praying mantis

as many of you regulars know we are homeschooling our youngest.

part of our science lessons have been on insects....including
the very beneficial mantids......praying mantis.

we were fortunate enough to capture a very large one about a week ago.

today we are releasing him. to go into the garden and do his job.
he eats lots of insects....we know we were feeding him this last week.

he was taking his time to leave...preening himself.

it was a great time to observe him in the sunshine.

abbey was all for letting him go back into his natural setting...

although she had made quite a friend.

we found his every move intriguing.....fascinating......it is

hard to take your gaze away from him.

finally he made it to a holly tree just off the front porch.

so we continued to watch him....

happy fall on these days of the beginning of october.

homeschool...dash home farm

one of the many benefits to schooling at home...



...is the whole wide world is your classroom.

all of nature is at your disposal...

we had beautiful weather for our first couple of days...

so nature came to us...we are studying in science about

being observers of nature...we are science detectives...always on the

lookout for what is happening in the world around us.

...this is so right up my alley...and abbey loves it too.

we set out on a journey to see why insects do what they do...

we are learning about pollination...bees...flies...

our views are green....blue....

we are armed with science detective tools....field guides...magnifying glass

.....range maps...paper for writing observations and sketching....

oh yes and a quilt for a place to study our books.

the dogs joined us for our class today.

the view from the quilt is illuminated by the sun...

and glows all around us as we...observe....read.....learn.

one of our assignments is to make a living flower exhibit...so

we collect our specimens.

and have a little fun doing it.

"the wise Author of Nature has not made even a single hair without a definite design."

christian konrad sprengel...a teacher that studied nature in his spare time until he finally devoted his life to being a naturalist. (early 1800's)

there will be lots of nature walks...

of course there are all the other subjects too...math...language...

history...
when we do have to be inside....we are fine with that.

after all some days it rains.

our first day was monday.

an assignment for indoors...creating a science museum...another thing

i love...museums.
this is a place we will bring things from our walks...

we have also created a terrarium...we are growing cat grass (oats)/ averna sativa in it...to give our cats to satisfy their craving for fresh greens.

we have crickets...a couple of walking sticks...some moths...
we are observing them for a few days and then we will release them in the wildflower meadow.

it has been a good first week and we are grateful.

into the woods

it is that time of year when the outdoors beckons. we, dh, abbey, and i love to take walks. in tow is our three very happy energetic dogs maggie, buster, and bronte'.





soooooo thru our portal, the back door we head.

past the backyard living space.
past the man made pond

and into the woods.

nature at it's best , wild and free!

with beauty at every turn !

we have a bit more than 7 acres.

our back field is left to cut hay.

the sun is setting over the field.

i am assuming this is mature poke salad. ripe fruit for the birds to eat.

field daisies.

a moth lit on a gorgeous purple wild flower by moonlight.

the moon shows itself as the sun decides to go down.

i know these are dark but this is abbey skipping along the dirt road that is at the back of our property thru a few other fields. she brings treats for the dogs. at the end of the road before we turn back she gives each one a biscuit but not without them doing a trick first.

she is a happy girl getting to walk with mom and daddio all by herself.