Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Barb — 3 Comments

Summer at a Northern California Beach

Summer days at the California beach. This is typical Northern California beach weather for July/August….foggy mornings with the fog lifting later in the afternoon for an hour or two.

My daughter and I had planned a day trip to go hiking at Yosemite but the weather was way too hot to enjoy a day on the trail up in the Sierras so we went the opposite direction and headed for the coast instead. The cool weather was a welcome relief!

We got out our California map and scanned for a new place to explore.

Point Reyes National Seashore! We packed a lunch and zipped down the highway. Two and a half hours later we were at the Pacific Ocean with our toes in the sand.

Point Reyes is much larger than we imagined but after a quick stop at the Visitor’s Center at Bear Valley, we had a map and a plan. It wasn’t far to North Beach where we ate our lunch surrounded by the sound of roaring waves. The fog was lifting but you still couldn’t see very far up or down the beach.

Next stop was the Point Reyes Lighthouse…..we walked the 4/10 of a mile from the parking lot to the Visitor’s Center and then descended the 308 stairs down to the lighthouse on the point. It was windy! It was cold and misty!

But, that was the price to pay for a fabulous viewpoint of this part of the California coast.

See? I made it the 308 steps. Going down was the easy part though and huffing back up the stairs reminded me that I need to do more hills in my weekly workouts.

Amanda was like a gazelle with her super long legs and she made it up with little effort. Ahhh…to be young again.

The rocks alongside the stairs have a bright orange lichen on them. What a pop of color on a rather gray day!

Tucked in the nooks and crannies were wildflowers where they were fairly protected from the strong wind that was blowing.

We had one more stop for the day.

At last the sun came shining through and the fog lifted, allowing a wider view of the coast. The wide sand beach at Drake’s Beach was perfect for a long walk before we started the car ride back home again.

What a great day with Amanda! We both enjoyed the adventure of a new place, exploring the facets of a Northern California beach in the summer.

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Barb — 5 Comments

Summer Bird Study – Hummingbirds

This is our busiest hummingbird feeder. They also like the flowers in the pots.

We love hummingbirds. I think we pay more attention to the hummingbirds in our yard than any other bird. They are constantly at our feeders, in our garden flowers, and flying around…front yard and backyard.

There are at least three in our yard at all times, competing for the feeders and flying fast. They sit in the trees and chirp at us when we eat dinner on the back deck. They are not afraid of us when we are out in the backyard and frequently will fly right up by us as we work in the yard.

They are year round residents.

What aspect did we focus on this time in our hummingbird study as part of the More Nature Study Book #4 Hummingbird Challenge? We started off asking questions about their feathers and how in a certain light they are very green and in then in another light they are bright red. What makes them iridescent? But then we got side-tracked asking why the Anna’s hummingbird chases the Black Headed Grosbeaks out of the seed feeders. I mean they are aggressively chasing them far out of the yard. Our field guide says they defend a 1/4 acre territory. We haven’t found the concrete answer to our questions yet but we have some guesses.

Also, we were fascinated this week by one hummingbird in particular. We call him “Flutter”. He has a unusual sound to his flying. Most of the birds have the familiar “hum” to their wings and the Anna’s Hummingbird make a clicking sound as well. But Flutter sounds like he has a bum wing…like it is not beating like the other birds. It sounds like a fluttering instead of a humming, if that makes sense. We have yet to catch him with the camera because our thought is that if we can take a photo and take a look at his wing shape, maybe he has some sort of injury.

One last thing to relate about our hummingbirds this week. I was out in the yard using the hose to water a few of the bushes since it has been extremely hot and dry. I had the hose in a fine sort of mist and in the shape of an arc. Well, a hummingbird decided that it was the perfect place to fly in and out as he took a bath! It was amazing to watch and I am hoping I get to see it again some day. Our hummingbirds are quite comfortable with us right now and they will fly right up behind you and visit the feeder even if you are inches from them.

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Barb — 10 Comments

Gardening for Birds – Expect to Be Dazzled By Who Comes to Visit

Our garden and our bird list is very interconnected. The birds are coming and enjoying a variety of things in our garden habitat. I learned from Angie at Petra School that it takes about twenty minutes before the birds forget that you are watching. I have tried to find a spot to sit or stand in the garden and just wait to see who will come back during that twenty minute’s time.

The results?

I can confirm that she is right on! Usually after a few minutes the jays come back and the nuthatch and the grosbeaks come fairly quickly too. But some of the birds take a good long time before they reveal their hiding places in the trees and in the shelter of the bushes we have at the edges of our yard.

