The kids and I are really excited to start doing the projects that we've talked about. We have always had summer work, which is usually boring math facts, reading comprehension worksheets, etc. But because homeschooling is billed as less boring, and Eleanor and I (at least) have the personality to get really into something, we're on our way!
This week the kids and I are learning about ants. We want to learn how ants communicate and do an experiment to learn what they like best to eat. We still don't know how they communicate, despite checking out several books from the library. Jenny, of our fabulous Clifton branch of the library, knows of our project and found a documentary about ants for us. We picked it up this morning, but haven't watched it yet. If it doesn't help, we'll move to looking on the web.
We have learned what they like to eat. With my grad student giving an exam for me, I took the morning off to do ant research and experiments with the kids. To our surprise, ants like fig bar and cookie best. The kids hypothesized banana and marshmallow. We only added the cookie to the experiment after realizing that they don't like foods that they can't break apart (e.g., peanuts, hot dogs) or sticky foods that might kill them (e.g., honey).
The food is still out in the driveway. We realize that other bigger creatures are likely to eat it soon!
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