Science at the Kitchen Table

Yesterday presented a wonderful homeschooling lesson. There we sat, the 5 of us at the kitchen table, eating breakfast with dad, before he heads off to work. We first noticed a pair of duck waddling around the small patch of woods to the rear of our house. "Lulu and Leonard?" we wondered. A pair (affectionately named by our neighbors) had layed eggs in our neighbors yard last spring and we, along with other neighbor families, anxiously awaited the arrival of their ducklings. Had the happy couple returned? Were they to chose our yard for the nest site this year? We continued to watch them look for a suitable site for a nest (at least that is what we thought they were doing) as we talked about the difference between the male and female colors, the way the female seemed to be leading the male around the area etc. when we noticed one, no two, no three and finally four bunnies chasing around the woods as well! We were all so excited to see such life in a small area of the yard. We wondered about their proximity to the ducks and discussed the fact they were not predators of each other. The bunnies were playing a chasing game and at first didn't seem to notice the ducks. We quickly got out the National Audubon Society copy of Field Guide to Mammals and searched through the rabbit/hare section to find that they were Eastern Cottontails. We learned how they are different than New England and Desert Cottontails, as well as marsh and swamp rabbits. We read about the mating dances and learned that if no young were lost (which doesn't happen), within 5 years one single pair together could produce, with their offspring 350,000 rabbits. WOW!
So there we sat, reading, discussing and watching out our kitchen window, both ducks and rabbits, in our pajamas, as a family, before 8 o'clock in the morning. It doesn't get any better than that!! Later in the day, I went to the library to pick up our books on hold and found a few books on ducks and rabbits. We read them right away!