Two Tails Ranch

[taken in part from a friend's blog]

15 miles south of Gainesville in Williston is a large animal rescue/sanctuary, the Two Tails Ranch. We went there this week with our home school group to see elephants, zebras, giant tortoises, tigers, ostriches and more.

It turns out that the reason she was “dancing” is because elephants are so heavy, they have to stay in constant movement or their organs will become crushed under their own weight. This is also why they sleep standing up; lying down for more than 20-30 minutes causes fluid to build up in their lungs. Amazing.

The elephants at Two Tails are all Asian elephants, distinguished from their African cousins by smaller ears, lighter skin, no tusks for the females, two domes on the head instead of one, and a difference in toe count. The lighter skin pigment includes freckles, as see on this female’s face:


The information given was rather sobering. Unless current bans on importing elephants to the US are lifted and intensive breeding programs are implemented, these endangered animals will likely be extinct in the next 75-100 years. They require enormous amounts of land in order to thrive, as they are destructive of their habitats and must migrate often. Unfortunately, current preserves are insufficient, and elephants in Asia are being culled as nuisance animals in areas heavily populated by humans. Their shrinking habitat has also caused insufficient genetic diversity among potential mates for healthy offspring. Add to this the fact that elephants are actually choosy about their mates, and the birth rate is drastically insufficient to keep up with the death rate.

Luke, a beautiful male, did a log-manipulation demonstration for us. He also lay down for the trainer, which she said requires absolute trust, as that is the elephant’s most vulnerable position, since they can’t get up quickly.


This emu is about 4 months old, half the size of an adult. A handler picked it up and let the kids pet the feathers on his back.


The sanctuary also had several zebras. We learned that predators see mostly in black and white, so the zebras’ stripes make it hard for the predators to distinguish individual animals in a herd, which discourages attack. The zebras were fearless and came right up to our group to check us out:

Habitats at Morningside Nature Center

[taken in part from a friend's blog]


Our group took a lovely field trip this week to Morningside Nature Center. They’ve been doing programs for both public and home schooled children for years, and it shows. Their presentation was well-organized, engaging, and really reached the kids.

The title was “Animal Homes.” There was a brief discussion of animals’ physical adaptations which give them advantages in their environments (complete with skeletons and taxidermy for illustration), then the focus moved to habitats. The kids learned that the 4 necessary components of any habitat are: food, water, shelter, and space. Then the fun part began.


Each student was given a small plastic animal and a laminated sheet with information about it. Then, with the presenter’s guidance, they built a habitat for the animals in a big wading pool filled with sand that included all the necessary elements. The presenter talked them through the food chain and how it influenced the spacing and placement of different species. One of the children was feeling contrary and refused to place his frog in the habitat, but instead of derailing the lesson, the presenter used the frog’s absence to demonstrate how the entire ecosystem could be disrupted by the destruction of one species. It was really quite ingenious.

Then she used a toy bulldozer to level some trees and build a “house” by the lake, and she talked about all the various ways that humans dwelling in that particular spot were likely to cause damage. She guided the kids through ways that humans could more thoughtfully establish their own habitat within the system to minimize environmental impact, and the kids really got into it. It warmed my heart, I have to say.

Then we went on a nature walk. It was quite cold, so we didn’t see any animals, but our guide pointed out many signs showing where they’d been.

Ancient and Modern Athens

P and I talked about Ancient Greece and the acropolis. Reviewed photos of the building and models of what it used to look like. Watched a NOVA special on the Acropolis and attempts to renovate it and what they learned about its construction.

Whaling

"P" and I discussed the history of whaling. We talked about the uses for blubber, Moby Dick and current whaling practices, including the stand-off between Japanese whaling vessels and environmentalists.

Civil Action for Love

There was a peaceful gathering on Wednesday, starting at 6:45 pm, expressing love for ALL of our neighbors in front of the "Dove World Outreach Center". It was a good gathering -- between 70 and 100 people on the street in front of the church. Noone seemed to show for their 7 PM service, though it is summer, and things often change then. A nice gathering of many faiths all talking love. :)

http://www.wcjb.com/news/4288/hateful-sign-causes-neighborhood-uproar

Circle Camp Finale

After two weeks of our peace talk-themed summer camp, the kids put on an amazing performance complete with drumming, dancing, singing, and skits. Lots was learned in terms of talking with others compassionately and getting to feelings and needs instead of blame and hurt.

Geography Lesson

Butterfly Release

Went to the Florida Museum of Natural History today. We looked at the exhibit of native butterflies and how they pick different native species of plants to lay their eggs, and watched the release of new butterflies into the tropical rain forest enclosure. We also visited the Fossil, Everglades, and Alien Invasion exhibits.

