Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Barb — 6 Comments

Frog Pond Study Plus a Rattlesnake Friend

Our first attempt at a tadpole/frog study was unsuccessful. We visited my dad’s pond and could not scoop up any tadpoles but we did get some great insect larvae to observe in the pond water sample. We brought them home in a bucket and used our pond field guide to try to identify them.

Edit to add: I was told this is not a Mayfly but a Damselfly so I will be off to do some more research….now you will understand why I say I should take Eva’s free entomology course down below. 🙂

Meet the Mayfly….which we learned are called naiads during their aquatic stage. (This is an image of a dead one I found lodged in my net.) They live in ponds, lakes, or streams for up to several years. They molt 20-30 times during that period of time. The most interesting thing about Mayflies is their short lifespan for adults- only a few hours to a few days, depending on the species. We actually observed an adult Mayfly that landed on my dad’s shirt while we were observing the pond. What a great insect to learn about!

Even if we didn’t find any frogs on this outing, we sure enjoyed our time just being outdoors at the pond.

As a sidenote: I think we need to take Eva’s Introduction to Entomology course that she is offering on her blog Academia Celestia. It is a free six week online course in a subject she is highly knowledgeable in and is passionate about. If your family is looking for a way to learn more about insects…click over and see it this would work for you.

We took a second trip to the local walking trail where I had observed some frog’s eggs earlier this month. Success! There were hundreds of tadpoles but I didn’t get a single decent image…the one below is the best I was able to get with all the reflections but if you look closely you will see some dark tadpoles swimming in the water.

We will continue to observe these critters in the weeks to come…easy to do since they are on the side of our usual route on the walking trail.

I highly recommend this Golden Guide to Pond Life. We have always been able to identify any creatures or plants we found at Grandpa’s pond using this simple field guide. Great beginning guide for young ones!

There are affiliate links in this entry.

Rattlesnake Video on YouTube….
My husband and I took a hike to the river on a glorious day last weekend. The grass was green, the wildflowers were amazing, and the sun was warm….perfect day for a spring walk through the Northern California foothills.

I was sort of worried about the possibility of encountering snakes but we were keeping a close eye out. I had stopped a few feet off the trail to look at some metallic insects on a wildflower stem. I was trying to get a really close look and then I stepped backwards to the trail. My husband immediately started yelling that he saw a snake….startling me and making me scream. The snake was right by my feet….a really big rattlesnake!

He pulled me out of the way and the snake moved across the trail over to the other side. I (of course) pulled out my camera and started taking a video. That is what you see in the video above….me still all shaky and out of breath capturing this huge old rattler as it slithers into the tall grasses but not without showing us his extremely long rattle.

We ended up seeing three snakes that day, one rattlesnake and two gopher snakes. Just in time for reptile month!

So have you seen any reptiles in your area yet?

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Barb — 6 Comments

Garden Delights and a Living Habitat – Tuesday Garden Party

Dogwood blossom @naturestudyhomeschool.com

It feels like spring now that the dogwood is blooming! Our front garden is such a source of joy right now with it colors and textures. I spend far too much time gazing out the window at the beauty and sitting out on the steps just breathing it all in deeply. The birds and insects are visiting daily as they find different things to enjoy too…the bird bath, the blossoms with pollen to collect, or the seeds in the feeders.

Whether you enjoy the fragrance or the color of lavender…..you would be happy sitting in this part of the garden. The bees are buzzing again, stopping by many of the purple flowers many times before flying off again. I am anticipating the summer harvest of my lavender and creating many more sachets to give away to friends and family.

So this is the view from the top of the garden looking down from the top terrace. The yarrow is huge this year and already covered in flower buds. We weren’t sure about our pruning that was done last fall because we were worried we had trimmed it too far to the ground but now look at those mounds of yarrow! The lavender is filling in after being trimmed almost all the way back as well. I love using the internet and YouTube.com as a reference for my gardening tasks…there is a lot of practical advice out there. The butterfly bushes are going to be amazing this year and the poppies are showing their color (middle right of the photo).

Since the front yard is so low maintenance, we can focus our thoughts and energy on our vegetable garden now that the weather is warming up.

My husband and I are so very happy with our no-mow yard and enjoy having the neighbors stop by and tell us they love driving by and seeing all the different flowers. If you are interested in removing your lawn and switching over to drought tolerant plants and natives, I highly recommend a book I am reading from Timber Press: Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn J. Hadden. It claims to have fifty lawn alternatives…most of them are spectacular but yet not too complicated.

One thing I have learned about my own no-mow yard is that there is going to be a lot of color if you plan it right. No-mow yards are much more interesting and enjoyable to all the senses. You can see how our project started here: Frontyard Remodel.

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Frog Nature Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge:
You can reference the Outdoor Hour Challenge for Frogs from the Summer Series for pages to read in the Handbook of Nature Study, observation ideas, and some follow-up activities. Pick and choose which ones are appropriate for your local area and weather. Please make sure to save this study in case you don’t have tadpoles or frogs to observe in person. This is a wonderful long-term study that your children will love.

