The Outdoor Hour: Challenge #25 Housefly

Okay, now that school is back in session for the 4 Boys Homeschool (we are trying out names for our school...bear with me. :)) we are finally returning to our nature studies!  I decided to just resume our studies with the most current challenge instead of trying to play catch-up...we aren't actually that far behind anyway.  So, for this assignment we are to study about flies.  Great timing, as I took the boys to a picnic lunch in the park Friday after running some errands.  Should be plenty of flies there, eh?

Boy oh boy, just look at that feast!  See all the flies?  No, me either.  I even left the plates out while the boys played to see if we could attract any.  Nada.  I even checked the many garbage containers throughout the park (and got some strange looks from the other moms there lol) and still not one fly!  Then ds2 happened upon this.

I know you can't tell, but there is a fly stuck in this spider web.  We tried to extract it to make some observations but turns out the spider was still there and then there was all this screaming and running (I may never be able to show my face again at this park lol.)  So we went home with no fly.

Over the weekend I happened upon a fly on the floor of our porch.  He was just walking around and it was easy to get him into a jar.  (Seek and ye shall find, eh?)  We observed him over the weekend and then this morning we looked up the info in the nature study book and some other sites online regarding flies.  We learned about the 3 body parts, the transparent wings, etc.  Plus, since our subject perished overnight, we were able to actually get up close and personal lol.

I know, gross.  Just remember, all boys here lol.

Here they all are in their formal homeschooling attire ;) making entries into their nature journals.

Here is ds3's version (our fly did have a greenish tint.)

Ds4 preferred coloring in the fact sheet we found on Enchanted Learning.  If you aren't a member there, it's well worth the $20 a year...it's a super site.

I have to say the boys really enjoyed this week's challenge.  Ds3 even said we should make our whole school nothing but nature study lol.  Let's see, 4 boys Nature Study Homeschool...hmm.