Nature study is an area that consistently suffers in our schooling, even though I was determined not to let it slide.
So when the Xplor magazine showed up and peaked Kinsley’s interest in opossums, I decided to roll with it, mostly to assuage the guilty feeling of failure.
The Handbook of Nature Study didn’t have anything on the opossum (Did I miss it? Are they not blessed with these chicken eatin’ varmints across the pond??) so we turned to youtube. Where we basically got distracted by cute possum videos for 45 minutes. I suffer from shiny object syndrome.
(I actually kind of feel like that mama possum sometimes.)
We learned that baby opossums are about the size of a kidney bean when they are born and that an entire litter can fit in a teaspoon. The gestation period is only 13 days, and they nurse without stopping for two solid months. They are the only marsupials in the US. Fascinating!
Then we sketched us some ‘possum (this is acceptable grammar when discussing a possum, I believe).
Then Kinsley read to us from The Adventures of Unc’ Billy Possum.
She is quite the expressive reader!
I am motivated to do better at nature study again. For now.
What a fun school day. Did you make Zion read it? They look so cute!
Do the kids know that Aunt Shelly, Uncle Gary, Uncle Larry and I had a pet possum for a few months when we were kids? It grew from a tiny baby that fell of it’s mama to about half grown, but it died for some reason.
Sounds like a well-rounded study to me! Way to go, ‘possum mama!