Did you know…

If your children are anything like Wood Sprite, they love fun and unusual facts. Here are a few we’ve come across this week. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Christmas trees are said to have some medicinal properties? You can make tinctures, oils and all kinds of things from the balsam fir that are apparently good for sore muscles, treating colds and remedying all kinds of other things. (Wood Sprite compared this to the orangutan’s use of leaves to heal their muscle soreness; I think she learned about that on Wild Kratts!)

The American Beaver can weigh up to 60 pounds! That’s more than Sprite. We learned this in a book she received from the United States Postal Service during a field trip. In the same book, we also learned that the peregrine falcon is the fastest bird in the world, reaching speeds of 200 miles an hour when it goes after prey.

Reading actually changes your brain. Days after reading a novel, your brain may show a heightened connectivity to both its area associated with receptivity for language as well as its primary sensory center. This new information comes from a study conducted by Emory University’s Center of Neuropolicy.

New evidence supports the fact that in ancient Peru, people practiced brain surgery more than 1,000 years ago. This just boggles our minds!

According to Pew Research, a whopping 33% of Americans do not “believe” in evolution. We are secular, science-based homeschoolers so this information makes us do this. In light of this information, I highly recommend the picture book Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story for every single classroom and home in the country.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia