Boning up on Bones!

I truly believed we were turning a corner weather wise this week....until I saw snow in the forecast for today! I made every effort to enjoy that lovely sunshine while it was around. Although we had a busy day of errands ahead of us, Muffy and I took a little detour to enjoy a tour of the boardwalk at Fisherman's Cove in Eastern Passage. We always seem to find some interesting treasure on the little beach. I do fairly well with beach glass, consistently finding three to five pieces with each visit. During our last beach combing excursion, I discovered a piece of worn pottery dated 1940. The boys enjoy the view up the Halifax Harbour where they can spot Daddy's office building. It always strikes me how close we are to the city, yet how far away I feel. Wrapping around to the other side gives a stunning view out into the Atlantic Ocean. I love the contrast.

Muffy was thrilled with his most recent find - a small lower jaw of a fish. He likes to keep up with big brother Chi-Chi who has done his fair share of bone hunting these last few weeks, inspired by the Sue the Dinosaur Exhibit at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History.

I've been doing a bit of minor rearranging around the house to allow for some new Spring science activities I've got up my sleeve. I felt we needed a better set up for displaying and studying some of our recent nature finds and artifacts. I set up a small table by the window to allow for good lighting and a quiet place to work. The display of bones jogged my memory of something I've had tucked up in the hall closet, waiting for the right time and opportunity to introduce. I purchased this awesome set of animal x-rays ages ago. They are made in Canada by a company called Roylco and I thought the price was pretty reasonable at $16 for 13 images. I intially saw them at the boys' Montessori school. In the classroom, they were displayed using a light table, something I could not justify around here. I came up with the idea to use self-adhesive velcro to attach them to the window for clear viewing. They seem to fit just perfectly in our new little space. The boys are super excited about them and are being careful and respectful of their fragility. I find myself holding back learning materials at times, waiting for the right opportunity to introduce them, when the interest is initiated by the children. It's usually worth the wait!

One of the most exciting aspects of bone hunting is the mystery behind them. I'm quite certain the teeth and jaws belong to a seal, as in that case, most of the skeleton was present. Chi-Chi's fish skeleton and large vertebrae are a bit tricker to identify. "Some kind of fish" is simply not cutting it for this detailed little guy. He actually toted them to the museum, but they weren't able to provide an exact answer. If anyone out there has any suggestions on how to identify our bone collection, please let me know! It's time for me to bone up on my bones!