfing and when we went the next day the beach was covered with velella velella aka By the Wind Sailors. These aren’t particularly dangerous to humans, thankfully, but it was fascinating
SoCal Sightings 4/24 – 5/5/23 Read More »
After a recent trip to the Spotlight Awards where a handful of phenomenally talented kids, out of countless thousands, win prestigious awards and scholarships, one of my children the following morning, observing the flowers blooming out front, said: Superstars are like Morning Glories, they bloom for one morning.Sunflowers are like God, they’re eternal. That was
Sunflowers like God Read More »
Here are some nature journal entries from YR6 as we attempt to transition to Special Studies this year. Whether we are doing what CM truly intended or not, is hard to know. And I sometimes have to squelch the comparison bug that peers its ugly head when I see what others are doing. But as I read
YR6 Nature Journal Entries Read More »
If you’ve been following my posts at all, you know we’ve been exploring marine invertebrates in the kelp. Well, for my birthday, my family gave me a new microscope and life just hasn’t been the same. Here’s one of the amazing things we discovered under the microscope, appropriately set to Chopin of course 🙂 Enjoy!
Microscopic Tube Snails (Spirorbis sp.) to Chopin Read More »
What could be better than a day at the aquarium? A washed up hunk of kelp on the beach! All of the following creatures were found hiding in the kelp. You’ll never look at kelp on the beach the same way again 🙂 anemone nudibranch something orange a brittle star spit out anemone some kind
Kelp finds – September 2013 Read More »
What do you suppose these are? I came across them in the garden. Look closer… At first I thought they were empty egg casings of some bug that hatched out. But, they have legs, which I thought may mean it was a molt of some sort, but that perfectly round hole… a molt wouldn’t look
Nature Mystery Solved 09/04/13 Read More »
In case you missed Part I, you can find it here. Since that post, I was able to obtain a copy of The Changing Year by F.M. Haines, the book mentioned by Charlotte Mason in Vol. 6 and her programmes as an aid to the “great deal of out-of-door work” her students did in a
Choose Some Special Study Part II – The Changing Year Read More »
Jeanne and her daughter Jemimah arrived from Australia today for a brief visit before heading off cross country to visit other AO friends. Here’s the wildest creature our girls found today while playing in the sand at the beach!
In which the kids find a marine worm with an eversible pharynx Read More »
Our friend’s 9 year old daughter noticed this holdfast at the beach today. She also found the handy big red bucket floating in the ocean 🙂 Looking closer at the holdfast, we found some pretty amazing things… Brittle Stars Lots of brittle stars 🙂 Can you tell what this is? Here’s a video of it.
Nature Observations June 13, 2013 Read More »