REVISED! Scheduling Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Scheduling "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day": One Option

Scheduling is one of the homeschooling activities that takes the longest for me -- probably because I don't want to NOT study anything! I also discovered that, if I'm not careful, lesson planning for ONE student can take as much time as lesson planning for a whole class of students. So I appreciate it when someone helps me out by suggesting a schedule.

Birds, Bats, Pterosaurs and Insects...

If you purchase the notebooking journal with your Apologia Science text (which I recommend), you will notice that there is a multi-page schedule that shows you how to complete each lesson in four days over a 2-wk period. The first day of the week is more of the reading and the second has more activities.  Using this schedule, many homeschoolers complete two Apologia courses per year.

Donna Young has collected free schedules for the Apologia texts, and has posted them on her website, under Co-op Schedules for Apologia Science Curriculum. They include videos that various co-ops have added to their instruction, and suggestions about how to gather and store materials for a group of homeschoolers working on the same class.

You can also purchase daily lesson plans for Zoology 1 through Christianbook.com.

Posted to 2/26/2013 Blog Hop

Posted to 2/25/2013 Blog Carnival

Why We Have a Daily Schedule for "Flying Creatures"

The first year we tried scheduling the way the journal suggested. While it got a lot covered in a year, we wanted to make some changes, for our own science class:

• Mix up bookwork and hands-on tasks more. If your child loves workbook activities, he won't mind the days when there are a lot of notebooking activities. My son was not one of these kids, however, and we often had to struggle to get through the journaling. 
• Expand on the hands-on tasks. Being a science geek, I wanted to take the "Try This!" activities, as well as the "Nature Points" and "Experiments", and expand them, as these were the parts of the lessons my son liked the best.
• Embed more nature study. We follow the Outdoor Hour Challenges, and liked to complete challenges that related to the lesson in our text.
• Add more time for independent projects and related activities. For example, my son became fascinated with the physics of flight, especially of helicopters. He also discovered Biology4Kids, and enjoyed reading more about the things we studied in our Apologia textbook.
• Go for depth rather than breadth. I'd rather do smaller bits over a longer period of time, and add more details.

We did a lot of hiking, gardening and outdoor exploration during the summer, so we didn't mind stretching the course over more of the year. So here's the schedule we have used since then (and we are all happier with it).

Every homeschool, homeschooling parent and homeschooled child is different - my schedule might work for some, but not for everyone. I have to keep reminding myself that homeschooling isn't a race to complete courses. The important things to remember are the needs, interests, and learning of your child. If you want to get through the science "content" more quickly, so you can move on to music and art, because that is what your child wants to do with the bulk of her time, then do that. If you want to do two courses per year, because you want to make sure you get to all of them, then do that. Remember the reason you homeschool -- your child!

Our Monthly Zoology 1 Schedules:

Notes About the Schedule...

If you count the number of individual activities listed in the schedule in the notebooking journal, there are 187 activities. Our calendar is 210 days long (180 days of school, 15 days of vacation during the year, and 15 days for exams/ practicum - something that Ambleside Online includes as part of the schedule for our history studies). If we let each activity have its own day, then we end up needing more school calendar days, but we don't mind. That gives us leeway in case we do something different some days, or skip school days, or just want more time with Zoology. So we're fine with that.

Whenever we see "Project Page for extra projects" in the schedule, we add time for nature study projects (either about birds, or not). T = Textbook, and NJ = Notebooking Journal.

We start this course on October 1 (that gives us September for the beach, when it's not crowded but still lovely, and lets us buy school supplies on markdown. It also helps you study insects when they are most abundant -- the summer time). If you want to skip the exam weeks and just continue, that works, too. Adjust the schedule to suit your calendar.

We follow the Outdoor Hour Challenges from the Handbook of Nature Study. Activities marked (OHC) could be used for OHC entries or activities, as well.  I have linked items where there is already a challenge or post, if you'd like to expand the Zoology activity to incorporate more nature study. Subscribe to Barb's newsletter to get new challenges directly in your email inbox, or check out her Autumn Challenges list.