It is worth the wait. I decided that this week’s garden/bird entry would be a photo essay with lots of colorful images and very few words. Enjoy!

Day lilies and our back birdbath

The birdbaths are a frequent stopover for the neighborhood birds.

Our little wild patch of blackberries just behind the birdfeeding station.

The blackberry bushes are a perfect shelter for birds to rest and to wait their turn at the feeder.

The leaves on our sunflowers are being eating by nibbling finches.

The sunflowers and birch trees are attracting the Lesser Goldfinches…who are eating the leaves and seeds.

The Black-headed Grosbeaks and the Western Scrub Jays are in and out of the feeders all day long.This is the best image I could get this week…they are fast in and out of the feeder. They have a sweet little song as well.The Mourning Doves and California Towhees are pecking around under the feeders.The White-breasted Nuthatches, House Finches, Titmouses, and House Sparrows are always found in the seed feeders.The European Starlings and Robins are busy eating the fruits from the neighbor’s tree that hangs over the fence into our yard.The birds are making a huge mess by taking the fruits all over the yard and eating them. They leave the pits behind and they are covering our driveway. This starling will leave the pit in our neighbor’s grass and next year it may start to grow into a tree. I know this from experience.

The Anna’s Hummingbirds are everywhere. They still come to the feeders but they also are in the trumpet vine, the roses, the bee balm, the butterfly bushes, and several of my potted plants.The neighborhood Great Horned Owl is heard once it is dark and still outside. I envision him hunting the rodents that get into my birdfeeders.The mockingbird sings all the time…almost round the clock.

Additional bird notes:
We have heard the Steller’s Jay and their “shook-shook-shook” several times in our neighborhood but we have yet to see one. This would be a new to our neighborhood bird.
We have heard the Nuttall’s Woodpecker lots of time but only once in our back tree. I need to remember to fill the suet feeder.
The Starlings come everyday now which is new for this year as well. Their buzzing sound is now a familiar backyard bird sound.
The Black-headed Grosbeaks are also a new every day bird. Their flash of color at the feeders is beautiful.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!You may be interested in reading my entry, If You Build It, They Will Come, entry that shows the butterflies that are frequently found in our yard.What are you doing to make your yard attractive to birds and butterflies?

Sage, Lavender, and Butterfly Bushes

Not sure what kind of tree this is but it sure is messy…the birds love it though.

Starling in our neighbor’s yard with a fruit from the tree.

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Barb — 1 Comment

Not Quite Sand Nature Study – Creek Gravel and Rocks

We have not made it to the ocean yet this summer. We have big plans to go later this month but we had the opportunity to do some dirt, gravel, and sand gathering this past weekend up in the Sierra Nevada. We took a day trip to Grover Hot Springs State Park which is a complete blog entry all on its own. I will save that for later in the week.

For this post I will share a little of our nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenge for Sand and Soil from the Summer Sizzle ebook series. We used the creek running next to the picnic area to enjoy some rock, sand, and gravel observation time. This is an interesting geological area which we are planning on going back to explore some more.

This was a creek that meanders a bit and we tried to find some animal prints but we had no luck. There wasn’t much sand on the banks but it was more like gravel or pebbles. There were little fish and lots of insect larvae in the small pools along the banks.
The creek was very shallow and perfect for sticking hot toes in while you explore the smooth rocks of varied colors.
We used an empty water bottle to collect a bit of “dirt” which is mostly decomposed granite gravel and a bit of the “soil”. My hubby found that doing this left his hands super dirty with a fine dusting of soil. He of course used this as an excuse to wash his hands in a waterfall.

I am going to wait until after our beach excursion to do the up close observation with the hand lens, having Mr. B compare the dirt we collected from the creek with the sand we collect from the ocean beach. I think this will make it a bit more interesting and give him something to record in his nature journal.

Summer nature study is at its best when you can combine it with an outdoor family adventure. It becomes just an extension of what you do to make your time outdoors more enriching. We didn’t take nature journals or field guides this time but the atmosphere was one where we were always alert to find something interesting.

Like the rock in the photo above….just one of the many interesting rocks that we saw on the hiking part of our day. We also saw some wildflowers, a few butterflies, heard and observed quite a number of birds, and ended up sitting in the natural hot springs. Yes, this was a great day….more soon!
Don’t forget the Summer Photo Challenge! Here are the details and here is the Pinterest Board.

