Busy Bee

We saw our first bee of the year (back in April)!

It was one of the rare sunny and warm day when we were enjoying the warmth of the sun in the garden when Tiger spotted the lone honey bee busying collecting nectar from flower to flower.  As it was a little dopey, we were able to observe it very closely such that we could even see its body being covered by pollen and it carrying its pollen basket on its hind legs!

As is becoming quite a (good) habit for us now, we decided to have a go at drawing a bee in our nature journal.

We later learned from the delightful little book shown below that we have drawn the queen bee, with its curved sting.

As we felt quite hungry after concentrating on our drawings, Tiger went into the kitchen and made a honey cake while we listened to a rather appropriate (even thought it's about bumblebee rather than honeybee) piece of music over and over again.

As wonderful as the piece of music is, I won't recommend doing that (i.e. listening to the same 3-minute piece over and over as we did) because now I can hear the music in my head all the time, as if there were a real bee buzzing around inside!  My propensity to hearing buzzing noise is not helped by us looking at the first 21 days of a bee's life while learning about the composer, Rimsky-Korsakov.

Tiger and I took more than six weeks(!) immersing ourselves in the poetic, meditative yet scientifically acute observational prose of The Life of the Bee, by the end of which we both learned a great deal about the fascinating behaviour of the bee and the intimate life within the hive.  The scientific accuracy of the prose that was written over a hundred years ago is validated by a more current documentary.

I got hold of a beeswax candle making kit for Tiger to have a go at feeling and smelling beeswax while making a few candles with the instructions in the kit.  The candles are incredibly easy to make and, according to Tiger, "very satisfying".

All is good until we started looking more into the current problems of honeybee survival.  It seems that the bees have been in trouble for at least 10 years now, and if the trend continues, the entire food chain is going to be aversely affected.

Dances With the Daffodils

It's that time of the year when daffodils are in blossom again.

It is interesting to note that, since we are recording our sightings into our Calendar of Firsts (by learning to draw the daffodils from here),  we have noticed that the daffodils are blossoming earlier this year.

Drawing the daffodil put me in a poetic mood, so we listened to a reading of William Wordsworth's poem, Daffodils (otherwise known as I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud).

I was oohing and aahing about the beauty of this poem read wonderfully by Jeremy Irons when Tiger announced, "If you think I'm going to copy this poem into my book, YOU'RE WRONG!"

To which I replied, half amused, "That's absolutely fine.  You don't have to do anything if you don't want to, but I'm going to add it to my Calendar of Firsts because I think it'll go very well with my drawing."

I started copying the poem into my book using a green pen when, less than 15 seconds after I started, Tiger picked up his pen and started copying it too!

I'd like to think that, at that moment, I was a shining example of inspiration for my son, but that is hardly true.  The poem speaks for itself, and my boy knows a good thing when he sees or hears one -- he always has a love for language -- otherwise nothing will persuade him to copy four stanzas of poetry for its own sake.

Last year we did a detailed study of the daffodils, so this year I thought we would be a little more crafty in our approach.

We tried our hands first at a simple craft of making daffodils out of foam.  The result turned out quite well.

Encouraged by our success, we continued with a more involved, more complex project of making egg carton daffodils.

This project certainly took much longer than the foam project but we think the effort was worth it.

This post is linked up to:

1. Keeping Company: March Link-Up
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 3/17/15
3. Finishing Strong - Homeschooling the Middle & High School Years #47
4. The Virtual Refrigerator
5. Collage Friday: The Hidden Benefits of Homeschool
6. Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with the taste of spring
7. My Week in Review #29 
8. Science Sunday: Experimenting with Model Rockets part 2

How to Be a Narcissist

Well, not really!

Although I have had some run-ins with a few narcissists in the past, I don't teach or encourage people to be dysfunctional.  This post is really about the next flowering plant Tiger and I studied together: the narcissus family which consists of the daffodil and the jonquil.

We used pages 549-552 of the Handbook of Nature Study to guide our observations.

The interesting part about nature study is that we learn to closely observe objects that we often take for granted.  For example, prior to studying the narcissus family so closely, we thought there are only different-coloured daffodils.  Little did we know that, at a basic level, the daffodil family consists of:

1) the 'normal' yellow daffodils that we often see -- either the smaller wild one, or the bigger garden-cultivated ones;

2) the mutant daffodil that has two or more layers of petals;

3) the Poet's Narcissus;

4) and the jonquil.  Funnily enough, Tiger and I had never thought of looking for the jonquil until we read about it in the Handbook of Nature Study.  We were very excited when we spotted them in somebody's front garden one day.

As we looked closely at the flowers, we noticed that the ovary of the flowers that had withered in our vase had swollen up to a size that was not observed in those that were left in the garden.