{NOTE: Due to reader interest, I revamped this section, and created monthly .pdf documents with the lessons and associated links for each month. No more humongous "cut-and-paste" work, my friends!}

CLICK ON MONTH TO DOWNLOAD A MONTHLY SCHEDULE

September October November December January February March April May June July August

A Great Notebooking Opportunity!

Consider creating your own notebooking pages, to supplement the notebooking journal for the Flying Creatures course.  Here is a video showing you how:

Visit NotebookingPages.com to learn more about their memberships
and their new web-app, The Notebooking Publisher™

                          

A Nighttime Surprise: Spotted Salamanders

Every year, since our oldest children were tiny, we held a family contest to see who would be the first one to discover a spotted salamander in the spring time. This year, the prize goes to my eldest son, Evan, who spotted (haha) this beauty in the road as he was coming home from work one evening.

Evan Brand (c) 2012

Spotted salamanders are fairly common in our part of Connecticut, although most people don't see them (unless they know to look for them).  They are usually the easiest to find in the early spring (April), when the air is still cool but the water is no longer frozen. If you want to spot someone like this fellow, here, your best bet is to drive a dark road at night, especially one that borders a swampy or marshy area.

You will find dozens of spotted salamanders slowly crossing the road toward their breeding areas. (Last year, my son and his girlfriend spent about an hour, in the rain, moving salamanders across the road. They are commonly hit by cars during breeding season -- some locations post signs warning motorists of their presence).

When not heading toward their breeding areas, these nocturnal critters spend their time hidden in dark, damp locations. (The winner of our annual contest nearly always found the first salamander in the wood chip or compost pile while dressing spring flower beds).

Salamanders of Connecticut

There are a number of salamanders native to Connecticut, but I have only seen three of them in my outdoor experiences: the spotted salamander, the red-backed salamander, and the red eft. The pictures below are from Connecticut Amphibians.

Spotted Salamander

Himmelman (c) 2011

This is one of the larger salamanders in Connecticut (about 6 inches long or more, and chubby), and belongs to the group called the mole salamanders. Like most salamanders, it is nocturnal. It lays its eggs in large, gelatinous masses in marshy areas. I've never been good at telling the difference between toad, salamander and frog eggs -- I always rely on my naturalist, salamander-rescuing son to help me out.

They eat worms and insects and other smallish creatures. They are fairly slow moving, and very interesting to examine. They do not live well in a terrarium, so observe them and let them go.

I read that these salamanders live 10 years or more. I think that's amazing.

Red-backed Salamander

One of the most abundant salamanders in Connecticut, it is hard to turn over a log or rock without finding several red-backed salamanders in some parts of the state. They do not depend as heavily on water as the other salamanders, and spend their entire life on land, only needed damp areas to complete their life cycle, but not standing water.

Himmelman (c) 2011

They are easy to identify, with their slender dark brown or gray bodies, and the reddish-brown, wide band along the length of their body. Their tails are very long, making their bodies about 3 inches long, but they are very slim.

These are fast moving, hearty little fellows, and can be kept for a period of time in a terrarium (kept moist), if fed ants, aphids and other small insects.

Red Eft (Red-Spotted Newt)

I loved this little fellow when I was a child. The red eft is a common resident of wet areas (although they seem to be particular in their locations, as I have not seen one where I live now, but they were quite common when I was growing up). The red eft is a bright red-orange color, with brilliant red spots bordered by a fine black ring.

One of the most interesting parts of the red eft life cycle is that they begin it, and end it, as aquatic creatures. Unlike most salamanders, which look somewhat like tadpoles as aquatic juveniles, then emerge to finish their lives as terrestrial creatures, the red eft spends about 3 years as a, well, red eft, then returns to the water, where it becomes greener (still retaining the red spots), grows gills again, and develops caudal fins so the tail becomes a rudder.

