Hestia Homeschool for Young Wild Women

We've had a lively day.  David and Tabitha woke up early and headed out to some (nearly) old-growth forest in the next town.  They went on the tree trail and located many different species of wild flowers, saw three deer and three eastern Garter Snakes, and hiked for a few hours.  I am always so happy when we get time alone with each child. They thrive when they get the one-on-one attention from a parent.

I was personally tickled that Tabitha called them "Eastern Garter Snakes", rather than gardener snakes, as she would have before our wee snakie friend Aires came into our lives.  Aires healed much faster than I would have ever thought--maybe reptiles heal faster than mammals?--and we released him back into the wild yesterday.  The baby turtles are now free, the injured garter is now free, and DooDoo the pigeon is now free.  It does a heart good to see animals healed and free.  I do fret and worry over them.  Can DooDoo fly well enough to escape predators?  Are the baby turtles getting enough to eat?  Should we have released the snake into a different environment than the one we found him in?

While I was attempting to clean the house, Tabitha came in all breathless and excited.  She had found a small nest of just hatched tent catapillars. They were so tiny!  Shelby was instantly enamoured, and I spent the next hour holding her up so she could see them. Eventually I dragged a chair under the apple tree so she could watch them.

My eighty six year old neighbor was sitting on her porch, watching the girls with great interest, and they kept running back and forth showing her the baby catapillars, Tabitha's species list of the wild flowers she saw, and talking. Shelby is very comfortable with her, and leans against her lap and kisses her goodbye. Mrs. Jenny's face glows, then. All of her grandchildren are collge aged now. I think she enjoys the antics of my wild girls.

The girls then went over to their grandmother's house while my husband and I went out to dinner. After the dinner, we went to the book store and I ended up buying a very nice tangram kit for Tabitha and several other books.  I have books overflowing the library, and now I am stashing them all over the place.  I am a book junkie.

We have a class on the Weather tomorrow, and then we are heading back down to our river camp, Big Toe, for the afternoon.  My husband is packing the van tonight.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #9 Comment from rgossett4195 
  4/21/05 8:32 PM | Permalink

  I hope when I am an old lady I am honored to live next to such wonderful loving children as yours.  My old neighbor loved to gossip and loved my stepson.  Mostly she loved his well built muscles and used to kid me that she wished she was much younger.  She loved it when he used to come over and mow her lawn without his shirt of course!  rose
• #8 Comment from hestiahomeschoolEntry Author 
  4/20/05 9:58 PM | Permalink

  Yes, we teach just about everything ourselves....and we live right smack in the middle of an urban environment--not even the 'burbs!  We are five minutes walking time from downtown Cincinnati.  It is amazing how much wildlife we find right here in the city!
• #7 Comment from msyahtzee 
  4/20/05 9:57 PM | Permalink

  Big Toe sounds incredible.  I am glad that your family has such a place to go to.
  -Kari
  http://journals.aol.com/msyahtzee/BabesonaRoadTrip/
• #6 Comment from thesheatons 
  4/20/05 12:13 AM | Permalink

  Sounds like a fantastic day.
  
  Jackie
  http://journals.aol.com/thesheatons/PixelsPoliticsPosiesandPussycats
• #5 Comment from judithheartsong 
  4/19/05 6:22 PM | Permalink

  yea!!! Big Toe........ so glad so many critters were released. You all have a blast!!! judi