Pond Studies

 Eastern Sedge Frog

 Cane toad

 Miss Five's frog

 The difference between frogs and toads

 11 ducklings!

Catching guppies

Catching fish

An unusual find on a paperbark tree - an insect nest of eggs?

Sleepy possum in the rafters

Mallard duck - an introduced species

'Mosquito fish' or Gambusia

In addition to keeping a nature journal with my three children, I recently began using Lynn Seddon's 'Exploring Nature with Children', a year long nature study curriculum. It is a beautiful and inspiring guide which follows a theme each week with suggestions for nature walks, book lists, a poem, a piece of art and extension activities. It has given direction to our nature studies. Despite being based on an American calendar of seasons, we have simply ignored the months and followed the seasons in order to follow the weekly prompts.

We began with Spring and Pond studies, visiting our local pond with nets, jars and nature journals in hand. We discovered toads, a frog, a tadpole, and eleven fluffly little ducklings. On our next adventure we caught 'guppies' and brought them home to observe. However, these tiny fish that I had noticed my whole life and assumed were native actually turned out to be an introduced species now considered a pest. One truly does lean something new each day!

As a result of our pond studies, and the many books I borrowed for the library on the topic, we have been studying the life cycle of frogs, the differences between frogs and toads, and the bird life in our local pond.

If you are interested on focusing more time towards nature study, I can't recommend Lynn's curriculum enough. xx

Full days

1. Morning light, 2. Miss 5's fig drawing and fevr (feather) writing, 3. My attempts at capturing a fiddle leaf fig leaf and fruit, 4. Master 8's fig, 5. Our dear Poss Poss in a trap, 6. My first pinned specimen - a Potter Wasp, 7. Insect Collection and Mounting Beginners Kit.

Our days have been so full of late. There is never time for boredom, as there are always books to read, projects to work on, the garden to play in and nature to draw. Plus, there is always something unplanned that adds further interest or chaos. This week it was two visits from the RSPCA ambulance. Our dear Poss Poss - a wild possum - turned up to raid the compost bowl one night recently missing an entire ear. It was clearly a fresh injury and she quickly retreated once discovered, she who is usually boss of the back deck. Concerned, I called 1300ANIMAL the next morning and they agreed that she would need medical attention.

A lovely gentleman, who shares his days between driving the animal ambulance and delivering meals on wheels, delivered a possum trap to us. That evening a lovely lady picked up our poorly possum, who was tempted and trapped by an apple. All being well she shall be returned when she has recovered, given that she is otherwise happy here and possums are extremely territorial. It seems likely it was, in fact, another possum who caused her such grief.

In other news, our interest in nature journaling and entomology is only increasing. Our collection and mounting kit arrived from Australian Entomological Supplies. I invested in the purchase after some serious consideration. Given the joy that both the older children and I are getting from our adventures as budding scientists, I'm quite glad I did.