Pond Dipping
A couple of weeks ago Ian Boyd, from the newly formed Natural Enterprise , did some pond dipping for a group from the Learning Zone. We started at Merstone Station and walked for about half an hour along the cycle track to get to the pond.
We managed to get to the slightly over grown pond and dipped away. We also got to use sweep nets and some sort of rigid sheet of canvas in a frame that you held under a tree while beating it with a stick to see what fell out. This was a particularly popular activity.
Ian gave us the benefit of his expertise and we all learned interesting things.
One of the best things about sessions like this is that it feels like what Rebekah referes to as “proper home education activities” – a nice mix of ages with everyone learning something what ever age they are and some of the smaller ones teaching the older ones a thing or two.
I even learned how to identify a Buzzard which was great as I then went on to see some while we were at Parkhurst camp a few days later.
And best of all Ian shows us how he keeps control of rowdy groups like ours!
Don’t forget that someone caught a perfect specimen of the notoriously net shy water scorpion!
I’m hoping that Martin Might do a blog post that includes the picture.