Blog Purpose (and a post about spiders!)

Hey y'all, you're still with me, right? I've been commentless, but I skip and jump on because, after all, I'm doing this primarily for ME. You know my memory, right? I need to record these things. And I feel compelled to ...encourage? Inspire? Prompt you to enjoy things and have fun. Yeah, all of those things. So I'm hoping someone somewhere can take a little away from here with a smile or an idea.
Which brings me to the purpose of this here blog. It's always been kind-of an online journal/scrapbook...and occasionally a bit of a diary. My time is even busier these days, though, and I'm trying to use my minutes purposefully. I spend a lot of time on the computer in the evening as it is, getting ideas and plans, writing things up for the school week. And I've decided that I'm going to use this space for more of a craft/art sharing spot than anything else. I know, I know, that's pretty much what I do already. And I blog field trip ideas, etc, but my personal writing has become less commonplace. I have things to say, but feel more compelled to share what we DO. The irony is not lost on me. I'm writing paragraphs about how I'll be writing less. Yeah. {ahem} So. Welcome to our hands-on learning, art, craft, activity homeschool site.
If you want to keep up, feel free to follow on facebook (still under the former name of Sun-Kissed Scholars) using the tab on the right. Or follow our ideas and activities on Pinterest (again, on the right hand side.) There are a lot of art/activity/homeschool blogs out there. I'm just one person, doing what works for us, trying to balance life, spend time on the most important things, hoping it might help or inspire another!

Now, on to the spiders....!


The kids had an impromptu science lesson the other day on how spiders make webs. These pictures were taken in our front yard, of an argiope, or yellow and black garden spider.

Did you know...
"Spiders produce silk from their spinneret glands located at the tip of their abdomen. Each gland produces a thread for a special purpose – for example a trailed safety line, sticky silk for trapping prey or fine silk for wrapping it. Spiders use different gland types to produce different silks, and some spiders are capable of producing up to 8 different silks during their lifetime."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web

This spider fought another one to the death. The boys were enthralled.

Even if you don't care for spiders, you have to admit, the colors are beautiful!