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Frogs

Printable: Frog Field Guide Notebook Page

This week’s free printable is one that even your older students will enjoy using along with a field guide. Pick a local frog to learn more about and record your findings for your nature journal using this free printable notebook page.
Frog Field Guide Notebook Page

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #7. Take time to read through this challenge and contemplate how you could use your reptile and amphibian study to make a field guide of your local subjects. This could be a long term project that you add to as you come across new things to learn about.

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Barb — 1 Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Using the Reptile and Amphibian Grid Study

We have been blessed with many lizard sightings in the past few weeks. Just this past Sunday we saw four lizards on our hike and on Monday we saw three! They are all the same kind of lizard, the Western Fence Lizard. They look like little alligators with really big feet. They are super fast when they want to get away but many times they will sit on a rock in the sun like a statue and pose for the camera. These lizards made a great subject for the start of our Reptile and Amphibian Grid Study.

Here are a few of our images from these encounters.


Love the feet!

I have been keeping my eyes open, looking on rocks as we walk.

Here is what I gleaned from our reptile field guide and recorded in my nature journal.

From the family, Iguanidae
They are often found on rocks, on logs, in wood piles, and on rails and rock fences (confirmed by our sightings).
Females lay up to 25 soft-shelled eggs anytime between mid-may to mid-July, hatching about two months later.
Dormant in winter.
Diet consists of beetles, flies, termites, ants, and spiders.
Throat and belly are blue. (We have not seen this so we need to try to take a closer look.)
Range is the length of the Sierra, primarily in the foothills.

For our Amphibian Study:
We also found a spot that has a lot of frogs eggs…a small pool of water alongside our walking trail. We will be watching and waiting for tadpoles to arrive.

Other Reptiles:
No snakes yet….I know the last time I said that here on the blog we saw a snake that very next day.

This was a great start to our Reptile and Amphibian Grid Study this month and I hope to continue finding interesting subjects to add to our journals.

Don’t forget to visit my blog sponsor and use the discount code “sweet” to receive a 30% discount on your order for any of her lovely products.

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Barb — 4 Comments

Spring Garden Box Clean-Up and Planning

We had a chance to work on our garden boxes this past weekend….cleaning up the debris and tilling the soil. It is always a joy to see what is already sprouting and growing without much effort. We made some hard choices this year about which things to continue growing and which things to get rid of in each box.

Box number one is historically my box to plant and care for…I change it up every year. With the clean-up this weekend I realized that the Prairie Sunflowers are really going to fill the whole box up. I should probably thin the plants out but I will let them go one more year. They are great bird attractive plants and I have other boxes I can use for edibles.

Box number two has always been Mr. A’s box. He is a simple guy and enjoys his strawberries and dahlias. This is a no fuss kind of box. The berry plants are already growing like crazy and there are blossoms! There is one corner where all the strawberries died for some reason so we will be picking up some need seedlings next time we are at the garden nursery. He has both everbearing and June bearing plants in his box.

Box number three is Mr. B’s box. He is the herb man. This was where we made the executive decision to pull ALL the oregano from the box this year. Mr. B has lost interest in his herb garden so I am going to be using part of his box for my veggies. We left the lemon thyme and the garlic chives. There are also two small mystery plants that we will leave until we figure out what they are.

Box number four is Amanda’s box but she is off having the time of her life in Bolivia this year so I will be nurturing her box while she is gone. She has always had a cutting flower garden in her box….even after leaving home we still consider it her box. The coneflowers and daisies are looking healthy and I will be planting some zinnias and other colorful flowers to fill the box when it is time.

The rest of the yard is looking so spring-like. The climbing rose is dazzling yellow and there are so many promises in other parts of the garden as well. The roses are in bud, the butterfly bush and lavender are growing like crazy, the day lilies are all filling in….can’t wait for the show to begin. Something new this week- apple blossoms!

Plans for Garden Boxes – 2013
Box 1 – Prairie Sunflowers, shade tolerant herbs (dill, cilantro)
Box 2 – Add more strawberries and add stakes for dahlias.
Box 3 – Existing herbs, zucchini and green beans
Box 4 – Coneflowers, daisies, zinnias

Other Areas:
Under Birdfeeder – Morning glories
Large bed in back – Sunflowers

Deck Containers – I am receiving and reviewing from Renee’s Garden the Easy to Grow – Container Kitchen Vegetable Garden collection which includes tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, chard, and basil. Excited to see how this goes this year!

I would totally love to add a blueberry bed in a different area of the garden. The spot where my current blueberries live is just not right…they are not thriving. I am trying to convince my husband to help me add a row of blueberries as an experiment…we shall see.

How are your garden plans coming?

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Barb — 3 Comments

Using Less Plastics – Better Trash Bags

This month we tackled another of our big plastic uses…..trash bags. I love my convenient lovely trash bags with their nice easy to use handles. But, after taking a really good look at our consumption of these regular plastic trash bags…we felt that this was an area we could reduce the number of bags or to use a more environment-friendly alternative.

Enter the Google Search!

Normal plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to naturally breakdown.

