Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge- Crop Plants: Cotton

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Crop Plants #4
Cotton

Inside Preparation Work
1. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 604-608. The lesson on the cotton plant in the HNS is loaded with information about a plant that many of us have never grown or seen in person. Make sure to view the photo on page 606 and the diagram on page 607 with your children. See the links at the bottom of this challenge for websites that sell cotton bolls and cotton seeds if you wish to go more in depth with this challenge and study of cotton.

Now we are working totally out of my area of expertise. I have never grown cotton or seen it growing so we will be learning together. 🙂
Here is a Flickr photoset that you might be interested in viewing:
Homegrown Cotton

2. For this challenge it may be interesting to go through your closets and drawers and find clothing items that are made of 100% cotton. Bed linens are sometimes made of 100% cotton as well. Be creative.

Outdoor Time
3. As a family, spend 10-15 minutes outdoors. This would be a great time to check up on any crop plants that you have been growing in the garden. If you don’t have any crop plants growing, spend your time observing your own backyard and seeking a subject that interests your children. Perhaps you could bring along your magnifying glass and inspect leaves or flowers or insects. Enjoy this time together and remember that the most important part of any Outdoor Hour Challenge is the time spent outdoors as a family.

Follow-Up Activity
4. Allow time for discussion and a nature journal entry after your outdoor time. Follow up any interest in subjects you observed during your outdoor time either in the Handbook of Nature Study or in a field guide. You could also check past Outdoor Hour Challenge topics to see if we have studied your subject in the past.

5. One idea for cotton observation and then a nature journal is to use cotton balls or cotton fabric and view them with a magnifying lens. You can compare both the cotton ball and the cotton fabric and then sketch your observations in a nature journal entry. (If you purchased the Crop Plants notebook pages, there is a place on the cotton page to record your sketches.)

For future reference:
Here is a link to a website where you can purchase cotton bolls for observation.
http://cottonclouds.com/shopping/product_info.asp?id=542

Here is a link to a website that sells cotton seeds if you would like to grow your own cotton to observe.
http://www.southernexposure.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=COTT

Here is a link to a coloring book about cotton: Wonderful World of Cotton

New for this series of challenges are custom made notebook pages for each crop plant we will study. I have designed simple to use pages that will complement each challenge and will be an easy way to start a nature journal. Each of the eight notebook pages is in full color, but they are just as great in black and white.

SAMPLE

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Barb — 6 Comments

Corn Study, Fibonacci, and Our Garden: Our Family Outdoor Hour

We started off our study by reading the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study about corn. There were some great details in there about corn and how it grows and the purpose of each part of the ear of corn.

We followed the outline of the questions on page 603 to go a little more in depth with the ears of corn that we had purchased for this study. We ate the corn after our study and my son described the taste as “sweet and crunchy”.

Here is a little excerpt from my son’s journal page:
“The rows are more orderly near the top and become an irregular mess near the bottom. This is partly due to the lack of space but also because the slight curve of some pushes others over and they push the next and so on. The end has little definable shape but is long in some parts and stops short in other rows. ”

Closely examining the ear of corn was really quite amazing, proving once again how taking a few concentrated minutes to study something commonplace produces a whole new appreciation for its beauty and design. We started wondering if corn follows the idea of a Fibonacci number or sequence and we did a little research.

We are constantly amazed at the design that our loving Creator has put before us if we only take the time to really see and appreciate.

Okay, back to our study. We germinated some corn kernels as part of our weekly nature study and we were all surprised that in a matter of days we had real corn plants growing. I unzipped the bag to allow the stems to poke out and they have continued to grow. The photo above is after five days of germination. I highly recommend this easy experiment as a way to see the process of growth. (The instructions are in the original challenge.)

We also planted some corn in our garden at the beginning of the crop plant challenges a few weeks ago. They are starting to get taller each day. I think we planted too many in our square foot…we shall see.

While we were out in the garden we noticed that our winter squash is finally forming.

We have two plants with about three squashes each so that will be a good crop for a first try.

Another new plant in our flower garden is the gladiola.

I planted shades of purple and they are gorgeous.

The glads are starting and the hydrangeas are fading. They are still very pretty even if their color is not as vivid. I am going to cut a bunch and keep them for dried flower arrangements.
Crop Plants Notebook Pages – Companion to the Crop Plants Challenges

Custom made notebook pages for each crop plant challenge. I have designed simple to use pages that will complement each challenge and will be an easy way to start a nature journal. Each of the eight notebook pages is in full color, but they are just as great in black and white. These notebook pages can be purchased for $2.50. View a SAMPLE

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Sweet Blackberry Days of Summer

The time is here! Blackberries are ripe and we picked a bucket full for jelly making. My dad has an area down by his creek that is full of blackberries. He even trimmed up the bushes to make the picking easier.

