Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Autumn 2010 OHC #6: Queen Anne’s Lace or Other Autumn Weed

Autumn Series #6
Queen Anne’s Lace Year-Long Study
Autumn Observations

“The object of this lesson should be to show the pupils how this weed survives the winter and how it is able to grow where it is not wanted. The weed is very common along most country roadsides, and in many pastures and meadows. It blossoms very late in the autumn, and is available for lessons often as late as November.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 544

Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 542-545 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 148). If you started your year-long study of Queen Anne’s Lace in the summer, these pages will be a review, but read with an eye to looking for changes between this season and the last. Pick out a few points from the lesson to use in your outdoor time observations. One thing that can be pointed out before going outdoors is the difference between Queen Anne’s Lace and Poison Hemlock.

Compare Queen Anne’s Lace and Another Weed in Your Yard

Where are the seeds located? How many seeds are there? What color and shape?
Look at the flower and/or seeds and decide how the seeds are dispersed. (wind, water, attachment, etc.)

Outdoor Hour Time:
Option 1: The challenge is to go back to your patch of Queen Anne’s Lace and make some autumn observations. There should be some dramatic changes from your last study. This plant is also called a Bird’s Nest or Wild Carrot and you might ask your children why they think this plant has so many names. Use the suggestions above to compare the Queen Anne’s Lace with another weed that you observe. Observe closely with a hand lens the seeds since they will be the most predominant feature of the plant at this time.

Option 2: Since I know there will be some families that do not have Queen Anne’s Lace to observe, you can substitute outdoor time in your own backyard instead. Find a different plant to observe if you can, any weed that is still present in your backyard will be a good subject for study. Use the suggestions above to compare any two weeds you find. Remember the most important aspect of any challenge is to find something of interest to your child…even weeds can be interesting if you take the time to look closely.

In Addition to Options 1 and 2:
Collect a few autumn weeds to bring inside to observe. Look at the leaves, the dried flowers (if any), and any seeds or pods. Make note of the colors and textures.

Collect a variety of seeds from weeds in your yard or neighborhood, perhaps placing each different kind of seed in a separate plastic sandwich bag. Sketch a few of the seeds in your journal and label the drawing with the plant’s name (if you know it), the date, the location you collected the seed from, and how you think the seed is dispersed.

Follow-Up Activity:
If you didn’t have the opportunity to talk about Queen Anne’s Lace or weeds during your outdoor time, take a few minutes to discuss your discoveries. Complete the Queen Anne’s Lace notebook page or the other autumn weed study page in the ebook or make an entry in your own blank journal. If you haven’t done so already, complete a Venn Diagram comparing two plants you observed during your outdoor time. Display your weeds in a vase.

Note: This nature study challenge can be found in the Autumn 2010 ebook.

If you would like to own this ebook, it is part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. You can find more details on how to get your own membership here: Join Us!

Ultimate Ebook Library @handbookofnaturestudy

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Posted on October 21, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

Seasonal Tree Study and Leaf Comparisons

I don’t usually enjoy the fall season…it is a melancholy time for me. I love the barefoot days of summer and the hot afternoons working in the garden or swimming in the pool. I would much rather be hiking in the green, green hills with wildflowers blooming at my side in the springtime. The promise of spring and the activity of summer are much more likely to gain my vote for “favorite season”. Winter is the enduring time, the time for preparing for spring and summer.

Autumn days are soon filled with colored leaves, falling leaves, and raking leaves. It seems to creep up slowly but then you wake up one morning to find that the leaves are starting to turn colors…..oranges, reds, yellows, golds, purples.

Observing autumn trees and looking close though, you will see spring’s leaves preparing for the winter.

So here we are in the middle of our autumn challenges and making the best of what the season has to offer. We gathered a few leaves to compare and my son reminded me that we did an in-depth study of leaves and their parts as part of our biology study.

I went to the shelf and pulled out his biology notebook and his nature journal and we thumbed through to find our completed study.

So now what could we do to learn more about leaves?

First of all, I shared with my son the idea that I gleaned from Amy at The Teachable Heart and her family’s study of autumn leaves. She actually color copied the leaves for their nature journals and they looked wonderful. I thought maybe we could do the same for our tree and other fall leaves that we were comparing just for a change in our journals.

We had already decided to choose another tree to study for a year-long tree study, the birch tree in our backyard. We gathered a few leaves and took a closer look at the tree while we were out there.