Trash bags for our household trash –
Pride Green Life Cycle Bags
Who knew there were such easy to find alternatives? We had always purchased our trash bags from Costco in bulk but a quick Google Search and we had some options to look for on Amazon.com. We found an alternative to our regular plastic trash bag that is a biodegradable plastic that says it will breakdown in 18-36 months which sounds a whole lot better than 1000 years! We went with these bags from Pride Green because they had the best reviews online. We have used them for a little over a month now and I honestly have seen no change in durability and ease of use. They have quickly replaced our normal plastic trash bags.

Compost Bucket Bags-
BioBag Food Waste Bags

We use a small under-the-counter compost bucket for collecting our kitchen wastes. We have switched to using BioBag Food Waste Bags which are completely compostable. They are made from starches and will be consumed by micro-organisms in our soil. No fussing with these bags…we can just remove the full bag and throw the whole thing in our compost bin! No one complains about taking the compost bucket to the composter anymore.

Just in case you want to know about our under the counter kitchen composter looks like. We have used this for many years and are very happy with the convenience of having it right there for kitchen clean-up and food preparation time.

Any tips or suggestions for reusable produce bags?

Next month I will be sharing our experience with our reusable sandwich and snack bags. 🙂

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Barb — 4 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Reptile and Amphibian Grid Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This month we will be using the Reptile and Amphibian Grid Study from the April Newsletter to help us learn more about this interesting topic. Feel free to cut your grid to fit your nature journal or to customize your journal to fit your interests. Don’t forget that you can save the grid study for a future date if you don’t have access to any reptiles or amphibians for this month’s nature study.

Free Printable Notebook Pages:Reptiles and Amphibians
Use these pages to help get your family started with good working definitions of both reptiles and amphibians. They also have a place to write any interesting facts you want to remember about these topics.

Printable Notebook Pages: Reptiles and Amphibians
Some ideas for your notebook pages:

Reptiles in your local area
Amphibians in your local area
Reptiles or amphibians you have observed in person
Your favorite reptiles and amphibians

Extra Links:
Reptile videos on National Geographic
Amphibian videos on National Geographic

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #2. Use your words to describe any reptiles or amphibians you observe this month. Learning new vocabulary is an important part of nature study and will help your children in their later study of any life science.

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Barb — 31 Comments

Singing Bird Studios – April Sponsor and Giveaway!

“A singing bird is one who enjoys life and spreads happiness.”

I am so very pleased to share with you April’s Blog Sponsor! Singing Bird Studios specializes in unique jewelry and other special handmade items that I know you be happy to know about. I was introduced to Singing Bird Studios at the BEECH Retreat back in January where I received a special key chain as a gift from Stephanie the owner and creator of Singing Bird Studios.

Here is a little introduction from Stephanie @ Singing Bird Studios:

I am a mom who works full time. I have been making jewelry for ten years and decided just last year to turn it into a business. Singing Bird Studios is my creative outlet. A singing bird is one who enjoys life and spreads happiness. That’s what I want to create for myself and those around me. I design many of the images you see, but I also use digital art, vintage papers, and scrapbook papers to achieve the look I want. I make all items by hand in my home studio. I am excited to launch a Wedding Party collection this summer so brides can thank their wedding party {in style}. I LOVE what I DO!

Stephanie graciously accepted my offer to be my blog sponsor and I will be sharing her work during the month of April. I love every piece she sent for my review…my favorite is this lovely Blue Butterfly necklace that has been worn on quite a few occasions lately. Everyone compliments me on the design and I love the way it feels and looks with the silver snake chain.

But this week I am going to be giving away one of the pieces from her Vintage Collection – This gorgeous orange butterfly with the pretty copper plated pendant and chain. Click over and see all the pieces in this collection. These are sure to be a favorite and I already am planning on purchasing one from this collection as a gift for a special friend.

Stay tuned for more giveaways this month and please take advantage of her generous special discount offer code for my readers: Enter “sweet” and receive 30% off your entire order!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Barb — 3 Comments

Our Extraordinary Fungi Study – Turkey Tail

We wrapped up our month-long mushroom, moss, and lichen study with a final hike last Friday. Guess what? We saw the first really nice mushroom of the month! I had pretty much given up hope that we would see any actual mushrooms and was resigned to completing our study in a future month when a specimen presented itself.

Well, we were able to complete the month with a great observation session of this big guy! I love the texture of the cap and the size was amazing…about six inches across. There were several smaller mushrooms nearby but we focused on the creamy brownish one.

I created a two page journal entry with March’s grid study (cut apart) and some photos of lichen, the mushroom, and a glorious fungus we found a couple of weeks ago. I love the bands of color and the way it looks like a colorful skirt…natural beauty is hard to beat.

I decided that this would be my Extraordinary in the Ordinary subject for the last challenge of March. Turns out…this was a really good choice.

Doing research about this fungus, which we identified as Turkey Tail, we learned it was being used in treating cancer patients. Who would have thought? There are amazing things to learn all the time when you really dig a little deeper.

Mushrooms, lichen, and moss were a fantastic focus for all of us….if you read the entries in the latest blog carnival I’m sure you realized that too. Looking forward to what April is going to bring with reptiles and amphibians.

Author: Barb