as beautiful as a summers day

 What a good start to autumn! The weather- strange for October, but I welcomed it very much.

This made alot of learning time outdoors for the first 8 days of October! We took several walks, a different place each day.

The colors are pretty.
The leaves are falling fast.

I got to go to 2 history- re-enactment festivals! 

Thinking about it right now, I have done things I never have before.



here is my list:
I took a short elephant ride

I watched medieval combat

I had 2 picnics in one week  in October

I saw a sort of Shakespeare play

I pet a buffalo

I watched how a glass marble is made

I watched a (pretend) fencing match in person

In my Shakespeare class we read this sonnet..It was rather humorous, you had to be there!

  Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date . . . .


the 80 degrees this week made me think of this line. 

wooly thoughts

I just wrote a composition about animals getting ready for winter. I remembered the wooly bear caterpillar. I read that depending on how his stripes are it will be either an easy winter or a hard winter.

I saw one last year on a nature walk, so I should go find one again and determine whether old man winter will be gentle or harsh on us. Today, it's time to get out the  hot apple cider and cookies. It's only September and 55 degrees. I have to get my socks done!

animals and math

So that I don't forget some of the things I have learned this week, I decided to write about it here.

The other day, we read about a coati. After we read about an animal we don't know, we look on youtube to see if there is one in action. Here is one of the videos we found. You will have to look yourself and see if you can find the video of the coati taking a girl's sandwich away on the beach, that one was quite funny. The coati looks like it has alot of cheek, and you'd either find him annoying or hilarious!

This week, we also read about a bumble bee bat, who's home is in Thailand.

I just cast on 223 stitches to start up my first sweater! I am looking for as many notes I can
find from other people who have tried this pattern.
It seems that some have
made modifications. The pattern I chose is from here, which is from Europe. So translating it may make it hard to understand.
I think I've got it.. but I think I may have to learn more algebra
and pythagoras theorem 
for when I get to making my own modifications.
I am excited to learn!

BTW, it is NOT the sweater above.. my mom thought that of that, to post an ugly sweater.

We did have a good laugh, and good time looking at lots of ugly sweaters.. I hope that my

sweater does not turn out ugly.. you'll just have to keep posted.

Anything but spiders!

I would most definitely prefer to write about almost anything else..other than a spider!

Our family read about this yellow guy the other day.. everyone seemed to think it is quite interesting.
So, I will do my best to describe an amazing animal in God's amazing kingdom..

(this photo is from here )

First of all, we learned that it is an amazing creature and known to be a "Master of Disguise". This spider changes color to match its surroundings. He's a very small spider, the largest could only be about an inch big. Unlike other spiders, this spider does not have a web. The yellow crab spider does not wrap its victims in silk, instead it grabs them and uses its fast acting venom to immobilize them, then the crab spider has it's lunch! Believe it or not, the crab spider is beneficial. They capture flies and mites. They do eat honeybees too, but we'll appreciate that they eat the bugs we swat, which is helpful.

If you saw this spider sitting on a golden rod or sunflower, you may have to look twice to find it. It also has abilities to change to white when on a daisy. Other crab spiders can resemble tree bark, leaves, fruit or even bird poop! And yet another group of crab spiders can adapt to look like ants!  These spiders are not poisonous to humans, they don't seek out humans, their bite is not dangerous. If you find one, just put a cup over him and slide a piece of paper under him and take him back out to the wild.

So, if I happen to see one myself this summer, I will take a special photo just for you..

who knows, always learning about things for a reason...


short video clip  (just click)

 here is another link,  if you want to know more (just click)

unexpectedly interesting!

 Are there as many unique birds in the world as there are places to travel or learn about? I am really starting to think so. From my last post I told you to look for this posting about a strange bird..

Here is it. The Kakapo!! You may not know, this bird is endangered..According to my findings, there are less than 100 left. He lives in New Zealand. But, There are reproductive programs going on right now.  This bird is in the parrot family. listen

This parrot is nocturnal. He is a good sized bird, up to 9 pounds and he doesn't fly. Below are 2 links about the Kakapo. I never realized that birds are so fun to learn about. Each day this summer we are going to be reading about birds.

We hope to find some, that we haven't seen before, in view too. 

link
link 2

What would you use it for?

          Because God likes mythical creatures too... That is what I said when my teacher, (my mom) asked "Why do you think God made a fish like this?"  "because of their tusk, many people actually thought long ago they were unicorns..."

Today I got my vitamin C from a glass of orange juice. I was reading about another way to get a daily dose, an even better dose of vitamin C than I got. What is it, you ask.. you may not like my answer. How about a slab of narwhal hide for breakfast? Yes, that is what the Eskimos found as one of the many uses for this huge "mythical creature-like" fish called a narwhal.

The Narwhal is hunted for many reasons, one being the large, unusual tusk they have. The tusk can get up to nine feet long! It grows from the fish's upper left tooth.It also spirals towards the left. The Eskimos have found all kinds of uses. Some of the uses are tools, cups, and such. The hide of this animal could be used for so much too, like maybe a dog sled harness. The dog sled races are going on right now, too, (check it out! exciting!)  how timely to read about this. The Narwhal is found mostly in the Arctic  waters. They  cannot survive in warm waters.
Surprisingly,  the narwhal  likes to be with other whales. They can swim fast and smoothly through the waters. It's tusk comes in handy to help them hunt for the the food they eat. They can eat a fish whole, the tusk does not get in the way. Who would have thought?? Only God, right? (a retelling by me,  from nature friend 3/10 issue)

An amazing rat from Africa

Today, I was reading from a magazine we subscribe to called Nature Friend. I love this magazine because there are so many interesting creatures and cool nature facts to learn.  A rat from Africa called a giant Gambian pouched rat caught my attention. I did more research about it and will now tell you what I have learned. This rat is not an ordinary rat it is about the size of a raccoon and weighs up to 9 pounds!
This rat is nocturnal, it has very poor eye sight, but a very  keen sense of hearing and smell. Another thing that sets it apart from other rats is that it has cheek storage pouches. It has been known to store so many palm nuts in it's cheeks that it cannot get into it's own burrow.

Right now, these little creatures are being used in Africa in a marvelous way.They are using them to help sniff out land mines. It can smell three times better than a bloodhound and is able to find explosives  buried in war torn countries in Africa. They are very smart creatures, the training time to train them is relatively short. Plus, they are very friendly. I loved this little clip of one gathering food and stuffing it's cheeks! Take a look for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxF6qGv6AOI