I had a helper who wasn’t afraid to get stuck with the thorns and that made it go really fast. My arms are scratched up from leaning over into the patch but that is where all the really juicy ones are, of course.

We brought our berries home and made six pints of jelly and now they are sitting on my shelf just waiting for some homemade biscuits. I love opening a jar in the middle of winter and remembering the sweet blackberry days of summer.

Next up in the canning department…plum jam! It will be here pretty soon.

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants-Corn

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Crop Plants #3
Corn and Maize

This week we are going to learn about corn and hopefully you will be able to observe an ear of corn up close. In addition to learning about corn, do your best to spend some time outdoors enjoying the summer weather. If it is too hot in the afternoons, try going outside in the early morning right after breakfast or in the evening and see if that makes it more enjoyable for your family.

Inside Preparation Work
1. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 598-604. Highlight any facts about corn that can be shared with your children during the follow-up activity.

Suggested activity:
“Corn should be germinated between wet blotters in a seed testing experiment before observations are made on the growing corn of the fields.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 601

Follow the same procedure that you did with the bean germination to germinate a few kernels of corn. The Germinator
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/germinator.html
(This project was a part of Outdoor Hour Challenge #19 and the Bean Challenge.)

Outdoor Time
3. For this challenge, spend 10-15 minutes outdoors. Afterwards, you might include a trip to the grocery store to pick out some ears of corn to observe and then to eat at a meal. Check on any seeds or plants that you have in your garden for the challenges. Keep your eyes out for some clover if you have not had the chance to study some up close yet.

Follow-Up Activity
4. Allow time for discussion and a nature journal entry after your outdoor time. Follow up any interest in any subjects you observed during your outdoor time. You can use the questions in the Handbook of Nature Study on page 603 to help you observe an actual ear of corn.

5. Prepare corn for eating and enjoy! You may want to pop some corn and have a popcorn feast as well. You may wish to view this YouTube video about popcorn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lKV02JzPc

We are thinking about growing some popcorn next year. Here is a link with some information:
http://howtogardenguide.com/2008/03/05/growing-popcorn-how-to-grow-popcorn-in-your-garden/

SAMPLE

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Barb — 14 Comments

Great Sunflower Project

Today we did some observations as part of the Great Sunflower Project. We signed up earlier in the year to participate and they sent us some seeds to plant in our garden. Our job was to observe the sunflowers once they bloom and count how many bees visited our flowers. You are asked to observe until you see five bees or for thirty minutes.

We did not have to wait even a minute before we saw our first bee! We had five bees observed in less than five minutes.

Here is one sunflower that is just unfolding its bloom. I love the way it looks.

I love the patterns in this sunflower. You can really see how it is a composite flower with its rays and florets.

This bee couldn’t wait for the sunflower to open…he had to push his way into the inside to reach the pollen.

Have you ever seen so much pollen on a bee before? I couldn’t stop watching this guy and his overloaded pollen sacs. Wow! He is one busy bee.

This is my favorite sunflower in the whole garden. We grew it from a seed saved from last year and it is a Mammoth Sunflower. It is really tall and the bloom is huge.

This is my son who is six feet tall….he is dwarfed by this sunflower. Look at how large the leaves are!

This is what the finches are doing to the leaves. They sit and nibble every afternoon. I guess there is enough to share.

This is a really fun and easy project. Check out the Great Sunflower Project for your family next year.

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

New Outdoor Hour Challenge Ebook! Garden Flowers

This ebook contains the Garden Flower Challenges as well as the Sunflower Challenges for a total of ten challenges! (Challenges 12-19 and 29-30)

Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the Garden Flower and Plant Challenges ebook:

“The Outdoor Hour Challenges are different from any other nature study program. These challenges are written for the parent, encouraging them to involve the whole family in nature study.

All ages will benefit from working through these garden challenges.Gardening, especially with flowers, introduces children to a whole world to explore. Within the garden realm lies not only beauty in shapes and colors but also a complex web of life. From seed back to seed again, the flower’s growing cycle will continue and our children will begin to understand the role of seeds, flowers, and plants in nature. This truly is nature study that can be done right outside your own back door. “

What is Included in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Garden Flower and Plant Ebook

Ten Garden Flower and Plant Challenges
One suggested field trip
Two art projects
Four garden projects
Ten custom notebook pages
Lots of photos and examples from our nature journals
Additional materials and resources
Links to various types of nature study information that will help you complete the challenges
Tips and ideas from the Handbook of Nature Study blog
Links to my YouTube videos
Larger photos and nature journal examples
Sample: Gardens Ebook Sample

I listened to the families that reviewed the first Outdoor Hour Challenge eBook and included even more photos…larger than before. I have kept the same simple format with lots of suggestions and examples. I have made even more connections between the challenges and the notebook pages and I hope these pages help you get started with your nature journals in a painless way.

