Learning by Osmosis

Today after math, I let each of the big girls pick two insects to read about in a book of their choice.

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AJ chose to learn about butterflies, cuckoo bees and cuckoo wasps. I didn't even know there was such a thing as cuckoo bees/wasps.

We learned that they lay their eggs in the nests of other bees and wasps, and then the larvae eat the larvae of the host insect. AJ was both fascinated and disturbed by this, and kept asking why they would do such a thing as eat the other wasps' babies.

She drew a picture of a cuckoo wasp and larva for her notebook, and wrote a sentence about the wasps' habits to go with it. I was amazed at how accurate she made the detail and coloring on the adult wasp.

M&M has been wanting to read about potato bugs to find out whether they eat potatoes or not. (She's worried about our potatoes after seeing a potato bug near the patch.)

We've had a hard time finding information about them, because apparently they're not actually called potato bugs. The correct term for them is woodlice. Somehow I have a feeling that all the kids in our area might not have viewed them as quite such pettable, friendly creatures if we'd known them by their proper name. I had no idea they were actually crustaceans, either.

M&M also read about ladybugs. Did you know that the stinky yellow juice they squirt to protect themselves is actually extruded from between the joints of their legs? I didn't. M&M was also fascinated by the story of a few hundred ladybugs saving the orange orchards in California from being destroyed by cottony scale insects. She enjoyed coloring a picture of a ladybug and labeling the various body parts.

Meanwhile, Baby E happily entertained herself coloring at her new desk, observing what the other kids were doing, and puttering around saying things like, "I need juice," and "Mommy, duh pwintew's not pwinting. It's not pwinting!"

At one point I was listening to M&M read about ladybugs while I cut out and glued pieces for a math game. AJ was quietly reading to herself on the family room couch, and Baby E was sitting at her feet spinning the globe and chattering to herself.

Then I realized Baby E was calling my name repeatedly in louder and increasingly demanding tones. She was turning the globe and saying, "Mommy, where's 'Merica? Mommy, where's 'Merica? Mommy? Mommy! Where's 'Merica? MOMM-EE! Where's 'MERICA!?!?"

I think Baby E and I are learning as much as the two who are officially "doing school."