Welcome to our new tree for the year! We are excited to see what we can learn by looking at and comparing this tree to our previous tree study subjects.

These catkins are such interesting things to look at and we looked up some more information in our tree guide after our outdoor time.

We brought some inside to look at with our loupes and to draw in detail in our nature journals.

While we were out we looked at several other kinds of leaves….the dandelion growing in my pot is such an interesting shape in comparison to our tree leaves.

How about these leaves on the broccoli? Amazing gray-green color.

Our coleus is still giving us blazing amounts of color in the container garden on the deck. It makes me happy just to look at these leaves.

It had to go in my nature journal.

Watercolor pencils are fun to work with in your nature journals and we always have a set sitting on or near our work area table. It is easy to sketch quickly and then come back later to add water and details.

I will end my entry here since this journal is getting quite long. We are enjoying the connections between our biology study and our nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Barb — 8 Comments

Apples-Autumn Series Challenge Day

Autumn came this past weekend to our world and we awoke to sprinkles of rain on the ground. It wasn’t much so we didn’t let it cancel our plans to head up early to the apple orchards to find some apples to sample and use as part of our apple challenge.

Our traditional autumn outing always starts off with apple cider doughnuts….there are plain, glazed, crumb, and cinnamon spice varieties to enjoy along with your big cup of steaming hot coffee. The crumb doughnuts were the first to be eaten. We were early enough to have a good spot to sit to eat and enjoy the mountain air.

Then the real business of the day was at hand, choosing a few new kinds of apples to try. We were disappointed that they did not have Honey Crisp to purchase since I had read on several blogs about their wonderful taste. In the end, we settled on Empire, Jonagold, and Mutsu.

Empire is a cross between Red delicious and McIntosh.
Jonagold is a cross between a Jonathan and a Golden Delicious.
Mutsu is also known as the Crispin.

Our official taste tests were interrupted when we decided to make the Mutsu apples into a pastry dessert. Mr. B had already created a wonderful dessert a few months ago with some apples and he repeated his recipe for us to enjoy again.

We compared the sizes, colors, shapes, and tastes of the apples, noting the seed patterns, the skin textures, and the skin thicknesses as we cut and peeled the apples for the pastry and some applesauce.

Some of the apples were so large that they would be a complete meal all by themselves! My dear husband announced that although he enjoyed the new varieties that we picked out, he still loves the Granny Smith for eating the best. Go figure.

This was a delicious challenge for our family and we learned a little more about the different local varieties of apples available for eating and baking.

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Barb — 11 Comments

An Autumn Tree Observation Extraordinaire

We decided that our autumn study of leaves was going to be incorporated into our annual fall trip to see the colors of the aspens up in the high country of the Sierra Nevada. The trip is about 100 miles round trip from our front door but it goes through magnificent forests, by snow fed lakes, and in view of some of the most breathtaking mountains in existence.

The first leg of the trip goes through the pine forests and we thought our day had come to an end before it really started when we encountered a control burn of the forest floor by the US Forest Service. They clean out the underbrush by setting fires and then controlling the burns. It makes a lot of smoke but we were able to drive down the highway and past the fires onto our destination.

The second part of the forest is actually in Alpine County and the forests are mixed in with aspen groves to make wonderful color in the fall. You know the minute you hit this part of the habitat because you start to see the yellows, oranges, and golds of the leaves.

We have a favorite side road that has the prettiest meadow. Yes, that is my son out there taking just as many photos as I am on this day….it is awesome to share a hobby with your grown up kids.

Here you can see the shape of the aspen leaf and the trunk of the tree in all its beauty. I never tire of looking at aspens.

It was fairly cloudy this afternoon but for a few minutes the clouds parted and we had a chance to capture the blue sky in contrast to the bright yellow leaves.

We drove the next leg of the road which leads through a place called Hope Valley. This is “the” place to see fall color in our area. There were many of us lined up on the side of the road to capture the oranges and yellows and golds of the trees on the mountain. Isn’t it dreamy?

Then as we headed back around to Christmas Valley, we saw this scene. There were some people on horses rounding up a herd of cattle. Stop the car! Yes, we had to take a few photos of this and it was the perfect way to end up this part of drive.

We observed some of the leaves “quaking”. We learned from our field guide that the reason they shake that way is because the stem is flattened near the leaf and so when the wind blows they shake or quake. It sounds sort of like the ocean to me when you hear them quaking and is a nice sound. Here is a link to try: USDA Quaking Aspens.