Studying Spotted Salamanders

Inside Preparation

1. Read pp. 187-192 in the  Handbook of Nature Study. You might also find websites such as Connecticut Amphibians helpful, for more information on the specific salamanders you might find in your area.

2. Gather supplies that you will need for your outdoor excursion: flashlights, clipboards and sketching materials (remember that you will be observing at night time, so you won't be lingering a long time to draw in the dark). We have had luck bringing a digital camera and taking pictures by the light of the car headlights. Bug spray is probably a good idea, and any other mosquito protection you might need (remember, you'll be in mosquito heaven where you'll be salamander hunting!).

Salamander Observations

1. You will have the best chance of seeing spotted salamanders in late winter or early spring (here, in Connecticut, we find them in late March or early April, depending on the weather). Salamanders like very cold water for their egg-laying, but they are cold-blooded, so the air temperature has to be warm enough for them to move, but not so warm that the water is too warm for their eggs.

2. Dark roads along a marshy or swampy area are the best places to look for spotted salamanders. If you are not sure where to look, contact your local environmental agency, parks and recreation department, or university for information. Or ask other naturalists that you know.

3. When you find the salamanders, they will be moving slowly (remember, they are cold-blooded), and will likely be crossing the road from woods to water. [NOTE: Animals such as frogs, salamanders and turtles, that move from woods or field to water to mate, and cross the road in the process, will only recross the road if you put them back where they came from. If you want to help them, carry them across the road in the direction they are heading. Their instinct will take over if you put them back, and they will just head to the road again.]

4. Handle the salamanders carefully, as their bodies are soft and easily damaged.

• Describe the area where you found the salamander. Is it dry or wet? Is there water nearby? What type of body of water is it? Make a quick sketch of the area, showing what the salamander was leaving, the road and where the salamander was going.
• Describe the movement of the salamander. What words describe the movement? Was it fast or slow? Notice how the salamander moves its legs. Does it move both legs on one side first, then the other, or does it criss-cross (right front and back left then vice versa)?
• Sketch or photograph the salamander. Carefully count the number of spots on its back (some variations or species of creatures are distinguished by the number and arrangement of the spots).
• Carefully pick up the salamander and observe its face. Draw a quick sketch of its face, paying attention to the pupil of the eye (the black part), which is an interesting shape in salamanders. [NOTE: Do not take a close-up flash photograph of the salamander's face -- how would you like that?]
• Carefully examine the feet. Sketch or photograph the front foot, and then the back foot. Do they look the same? If they are different, why do you think they are?
• Measure the body and tail. Are they the same length? [NOTE: This is a fine opportunity to teach your kids about using non-standard units of measure, such as finger joints, to approximate measure. We don't always have a ruler, but we always have our fingers!]
• Observe the salamander on the ground. Return the salamander to the marshy area. What does it do? Where does it go?

Follow-up Work

Enchanted Learning has study sheets on salamanders, showing their life cycle, and the red eft life cycle. There are also blank cycle organizers for you to review the salamander life cycle, using drawings or copies of your photographs to complete the organizer.

The Notebooking Treasury is having a spring sale on their nature study materials. Click the link below for more details.

NotebookingPages.com 2012 Nature Study Sale

Books for Your Library

Our March Bark Walk on the Nipmuck Trail-- and a Nasty Old Friend

I don't know what the weather is like there, but our month of summer weather, long nights under starlit skies, and shorts gave way to more realistic March weather for New England -- a dusting of wet, sloppy snow today.  Although it's not the 3" they were warning us about, and it really isn't cold, the snow was a reminder that we are, in fact, still in March, when just about any type of weather is possible.

