(no creatures, squishy or otherwise, were harmed in the making of this post.)

Sometimes I think the main reason we homeschool is for the hope that our homeschooled children will grow up to homeschool their own kids!  I learn so much every single day, things I probably once knew, but was lost in the forgotten recesses of my brain taken over by "adult" things.  Like:  I (re) learned that the difference between reptiles and amphibians is that amphibians have life cycle changes, like tadpoles (gills) to frogs (lungs), as compared to reptiles, which hatch miniature adult-looking babies.  And:  All Toads are Frogs, but Not all Frogs are Toads.  I think I knew garter snakes bear live young, but I did giggle (in my head) when the homeschooling mother next to me asked the naturalist, in all earnestness, *how* such things happen in evolution?  (Maybe she was actually making a pro-creationism comment in disguise, but she didn't sound like it!  I really wanted to say, "I know, isn't it amazing that anyone actually believes in evolution?!")

We haven't been to a park district homeschool class in a while, and although we had an overly exciting drive down (much thanks, emergency roadside mapping assistance sis-in-law!), we were on time and thoroughly enjoyed our couple hours of reptile and amphibian fun.  I'm hopefully teaching the girls early that staying after class to ask questions is a positive thing, as we had our own private playtime with the salamanders while we chatted with the naturalist when class was over and the others had gone.  Greta didn't even squish hers with her knee, as I was envisioning every time she let him crawl away.  They were quite cute, in a salamander-kind-of-way.  (I wanted to ask to hold the corn snake, because it was too busy when the girls did, but I didn't want to bother the naturalist too much!)

Although the weather doesn't seem it (more snow overnight), the formal school year is winding down and our life of homeschool becomes more unstructured day by day and week by week, ebbing and flowing through the spring and summer.  We can't wait for more outdoor exploring time, we know it will soon come more often!