We are not entirely sure why the swelling occured but we think it was caused by self-pollination (since there are not insects in the house to facilitate cross-pollination) which resulted in the maturation of the ovules.  We then made a cross-section cut of the ovary to observe the triangular compartments that contain the rows of ovules.

After that, Tiger pulled the flower apart to look inside.  He discovered some liquid at the base of the style, just above the ovary and wondered whether it was nectar.  Both of us scrapped the liquid with our fingers and tasted it -- it was sweet!  Nectar!

It suddenly occured to me to ask Tiger whether he knew the Greek myth of Narcissus, who gave his name to this family of flowers that we were studying.  He said no.  Gasp!  I distinctly remember Tiger becoming somewhat of an expert on the Greek Myths in Year 1 after we spent a few months studying the topic, but I appreciate his honesty at admitting that he is not entirely sure about the subject.  As far as I'm concerned, it is better to acknowledge our ignorance than to pretend to be an expert when we really don't know something well enough to call ourselves that.  As part of his growing self-awareness, Tiger is learning to know what he doesn't know and be comfortable at acknowledging that to himself and to us.  Not knowing something is not a problem -- all we have to do is to get a quick review by listening to the story followed by watching a clip:

Along the way, I also realised that we had not formally learn the scientific names of the flower parts, so we watched the following clip:

I also printed off the Parts of the Flowers cards set and used it as a learning tool.  Being designed in the Montessori fashion, the cards set is very useful as a set of nomenclature to introduce, isolate, and reinforce learning about the different flower parts.

The set also provides opportunities for matching names to parts, as well as matching names to definitions, all of which reinforces the intended learning.  There is also a small booklet in the set that provides a summary of the reproductive function of the flower.  After reading it, Tiger identified a small error on page 3 of the booklet that needed correcting: where it is written "Pollen from the anther collects on the stamen.", it should be "Pollen from the anther collects on the stigma."

Labeling the flower parts in a diagram summarised everything we learnt in this session:

In the process of learning about the process of pollination and the flower parts that are involved, we found it fascinating to note how similar the process is to human reproduction.

This took us off our flower trail for a little while as we spent some time discussing the similarities and differences between:

1. the male parts of the flower (stamen) and the male reproductive organs of a man;
2. the female parts of the flower (pistil or carpel) and the female reproductive organs of a woman;
3. the time frame of the reproduction processes of a flower and a human; and
4. the process of fertilisation of a flower and a human.

Who would have thought that a study of flowers would lead to a study of the human reproductive system?  Such connections certainly would not have been made in the school curriculum.

We then decided to dissect the flower to see the various parts for ourselves.  In our effort to be a little less amateurish in our scientific pursuits, we watched the following clip to make sure that we dissected the flower properly:

The dissection video got Tiger so interested that he decided to take down notes on his computer while watching the clip.  It was interesting for me to see Tiger starting to develop the skill of note-taking of his own accord.

Once Tiger was happy with what he has learnt from the clip, we proceeded with taking the flower apart.  We first took apart a 'normal' daffodil flower.

We used a clear sellotape to stick the various parts of the dissected daffodil in Tiger's nature journal:

Dissected parts of a normal daffodil.

The details of the male part (stamen = anther + filament) and female part (pistil or carpel = stigma + style + ovary + ovule) are just too fascinating not to look closely in detail:

 

We then decided to check whether the 'mutant' daffodil flower is any different, so we repeated the process with the mutant flower:

We were not surprised to observe a number of differences in the mutant flower when compared to the normal flower:

• there were more petals on the mutant flower;
• the corona appears to have mutated into an extra layer of petals;
• we didn't find the male part (stamen) of the flower;
• the alignment of the ovules were different from that of the normal flower;
• there were fewer ovules in the mutant flower

Dissected parts of a mutant daffodil.

I had Tiger fill in the worksheets from here based on our exercise.

During dissection, it would have been a perfect to observe the pollen grains and the various flower parts under a microscope.  However, since we do not own one, we resorted to looking up the relevant information in a book that provided us with superb photographs of what we would have seen under a microscope, along with detailed explanation of the subject.

To round up what we've studied so far, we played the matching games using the cards printed off from  here.  It is basically a slightly simplified game as the one we played earlier using the Montessori card set.

This is part of our flower study series known as:

This post is linked up to:

1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 4/1/14
2. Entertaining and Educational - West Africa Study
3. Collage Friday: Como Se Dice?  Dad's in Honduras
4. Weekly Wrap-Up: The One In Which Spring Sprang... or Is It Sprung?
5. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (4/5/14)
6. Science Sunday: Blood Type activity for kids

Focus on Crocus

We decided to extend our nature study from our nature walks by focusing on a few of the spring flowers.  We started with the crocus since it bloomed only for a very short time compared to some of the other flowers.

