Wordless Wednesday: Harvest Moon

Photos taken 12 September 2011

Travel Tuesdays: Morocco

When my husband and I traveled to Morocco with friends, we visited some of the usual places. We toured Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, navigated the medina in Fes, and rode the Marrakesh Express from Fes to Marrakesh. We also visited the neighborhood where my great-aunt lived before she married my mom's uncle and moved to the States.

Toward the end of our trip, a guide picked us up at our hotel in Marrakesh and drove us over the Atlas mountains, through the moving making- town of Ouarzazate (Movies such as The Mummy were filmed there) to the village of M'Hamid. We ate a late dinner, then loaded up a land rover and drove to our campsite in the Sahara Desert.  After sleeping on blankets on the sand, we packed our bags and set out on a camel trek. Exciting stuff, right? Sure enough. The stuff of great stories (Can you say runaway camel?) But here's the thing. The stories I most like to tell folks who want to hear the more intimate stories of Morocco involve moments of connection with the locals or my friends and husband, not stories of high adventure.

We made a point to get to know our guides. One guide was deaf, so we watched the signs they had developed to communicate (no ASL there) and did our best to communicate with him. One night after dinner, our guides gathered around a campfire a distance from us. One man had improvised an instrument- he was drumming on our water jug while the others sang along quietly in Arabic. We asked if we could join them. After a while, we shared that our friend used to be a drummer so he played some of his American rhythms on that same water jug. We also bonded with our friends while suffering from “Traveler’s D.” I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. Working through some level of adversity together can bring people together. I also reconnected with an exchange student who had lived here in Massachusetts 6 years before. My husband and I visited his home and met his wife and daughter.

One of my favorite moments, however, happened on our drive back to Ouarzazate. Our guide, Mokhtar, and I opted to sit in the way back seat of the land rover. Working with a mix of English, Arabic, and French words, we began telling each other our cultural stories. I wish I could remember all we shared that day. What I do remember is that it went something like this…

Mokhtar told a story. I said, “Oh! We have one like that!” and I told him a fairy tale from my childhood. Which lead him to a story from his childhood and so on. We went on like that for at least half an hour. It felt like time simultaneously raced ahead and slowed down to a crawl- what experts call “flow.” The storyteller in me was reinvigorated that day, for sure.

Mokhtar still has a special connection to our family. The night of the drumming, Mohktar gave us and our two friends Arabic names. The name he gave to me is the name we gave to our daughter. (People who know me personally, please note that I do not share my children’s names on this blog for safety/privacy reasons. Please don’t put it in the comments. Thanks.) 

Mokhtar started as our guide but became a friend. For years, we communicated via snail mail and email. Now we message or IM on Facebook.

So here’s my point. Sightseeing is nice, but don’t get sucked into the trap of racing from one attraction to another. We saw lots of tourists in Morocco. They’d arrive on giant tour buses clutching their purses, fearful of pickpockets, only to be herded from one site to another. I’d venture to say they left Morocco knowing no more about the country than when they arrived.

Slow down. Stop and meet the locals. Ask about what’s important to them. You’ll likely find their desires are the same as yours.

How about you? What stories do you have to share about meeting the locals in your home town or from across the globe?

Mystery Caterpillar

My family has been nurturing a small section of milkweed in our perennial garden (that is slowly taking over the garden) hoping to attract Monarch Butterflies. Year after year, we search the plants looking for caterpillars we can watch go through the magical process of metamorphosis. Sunday, my kids and I went in search again. We found lots of leaves that had clearly been eaten. Yes, we thought,  maybe this is the year! We searched and searched. We found ladybugs. We found beetles. We found Dragonflies. No Monarch caterpillars.

Then, on a terrifically eaten plant that had nearly no leaves left, we found a caterpillar!

That's no Monarch caterpillar, but I think it's pretty cool. So do my kids. My son said, "It looks like a bottle brush!" After more thought he said, "Or a pipe cleaner!" Quite a colorful bottle brush, don't you think?

 After a more searching we found another, and another. So off we went to get our butterfly house.We carefully placed two caterpillars in the house along with lots of fresh milkweed leaves. We'll replenish those leaves daily until the caterpillars make their chrysalids.

I'm sure you're all wondering, "What kind of caterpillar is it?" We don't know! My kids weren't terribly motivated to find out so I didn't look. As I mentioned in last Friday's post about Birds of Prey, we learn so much just by observing, we don't necessarily need an ID. I'm sure they'll want to know at some point, then our field guides will come out and more investigations will ensue. For now, we'll watch and wait.

Take a walk around your yard our neighborhood with your kids this weekend. See what you can find. In my neck of the woods, there's loads of insect activity this time of year that's easily visible. Dragonflies zip about. Grasshoppers spring everywhere. Katydids croak their end of summer song. See what's happening in your piece of the world. Then come and share what you saw. Also, let me know if you take any photos you'd like to share. 


