marji

This might be a good starting place:

http://www.enature.com/guides/select_group.asp

You might get close and then have to google around a bit to tweak your
results. But, we've found really cool information starting with those
field guides.

Enjoy!!

Marji

Let us know what you find!

At 01:51 6/1/04, Kimmy wrote:
>
> My 4 year old and Hubby have started bug hunting as my daughter has a
> love of many bugs and fear of others. They just started tonight, and
> found 2 bugs we could not identify...I was wondering if others have done
> this and if they have any good sights to help us figure out what kinds of
> bugs she catches!
>
> Any help would be great!
>
> Blessings,
> Kimmy

Kimberly

My 4 year old and Hubby have started bug hunting as my daughter has
a love of many bugs and fear of others. They just started tonight,
and found 2 bugs we could not identify. She drew a picture of one
that was so good and helped her Daddy to take pictures of them latter
for a bug book we hope to make for her. This is in no way something
we are forcing her to do, or even asking her to do. We just got a kid
bug kit we thought she would like, and she adores it!

I was wondering if others have done this and if they have any good
sights to help us figure out what kinds of bugs she catches!

Any help would be great!

Blessings,
Kimmy

A note to newbies, after you get over the programmed shock of
unschooling, it becomes natural to just flow with it. I learned this
the hard way. I was fighting it in myself, not feeling the truth of
how natural it is. I wish no one had to go through that. I am not
thinking about how much my child might be learning through her bug
love and hunting, I just know she is.

Jillian Mandala

Hello,
My name is Jillian and I am the mother of 3 wonderful kids
(aren’t they all). They are Beth (6 but will be 7 in June), Jerome (4 ½)
and Eddie (3). I’ve been lurking on the board for a month or so now.
I’ve been slowly taking everything in. I recently found unschooling
(about 3 months ago) and have been slowly trying to put it into
practice. It’s not really a switch from what we were doing with Beth
since she has never been to school. I am lucky enough to get to stay
home while my husband works. I’m going to write a small bit about each
of us so you can get to know us. We don’t really know many people who
either homeschool or unschool. We live out in the boonies (and by
boonies I mean it’s long distance to call any of our neighbors) on a 10
acre plot of land in Northeast Kansas. Anyway, on with the introduction…
Me (aka Mommy or Jillian)
I’m 26 and have been married since my 19th birthday to the
best man in the world (ok so I’m bias). I have recently found something
that I am very interested in. It’s photography. I’ve never really had
anything that I have been passionate about until now. Here are a few
links to some of the pictures I have taken recently. I think I am
getting better at it but it’s just trial and error. I cook and clean and
play. That’s about it and that’s just fine by me. I don’t really have
any friends around me but thankfully I have the internet and I still get
to talk to my best friends from childhood online. I don’t go out much
(other then the once a week volunteer for a day care in a gym in Topeka)
but I am more of a homebody anyway. I enjoy music and just being silly.
Anyway here are some photo links… (they were all taken in our yard)
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/May%2024%20Storm/
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/sunset/
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/sun2.jpg
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/backend.jpg

Joe (aka Hubby)
He’s a soon to be 32 year old computer and gaming guy. He is
the IT Director for a mental health place in Topeka. He loves gaming and
has been playing RPG’s for years. He even wrote a book for the Lord of
the Rings role playing game (Maps of Middle-Earth: Cities and
Strongholds). He was really pleased with them because he drew up the
maps and the guy who drew the maps for the movies copied them for the
book. He’s a great guy and is really smart. The kids learn so much from
him. He is very patient and loving and it’s awesome.
Here is his picture…
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/joehair/alldone.jpg

Beth (aka BethieLou)
She’s really excited about finally turning 7. She just
learned how to ride a normal sized kids bike and she rides all over the
yard. She loves butterflies, bugs, flowers, playing with magnets,
drawing and just being a great kid. We had started her on a curriculum a
while back but once we found unschooling we all decided that it was
better. I recently got to throw away all the papers that came with the
curriculum and it made me very happy. She loves to read. She will read
all the time. It’s cool because she will also read to her brothers and
they just love that.
Here is her picture…
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/bethface.jpg

