We have been doing nature studies for a weeks now and have really enjoyed easing our way into the Charlotte Mason nature study way.
I have started reading the HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY
So, you can imagine my surprise when my daughter took our nature study to a new level by bringing home her first pet.
And here he/she is:
We had been putting off her requests for a turtle for a long time but when it shows up in your backyard on the swingset, it’s hard to continue the “not right now” argument. So…we now have a turtle.
Our nature study has taken on a new level. We started with a web search to begin our search for “what kind of turtle is he? — or she? My daughter has name choices but wanted to find out what type of turtle it is and whether its male or female before she names it. So, we started some more research on the gender of turtles. (This will be more like guessing than knowing but…there are some distinguishing features that would be easier to identify if we had several to look at but…we’ll see what we come up with.) We have looked at pictures and learned a lot about the different types of turtles. She is journaling pictures of her turtle and plans to write the information about the type of turtle he is when we figure it out.
We thought he might be a slider but after a visit to the pet store we are still unsure between a box turtle and a type of slider. (Possibly a female after reading a few sites.) We are going back to speak with aquatics specialist tomorrow. So today we continued our studies of the various types of turtles as we continue to feed him lettuce and apples, give him a little bit of a habitat (which he likes to bury himself under the grass) and watch him. We are anxious to find out what type he is and have certainly learned more about turtles than we would have imagined.
Ah, the nature study…a ballgame I wasn’t quite prepared for!
Anybody else have an unexpected pet thanks to their nature study?
What a great post – I wish my education had been that exciting and impromptu! Quick question BTW, do you (or other home schoolers) take the summer off with the kids? Just curious….
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Yes, it is a bit of the exciting part of homeschooling. Sometimes we bag what we are doing and do what presents itself, which can be fun! Turtles it is this week!! 🙂 We don’t really “take the summer off” per se, but we do “school lite” if you will. If we are home and nothing big going on, we do some school. We keep up with a reading list, insist on daily reading (since we are still developing reading skills), practicing piano, and math skills (also still developing) but use games more and not the FORMAL curriculum for these. She chooses books, math games, etc. We have a couple of lapbooks planned for the summer on topics she is interested in and 4-H is always continued education. But if we want the day off, we take the day off — how was THAT for the long answer to a short question? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
That turtle is too adorable! Really amazing that the cute little thing showed up on your swing set. All we get in our yard are gopher turtles or strange looking water turtles.
Good luck on your search to find out what she is? That in itself looks like quite an adventure. I hope it turns out better than my Butterfly or Moth experiment. All we ended up with was ugly little moths. Boo
http://blog.denschool.com/butterfly-or-moth/
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Thanks for stopping by. Yes, it should be interesting. We learned a little more about turtles today and played with him (?) outside – playing? well…anyway, she loves it. We didn’t make it to the acquatics expert today so tomorrow its on the top of the agenda. Looking forward to learning more about turtles – had no idea 🙂