A couple of weeks ago, we all took advantage of a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and took a family walk down to the Nipmuck Trail, part of the "blue-blazed" trail system established in many states. Because it  was too early for a lot of other spring changes, we referred to this walk as a "bark walk," and we took the time to quiz one another's plant ID skills based on buds and bark, alone.
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 The Nipmuck Trail, Willington, Connecticut

Mr. B and I have decided that, being over 50, we need to be a little more assertive with our exercise program. Living so close to a well-marked trail system has distinct benefits. Hubby is recovering from a winter ankle sprain (I told him to tell folks he was Irish step-dancing or he had a rough landing while paragliding, but he simply missed a step while walking downstairs, and sat on his own foot -- being a rather large fellow, this was not a good thing). In my efforts to wait on him in the early days of his recovery, I, in turn, stubbed a pinky toe that I had broken about 4 years ago, rebreaking it. So putting on shoes, let alone hiking, was a big accomplishment on this day!

The blue trail head is clearly marked on our, and the volunteer parks and recreation crew (of which our eldest son, Evan, is a member) does a nice job of keeping the trail passable with minimal disturbance to the environment. The trail, itself, is clearly marked. You can expect to see a variety of spring wildlife in a normal spring -- our dry weather has seriously reduced the availability of vernal pools for migrating waterfowl and spring peepers.



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An Unusual Spring...

The warm weather has caused all the buds to swell. All they need is a few days of wet weather, and they will just about burst.  The local daffodil festivals are worried about the earliness of warm weather, and suspect that the festivals will occur, without the flowers for which they are named, as most daffodils have been in bloom for quite awhile now.

The saucer magnolia at our house, which normally reaches full bloom mid-April, is already in full bloom.

We normally hike along the woodland trails more extensively, but Mr. B was terribly worried about stumbling on a rock or root, and undoing the fine progress that all of his hill climbing has done toward healing his injured ankle. We saved more rough terrain for another hike, and stuck to more level or paved paths for that day.

The Connecticut Forest and Parks Association has a website on the development, location and characteristics of the various trails in Connecticut's Blue-blazed Trail System. Our nearby trail also extends into Massachusetts. The majority of these trails are well documented, and you can find very specific descriptions of markers, paths, grade and intensity level for most of them. Our closest trail is ideal for families with small children, as it has little grade change, and, with the exception of a few climbs over fallen trees, is easy walking.

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A Prehistoric Princess, and a Scientific Thought

The forest floor was carpeted with Princess-Pine, an evergreen plant which isn't really a pine at all, but is actually a clubmoss, a group of ancient plants that were around in the days of the dinosaurs. The cool, deciduous forests of Connecticut suit the needs of this plant very nicely, and it is a welcome bit of green-ness for early spring hikers, like us.

We just take pictures of most things we see as we hike. Princess-Pine grows from rhizomes, root-like underground stems, so attempts to pluck a sprig may end up uprooting an entire patch.

Folklore has it that lichens and moss favor the north side of a tree. I am not sure if this lichen was on the north face of the tree trunk, or not, but that sounds like a great experiment to do.


H(0): Lichens and mosses are equally abundant on the north, south, east and west sides of a tree trunk.

H(a): Lichens and mosses are more abundant on the north face of a tree trunk.

We would have to choose one kind of tree to study: remember, you want to control everything but the dependent variable (the abundance of lichens and moss). Likewise, it would be best to study in just one location.


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The Bark Walk (and a Poisonous Surprise)

We had fun with this tree. My husband, who is learning a lot about plants, living with so many horticulturists in the family, recognized this as resembling a birch tree, and, in fact, he was right, as this is a gray birch (the shiny gray cousin to the more familiar paper birch, which is also prevalent in our forests here). My grandfather used to surprise us as children by going off into the woods with his pocketknife, to get special sticks for us when we used to toast marshmallows at camp. He always brought back these delicious, wintergreen-smelling wonders, which I now know came from the gray birch.

He used to also bake these little pies out of buttered bread and apple slices, in a special press that he held over the fire. When he passed away, it was one of the treasures that was passed along to me. I can't wait to use it this summer with my kids.




