My kids have always loved nature and animals. I knew that science would be their favorite subject in school because they love to explore and experiment so much. I love seeing how their curious eyes light up when learning an amazing new fact.
We love everything about our current homeschool curriculum Christian Light Education except for the science. The kids did learn some things but we felt it was on the boring side and they needed to be challenged more. I needed to find something that would excite them and boost their curiosity. We decided to go with Apologia’s science curriculum.
I love the way they designed this to study one topic for the entire year. Instead of learning multiple things where their focus is in so many directions they believe a student can get a deeper understanding of things when they focus just on one topic at a time. Since starting this curriculum I am a firm believer of this.
My fourth and fifth grader (they do their science class together) have been so engaged and focused and it has really been impressive.
They both decided to study Zoology and flying creatures. We are learning mainly about birds this year. We’ve learned how to classify birds, how to identify them by their physical characteristics, we’ve looked closely at a fallen wing with a magnifying glass, they know how to attract certain birds to the yard and so much more.
My students are becoming amateur ornithologists and they are really enjoying it :)
After they have finished the bird lessons they will move on to learning about bats and several insects.
Of course with all of this learning my entire family have become bird watchers which translates into us being birders now. We enjoy watching the movements and habits of birds that come into our yard or fly around and land in the trees surrounding our home.
Last month my kids ran in the house to tell me they spotted a birds nest right above my daughter’s room window. They told me they saw the mother but seems there was no baby. I noticed something fuzzy close by the mama but I knew it wasn’t a part of her body so I wanted to further investigate.
I went to grab our Cannon so I could get a closer look and also take a few shots as well. What I saw was the most precious thing, a tiny fuzzy baby bird next to it’s mama...
I just love how serious this mama is sitting there as she protects her young.
My daughter wanted to identify the bird so I waited a little longer for her to reposition her body in order to get a better shot.
I noticed it had an orange belly and then my daughter noticed the white ring around her eye...
This is an American Robin!
We purchased a bird guide that gives you a lot of details about the birds such as physical characteristics, location, food preference, migration and much more. It’s really cool how they have the tabs of the pages color coded according to the color of the birds. This is the page my daughter turned to when identifying the Robin...
The kids also found pieces of the egg that hatched. American Robin eggs are pale blue and that’s exactly what they found.
As a mother learning about birds and how they take care of their young has been very interesting to me. When I saw the mama bird and how she was looking out as her baby moved around it reminded me of how protective I am over my children. I am always watching, looking around for any potential danger trying to protect them the best I can.
I noticed my daughter began looking at photos and reading more about how mother birds feed their young.
We watched a video showing how the mama and daddy birds eat their baby’s fecal sacs (okay in plain words poop). The parents are so focused on making sure their young eat the insects they bring so they don’t find food for themselves during this time. Also, baby birds aren't able to digest the food given to them very well and thus some of those nutrients come out in the poop which makes these sacs a nutritional treat for the parents.
My kids and I were pretty grossed out watching this ball come out from the baby’s backside and the parents ate it before allowing it to hit the nest ground.
A week later I went back out with the camera to check on the bird family. To my surprise there wasn’t just one baby any more but instead there were two. Looks like we missed the second baby the first week...
This just melted my heart when I seen it. It’s amazing how almost in every species a baby is the most adorable thing (noticed I said almost every species, a baby spider amongst other insects are never cute in my opinion 😅).
You can imagine how thrilled the kids were to see this. This made them even more excited to be birders.
We want to attract more birds to our yard so the kiddos will be making a bird feeder with their granddad very soon. We will also be purchasing a bird bath too. I’m looking forward to it so the birds can help us keep insects at bay and away from our garden! 😄
We continuously watch the cycle of life over and over again as new mamas prepare for the arrival and protection of their babies.
Patiently she awaits...
and the anticipated excitement starts all over again.