Protect the Earth, Kill a Farting Cockroach

Saturday we went to the Springs Preserve again.  Here is what the kids brought into the Nature Exchange...

Isabel brought in the leaves that she pressed and laminated, Luke brought in the nest and little shell and Sylvia brought in "Patrick, the starfish."  Afterward, Luke and Joey went to the Insect Pinning class there while the girls goofed around.

Here are their practice paper pinned insects.

After the class the boys shared some very interesting facts that they learned from the class, such as, did you know that...

"Insect flatulence may account for one-fifth of all the methane emissions on this planet. (Termites are also prodigious farters; indeed, dogs trained to sniff out termites are actually following their farts.) Cockroaches are among the biggest contributors to global warming, since they break wind every fifteen minutes. Furthermore, they continue to release methane gas for eighteen hours after they die."

I thought for sure Joey and Luke were just being gross boys, but no, I found the same info here on Cockroaches, Gross Facts and Information. (And if you find something on the internet then it must be true right? hehehe.)

Playing with Matches

This morning Joey took the kids to their P.E. class at the park.  Afterward I took them to a pot luck lunch at a friends house.  Usually Luke is bored or reading a book during these lunches because he is the oldest kid there, but today he made a few friends and was sword fighting out in the backyard the whole time. This afternoon I was reading Little House on the Prairie and Pa would lower a candle in the well he was digging to see if it was safe.  Then Mr. Scott passed out in the well because of lack of oxygen and Pa saved him.  Okay maybe that is too confusing if you are not reading the book, but point is, I then got to explain to Luke and Isabel that sometimes deep in the ground there is methane gas and not enough oxygen.  Also that fire (like the candle) needs oxygen or it will go out.  We then did a mini science experiment.  I lit a match and set it on the table and put a glass over it.  They saw that it went out.  I then encouraged Luke and Isabel to play with matches.  Well, I taught them how to light a match.  Also I let Sylvia sing Happy Birthday and blow out a match a few times.  It was really funny watching Safety Nerd try to light the match as far away from his body as possible, but he did it and hopefully that will give him confidence and loosen him up.

Random gloomy comment from Safety Nerd today, "Mom, two children die every minute."