Real LIVE Science - Our Fiddler Crab
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Originally published August 3rd, 2009. Mr. Crabs is no longer “with us.” But we enjoyed having him so much that we want to get several more soon.
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Our fiddler crab, Mr. Crabs
You can’t get much more hands on with life science than you can get by having live animals. Some kids get to grow up with farm animals, observing the life cycle’s ebbs and flows right before their very eyes. We don’t go that “all out: around here. Though at one point in my motherhood - back when I only had ONE child - I had a vision of our house full of all sorts of pets, for my daughter’s enjoyment and education both. I imagined we’d have some pet hamsters or mice (I had mice in high school,) a bird or two, maybe an iguana or turtle,.. you know a cornucopia of life science right at our fingertips.
These days, having three children, I already feel like we live in a zoo, and my favorite sort of pet is.. shall we say.. LOW MAINTENANCE. Like my beta fish. Oh how I love his low maintenance needs. I tolerate the cats because they earn their keep. But even they annoy me when they’re underfoot meowing at me because they don’t want the food in their dish and have deluded themselves into thinking I’m going to refill it with fresh food from the bucket and spoil their pampered royal selves. As if.
And although we did set up an aquarium at the beginning of the year with some Christmas money…our little fish aren’t really that “sciency.” About the most educational they have been is learning what kind of fish they are and learning how to cope with their passing on to the big toilet bowl in the sky. Now, fiddler crabs on the other hand… hello science!
We returned from vacation a few weeks ago to find that my son’s aquarium snail had died while we were away, so we went the next day to pick out a new one and came home with a fiddler crab instead. Little did we know (having bought him at Wal-Mart and not having been educated by the live fish attendant who knew next to nothing about fish) that he was not a good tank mate for our other fish.
In fact he tried to eat them.
So he moved out and we started reading up on fiddler crabs.
There is surprisingly little known about fiddler crabs and their care but over the last few weeks, we’ve learned that most importantly, fiddler crabs need slightly brackish water. That is, slightly salty. They can survive in fresh water, but they won’t live as long a life. We read about their food needs and habitat preferences, social characteristics and also, about molting.
Mr. Crabs and his ghostly husk.
Fiddler crabs molt. And somehow they also regenerate lost limbs in the process. Which is really cool, by the way. And even cooler when you see it in person. This morning we woke to find Mr. Crabs had a ghostly friend floating in his water. Overnight he had molted his old shell off (I have no idea if I’m using that as a verb correctly) and also, grown a new back left leg and front left claw! And by the way, did you know they EAT the old shell? It’s a way of re-absorbing the calcium they lost with the loss of the old shell.
Crabs regenerate lost limbs. Now THERE'S science for you.
Okay, y’all.. there was nothing more than STUBS there last time I looked!!
So how did go from that to limbs practically overnight?
And about that front claw.. males have one small eating claw and one large display claw. If they lose a display claw, the eating claw will begin to grow larger as they begin to regenerate a new small eating claw. (I guess the ability to attract females ranks higher than the necessity of eating.) 
So Mr. Crabs’ formerly small eating claw is now slightly larger and will continue to grow and after a 2nd or 3rd molt (about every 2 months) will reach it’s full size.
With the loss of the hard outer shell, his new shell will be vulnerable for a few days until it hardens.
I still refuse to pick him up or touch him, but I have to confess that the fiddler crab turned out to be quite the educational and fun impulse buy! I’m even tempted to pick up a few more as everything I’ve read indicates they are social creatures and I never did intend for him to be alone in the first place. We’ve managed to keep this one alive for several weeks and his ability to molt indicates he’s in good health so I think it’s safe to say we can probably handle a couple more. Don’t you think?
I do need to get a bigger tank first tho. Mr. Crabs is just living in a temporary “hotel” of sorts, complete with backyard “swimming pool,” “rock climbing wall,” “room service” and a “room with a view.”
Oh the hard life of a fiddler crab.
To learn more about fiddler crabs:
- Exotic Pets: How to Care for Fiddler Crabs
- Keeping Fiddler Crabs as Pets
- How to Care for Your Fiddler Crabs
Also, here’s a youtube vidoe of a fiddler crab molting. Really cool - but you may want to turn off the music.
**This post has been happily submitted to “Your Life, Your Blog.” Check it out! **
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The Science of Jello
My 4 year old son has been obsessed with states of matter lately (thank you “Sid the Science Kid” and “Zula Patrol.”) He’s constantly pointing out “this is a solid,” and “that is a liquid.” And of course, since he’s four, he’s going to eventually follow up with some kind of “why” question.
Like: “Momma, why do the eggs turn from a liquid to a solid when you cook them?”
Uhhhhh….
