the week

Ooh, did you know we have tadpoles? They came from a huge puddle in the middle of a non-road, our near our friends' house, and they are growing, growing, growing...I think some of them need to go home to grow, and a few will stick around a little longer to amaze.  We did this once, years ago, long enough ago that Ani has no memory of it, so I thought it might be time again to Wonder.

tadpoles on eggs, of course

The week started out with eggs - drawing Spring onto wooden eggs has become a bit of a tradition, and they come out to sit on the nature table at Equinox and get hidden at some point, because who doesn't like to find things?

I love this bird. On an egg. Wow.

We're having yet another bout of fluish cold go through the family, and Dan got it worst this time, with fever and everything.  I managed to get the two sickest out on a warm sunny day at the peak of their energy, but as you can see Dan didn't have much.

All the foolin' I  managed this year.
But it got a good scream from Eliza;)

We're doing some botany right now, pieced together from a few different places (trying out the free chapter of Ellen McHenry's Botany in 8 Lessons to see what we think, and reading about plant familes in Tom Elpel's Shanleya's Quest - so far so good on both accounts), so we played with photosynthesis this week, by which I mean I got out clay, and we made the molecules that go into and come out of photosynthesis.  Eliza made a comment along the lines of finding it funny that she's still learning things the way she did when she was little - playing and making things with her hands. I think she meant it as a good thing!

Products: H2O, O2 and Glucose

This was our sun that doubled as a hedgehog

Wednesday we got out to see what there was to see in the woods.  Not much yet: a lot of moss, some hepatica, and coltsfoot along the road as we arrived at the park.

Putty root

I wonder why so many early woodland plants are purple? The underside of the putty root leaves, many of the hepatica leaves, the deep maroon pawpaw flowers.  

That brings us to today.  I printed out a game from chemistry class at coop that Ani missed on Tuesday, and we worked our way through it over tea and toast.  I keep checking in with the teacher, as Ani is the youngest in the class, but she said she is really into it and holds her own.  I'm really enjoying the chance to learn chemistry all over again, and I think I get it this time in a way that I definitely did not when I took it in high school from a teacher I think you could call a "character" but who was not a great teacher.

And we end the week with eggs.  I pickled two dozen eggs today, and we drew on a few more real ones.  Maybe we'll dye them tomorrow...

Eliza with her '80's hair