Teaching English and arthropods

The other day I discovered that I really enjoy teaching English. This is the first time that I have unleashed myself from the workbooks and gone for it, drawing all over the white board of course. When I was in college completing my student teaching, I was pretty convinced that I would absolutely never teach school except to my own kids. I still don't think I'd like to take on high school and the associated challenges, but I love teaching writing! Enough so that I have a half-cocked idea to offer a class for homeschoolers in the area. (I certified in secondary ed so homeschooling is just starting to get fun for me!) I really like the Konos-in-a-box approach to teaching English.

Today I shared a website with my kids on arthropods. Warning: it takes evolution as fact clear back to the idea that all things came from one or two animals, but it also has a great illustration of what makes an arthropod an arthropod. The two parts are separate so you don't have to go to the evolutionary part. The link I gave starts at the "What is an arthropod?" section. The evolution part precedes it. I believe in a creator, and I believe he guided the process very carefully but since he hasn't filled in the details himself, I'm not going say he couldn't have used evolution when it was appropriate. However, the idea that everything came from one or two animals is ludicrous in my opinion. Especially given the command he gave to the animals to multiply and replenish the earth after their own kind. Cross two dogs of different breeds and you get a . . . dog. Not something else. If you cross a lab with a collie, you will get . . . a mutt. Cross enough mutts, and another breed of dog will emerge. Since animals obey our Father's commands, the idea of one kind (such as a dog) crossing with another kind (such as a cat) to make another kind (something else) simply makes no sense. Unless man gets involved and corrupts an animal, that would never happen.

Off the philosophizing, there are 5 things that must be present in order for an animal to be classified as an arthropod, and the website has an interactive display showing each characteristic. Then I drew out the kingdom, phylum, etc. in a diagram. For fun, I compared a bear to a lobster and charted it out. (They share the kingdom of Animalia and that's it.) Thanks to Wikipedia and its convenient classification list on each animal, it was easy. Wikipedia and me? We're buds.