…
So it was bound to happen that while we were eating Jello my Little Prince would turn and ask, “Momma, is Jello a liquid or a solid?”
Now THAT, I did remember from science class! The answer is “Neither.” But I couldn’t remember what it was called so I turned to Google because I *heart* Google. (Hey - remember back when we used to look these things up in encyclopedias? (Insert hysterical laughter here.)
I found the answer in several places across the internet but this one had the best explanation that my kids would understand:
Gelatin itself is made of a protein. (Proteins are solids at most temperatures.) When you mix the jello powder into the hot water, the protein actually dissolves in the water. But like many things, it’s harder for the protein to stay dissolved in cold water than in hot water. So as the solution cools down, the protein comes out of solution and turns back into a solid. But it doesn’t just form a solid that settles onto the bottom, like a mixture of water and sand would.
As the protein molecules come out of solution, they stick to each other. When they stick to each other, they form a complicated matrix that runs all through the jello. You can think of it as a giant mixed-up jungle gym of little protein molecules all sticking together. They water molecules get caught up inside this matrix so they can’t just drain out.
So all things said and done, jello is basically a solid suspended in a liquid. The scientific word for this is a ’colloid’. If you heat it up enough, the solid will become dissolved again it will become a liquid all through. But if you cool it down enough, the liquid water will freeze and it will become a solid all through.
So jello is neither a liquid, nor a solid, it is a colloid. You learn something new everyday. Even while eating your dessert. ; )
And just for grins and giggles - you can make your own Jello-style gelatin dessert at home using real fruit juice and gelatin (which we now know is a protein - that adds nutritional value RIGHT?) and without all the artificial flavors and colors. Imagine turning it into a whole science lesson! Make a bowl of jello, chill and set. Put a small serving in the freezer, put a small serving in a sauce pan. The best part? Eating the rest of the jello while you wait for your jello experiments to freeze and melt!
Oh - and for those of you wondering about the eggs? Protein plays an important part in that answer, too. (Read Scene 6 or watch the 2nd video segment.)
Science and food. Food and science. I like this relationship. =)
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0
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Flower Dissections: Tulips and Daisies
Ah, science!
One of the things Princess needed to do for her science class was a flower dissection, which she’s really been looking forward to. (Princess is currently using Switched On Schoolhouse, level 5.)
Of course, we turned it into a group project for both of the girls. It just so happens that Drama Queen just learned about flowers and their parts (on a smaller scale, roots, leaves, etc.) only a week before Princess needed to do this. When I went to the store I picked up some red tulips (love me some tulips!) and some white daisies (so cute) for our project.
Obviously the added bonus is that we didn’t need ALL of the flowers for the dissection. ; ) I’ve really enjoyed having some fresh flowers in my house this past week. (I think I may make that a new habit.)
When Little Prince was away at grandma’s house,we snagged the interruption-free opportunity and we got to work dissecting our flowers:
Flower Dissection
Needed: 2 different flowers for each child, sharp knife, flower diagram for reference, white paper for each flower, magnifying glass, paper and pencil to draw and record observations.
1.) One at a time, cut each flower in half carefully, observe and then draw what you see. (For a younger child, or a more hands on child, you can follow the modifications listed at the end.)
2.) If needed (as for the daisy) you can carefully pick apart pieces of the flower to find the parts you are looking for. The stamen, located at the base of each petal, can only be found upon closer inspection!
3.) Allow the child the opportunity to further examine and explore the flower until their curiosity is satisfied. Note the neat piles of the visual learner.
4.) Review the parts of the flower and their functions. Discuss how the two flowers were similar or different and where each of those parts were found or what they looked like. Record your observations.
Modification: If you have a younger child following along, or a very hands on and kinesthetic child (or a child who is both, like Drama Queen!) you can skip the initial step of cutting in half and allow the child to pull the flower apart, piece by piece.
1.) Pull the petals off and examine them. Are they “alone” like the petals of the tulip? Or do they hold a tiny stamen at the base like the petals of the daisy? How do they look, feel, smell?
2.) Whether the stamen are on the petals or still on the flower , pull them off and examine them. What color are they? Are they big or little? See if you can scrape some of the pollen off onto the white paper and look at it under the magnifying glass.
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3.) Turn your attention to the pistil(s) in the middle. Is there one or many? Now cut the remaining flower in half, and see if you can identify the ovary.
4.) Now let your child explore for as long as their attention span holds. Warning: If you hand your tactile learner a knife and let him or her further explore the insides of the flower.. you may end up with something like this: ; )
And that concludes your flower dissection — enjoy!!
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Occupying Toddlers During School Time
If you’re homeschooling with littles underfoot, one question you often get asked (and ask yourself) is “what do you do with the littles while you’re schooling the olders?”
