While on a long road trip we were listening to Rudyard Kipling's "How the first alphabet was written" in which ...,
"The Stranger-man (and he was a Tewara) thought, 'This is a very,
very wonderful child. She waves her arms and she shouts at me,
but I don't understand a word of what she says. But if I don't do
what she wants, I greatly fear that that haughty Chief,
Man-who-turns-his-back-on-callers, will be angry.' He got up and
twisted a big flat piece of bark off a birch-tree and gave it to
Taffy. He did this, Best Beloved, to show that his heart was as
white as the birch-bark and that he meant no harm; but Taffy
didn't quite understand."
I had absolutely no trouble splaining what a birch-tree looks like and how white the stranger man (who was a genuine Tewara)'s heart was!
Crayfish burrow. Crayfish are small crustaceans which look somewhat like mini-lobsters. They are fresh-water creatures and love muddy, swampy areas. The kids have seen them but I have not yet. The burrows are usually wet and soggy from the pond right next by and that is the best time to apparently track them down.
Believe it or not, peas, onions, beets and some spinach are already planted in those magnificent boxes. We think the kids will be less likely to step inside the box and kill the plants.
Taking on the "Handbook of Nature Study" by Anna Botsford Comstock. I've had the book for over a year and somehow forgot that I had it. The book is practically twice the size of my bible and I spent a good part of the afternoon reading parts of it and I like what I see so here we go... First published in 1911 by an educator who believed that children belong outside meddling with and finding out about nature that is closest to home before thinking about the inhabitants of the Australian deserts.