Jerome (aka Romy)
He’s 4 ½ and just an awesome kid. He has some anger trouble
but we have been talking about it and he is really smart and he is
finally starting to understand how to control his anger instead of just
letting it fly off the handle at his brother or sister. He also just
learned to ride a bike this weekend. He is so happy with himself (and we
are so proud too!) that he rides around the driveway like there is no
tomorrow. He just learned today how to get the bike going by himself
without a push from mom or dad. The smile on his face was priceless.
He’s a big lover of all things mechanical. He loves puzzles and can
pretty much look at a puzzle once (not huge ones but kid sized ones) and
put it back together with little trouble. He’s a big hugger and kisser
and I love that a lot.
Here is his picture…
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/romy/romyjingy3.jpg

Edward (aka Eddie Spaghetti)
He’s 3 and just crazy as the day is long. We will spend
hours just being silly and rolling around in the grass. He loves bugs
and is the only person in the house brave enough (except for Daddy) to
take the june bugs back outside when they sneak in. His favorite thing
is to ride on the Harley power wheels motorcycle around the yard. He’s
trying to learn how to ride a bike because he wants to be like everyone
else. He has scraped knees but he still keeps trying. He is also a big
lover guy and will sit on my lap and cuddle for hours. He likes cars and
ninjas. He’s a big Ninja Turtle fan as well.
Here is his picture…
http://img31.photobucket.com/albums/v94/jemandala/eddihandsome.jpg


Anyway, that’s probably a pretty long introduction and I apologize but I
just wanted to become acquainted with the group and start contributing
when I can. I figure if you know more about us then it will be easier
for you to help me out with suggestions and such. I am still new to all
of this and have changed a whole lot since I started this unschooling
journey. We are working on being more mindful parents and helping our
kids find what they need and not telling them what they need. It’s
working well so far. The kids are happy and I am happy. My house may not
always been clean and my laundry will never been done but we are living
and happy and to me that’s all that really matters.
Thanks for putting up with my long windedness…. It’s 4 in the morning
and I just can’t sleep so I tend to ramble.
-Jillian


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[email protected]

Welcome to the list. I hope you find lots of what you're looking for here,
informationally, at least :0)

I have been on the list for a while and it has helped me loads. Unschooling
no longer seems like something we do, it's just the way it is around here.
Unfortunately, my oldest (Andrew 6) is still in Kindergarten but we are down to
2 weeks and he is looking forward to it being over, while he chooses to stay
in. The way we live has always followed this philosophy, but we never "named"
it. This past year of Kindergarten has put a strain on the natural flow of
things but we have all learned a valuable lesson and look forward to life as it
was and as it should be.

Your post was very informative, Beth sounds like a great kid and tell Jerome
congrats on the bike riding, that is a major accomplishment in such a young
life. As for Eddie, power wheels rule until you can power them yerself :0)

I checked out yer pics, nice. I am into photography too but by no means an
expert. I just love taking pictures of stuff all the time. I thought about
scrapbooking but I was too overwhelmed by my stacks and boxes and discs and
albums of pics to even find a starting point.

Well, enjoy the list. I do immensely. I just don't post much because I feel
like I'm on the outskirts right now while our lives remain chaotic with this
foreign thing called Kindergarten. I wanted to welcome you because I got a
warm welcome right from the beginning and it felt good.

Enjoy
Pamela


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the_clevengers

--- In [email protected], Jillian Mandala
<jillbo@d...> wrote:
> Hello,
> My name is Jillian and I am the mother of 3 wonderful
kids
> (aren't they all). They are Beth (6 but will be 7 in June),
Jerome
(4 ½)
> and Eddie (3). I've been lurking on the board for a month or so
now.
> I've been slowly taking everything in. I recently found
unschooling
> (about 3 months ago) and have been slowly trying to put it into
> practice.