International Year of Astronomy

K and P attended a presentation by the Astronomy Department and the Santa Fe Planetarium on Galileo and his discoveries.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

Visited the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire today. P and his dad participated in a fencing tournament, which P won. P and K rode the hobby horses and looked at dioramas of medieval life. We watched demonstrations of weaving, armor-making, using weaponry, and acrobatics.

Inauguration Potluck

Today was an exciting day -- we joined with people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and socio-economical position to watch the Presidential Inauguration. P was very excited, and listened to the conversations about this being an important event in many respects, not the least of which was the election of our first African-American president.

Following the live broadcast, P and K helped break down the decorations and clean up the large areas that were used for both the potluck lunch beforehand and the broadcast afterwards. They also engaged in conversation with some of the attendees about the event.

The National Geographic Atlas

P has been reading the "Habitable Earth" chapter of the National Geographic atlas, using the map legends to determine where on the globe certain things are, like mild summers/cool winters (finding where in America has the same temperatures as western Germany), and determining what the temperature is in Florida.

Yesterday, he went through to locate where the major religions in the world are located. He also looked at the maps showing how plate tectonics have moved the continents over the past 600 million years. Each of these maps has a paragraph description that he's been reading to us, which, when ran through a SMOG readability calculator is apparently college-level reading!

Like his father, P just loves looking at maps and seeing how things are different in different places.

US Presidents

P looked at the names of all the US Presidents. P then selected the books from his library that we had of Presidents for his reading for the next week. P looked at videos of JFK's inauguration speech and speech asking for appropriations for the Apollo program.

June 29, 2008

Today P and I looked at the weather in Florida and discussed how to read a radar map and tell where it is raining the hardest. We then looked at an equivalent map that showed ice thickness and coverage at the North Pole. We then looked at the South Pole and the various research stations on the continent, and watched a time lapse video of the seasons in Antarctica. We discussed the differences in temperatures, the aurora australis and what causes it, and what an ice breaker does.



In the afternoon, we went to wee WALL-e. Afterwards we discussed the idea of living on a spaceship and what things you could do or can't do in a sealed environment.

In the early evening, P, K and I did a preliminary lesson from the Drawing With Children book, doing some repetition of basic shapes. Later, we did the volcano science experiment in the tub again.

Resources:
Google Earth
Panoramino
The Cryosphere Today
Drawing With Children
Wall-E

Egypt, Snow White, and vocabulary

Read E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World, Chapter 3: "The Land Beside The Nile"; discussed mummies, pyramids, hieroglyphics, pharoahs, and obelisks.

P read Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the read-along book than comes with the tape). We worked on his slowing down and enunciating, and discussed how reading silently to ourselves can often occur faster than reading aloud (he was skipping words when reading, because they weren't germaine to the story. Showed great skill at faster reading for himself.).

Discussed some words from Snow White that he didn't know, including: linen, ebony, rage, banished, vain, wept, and chasm.

American Heroes Air Show

This afternoon, P, K, and I went to SFCC for a helicopter air show.

We saw various different types of helicopters and P learned some of the controls of a helicopter and how it flies.

We then watched rescue dogs uses their sense of smell to follow trails.

Both children talked about the very small hover helicopter and the bloodhound dog when we came home, and were excited about being able to explore the inside of the helicopter.

Honey Bees and Honeycomb

Jeff picked up some honey with honeycomb still inside, and this led to a lively discussion with P and K about bees, their jobs, what products they make, how we use them, how it is harvested, bee life cycle, etc.

We also found a really good video on the honeybee life cycle.



In the end, we all got to eat some of the honeycomb, which was the highlight.

Flying Cloud

Today, P learned about the Flying Cloud (which I mistakenly thought was the name of our model ship, which is in actuality a model of the Gorch Fock; my parents' model was the Flying Cloud). P remembered several hours later that the Flying Cloud sailed from New York to San Francicso around South America (Cape Horn) in a record 89 days. He used a world map to trace the pathway from New York to San Francisco. He then, looking at the map, suggested that another path might have been north around Canada through the Queen Elizabeth islands; Kristin suggested to him that it would be very cold with ice that way.

Knights on the Plaza

The Medieval Times knights from Orlando came to the University for a display before the annual Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, and considering P's interest in all things medieval, we had to come out. It was very exciting when P actually got to feel the weight of these real weapons! He gravitated immediately toward the battle axe.

We also learned more about the long sword (espada, since the Medieval Times are apparently based on Spanish medieval knights), and its usage and ornamentation. His armor was briefly discussed, as was his long hair (P's hair was just cut!).

P noticed the "relative" simplicity of the shield, and asked to try it on -- it was heavier (and therefore stronger!) than it looked!

After examining all of the weaponry and regalry (there were also falconiers and hawk hunters there as well), we sat back and watched a brief battle exercise.

Creating a Village

The general dynamics of a village were illustrated in the development of the "town village". Starting with a village square and creating pathways out, P made sure to include strategic buildings including a stable and blacksmith, marketplace, and armory. Defending the town was quite important, too.