Obviously there are many answers and not a one size fits all answer for everybody. The things we have done have varied with the different personalities and temperaments of each child, with their age and abilities, and so on.
For a long time it has been easy to occupy our toddler son with drawing - he loves to draw, and I don’t discount that as educational. Every penstroke, every circle he draws, is preparing him with the motor skills to form and shape letters and numbers later on. Every critter and creature he sketches is encouraging and expanding his imagination, or allowing him the opportunity to ponder things he learned earlier in the day.
In fact, my son loves to draw SO MUCH, that in all honesty, he goes through entirely. too. much. paper. Or, he gets ahold of my dry erase markers (and once a permanent marker!) and scribbles all over my to do lists and math lessons.
Which is why I was really excited to find this:
That, my fellow delighted moms (and dads), is a double sided dry erase lap board. And my four year old son LOVES it. Since he has recently been expressing an interest in letters in addition to drawing (finally!) he has the opportunity to flip back and forth between the two, drawing and then “writing”, drawing and then “writing.” It occupies him for LONG periods of time. (With low odor markers of course!)
And sometimes after I get the girls settled in with their school I’ll sit down with him and work on some very simple handwriting and phonics. He gets into it and asks “what makes this sound” and “what says that” and “how do you write ___”… It’s all really cute, of course.
After he tires of his lap board, sometimes we’ll move on to other activities. He likes to sit in my lap while I read a science lesson to the 6 year old, and he likes to pretend to “do school” with preschool workbooks. Sometimes he gets to water paint (which he also loves and uses too much paper for) and sometimes it’s time for a movie and a nap. ;0)
Either way, the double sided dry erase lap board is DEFINITELY working to entertain — and educate — our rambunctious toddler boy!
What works for you?
Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Kristen @ We Are That Family. {P.S. If you’re looking for a blogging tip, (which this week’s WFMW is SUPPOSED to be about..) I did a series for beginning bloggers a while back called How To Blog.}
~ Buy this on Amazon: Board Dudes Double Sided Dry Erase Lapboard (Or try to find it on clearance at JoAnn’s like I did.)
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More Homeschool Blog Awards
I can’t just write a post and say, “Hey vote for me!” without telling you about all my other homeschool blog friends who have been nominated for awards, too.
I have a confession: I only learned about and started paying attention to the Homeschool Blog awards last year. I didn’t learn about it in time to make any nominations, but I did get to vote for some of my friends.
I have another confession: I didn’t get a chance to nominate any of my favorite homeschool blogs this year, either. =( I was so buried under working on my best friend’s cake website and packing and traveling and packing and traveling twice in the last three weeks. I missed the chance. There are several of you that I would like to have seen nominated that aren’t up there. And I’m so sorry that I didn’t do it. =( I’m going to make sure I set aside some time next year.
There are SEVERAL blogs that I do enjoy up for voting right now, that I’d like to let you know about. Perhaps you’ve been there before and you thought, “Oh what a nice little blog!” Or perhaps you’ve never heard of them but you’d enjoy finding their blogs. {There are a TON of bloggers up for awards that I don’t know! If nothing else, what an opportunity for me to find more great homeschooling blogs. I look forward to browing through the lists}
So if you get a chance, hop over and browse the nominations, find some old friends, find some new ones and check out these friends of mine:
Best Encourager:
Best Current Events, Opinions or Politics Blog:
Best Cyber Buddy:
Best Thrifty Homeschooler:
Perhaps as I have time, as I go through the lists and find new blogs to love, I’ll introduce you to all the new friends I make. In the meantime, check out the ones I already do. Have fun meeting new people!
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A Classic Housewife Needs YOU! (To vote for me, ahem.)
I am shocked and excited! I’ve been nominated for THE Homeschool Blog Awards 2009! The category? Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger - the blogger you’d most like to meet and be buddies with in real life.
I’m flattered! And excited, and surprised and in disbelief and all kinds of other things. I don’t think I will get the most votes, but HEY, I can try - right?
Would you vote for me?
Of course, I WOULD say that if you see somebody else on the list that you’d rather vote for, then do that! Really!
There are so many of Y’ALL that I would like to meet in real life, too. It would be so much fun to gather round a dining table with a cup of coffee while our kids play together happily and we say, “Oh this is so much fun! It’s like we’re old friends getting together again instead of meeting for the first time.” =)
I actually got to meet a bloggy friend for the first time yesterday (you know who you are, you owe me a copy of that picture so I can blog about our visit!) I had a blast. Perhaps someday in the future, I can meet more of you, too!
Anyway, I don’t think I should continue on, I’ve already used more exclamation points than a person should use in one day. I’ll just end with:
Vote Classic Housewife for Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger!
Thanks, Y’all. (And check out my friends who have also been nominated.)
