To infinity and beyond

I had to go into the city for work, and Boronia, of course, came in with me. I knew the boys would be fascinated with the mirrors in the carpark lift which reflected each other's image, creating an infinity of Mummy-and-Boronia pictures :D

Baptism Day

Today was Boronia's baptism day. 

The proud big brothers chose their own outfits for the big day.

We celebrated in Sydney's most beautiful - and oldest - Catholic church, St Patricks.

It was a gorgeous service and a perfect day!

Afterwards, we celebrated with a picnic at the Quay, and then took the kids for their first ferry ride.  Waratah even spotted a "city rainbow." A day filled with all kinds of learning experiences!

Yet more backyard science...

We found this little dung beetle crawling across our school bag, while we did some bookwork out under the trees. We discussed its shovel-shaped head, the jagged "spikes" on its legs and the striations on its wing covers. We wondered if it was native or introduced.

We discussed why dung beetles had been introduced to Australia when we already had native dung beetles (to deal with cow pats, and to reduce dung-dwelling flies - also introduced).

As a project for the future, we intend to download and install the Australian Museum's Fauna Keys program, to assist us in classifying this dung beetle and any others we find: http://keys.australianmuseum.net.au/dung_intro.htm

Finally, we turned it over so we could hear the "squeaking" noise it makes when it is stranded. We then gently turned it right way up and let it go off to do its job. 

Next, we observed this very pretty spider. We hypothesised, based on its colour that it was most likely a flower spider. However, we have not yet managed to identify it.

We counted its legs, discussed how many it was supposed to have, and noticed that it was missing one leg. We brainstormed what might have happened to it. We observed other details and brainstormed their purpose, including the multiple eyes and the hairs on its body and legs.

Some time ago, Waratah captured a moth and released it into his mini world, where it laid eggs on the wall. We have been watching the eggs to see what happened. Today they hatched out tiny little caterpillars.

As we did not know what type of food the caterpillars would like, we left the mini world out in the garden until they were all gone, in the hope that they would find their favourite food source for themselves. It was very hard to observe the caterpillars as they were so tiny, approximately 5mm long.

Finally, here is part of our zucchini harvest. It is a good thing that Boronia and I love zucchini! We made soups and stuffed zucchinis, and with the boys' help, we made zucchini muffins, and chocolate zucchini cake, which they also helped us to eat.

More backyard science

While getting in the car to go out, we discovered this Peron's Tree Frog (Litoria peronii) hiding in the seal of the boot. We observed it closely and identified the characteristics of its eyes with their cross-shaped pupil, ears, rough textured skin, and padded, half-webbed toes.

We later carried out further research and discovered it was also known as the "Maniacal Cackle Frog" due to its distinctive call. This helped us to link it with the frog noises we hear in the gutter outside our bedroom when it is about to rain!

We observed the emerald green fleck markings on its back and legs (easier to see in the larger photos) and decided this and the rough mottled texture of its skin would help it camouflage on rough bark covered in lichen (as many of our trees are). We observed the bright yellow flashes under its legs and wondered if this would help it signal for mates, or possibly warn off predators.

http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Litoria/peroni/

We found this video of calling Peron Tree frogs, and decided that ours made their calls MUCH louder by using the reverberations and echoes in the gutter.

We released our Peron's Tree Frog onto a nearby tree.

Backyard science

Observation of a family of deer; discussion of concepts and terminology such as:

feral, native, introduced, natural, wild, domestic, tame... 

(these are feral deer, descended from escapees from local deer farms and living wild in our bush, who often come up close to the house to feed on the grass.)

We noticed that one of the fawns was dark coloured while the other was traditionally dappled. We observed that the dark colour was much harder to see when he was in the bush and we wondered whether this was an adaptation to Australian conditions, as opposed to European forests where the deer originated. It was so hard to distinguish in the scrub, I couldn't get a clear photo of it until it had crossed the road to our neighbour's land and stepped out into the open for a moment. We noticed that under the sparser, taller trees in the open glade near the neighbour's dam, the dappled fawn was better camouflaged.

