As States are slowly reopening, I am starting to realize that I will have to rejoin the general public again soon. I have hardly left my house in over 2 months. My family has found it’s new routine with teleworking and chasing an almost three …
The sciences could not exist without each other. There is no biology without physics, no chemistry without biology, no biology without geology, etc. Today for Locryn’s “biology” lesson, we leaned toward the geology realm. While playing in his sandbox, we discussed sand! Sand is formed …
Looks far out, doesn’t it? Today, Locryn and I found an ootheca for his biology lesson! We get a fair number of them in our yard. Ootheca?? What in the world are you teaching your toddler?? It looks like an alien!
An ootheca is an egg case made by mollusks, cockroaches, and mantises. This particular ootheca fixed to the side of an old wheelbarrow is an egg case for a praying mantis! It contains between 50 and 200 individual eggs!!
Praying mantises are amazing for your garden! They eat aphids, beetles, caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, and mosquitoes. If you don’t have a good natural population of mantis already, you can purchase mantis oothecas online as a natural pesticide!
While tending to his vegetable garden today, Locryn found a bird’s nest in one of the potted plants! It was the perfect topic for our daily “Locryn’s Biology/Nature Lesson”! We spoke about how nests are built to provide a safe, warm place for bird eggs …
Was another entertaining day in the Kitchen household and neighborhood. As I am sitting here with a lovely vodka cocktail, I will promise you that there were no cocktails involved in the story that I am about to tell you. However, the homemade ginger beer …
For those of you new to this blog, WELCOME! I will be honest that sometimes I feel that the original goal of this blog shifted slightly as we have been quarantined due to COVID19. But in reality, it hasn’t. The primary goal of Kitchen Weekend was to show the supposed crazy and unique things the Kitchen family is up to regularly (we find it all quite normal). A segment of Kitchen Weekend named “Locryn’s Biology Lessons” was definitely a new development, but probably one of the most important ones to us.
Locryn is our almost three year old son. We are always trying to teach him about the world around him. Do bananas grow on a tree or in the ground? What do birds eat? Is that a moth or a butterfly? Why do the clouds turn black before the rain comes? “Locryn’s Biology Lessons” are some of those discussions.
Today we discussed hardiness, plant hardiness. Hardiness of plants refers to their ability to survive adverse growing conditions. A plant’s ability to tolerate wind, cold, heat, drought, flooding, etc. You usually hear two major groupings: tender and hardy. Tender plants usually cannot handle freezing temperatures; while, hardy plants can.
Tonight in the mid-state of South Carolina, the temperatures are going to drop to 39F. This is obviously not freezing, but I have some very tender plants that prefer not to go below 50F. Locryn’s biology (and manual labor) lesson today was to help identify which of Mom’s potted and hanging plants do not like to be cold. Once identified, some were carried to the side of the house; while, others were carried into our Sunroom for a night indoors. Some of the plants included orchids, staghorn ferns, and air plants.
ENJOY!
Today, Locryn spotted a common snail in our vegetable garden. To be honest, snails are pretty cool to watch. Slowly and meticulously moving along, they can consume rotting plant material like leaf litter. They are a good food source for snakes, birds, lizards, and mammals. …
Locryn’s biology lesson today was a bit less cheerful than some of our past lessons. Today, he learned about the Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis). The Kitchen home is surrounded by pine trees. We are blessed with space and few neighbors (the ones we have …
I am proud to say that our toddler is incredibly observant. He notices if anything is out of place. We took a stroll (him on my back) this afternoon to check on all the plants. As we were walking, he pointed to a spot on the fence and asked what something was.
“Great job Locryn! It’s a moth!”
His reply “A moth? You mean a butterfly?” You can guess what our discussion was on by this comment.
Some of the simple differences between a moth and a butterfly are:
1. Moths tend to be stout and fuzzy; while butterflies are usually slender and smooth.
2. Butterflies tend to have more vibrant color patterns; while moths tend to prefer simpler colors.
3. Butterflies usually come out to find food during the day; while moths are seen more at nighttime.
You cannot be a true outdoorsman/woman without knowing a bit about scat! Besides, what potty training toddler doesn’t want to learn about POOPY! Once Locryn realized what he saw was animal POOPY, his first response was quite normal – YUCKY! He probably didn’t realize that …