Arkansas Moths

There are a lot of moths in Arkansas. We never used to see very many where we lived in Florida.
 

White-dotted Prominent moth

 

Ailanthus Webworm Moth

Creating New Dinosaurs

We spent a couple of days without any Internet, cable TV, You Tube, and Netflix, due to a wire being disconnected by an AT&T worker while working on someone else's line. Since getting the new computer back in March, Munchkin's days have been technology filled as she pursues her online passions of Minecraft, You Tube videos about Minecraft, and Animal Jam. 

So during out technology free time, she pulled out one of her favorite books called Fliposaurus that allows for awesome new dinosaur creations.

We decided to create some new dinosaurs and then make videos describing them. The videos can be seen here on munchkin's EspeonPlays You Tube Channel 

The first is for Archaesaurustops

The second is an Ovioptecephalus

Technology brings us closer

We love our technology. It brings us closer to our family and friends, not only in the United States, but on a global level. It allows us to connect with family in France, while providing us with the ability to not only talk and play games with our friends no matter where they might be, but even to watch Youtube videos and learn about world geography.

Last night while munchkin was watching You Tube videos via Skype screen share, I remembered seeing a way to watch You Tube videos with friends in a private online room and so went in search of options since Synchtube is gone now. We're testing out Watch2gether.com to see how we like it. We tried last night with friends in Tasmania and it wasn't too bad. Munchkin isn't sure whether she likes it better than screen sharing, so we'll have to give it a few more tries. We'll see in a week or so how much we like it.

I also discovered Geoguessr.com, a geography game that makes use of Google Earth's mapping and imaging technology. Such a cool game to play and challenges you to recognize where you might be based on the image displayed. So far though, this is of more interest to me than munchkin...

Cicadas

It's definitely Summer when you hear cicadas singing. While I don't remember them much from growing up in Connecticut, and we didn't ever hear them in Miami or Argentina, we've definitely heard them in the South of France, St. Petersberg, Florida and of course now here in Arkansas.

There are approximately twelve species of cicadas in Arkansas, and they are found in many areas around the world and people are fascinated by them as evidenced by the cicadamania.com website. The French word for cicada is cigale and they have been immortalized in the South of France where you can find decorative home and garden cigale items everywhere. There are also numerous videos of them on You Tube including this one of an Arkansas cicada hatching.

Here in our area, he cicadas are singing constantly This paticular cicada was in our window and was saved from death from cat! After looking at it in the magnifier (bottom left pic), we released it to one of our trees where I had to put my finger next to it (top pic) just so you could actually see it because its camoflauge was so good. However, birds can see them because I watched a blue jay grab one off the tree the other day - a testament to how good their bug sight is!

The final picture is from the Pinnacle Mountain Nature Center touch box where there are a number of antlers as well as turtle shells, skeletons, pine cones, as well as other interesting natural touchables. in Arkansas. We've really enjoyed all the wonderful things Pinnacle Mountain has to offer.

The collage was created with an iPad app called Pic Collage. Munchkin helped with the design aspects and it was a lot of fun putting it together. 

Unschoolers Day Out

Fun Summer day with other local unschoolers. It's always amazing to see how such simple things as kids, water, and animals can provide so much joy!

Testing out the different vibrations and sounds.

Huge snapping turtle

Snapping turtle eating frozen mouse

Aether II Mod

We've been waiting for almost a month for the Aether II mod to be released and finally it's here. I managed to get it installed and ready to go so that the munchkin would be able to have a wake-up surprise. She was very excited to find it ready and waiting and couldn't wait to try it out.

Since she's watched many videos about the mod, she'd already had many plans already laid out in her mind and got to start putting those ideas to the screen. The flying pig was the first screenshot she generated which became my Facebook header for the day. She's planning to do a video walk through for Youtube once she has a better feel of the mod. 

We are enjoying reading about cockatrices at the Aether Wikia.

Minecraft Mo Creatures

It's Monday, May 6th, 2013. Really amazing how fast the days are passing.

Today's excitement includes further exploration on the Mo's Creatures mod that I finally got installed last night on Minecraft 1.5.1. She's trying to figure out how to get a pegasus. I think she'll be looking for a guinea pig as well watching Cupquake in her You Tube video with George W. Bush, the guinea pig. Next to her sit... Fruity the bat, Gusty the wooden wiggle snake, and her new baby owl White Snowy Owl.

Here's the second video produced by Espeon Plays which is all about Mo Creatures horses.