Dissecting Frogs

These kids are grossly obsessed with cutting things open to see what's inside..and by "things" I mean creatures. Jared, 11, has been doing this from a very young age. When he was 8 I walked into the backyard to find him dismembering a lizard. At first, I was horrified, worried that we had a young Jeffery Dahmer on our hands,

Help Them Explore

“We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by

The Pond

Over labor Day weekend, we had intended to go up to Palomar Mountain. However,

Adventuring at the Ramona Grasslands Preserve

"Schoolhouses are made wrong. If they must be, they should be built in a woods pasture beside a stream, where you could wade, swim, and be comfortable in summer, and slide and skate in winter. The Windows, should be cut to the floor, and stand wide open, so the birds and butterflies could pass through. You ought to learn your geography by climbing a hill, walking through a valley, wading creeks, making islands in them, and promontories, capes, and peninsulas along the bank. You should do your arithmetic sitting under trees adding hickory-nuts, subtracting walnuts, multiplying butternuts, and dividing hazelnuts. You could use apples for fractions, and tin cups for liquid measure. You could spell everything in sight and this would teach you the words that are really used in the world." -Gene Stratton Porter