Just a Little Nutty

A while back I said something in passing about having the boys weed the front flower beds. So Wednesday before last they asked if they could weed instead of starting school first thing. Since I was surfing the net I let them go do some weeding.

After a little bit one of the twins came in to show me a nut that they had found that was starting to sprout.



Then they found one that had a tap root and sapling. Pretty neat stuff. Weeding and a science lesson at the same time. Ahhh, it's just another joy of homeschooling.

Davy Crockett's Cornbread

Last week we went on a field trip with some friends of ours from Church who are also homeschoolers. We visited David Crockett State Park near Lawrenceburg, TN. Our friends were a little bit late so we got to spend some time with Ranger Hannah getting to know the resident corn snake at the park. Her name is Cornbread. Cute huh?

Ranger Hannah taught us a lot about snakes. Here's what we learned about snakes. (Going from left to right and top to bottom in the picture.)

Gameboy: Only three of the 32 species of snakes living in Tennessee are poisonous.

Princess: Cornbread is not a poisonous snake.

Spaceman: A snake is poisonous if; it has eyes like a cat, it's head is shaped like a triangle (and has puffy cheeks), and it's tail has only one row of scales. (By the way, doesn't he looked spaced in this picture?)

Cowboy: You can tickle a snake by rubbing your finger gently down their belly.

We really liked Ranger Hannah. She took us out to the little stream behind the Visitor Center and taught us how to catch salamanders. The kids had lots of fun splashing around in the stream.

Spaceman even caught a salamander. Mommy is still learning to use the camera and forgot to use macro mode. Too bad the salamander came out all blurry.

Once our friends showed up Ranger Hannah gave us a tour of the Visitor's Center and showed us what life would have been like in the early 1800s. The boy's especially liked the knife that Davy Crockett would have used. No matter how much they asked Ranger Hannah would not let them touch it. Sorry boys.