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The CurrClick 2nd Annual Homeschooling Through The Holidays Sale
CurrClick is having their second annual Homeschooling Through The Holidays sale, and there is a huge selection of holiday related material on sale with big discounts. BIG discounts!
I’m digging through and finding lots of things that look interesting, such as the Family Christmas Celebration & Christ in the Psalms which looks like it work well with our Advent celebrations. (It’s only $1.45!) I also like Give Thanks! - Thanksgiving Readings for the Family, ($4.00.) There are also resources for pilgrims, units that go along with popular storybooks (such as The Polar Express or The Little House: Christmas in the Big Woods,) and several different resources for cooking and baking during the holidays.
I actually have an account credit (THANK YOU CurrClick!) so I can pick a few things out, but if you know me well enough to know how indecisive I am, then you know how long it will take me to narrow it down and pick something! I’m really leaning towards the two above, but I have enough credit to pick out a few others, too. Yay!
To check out their holiday sale, click on their image above.
Happy “Homeschooling Through the Holidays” shopping!
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Field Trip to the Air Field
Drama Queen, in the pilot seat, getting ready for takeoff.
Little Prince taking off into the sky - that's my baby!
Little plane. Little Boy. BIG sky. BIG clouds. Little Mama, BIG God!
Princess after flying and taxiing back to the hangar.
{I have to add a note making it not-so-wordless (because I never count the captions anyway!): My aunt is an instructor with her own plane, all three kids sat in a backed-booster seat so they could appropriately buckle into the harness. The older two actually got to take the controls a little bit, and the oldest got to take them a bit during takeoff and landing. YES, this Momma was a bit nervous - but did you SEE the note about God?? They had a blast and hope to do it again real soon!}
Wordless Wednesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom!
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Loving Reading: A Prince’s Tale
Learning to read begins before a child is actually able to read the letters on the page and decipher their meanings. Before children learn to read, they learn what books are, what they are for, how to hold them and how to copy reading. They learn that they are supposed to turn the pages from right to left, and that the reading goes from left to right. Before their little brains can interpret the meaning of the markings on the page, they come to understand that there IS meaning in the markings on the page waiting to be interpreted.
A young child sitting down and pretend reading to himself is both preparing to learn to read and also building a love for reading. Loving to read at an early age only comes by one method - by being read to. Again and again and again.
It’s through storytime, being read book after book, that young children begin to understand that those pages hold some mysterious code that unlocks the door to any number of adventures. Being read book after book, introducing a variety of storylines and characters feeds a young child’s natural curiousity. Reading and re-reading favorite books and favorite themes feeds a young child’s desire for the literature that most interests them and provides a sense of comfort and security as well. Toddlers do well with routines and constants, and that favorite book fits nicely into that need because it is the same wonderful story, over and over and over again.
As tiresome as they can be, the words “just one more story, mommy?” are also a very beautiful thing. How comforting to know that we are laying one more brick in their road to reading success, and more importantly, their loving to read.
These days my 3 year old son (nearly 4!) can be found with a book in hand several times a day, quietly turning the pages and pretending to read it to himself - or perhaps to some unseen imagined companion. At bed time the request is always the same: ” I want three stories, mommy. THREE.” And the request is always followed up with the most bewitching grin, adorable dimple and twinkling eyes. Who could resist?
We are poised at this most delicious moment in time - a point in time where he is both old enough to pay attention for the whole story, and young enough to still need me to read it to him, a point where he is still momma’s little boy as he rests he head on my shoulder to look at the pages but old enough to make astute observations of the illustrations and ask thoughtful questions about the characters. These days are not here for long.
We read a lot of books about Kings and Knights, Princes and Dragons these days. Little Prince (how fitting, right?) has a crazy vivid imagination and a fascination with any kind of knight, soldier or pirate (basically any character with a weapon!) Some of his favorites are Snoring Beauty
Before I know it, I’ll blink and he’ll be this lanky 10 year old on the couch reading Treasure Island and he’ll probably scoff if I ask him to lay his head on my shoulder while I read to him. All the reason to read “just one more, momma!” right now. In the land of foregone lullabies and forgotten rocking chairs, where the Im-So-Bigs have vanquished the big stuffed puppy and exiled the plastic firetruck toddler bed into the land of I-Want-A-Big-Boy-Bed - a prince and his mother rule the kingdom of Storytime, slaying dragons and rescuing princesses to the fullest and wildest extent of one little boy’s imagination.
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First Day of School, Using the Workbox System
What a great first day of school!! Check out the video below to HEAR all about it!!
Note: I noticed that it was a little hard to hear on my laptop, but plenty easy to hear on the desktop speakers. I apologize if you can’t hear me well, I did try to speak louder this time! But don’t give up — a pair of headphones will do the trick. =)
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