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Barb — 1 Comment

Handbook of Nature Study July 2012 Newsletter – Hot Weather Edition

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter

Companion to the Outdoor Hour Challenges

Supporting a Global Community in Their Nature Study

July 2012 Edition: Hot Weather!

The Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter is a companion to the Outdoor Hour Challenges that are posted here on the blog every Friday. In this issue there are special printable activities and a notebook page, additional links and ideas, as well as three contributed articles with wonderful ideas for your family to use when the weather is hot and humid.

I have attached the newsletter download link to the bottom of my blog feed so if you are a subscriber you will receive the link to the latest newsletter at the bottom of every post for the month of July. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still subscribe and receive the newsletter in the next post that comes to your email box. You can subscribe to my blog by filling in your email address in the subscription box on my sidebar.

Make sure to click and save the newsletter link from the email for future reference.

Winner of the June Newsletter Giveaway!

Kristin from Broom and Crown has won theYour Backyard Monarch Butterfly DVD and Companion e-Study Guide from Crowe’s Nest Media!

You can read my review of the DVD and the e-Study guides for more information on this fabulous product. Just a reminder that there will be a Monarch Butterfly Challenge later in the month of July so this would be a great supplement to your nature study.

If you have trouble getting the newsletter to download, try right clicking the link, save the link, and then open it. (The link is in the email and not in this blog post.) I am not going to be archiving the newsletters at this point. You will need to SAVE the FILE on your computer each month if you want to save back issues.

It is not too late join in with the Summer Sizzle series of Outdoor Hour Challenges. You can find them on the summer tab of my blog or in my latest ebook.

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Barb — 2 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival – June Newsletter Edition

Does it feel like summer in your part of the world? We have had a few hot days but for the most part it has been unseasonably cool. The garden is loving the little bit cooler weather and I have enjoyed getting out to see what is new each day.

I hope you enjoy the latest edition of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. I will announce the winner of the Your Backyard-Monarch Butterfly DVD in tomorrow’s newsletter post.

You can read our family’s posts for the month:
Chasing Yellow Jackets – Our Summer Nature Study Begins
Summer Tree Study – Following Up On Cottonwoods

Yellow Jackets and Mud Daubers

Kristin from Broom and Crown writes about their: Paper Wasp Study. They took advantage of the opportunity to observe a paper wasp nest that presented itself..observations and comparisons with little ones = a perfect nature study.
Cristy from Crafty Cristy shares their Studying Yellow Jackets in Summer entry with carnival readers. She shows us how she does her “stealth nature study” so her children don’t think they are doing “school” over the summer. Excellent way to do nature study over the summer break!
Makita from Academia Celestia share two entries with carnival readers: Mud Daubers and Fabulous Fern Study. They happened to have some mud daubers and their nest to observe closely…perfect timing!

Beach Nature Study

Heidi from Home Schoolroom joins the carnival for the first time this month with her family’s entry: Nature Study-Exploring the Beach. This is a must read for everyone this time. She has shown how to apply so many of the suggestions from the June Newsletter for beach nature study. Excellent entry!
Kim from A Child’s Garden: Beaches, Beaches, Everywhere – Kim and her family have put together some ideas for further study at the beach. If you are using the June Newsletter and focusing on beaches, you will want to read her entry.

Potpourri

Wendy from Loving Learning shares their entry: A Little Fresh Air and Lion’s Teeth. Get a glimpse into their South African nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Shirley Ann from Under An English Sky shares their First Day of Summer entry: Meadow Grass. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their outing and the observations they made in their meadow of grasses.She also submits a review of the book they used during their Meadow Grass study: Living Book-Nature Adventures.
Sara from Garner Goings On has documented their Black Tiger Swallowtail story in this entry for the carnival: Captivating Caterpillars Become Flowers That Fly and All But Sing. Amazing!
Jen from Snowfall Academy shares their nature study from France in this entry to the carnival: Nature Study with Flowers. Their family has used the Handbook of Nature Study to guide a gentle focus on flowers and they have learned lots!
Janet at Across the Page has submitted this entry to the carnival: Cornell Hawks-An 11 Year Old’s View. What a wonderful way to follow up all that bird nature study that this family started months ago with the livecam at Cornell watching the Red-tailed hawk nest! Excellent and inspirational!
Tiffany at a Faithful Heart writes up and shares their Nature Study – Chicks and Chickens using the Handbook of Nature Study.
It looks like Tricia from Hodgepodge has taken my Summer Photo Challenge! Here is their Hodgepodge Gardens entry showing their beginnings of a full summer of nature study using the OHC. I think this is the most colorful entry ever!
Tricia also has shared their Simple Summer Nature Study post with carnival readers. What a delightful collection of their late June nature study topics and the promise of beautiful butterflies to come!
Ann from Harvest Moon by Hand writes about their Fish Study. What a beautiful place to learn about such an interesting topic.
Kristin from Broom and Crown submits their Wilderness Park Visit which is an early start to the summer pond study with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Check out their turtles and birds!