There was more to this trip but I will save that for another post. We actually went to see the salmon spawning and there were quite a few ducks to observe as well. Stay tuned for a salmon post when that challenge comes up in a few weeks.

I also am going to post a separate entry for our leaf comparisons since this post became rather long. Stay tuned for part two. We also have picked a new tree in our backyard to observe for a year-long tree study and I will share our fall observations with the leaf post.

Today we will be working on the apple challenge but the horse challenge is still in the works.

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Review: Observing Nature-A Journal Sketching Guide to Discovering Your Natural Environment

Observing Nature – A Journal Sketching Guide to Discovering Your Natural Environment

The moment I printed this plan out and put it into a binder, I knew I was going to like the approach taken to help teach children (and adults) how to tap into their observation skills and translate them into their nature journals. This is a wonderful plan for homeschoolers to use on their own or through a co-op. If you are interested in learning how to help your children learn how to create wonderful nature journal entries…read on!

There are two parts to this review.

Observing Nature-Teacher’s Manual

This 18 page teacher’s manual is very well put together and gives enough detail that you would feel confident to teach a whole group of students about sketching and journaling. The targeted age group is 8 years old and up but I did not feel it was too easy for my high school age boys.

Here is a link to the Course Objectives and example of a completed journal page.

Valuable aspects of the Teacher’s Manual:

Directions for gathering and displaying observation trays.
Supply checklists.
Thorough instructions for teaching the three student projects, see LINK.
A class plan with suggested time values if you are going to be teaching this course to a group of students. Also a plan for an assistant if you are so lucky to have one in your co-op. The author suggests teaching the entire workshop in one session but after that you can practice the skills over a period of time.
Template to print out for making collection or observation boxes…very handy.
$24.95 as a PDF download.

Observing Nature Student Guide

This workbook style guide will work alongside the activities suggested in the teacher’s manual.
There are exercises right in the guide that will help your child become better observers and as a result, better at recording their observations in a nature journal. (SAMPLE)
There are plenty of examples to view and in the back of the workbook there are reference drawings for plants, insects, reptiles, birds, mammals (SAMPLE) and tracks.
My favorite part of the guide is the Question Page. This page gives your child lots of journal prompts to make the nature journal entries come alive with their own words.
There are blank journal pages in the guide for your child to use in getting started with their own sketching. We were able to glean some fresh ideas from these pages for our own personal journals.
Once you buy the student workbook you can print as many copies as you need for your family or co-op.
$24.95 for PDF download.

I would give this plan a big thumbs up as far as value, content, and organization. These may be the plans your family needs to jumpstart your nature journals and/or breathe some fresh air into some nature journals that are becoming ho-hum.

Please note:
I received these ebooks in exchange for a fair and honest review. I only review items I have personally used and would recommend to my readers. Also, I am not affiliated with Nature Works Press and I will not receive any compensation if you purchase these ebooks. My sole motivation for writing this review is to share another valuable tool with families that might like this sort of guide to use personally or in a co-op setting.

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Barb — 1 Comment

Garden Update and View from Under the Walnut Tree

The weather has been a little bit cooler in the mornings so we were able to get out and clean up the garden boxes. I pulled the first of my compost from my compost barrel and mixed in the rich black soil as I readied the boxes for a few cooler weather crops….carrots, lettuce, and peas.

There are still plenty of zinnias ready to bloom, herbs growing strong in the sunshine, and the tomato is still forming some small green fruits.

I was making a list of possible things from our garden that we could study from the Handbook of Nature Study and I realized there are few things blooming that we need to get to before too long.

Our list:
Salvia: Lesson 161
Black-eyed Susans: Lesson 140 and 131
Pansies: Lesson 152 (we are going to do this one again)

My son brought me this leaf that he found in the yard….he thought the red edges were unique. I feel another nature journal entry coming on for us with this pretty leaf as the star.

We also cleaned up under the walnut tree and the view from under the branches is the perfect way to see the autumn sky. Before too long all the leaves will fall and we will have a different sort of clean-up day but we did enjoy this day and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Gardening is like that….you get to feel the satisfaction of a job well done.

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Barb — 1 Comment

Butterfly Beauty

Over the last few weeks we have seen lots of these beautiful butterflies in our garden.