One of our zucchinis in the vegetable garden has grown through the wire. We have decided not to pick it, but to wait and observe what happens to it over time.

A tiny thumbnail sized dwarf tree frog on the corn. We investigated what insects were nearby and hypothesised what he was there to catch (small spiders, flies, pollinators of the corn). We talked about what would happen to frogs like this if we used chemicals in our vegetable garden.

Boronia carried out her own experiments, having recently discovered the joys of a tongue that is capable of protruding.

Wentworth Falls Lake

After swimming at Springwood today, we travelled further up the mountain for a picnic and bushwalk at Wentworth Falls Lake.

Exploring...

More exploring...

Physical exercise and skills practice.

Flora and fauna studies...

We remain fascinated by the evidence of geological twisting and folding that can be seen in the mountains... 

and we loved using the line of posts and cormorants for some counting practice and a discussion of perspective, size and distance. :D

From little things...

There is movement at the station. Boronia is no longer satisfied with crawling... she up and ready to reach for a whole new world of experiences.

She has also decided she is ready to put pencil to paper...

After thoroughly taste-testing both, of course.

Another great artist is born!

Christmas Picnic

Catching up with my sister and her family at Carss Bush Park. We had a good play and a nice swim, although the girls weren't so keen on the squishy mud. Burrowing down with my toes, I found some decent sized live cockle shells for the boys to examine, and later, looking for shells amongst the oysters on the water's edge, we found some very interesting hermit crabs.

Greenfields Beach

A long drive through Kangaroo Valley, then a fun afternoon playing at the beach with my brother: learning to use a surfmat, finding crabs amongst the rocks and building a sandcastle.

The trip home was not as uneventful as we might have wished. A broken throttle cable component resulted in a three hour wait in the dark for a tow truck and an exciting drive home. An unexpected late night adventure which we did our best to enjoy.

New Silkworms.

(Dictated and photos by Waratah)

Yesterday we picked up our silkworms.
Today, one has started building a cocoon.




There are four more who are hungry.

We picked some mulberry leaves for them. We have four different mulberry trees. We want to find out which leaves the silkworms like best.

The English mulberry has very fuzzy leaves. The White mulberry has small leaves which are lighter coloured.


The Boy mulberry has flowers but never fruit. The Girl mulberry has lots of fruit. Their leaves look the same but I think they smell different. They are big and shiny. We snipped the stems off the leaves from the Girl mulberry so we could tell them apart.

We put the five caterpillars in the box with the four types of leaves. We will check back later to see which ones they like the most.




We put the caterpillars in their box with the leaves and some boxes for building cocoons in. The caterpillar who was building his cocoon started moving around more. We wonder if he is hungry and will stop building his cocoon to eat?

UPDATE
Here are the leaves we tested. The English Mulberry was the most popular. We wonder if that was what the silkworms were used to? When we breed our own silkworms, we will test them again as babies.

2012 Term 4 Week 8

Most of week 8 was taken up with the excursions depicted in the previous posts. Other activities included:

Helping Daddy fly his remote control helicopter.

Making beaded Christmas presents.

Mulga "reading" to Boronia.

Boronia's first taste of solid food - apple puree.

Boronia deciding that she really likes solid food.

Mummy cuddles.

Waratah made a Golden Eagle Christmas card for Daddy. He crumpled it up to throw away when the paper tore (due to an excess of glue), but eventually allowed himself to be convinced that all was not lost, and it was resurrected.

Boronia playing with the Schatzii kaleidoscope app on the iPad.

Dabbling Ducks

Swimming at Springwood today, followed by a picnic and explore at Werrington Lake.

Mulga motoring along.

Boronia investigating her toes.

Waratah has mastered the art of floating.

Mulga chasing the ducks (and slipping on the mud and sliding into the lake).

Studying the wildlife.

Two well-camoflaged lizards.

A Blue Wren fluffing himself dry after a bath.

Intrepid explorers.

Rainbow Lorikeet.

Collecting and classifying feathers.

Dusky Moorhen.