>Finding Bugs And a Question For You

>We were supposed to go to the aquarium with some family that is in town (who also happen to homeschool!) but O hasn’t been feeling well and I would hate to pass on any bug she may have. Instead we kept to ourselves and went on a bug hunt. O was ridiculously excited, she even made a map for us. I drew up a quick chart for us to note what we find and the number of each bug/creature we find and we set off.


I chose Huntington Beach Central Park which isn’t exactly close but it was the best park we probably could have chosen for this. It’s huge and lovely. We went to the East side which is less water, more trees, shrubs, etc. I always get a little paranoid around lakes. Luckily though, this side used to have a lot more water so it’s a little more marsh-like in places. Which makes for excellent bug breading grounds. At first I just followed O’s lead (since she had the map and all) but I coaxed them off the main path and into some of the marsh-like places.


We talked about where bugs like to hide out and why and they helped me choose small logs to roll over where we found worms and black beetles. I also spotted a couple of centipedes but those guys were too quick for the kids to notice. Of course, ants were everywhere we looked too. She really wanted to find some spiders (shudder…) but we could only find webs. She also REALLY wanted to find ladybugs but there were none. Luckily, there were a lot of butterfly’s so she was good with that.


We were even able to get super close to a Mallard who was trying to sleep.


Unfortunately, the expedition ended shortly thereafter as O pricked her hand on some super sharp leaf and apparently that sucker really hurt. Not knowing what it was (shush, I was never a huge nature hiker gal) I gave her a bit of Benedryl and put some ointment on it and by the time we got home it wasn’t bothering her.


Notice I haven’t mentioned M at all so far. He was being a little clingy and wasn’t so interested in the whole thing. That’s alright, he still enjoyed walking around in the beautiful fresh air. They were happy to find and climb on some tree branches too.

Carrying her map. Those were the bushes she pricked her hand on.

 O’s map (the dotted line is our path.. like a pirate map) and our chart with the final counts. The beetle count is on the back. We found a bunch of those guys. And luckily, we only saw one bee.

We will go back next week with my partner in crime, D, and we’ll be sure to stay away from those bushes. In fact, I’m hoping to get to storytime over at the main library prior to the hunt. But that’s off subject.


I’m going to start posting our weekly schedule’s to get your thoughts and feedback. This week has been a roaring success. Not in the we-stayed-on-schedule kind of way but in the my-kids-learned-something kind of way. Which is way more important. 


Way.


What would *you* like to read about here? My struggles? How I come up with the schedule? My organization or lack thereof? Or are you just looking for more cute/funny pictures? I would like to know what will peak your interest because I’m not intending this blog to be just for me. If you aren’t comfortable posting a comment, contact me another way. I definitely want to know.