Source of photoOn Wednesday we attended a class on the brood cicada--the kind that shows up every 13 or 17 years, in contrast to the annual cicada that shows up yearly. The teacher was the 14-year-old eldest child of eight red-headed, homeschooled kids who live on several acres (eight?) of wooded property, currently chock full of cicadas. There were four guest moms, so about 24 children in attendance.
The event started with the "formal" class held on the porch. The young lady did a wonderful job, teaching many interesting facts, holding the interest of kids of a wide range of ages, and handling beautifully when very young kids would enthusiastically give wrong answers.
Then we all marched through the woods to the very large coop for the 39 chickens. The kids were set loose to hunt the forest floor for dead and live cicadas to feed to the birds. Even for the adults, watching 39 chickens dive to the ground to catch the prized possession of one nasty cicada was hilarious!
Meanwhile, the teacher gave us a secondary, extensive lesson on raising chickens. It was quite the juxtaposition to listen to this skinny, fresh-faced, lovely girl telling us about the first year when they slaughtered their chickens inefficiently with a dull axe, but the next time they learned how to do it properly by cutting both arteries and the trachea.
Along the way, the kids also found a lizard, a toad, a giant bug larvae, a snake skin, and the biggest dead mole I've ever seen (the size of a rat!). We also visited the new family of kittens living in the work shed, where very exciting equipment like a full-sized tractor are kept.
You can certainly imagine that a grand time was had by my two kids!
And I can imagine, this was your ultimate fantasy field trip! LOL
ReplyDeleteWe have been listening to the constant hum of these cicadas for well over a month now. Just when you think they can't get any louder, they do!!! I keep thinking that surely they are almost finished. We have been told that the phenomenon should be over by the end of June. My poor MIL finally submitted to getting hearing aids just as these creatures began making noise. She's been back for adjustments almost every week. Obviously she couldn't have picked a worse time to get them!
It's a fascinating thing for the children to see them every day.
Ashley: As the children would bring me their handfulls of cicada exoskeletons, showing me so proudly, I'd have to smile and find nice excuses for why I wasn't going to hold the bugs for them.
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