Nature Field Trip

Last week, Chase and I were lucky enough to go on an extended field trip with a group of homeschooling friends. Our day included a nature hike, pond skimming, soil study, and some lessons on simple machines. Though it was windy, we enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot of interesting things. We heard and saw a number of creatures including a turkey vulture, geese, a mallard, a house swallow, and a few different frog species. We put some of our pond friends under the microscope and were amazed. Chase wasn't terribly thrilled with the large leech that he discovered, but he got along nicely with the smaller critters. The soil study was interesting; I've never done anything like that before. We were tired when we arrived in the barn to learn about simple machines, but we had a nice time experimenting with the tools and toys.

Here Chase is holding a praying mantis egg sac.

Pond skimming!

Studying a soil sample.

Using a lever to weigh something.