It is a California Sister or Adelpha californica which is found in oak habitats. These butterflies are not shy and they will flutter right around your head, swooping down to tease you. Today when we were watching another California Sister, a bird tried to fly down and catch it but we learned how *fast* these butterflies can move if they have to!

Our front yard has quite a few butterflies this month since we added several new butterfly attractive plants during our remodel. I will soon share a post with all the updates.

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Barb — 7 Comments

We are on the Edge of Autumn

Caught in the act of climbing up to the birdfeeder…this squirrel is a permanent resident in our backyard. He and a friend have totally stripped the walnut tree of any nuts.

Here is what my sidewalk looks like under the walnut tree…nothing but shells and casings. What a mess! This is the second year in a row that the squirrels have eaten all the nuts.

There is finally a little color along our regular walking trail and those are clouds in the sky but there was no rain. My daughter Amanda had to take a trip over the Sierra this week and she said that the trees up on the pass are just starting to turn colors…mostly aspens. We may need to take a drive up their next weekend.

We saw lots of these wild grapes far up over the walking trail. They look so good and we wondered if they would be sweet or tart. There was no way to reach them since they were far up in the trees where they reach the sunlight. So I will be satisfied with recreating this photo in my nature journal this week since I love the colors of the leaves and grapes and the shape of the leaves is awesome.

One last photo that really isn’t a sign of autumn but I thought it was fun to catch this hummingbird stopping by to sip at our feeder. We have had a bunch of hummingbirds this summer and I even hung another feeder because there was always a fight happening at the two we already had.

Yesterday we worked in the garden and completed the initial fall clean up. There is still some life out there and a few tomatoes and peppers to ripen up. I composted a bit in one box and I will be planting some peas, spinach, and lettuce later today and hopefully we will have another crop before the winter weather hits.

I think we will take a trip to the apple orchard this week if all my boys are recovered from their cold/flu from last week. Nothing like the thoughts of a little apple pie to perk up a sick boy! Of course we will be tasting different varieties of apples as part of the apple challenge….research of course. 🙂

Have a great weekend.

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Trees Do Fall Down in the Woods

Now this could pose a problem…..a big pine tree down across our hiking trail.

We actually noticed before that this particular tree is *full* of acorn holes where the woodpeckers have made a huge storehouse of acorns in the trunk. We think this is what led to the demise of this big tree. That looks like a fresh acorn inside the hole.

When it fell, big pieces of the bark came off and exposed all the acorn holes. We climbed up and over to continue our hike. The dog decided to crawl underneath but either way it worked.

Further down the trail my son spotted this section of a wasp nest on the trail. These are amazing creations and hard to believe that an insect made this out of their spit and plant fibers. Once again the Handbook of Nature Study helped us to learn a little bit more about the process of building the nest on page 381 (Lesson 95). The whole section is fascinating…here is an excerpt:

“The nest is of paper made of bits of wood which the wasps pull off with their jaws from weather-worn fences or boards. This wood is reduced to pulp by saliva which is secreted from the wasp’s mouth, and is laid on in little layers which can be easily seen by examining the outside of the nest.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 381.

We also noticed these puffy growths on the oak branches along the trail. We thought maybe they were some sort of gall. I am still working on figuring out what exactly they are so if anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate an email.

It is nice to be out hiking again as the weather is cooling down a bit. My sons have been down off and on this week with a cold/flu. Mr. A said it was nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and I know it always makes me feel better too.

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Barb — 10 Comments

Meet My New Friends-The Goldfinches

We have had a hard time attracting goldfinches to our yard. We tried thistle feeders before but the goldfinches never came. I decided two weeks ago to try again and this time….they arrived right outside my window!

I can’t tell you how thrilled we were to see them in the feeder, lined up along the branches, and sitting in the top of the tree. Their bright yellow color is amazing to see flash across the yard and their sweet little song is so beautiful coming in the windows.

Mr. B came in yesterday with a gift for me.

He found a goldfinch feather under the feeder and brought it in for me to see. Doesn’t it look as if someone dipped the tip in yellow paint?

This is going in my nature journal! We found the goldfinch in the Handbook of Nature Study and now we are going to read up on them and do some of the suggestions in Lesson 10.

“Goldfinches are seen at their best in late summer or September, when they appear in flocks wherever the thistle seeds are found in abundance.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 57

Hopefully they are here for awhile so we can get our fill of finches.

Author: Barb