Don’t forget to share your blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in July are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 7/30/12 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com or submit them at the blog carnival site (link on the sidebar of my blog).

Also, the July Newsletter link will be in tomorrow’s blog entry so make sure you are subscribed so you can download your copy as soon as possible. There are lots of great ideas for nature study, some printable pages for you to use in your nature study, and several articles contributed by Outdoor Hour Challenge participants.

Have you seen the new bundle? If you are new to the Outdoor Hour Challenge my Four Seasons Bundle and my More Nature Study Bundle will give you lots to work with! Click the buttons and read more about these specially discounted bundles of nature study ebooks.

If you haven’t taken the survey here on my blog yet, I would appreciate your input. Thank you for your time!
Handbook of Nature Study Survey

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Barb — 10 Comments

You Build It and They Will Come – Butterfly Garden

This is the summer of the butterfly! We have been observing many kinds in our front yard garden…it is amazing to watch as several flutter around from flower to flower. The American Lady butterflies are smaller than we expected but they are daily visitors to the butterfly bushes.

We planned this garden for bees, butterflies, and birds and they are now moving in and taking advantage of our neighborhood oasis that we have created. Our neighbors all stop by to tell us how much they enjoy seeing our yard as they walk and drive up the street. It makes me smile.

Creating this wildlife habitat has been a dream realized. I can honestly say that we have spent time every single day enjoying the wonderful things in this space.

The Western Tiger Swallowtails are the most frequent of the larger butterflies to visit every day. They spend lots of time on the butterfly bushes but they also land on the lavender from time to time. I think they are my favorite butterfly.

The white butterfly bush is the color that attracts the most butterflies from our casual observation. It has larger amounts of flowers so I think they may be the attraction.

We have had a few Monarch butterflies in the past week. This one looks a little tattered. It is exciting to see a Monarch though…this is exactly why we created this habitat. We looked forward to having our nature study subjects come to us…and they have.

This long thin purple flower cluster is my favorite shape and color. This could be called my purple section since I have purple lavender, sage, and butterfly bushes literally bursting out all over. The bees have found this space and they are here all day long.
The deep purple bushes line the front street and there are hummingbirds that can be seen landing on the blossoms as they take a break from collecting the nectar. The blooms don’t even dip down…those hummers must be super lightweight.

There are a few more butterfly varieties that have come to visit but I haven’t caught them with my camera….yet. I will share when I do.

Just for the record, the bee balm and nasturtiums started blooming this week in the back yard. Beautiful!

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Barb — 7 Comments

Summer Nature Study: Something New Every Day

“Children are quick. In fifteen minutes, they will have finished with their sight-seeing exercise or imaginary picture painting. Other than that, an occasional discovery that the mother shows them with a name and maybe a dozen words about it at just the right time are all that’s needed; the children will have formed an interest in something they can continue on their own. Just one or two of these discoveries should happen in any given day.”
Charlotte Mason, volume 6 page 78

We spent our fifteen minutes everyday this week outside in our own yard. Here is a short list of the things we noticed and enjoyed from our time outdoors.

There were robins in the grass after the sprinklers turned off.
For the first time this year, we observed a tattered Monarch butterfly in our garden.
Our sunflowers started blooming..some yellow, some orange, some almost brown.
We noticed the first blooming morning glories in the front container garden.
We saw Painted Lady butterflies and Western Tiger Swallowtails too. There were a few more but we had to pull out the field guide so we can identify them the next time we see them in the garden.
The zucchini is blossoming.
The Starlings are back and eating the little fruits off the tree on our fence line.Noisy birds.
Hummingbirds in the butterfly bushes and the Red Hot Pokers. Amazing to watch.
Day lilies, day lilies, day lilies!
Big black bees in the lavender…had to cut it back off the walkway.
The winds on Tuesday and Wednesday were not cool at all…hot! The breeze on Friday was cool and from a different direction.