Related Posts:
Teachable moment: Caterpillar Investigation
Caterpillar Investigation, part 2
Caterpillar Investigation, part 3
Caterpillar Investigation, part 4
Top 10 Ways to Promote Science Inquiry

Wordless Wednesday: Life from Mikweed

All photos taken 9-11-11

Travel Tuesdays

For Earth Day, I posted some favorite photos I've taken of natural places around world. Response to that post was positive and several people asked me to share more of my travel experiences.

I initially liked the idea, but upon thinking about it more, I couldn't see how sharing my experiences would fit with my blog's mission. Sure, I enjoy sharing my travel experiences, (Who doesn't?) but I don't want this blog to be about me. Rather, I want it to be a place for you to get ideas for things to do with your kids or students. I also don't want to send a message that you need to travel to all kinds of far away places to apply some of the lessons I've learned through my travels. I strongly encourage you to travel outside your home country to gain a broader perspective, but that may not be possible. You can be a traveler in your own state or region. That's the kind of traveler I was this summer.

After much contemplation and reading over the summer, I finally found a focus. This quotation clinched it for me:

 "Remember that many would love to travel to gain a broader perspective, but cannot. Find creative ways to bring home the value of travel by giving presentations to groups of curious people not likely to have passports."

~Rick Steeves, Travel as a Political Act p. 202 

This blog offers a nice forum for me to share. Next week will mark the official start of my new series, Travel Tuesdays. In this series, I'll share a photo, story, or anecdote about my travel experience.  I'll also share a lesson I learned from that experience and offer ways it might inform your work (and play) with children.

I hope you'll join in the conversation. Share your thoughts about travel. Ask me questions. Suggest future topic ideas. If you've traveled and have a story to share, let me know. I'd love to welcome you as as guest blogger.

Birds of Prey

Last July, my family spent a week on Mount Desert Island. The cottage we rented was a short walk from Seal Cove. We explored the cove on our first morning there.

Taken from my journal:
"We noticed some kind of raptor/bird of prey roosting in a dead tree. Because of it's proximity to an estuary and the fact that it was in a dead tree, we initially thought it was a juvenile osprey. It was backlit by the early morning sun so we couldn't discern it's coloration. We first noticed it by it's quick, high calls, 'eeww...eeww...eeww.' A resident asked if we knew what it was. When I suggested an osprey, she said it wasn't that and suggested it might be a red-tailed hawk. That didn't seem right because red-tails make a high-pitched noise like 'SCREEEeee' with the pitch falling as it calls. We went back to the books, literally."

The primary book we consulted was Raptor! A Kids Guide to Bird's of Prey.  by Christyna M. Laubach, Rene Laubach , and Charles W. G. Smith. This is a terrific book for the young naturalists in your home or classroom.

 My family and I spent the entire week observing these birds and trying to identify them. We used our powers of observation.

 Here are some things we learned:

1. On day one we saw one bird. We thought it was learning to fly and noted that it flew from the dead tree to the same area in the woods behind the tree. We could hear other birds in that area and wondered if they were other young birds.
2. Over time, as they each apparently learned to fly, we realized there were 4 fledglings. We later saw what we thought was a parent because it was larger.
3. Initially, they flew from the dead tree to the area that seemed to hide their nest, and back to the dead tree.
4. By day 2, all 4 were out flying. They were flying all around, landing in various trees, and even soaring occasionally. All the while they made a terrific racket. "Ewwww...Ewwww...Ewww!"

After about 24 hours, we thought maybe they were Northern Harriers or maybe Merlins. From the book we learned that Northern Harriers have a white rump so we set about to see if we could see a white rump.

We talked to the locals (As you know I am prone to do!) They told us the parents had appeared in April and no-one knew what they were. One neighbor told us they're not usually there and lots of the neighbors were puzzled. She had visited the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Guide and thought maybe they were Merlins. Merlins are very small hawks, so we weren't sure that was right either. Our main problem was that we were observing juveniles. Their size and coloration can be very different from adults.


When we were in Acadia National Park, we talked to a ranger to see if she might help us. Without photos to share, though, we had limited luck. The mystery continued.

We watched those birds every day. My kids would come running to tell me to get my camera out when they were passing overhead. Indeed, I ultimately got a few pretty good shots. Here's a sampling (click to make them larger):

Ultimately, we left without identifying them. Honestly, though, we had the most fun observing them and photographing them. Identification would have been nice, but we wouldn't have learned any more about these birds by reading books than by watching them ourselves.  After all, how do you think scientists learn what they learn?

As I've written before, naming a species is often less important than making your own observations. Many people stop paying attention when they learn the name of something and even stop learning about it. Or, they immediately refer to books, thereby turning over their learning to the "expert" who wrote the book. I encourage you and your children to practice becoming experts on the animals and plants in your own backyard, neighborhood, or rooftop. I'm a writer and educator, after all, so of course I encourage you to read books, but watch closely to see what you can learn on your own first.

So, what kind of birds are they? That's my question for you today. Does anyone know? 

Wordless Wednesday: Praying Mantis