Connecticut's state flower is the Mountain-laurel, a cousin to the rhododendrons and azaleas. Here is a patch of baby ones. The mature ones should be flowering within the month: they flower before most of the rhododendrons and azaleas.

Our elder two sons are team leaders at a large wholesale nursery in the state, and have been busy packing and shipping mountain-laurels, rhododendrons and azaleas all over the country. Six a.m. starts and 7 p.m. finishes make for a tired young man.

Last summer, Mr. B was helping a neighbor get his yard in order. Being the helpful guy that he is, he volunteered for the tough task of subduing the hedges. I had told him to be careful of poison ivy, which I had noticed in the grass on the outside of the hedge. In the middle of the job, he called me over to remind him where it was. Sadly, he had already trimmed and weedwhacked it. Doubly sad was the fact that he had removed his shirt on this very hot day, and his body was flecked all over with the tiniest pieces of green, from the top of his head to the top of his socks. Every green speck found a sweaty, hot place to stick and hang out for a good long while, apparently, because he contracted the saddest case of poison-ivy that I have seen in a full grown man.

When we happened upon this next item, he asked about the hairy vine crawling up the tree trunk, and stepped far away when I identified it as his old nemesis, poison-ivy.

Now, in the fall, the poison-ivy leaves turn a beautiful maroon. Most folks recognize the three-leaflets of this sumac relative, but either don't recognize the winter vine, or don't suspect it as being as allergenic as the leaves. I once got a terrible case of poison ivy from raking dead leaves out of a farm cellar doorway. Being fall allergy season, I also must have rubbed my eyes and blown my nose, because I woke up the next morning and didn't recognize the woman in the mirror, whose face was as round as a full moon. Awful stuff. The roots, dried leaves and hairy vines are as bothersome as the green leaves, so be careful chipping wood that has vines growing on it -- you'll end up with a fine crop of poison-ivy in your flower beds. This also happened to us one year. More fun with poison-ivy!




This is an interesting picture. If you look closely, you'll notice a whorl of vines around this guardrail. Every guardrail was surrounded by the same whorl of vines. My husband remarked how odd it looked, and asked what kind of vine it was. I just started to laugh, and he said, "No way. You're kidding, right?" I was not.

Did you know that birds love the berries on poison-ivy? The non-descript flowers produce clusters of white berries, which many birds love. I constantly pull seedling poison-ivy out of my flower beds. I envision birds sitting atop each of these wooden guardrails, eating and pooping, and spreading a little poison-ivy love, all up and down the road.

If your pets like to roam the woods, be careful that you don't mistakenly pick up the oil from poison-ivy from their fur.

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March Treasures...

By now, Mr. B's ankle was telling him to go back home (you can see that he had a trusty staff to steady himself at the end). Plus I think he had started itching, just thinking about the abundance of poison-ivy that he had seen on our March bark walk.

Malik had collected a sparkly quartz rock, Mom had snapped a bunch of photos, and the dog needed a drink of water (which a kind neighbor had ready for him when we made our way back down the road -- what a blessing!).

We stopped by a clump of forsythia to cut some branches to force inside. I added them to a vase of multiflora rose hips that I cut last fall (do you know that those rose twigs rooted? No wonder the plant is so invasive...).



The smallest member of our hiking crew still had enough energy for a tree climb later in the day. Mom & Dad relaxed inside, and the dog found his doggy bed to be a welcome spot for a little nap.

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If you want to do more research on poison-ivy, visit The Handbook of Nature Study for "Poison Oak, Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac: Leaves of Three!"

HNS also has a nice study of flowerless plants, such as mosses, ferns, and our friend, the Princess-Pine, in "What are Flowerless Plants?" Apologia has a free set of botany notebooking pages that you can use to record your observations of these, and other, plants

Spring is a nice time to begin a year-long tree study -- see Outdoor Hour Challenge, Spring Series #1: Year-long Tree Study, for details.