Welcome to the list, I enjoyed reading about you and your kids. I
especially liked looking at your photos, the last one was really
good. We rarely get weather like that here - I love those big anvil
clouds piling against the horizon, and we sure don't have a horizon
like that either (too many hills!). Photography is one of my big
passions too, and there's some great resources for learning about it
out there as well. I started out with an old 35 mm camera and my dad
got me the Time/Life series of books on photography at a garage sale.
Now, I love digital because I can take so many pictures (my husband
used to complain about my film "habit", LOL - thousands of photos a
year can get expensive!)

Here's my favorite weather pic (sunset, from 3 years ago):
http://www.exmsft.com/~robinc/sunset_river_kids2_sm.jpg

and a couple from this month of my kiddos, Mackenzie (7.5):
http://www.exmsft.com/~robinc/04_05_seattle_beach_mack_crabs1_sm.jpg
and Asa (4.5):
http://www.exmsft.com/~robinc/04_05_asa_box3_sm.jpg

Like you, my kids haven't been to school - it's so nice not to have
to stop this great path of life/learning that we're all on. Plus, I'd
miss them a ton if they ended up going off to school. Time enough for
that when they're 18 or so...

Congrats to your new bike riders. I really need to take Asa out to
the bike path. We live on such a hill that there's nowhere flat she
can ride here, except our garage. She really wants to get the hang of
riding without training wheels and soon (this girl is always in a
hurry to do anything big brother can do!)

So welcome to the list, I hope you enjoy and get lots out of it.

Blue Skies,
-Robin-

Buck and Brisco Jones

***I was wondering if others have done this and if they have any good
sights to help us figure out what kinds of bugs she catches! ***

Your county extension agent will know and be able to identify some bugs.
If she cant she'll send your critter to an entomologist at the university
and get an ID. (they kill the bug in order to send it and get an ID -
just so you know. That may or may not appeal to your daughter. Your
county agent won't kill it if you take it to her, just if you want her to
send it in to the entomologist.)

Or you could take your bug to the entomologist yourself, but be warned,
bug people will talk to you all day and show you every bug in their
collection. <g> (you can take the live bug)

Your state university's dept. of entomology probably has a website where
you'd find information specific to your area.

Here's a listserv we found that Dylan uses. If you send questions and
/or photo's you get answers and usually website addresses to look up more
info about your critter.

BUGNET has been formed to meet the need for a "non-professional"
entomology mailing list, i.e. to serve as a resource for teachers and bug
enthusiasts to ask questions to professional entomologists. To subscribe,
send an email message to listproc@... with a blank subject
line and body text consisting of "subscribe bugnet John Doe" where John
Doe is your real name. For messages to the subscribers, send to
bugnet@...

Eric Eaton identifies bugs and draws wonderful bug illustrations. He has
a website here: http://community2.webtv.net/bugeric/BugEric/ which
includes his email address if you want to contact him directly.

This one has good links.
http://www.earthlife.net/insects/six.html

Deb L

Deb Lewis

From: Buck and Brisco Jones <ddzimlew@...>

Well, that's just silly. Dylan was e-mailing last night, I guess. Buck
and Brisco Jones are characters from one of his stories. I wish I could
tell you what exactly was going on that required them to hijack my e-mail
account, but I'm at a loss.<G>

Deb L

[email protected]

Hi Kimmy~Insectlore.com has great information on insects. We found the info
to be short, informative and to the point. My mother purchased a butterfly
pavilion and ladybug lantern from them for my son, Shane. So far we received
caterpillars and half survived long enough to emerge as butterflies. We were
planning on releasing them a few days after emerging when we learned that they might
lay eggs after a week and Shane wanted to see that happen. Three died so we
let the last two go free w/out egg laying and are now awaiting "replacement"
caterpillars for the ones that died in chrysalis state. The ladybugs should be
here any day now and we're hoping some hang out for a while in our garden and
protect our plants.

I don't know of any other sites but there are books on id'ing bugs...we
really like dk books for stuff like that. Have you tried a search on Google?

Debbie~:)

>>>I was wondering if others have done this and if they have any good
sights to help us figure out what kinds of bugs she catches! <<<


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