Those are just the discoveries we brainstormed as I was typing this up. This informal everyday noticing of nature related subjects taking just a few minutes a day adds such joy to our busy lives. As my boys grow older, I love that we have established this habit of noticing the seasonal changes and the cycle of life in our own backyard. You don’t always need to do lots of talking and follow-up to make nature study meaningful. Sometimes it is just the time spent together and enjoying a moment during your day.

We truly do discovery something every time we make the effort to get outside.

Give it a try! The Outdoor Hour Challenge July Newsletter is going to have suggestions for nature study when it is hot and humid. Make sure to subscribe to this blog for your free copy of it the minute it publishes.

To subscribe to the Handbook of Nature Study, you can enter your email in the box below and you will receive each blog entry in your email inbox. Thank you so much for reading and supporting this blog!
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I am submitting this entry to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and if you have any entries you would like to submit, you can send them to this email address: charlottemasonblogs@gmail.com. The official blog carnival site is not working so you will need to send them directly to this email.

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Barb — 1 Comment

First Day of Summer 2012 – Get Outdoors Ideas

Join us for a First Day of Summer activity!

New Idea for 2012: First Day of Summer Photo Walk – take a camera outdoors and find some special First Day of Summer subjects, take a photo, print a few out, safely tuck them into your nature journal. You can combine this with the Summer Photo Challenge if you want and post your photo on the Pinterest board.

First Day of Summer notebook page – done after a nature walk, preferably under a shade tree with some fresh lemonade in hand.

Summer Nature Walk – Using Your Senses – take this one along with you on a nature walk, try to get outside early! Thanks Hearts and Trees!

Additional Links:
National Geographic: Find out why summer starts today and why it’s the longest day of the year-but not necessarily the hottest.

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Barb — Leave a comment

Summer Tree Study – Following Up on Cottonwoods

This week we were determined to complete our Cottonwood Tree Study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. It is hard to get motivated when it is really hot outside but we persevered….most of our study was indoors anyway so we had no real excuse. Once we started it was very enjoyable, gleaning much from our reading in the Handbook of Nature Study and then direct observation.

Our neighbor had a cottonwood tree in their front yard until a few years ago when they cut it down to make room for some other landscaping. I remember there were certain times of years I did enjoy having that tree next door. It was MESSY. The “cotton” would cover our deck and yard as it blew over in our direction.

So without a specimen nearby, we had to travel across town to view another cottonwood tree that I noticed along the edge of a big field. It really is a very pretty tree with a nice shape and growing sort of tall. The trunk is easy to recognize once you know what to look for.

We had the chance to observe a cottonwood tree when we visited Anna Comstock’s cabin in New York last May. I gathered a bit of cotton to include in my nature journal. I wrapped it up in a paper towel and folded into the front of my journal for safe keeping. We took the opportunity with this challenge to examine the cotton closely.

We examined the seeds with our magnifying lens and it was truly amazing to see the structure of this catkin with its seeds.

“The little pointed pods open into two or more valves and set free the seeds, which are provided with a fluff of pappus to sail them off on the breeze; so many of the seeds develop that every object in the neighborhood is covered with their fuzz…” Handbook of Nature Study, page 656

Pappus was a new word to us so we looked it up. A pappus is the flower-like structure on the top of the akene. (Remember your dandelion study?) You can see a variety of kinds of pappus on this website: Who’s Your Pappus? I also found information at the bottom of this page on Backyard Nature. I need to add the word to my journal entry so I don’t forget it.

So here is my journal after I finished with it. I found an envelope (glassine envelopes for scrapbooks) for the cottonwood seed fluff sample and the pressed flower that I had collected from the woods. I watercolored around the edges to give it some color and used my metallic gel pens to make a title. I printed a photo of the cottonwood cotton since it is a part of the memory of that early morning walk that I will treasure for a long time to come.

We are going to go back to our local cottonwood tree and take photos for the Summer Photo Challenge and as a guide for our watercolor project for the week. Mr. B is working on his notebook page from the More Nature Study Book 4 challenge using his field guide for the cottonwood tree. We think ours is a Black Cottonwood so he is doing the research on that species for his challenge.

Another great tree challenge to add to our nature journals…hope to see some of your trees in the upcoming Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Remember that every entry into the June Newsletter carnival is an entry to win the Your Backyard Monarch Butterfly DVD and Study Guide. Last day to submit your entries is June 29, 2012.

Don’t forget the Great American Backyard Campout!
And my Camping With Kids link-up from yesterday.

Author: Barb