Homeschooling, Homesteading and Home-making: Links, Links and More Links!

Happy Spring, Everyone!

If you're like me, you get a lot of email. Unlike you (maybe), I love to read almost everything I get -- there are so many interesting things to learn and do, that I just can't choose!

Here is what caught my eye this month -- maybe they'll catch yours, as well:

Helpful Hints for Homeschoolers

Here are some links and resources that fellow homeschoolers might be interested in.

New to notebooking? Check out the many Free Notebooking Pages at NotebookingPages.com and get started today! Be sure to sign up for free email updates, and you will get freebies (real ones, not fake ones) and opportunities for special subscriber discounts. Better yet, buy a membership and get all the notebooking materials you could ever want.


By the same creative homeschool mom is Mom's Toolbelt, a set of downloadable and printable resources for organizing your very busy life. Get the same email updates and freebies offer with a free subscription, and access to lots of information and material with a paid subscription.

The Calvert School offers many high-quality homeschool curricula, classes and services, for free and for fee. I ordered A Child's History of the World as a course (textbook, workbook, and teacher's manual). If you are interested in ordering their materials, or are just wondering what materials you might use for your own homeschooling child, you can find a lot of information on their website. Sign up for one of their free homeschool webinars: today's was on "Managing Your Middle Schooler at Home."

For Homeschool or Classroom

The Handbook of Nature Study is an invaluable resource for anyone using nature study as a core part of the science curriculum. Here are three resources that I, personally, rely upon for ideas and information (click on images for more information):

Paperback version of the classic by
Anna Botsford Comstock. Available for around $10 and up, from a number of vendors. Or borrow a copy from your local library (I did, but decided that I wanted a copy for my own. It cost me $12 on Amazon).

Nothing is better than free (many times, anyway). Read HNS online, or download an electronic copy in a number of formats, for readers, laptop or phone reading.



Barbara McCoy, homeschool mom, blogger and writer, has a blog where she posts a ton of ideas for well-integrated nature studies, using the Handbook of Nature Study as a text. You could use just her website for a nearly complete science curriculum. Her latest entry: "Magnets, Compass, and Moon Study in Our Neighborhood." All include links, readings, suggested activities, and downloadable materials. She also bundles a season's worth of activities in a convenient downloadable e-text, available for purchase (the e-text includes "freebies" not previously posted).

Homesteading

We have had summer weather in March, here in Connecticut. And last weekend had everyone in the neighborhood out "farming" in their front yards. Several families in my neighborhood are getting together to create a community garden, and there has been much talk of which veggies each of us will start. Here are some links to get you going:

Mother Earth News magazine (one of my favorites) has an article on Best-Tasting Tomatoes: 56  Heirloom Tomatoes Rated Excellent for Flavor , as well as an article on heirloom seeds (Fedco Seeds: Heirloom Seed Highlights from the 2012 Catalog). There's a reason why these varieties have been around as long as they have... Download the MEN app for your smartphone, tablet or computer for electronic reading. Electronic version comes free with a paper magazine subscription (or read articles for free right on their website). Sign up for their "Vegetable Garden Planner Newsletter and Planting Guide", and get a trial subscription to the Garden Planner.

I just had to have it! Buy the Gardmann R686 4-Tier Greenhouse Kit (around $39 on Amazon) for starting those heirloom seeds early. It just snaps together in minutes. While you're at it, get a supply of seed trays, also at Amazon.

While you're at it, order the complete archive of MEN issues for 2011 - on DVD for $35 -- see their website for details.


Homemaking



While Googling around (!) one day, I found The Hillbilly Housewife, a website chock full of all kinds of tips and resources for economizing in meal preparation and other areas of your household. I especially liked the articles on how to cut your food bill in 1/2 with a few simple (really) tips. Follow also on Twitter.

I hope you have as much fun with these links as I have. I am excited for spring!