We followed the suggested observation points listed in the Handbook of Nature Study, pages 547-549.  This book is a very good place to start being closely engaged in nature observation as it provides much detailed background information on the topic/plant in question, as well as excellent questions and suggestions for study that we hadn't even thought to do before.  For example, prior to using the book, we had not thought to count the number of leaves of the crocus plant.  As it turned out, a crocus plant usually has four or eight leaves each.

After our outdoor observations, we brought one flower indoor to study it further.  We looked at the flower closely from different angles, looked at its various parts, measured its style, and cut it open to see what's inside.

I then asked Tiger to make an entry in his nature journal.  The crocus flower is a very simple design which makes it ideal for observational drawing.  After a slight protest, and seeing that I was making my own journal entry, Tiger got on with the task.

After Tiger has completed the first drawing, I asked him to draw a cross-section of the flower by copying the diagram from page 548 of the Handbook of Nature Study:

In my effort to get the most out of this unit, I made a pre-cursive handwriting worksheet by typing out an excerpt of the poem, The Crocus, by Harriet E.H. King (also found in the Handbook of Nature Study) and gave it to Tiger to practise his handwriting:

I know there are many points of view about the importance of handwriting.  It is fashionable nowadays to argue that in the digital age, handwriting or penmanship has become an obsolete practice.  My view is that handwriting is important for developing neuro-pathways, the process of which cannot be totally replaced by the act of typing.

I did not push too hard on handwriting while Tiger was little and was developing his fine motor skills, but as he gets older I expect him to write legibly and tidily, if not beautifully.  This is why I am insisting upon good handwriting from him from now on, with plenty of practice using the handwriting worksheets that I will be printing out for his copywork.

To show my support for Tiger's effort at journaling, I made an entry alongside him.  Somehow, having mum work alongside him makes the tasks of drawing and writing more tolerable.

This is part of our flower study series, otherwise known as:

This post is linked up to:

1. Nature Study Monday: It's March! NSM! Link Up!
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 3/25/14
3. Virtual Refrigerator - Obey
4. Entertaining and Educational - Science of Light
5. Collage Friday - Great Homeschool Convention Recap
6. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with the Crazy March Snow
7. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (3/29/14)
8. Science Sunday: Science Activities for Kids

 

Early Blossoms

 
There was so much to see on our latest nature walk that I have to split the post into two.  While the previous one was about the animals we saw, this post is about the plants we saw.  More specifically, the spring flowers.

1. Daffodils

2.  Crocus

3.  Plum blossom

I've always found the plum tree to be amazing.  Not only because of its beautiful short burst of flowers right at the beginning of spring, but also because it flowers before it bears leaves.  From what I remember of my primary school botany classes, I was taught that, in normal circumstances, leaves grow before flowers blossom on a flowering plant.  However, this is clearly not the case for the plum tree.


4.  Cherry blossom

I've also been confused for a long time between cherry blossoms and plum blossoms, as both flowers look very similar and they blossom at the same time.  Luckily I'm not the only one to have asked this question so someone very knowledgeable in this area has pointed out a good way to distinguish between the two: check whether the petals have a split end.  The one with the split end is the cherry blossom, the one without is the plum blossom.


5.  Blackthorn flowers

This is another to add to the overall confusion.  Its flowers look exactly the same as that of the plum blossom.  So how does one distinguish between the two?  The plum tree has been in my back garden for years, so I've seen its fruit and therefore knew for sure that it is a plum tree.  Also, the plum tree is a tree, while the Blackthorn is a shrub, which is revealed by the shape of the full-sized plant.

For the blackthorn flower, we were at first also confusing it with the Hawthorn flower (which again looks almost identical to the Blackthorn flower). Fortunately, we are again not the first to be confused by this, so here is a good explanation that helped us with identifying the flowers.


6.  Hyacinth

7.  Lesser Celandine

8.  Primrose

9.  Cyclamen

10.  Common Field-speedwell

11.  Garden Grape-Hyacinth

12.  Greater Periwinkle

We also saw a few types of flowers that are not strictly spring flowers, as we see them all through the summer and autumn as well:
1.  Common daisy

2.  Dandelion

3.  Lungwort

Since the spring blossoms last only for a very short time, we collected a few of them from our garden and pressed them in the flower press that I've been meaning to use for years.  We'll check the press in a few weeks' time to see how our collection turns out.

This post is linked up to:

1. Nature Study Monday: It's March! NSM! Link Up!
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 3/25/14
3. Entertaining and Educational - Science of Light
4. Collage Friday - Great Homeschool Convention Recap
5. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with the Crazy March Snow
6. Country Kids from Combe Mil: Hunting for Frogspawn & Finding So Much More
7. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (3/29/14)
8. Science Sunday: Science Activities for Kids