Educating Risa

After getting some chores and homeschool work done, the boys and I headed over to meet up with the Calgary Attachment Parenting group at their weekly park day. They meet at a park / playground that is pesticide free (and frankly has less dandelions than lots of other places right now!) The boys had a good time playing and making new friends, and later on some other homeschool friends of ours arrived, making a good time even better. Gareth spent a fair amount of time on the swings, as usual:

Daegan spent a lot of time playing games with other kids on the playground, and climbing UP the slide:

The boys also played an elaborate dinosaur predator/prey chase game with other some other kids, kicked around the soccer ball we brought, dug in the dirt, and generally amused themselves while I chatted with the other Moms. It was good for all of us.

Right before we left, as I helped Gareth practice riding a bike sans training wheels, I saw this critter crawling along. (See what you get in pesticide-free parks!) I called Daegan, our resident entomologist, over, and he took one look and said, “Neat! A purple-rimmed carabus! They’re only found in the major cities in Alberta, and originally came from Europe. And they’re great for your garden, because they eat slugs and other garden pests…”

Both boys took a turn holding it. Note the “hands of an entomologist” (i.e. dirty!) on Daegan:

Our excitement and me taking photos soon drew the attention of some other kids, and they played “pass the beetle”. Daegan also found one other interesting bug, the “polkadot ladybug (pink form)”, aka Calvia Quatuordecimguttata. (Daegan ID-ed it correctly; I just double-checked in our copy of Ladybugs of Alberta (Canada) (US) by John Acorn):