Hunting the creepy crawlies

Our county park system has one of the best naturalists in the world...so says me. True, that's not a title that has actually been conferred on her, but we have always loved her and enjoyed her programs. This summer the park system offered a Junior Naturalist program—a series of workshops for kids Calvin's age who are interested in learning more about ecology and the rigors of being a good naturalist. At the end of the program, kids who successfully completed enough of the workshops will earn their own titles—as Junior Naturalists, of course. Today's foray into bug hunting (which is really bug, insect, arachnid, and other such creepy crawlies hunting) was the penultimate workshop. As always, it was a hit.

Back to nature — our finds this week in the great outdoors

We watched an Eastern Kingbird feeding babies.

We found several wood frogs on a hike

We discussed wild flowers with a county parks naturalist

And Calvin practiced his photography: photograph by Calvin

Photograph by Calvin

Photograph by Calvin

Photograph by Calvin

The spaces between

Life is punctuated by routine.

Invariably we start the day with breakfast and an adios to Jon on his way to work. Our morning is about table work—the school lessons that we actually sit down and do, like math, spelling, grammar, geography, etc. (and not all homeschoolers do this, by the way, but my kid happens to like the predictability of it). And we squeak in piano, and some time to read, or build, or play. Then there's lunch, and a chance to get outside if the weather is good, or play games, watch videos, read, sing, build, what have you, in the afternoon. Then Jon comes home and we soak up our time with him before going to bed and starting all over again the next day.

This is our routine. It is the punctuation that keeps us on track, and punctuation is good because it keeps you on track. It's also good because it helps you tell or read the story with enough predictability that you can enjoy the unpredictable—the story that happens in the spaces between, like a surprise afternoon in the middle of a work week when our whole family gets to drop what we're doing and head to the park to enjoy the weather together. We like together.

Life happens in the spaces between.

Nature lover

Garfield Park Conservatory (Chicago)

We could have gotten up and come straight home on Monday morning, but sometimes it's hard to get in the car and say goodbye. Instead we made an afternoon out of visiting the conservatory and riding the El, then had an early dinner of sushi before finally hitting the road.

The fern room gives a good look at what Chicago might have looked like during the Carboniferous Period.

In the tropical food plants room we found a number of citrus trees, papayas, bananas, and pineapples.

It's neither a bat, nor white, and I don't see any flowers…

Lazy Praying Mantis. These flowers stink of decaying meat, attracting flies by the dozen. Lazy or opportunistic, you be the judge.

And an axolotyl in the kiddie pond? My favorite part.

Back home today we're slow to get back on our feet. The loss of the hour, plus the dipping temperatures and waning sunlight always catch me by surprise after a fall trip to Chicago. We can't dally too much this week, though; we have a book sale on Saturday, and work on the next play (for Calvin's theater class) begins on Friday.