This ebook is appropriate for families with children of all ages and you can adapt any of the challenges to your particular locality. You can complete the challenges in any order and they are written so that you can have the flexibility to have a focus on garden flowers but still enjoy and learn about whatever kind of nature captures your child’s interest.

This is a book that will appeal to families that are just starting out with gardening as well as veteran gardeners. I am hoping that this ebook will arouse a passion for nature by observing the plants and flowers right in your backyard or neighborhood.

You can use this book at any time of the year with any flowers you have in your local area. You do not have to plant the flowers from seeds, but you can visit your local nursery and purchase a flower in a pot if you prefer. You can also use flowers in your local park or neighborhood to observe and study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

My sincere hope is that this new Outdoor Hour Challenge ebook will be an inspiration and a guide to many families in the coming months.

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Posted on July 27, 2009 by Barb — 9 Comments

Yosemite Amazes Me

We had a great camping/hiking trip to Yosemite National Park…it was a little bit hot in the valley so we tried to stay cool by hiking up in the high country, swimming in the river, and generally keeping to early morning hikes and activities.

Here are a bunch of photos in random sort of order just because I don’t feel like moving them around now that I uploaded them to Blogger. (Some might call that lazy…)

The meadows were filled with wildflowers and it was a feast for the eyes as you hiked along. This lovely bunch of flowers was at McGurk Meadow. This place is along Glacier Point Road and is about a three mile round trip hike from the road. The insects are thick but if you keep moving they pretty much leave you alone. The Indian Paintbrush was the predominant flower on this day.

The California Coneflowers were in full bloom at Crane Flat and this one was as big as my hand. It almost looks like a flat sunflower it was so big.

One of the many nature journal entries that we worked on back at camp. The Locoweed was thick at Crane Flat and it was fun to sketch and paint.

How about this wildflower? Elephant’s Head was blooming alongside Lukens Lake.

Here is Lukens Lake on a summer morning. The hike from Tioga Pass Road to the lake is about 1.5 miles and it is worth the effort. It has a beautiful meadow that you could hike across until last year when they closed it for restoration. You now walk alongside the lake the whole way and can only see the meadow from a distance.

Nothing like a swimming hole in the high country on a hot summer day. We were hiking along the John Muir Trail when we stopped to listen to the water falling down the rocks into the pool. Some fellow hikers tried to convince us to jump in but I knew the water was ice cold. We did end up taking our boots and socks off and sitting with our feet dangling in. It is amazing how fast your feet go numb in the icy waters. This is the Tuolumne River just outside Tuolumne Meadows hiking towards Rafferty Creek.

Here is another high country lake with crystal blue waters. We ate lunch one hot afternoon here and there really were quite a number of other folks around…some kayaking, some swimming, some wading in and cooling off, and some like us just enjoying the view.

This is actually just behind our campsite at Crane Flat. The meadow is in full bloom right now and it is tempting to walk out there and take photos. I did obey the sign and we stayed off the meadow. We did see a bear coming out of the meadow a short way from here but it was busy trotting off somewhere and didn’t even notice us.

Now this flower I knew! Mariposa Lily and there were quite a few growing in a bunch alongside the trail at McGurk Meadow. It is just so perfect. Sigh.

Here is another photo of the meadow as we hiked along. The meadow was damp and it made it sort of steamy in the sun. Hiking in the shade wasn’t so bad but out in the bright sunshine we got a bit hot….okay, we got sweaty. It was a good thing we had packed lots of water and Gatorade to drink.

These blue butterflies were landing on the damp ground. I learned from Casey’s blog that they call this puddling. They were definitely landing in the moist earth of the meadow and staying there awhile. It made a great chance for me to snap a few photos.

The star wildflower on this trip was the Indian Paintbrush. We all agreed it was our favorite flower in the meadow.

This trip was a boys trip and my dear husband decided to teach the boys to whittle. He had purchased each of them their own knives and presented them to each one once we set up camp. It must be a guy thing. 🙂

Here is dad giving them a lesson on safety and how to use the knife to whittle. They whittled the afternoon away and I finished reading two good books.

It was a great July vacation and we already have plans to go back next year. The boys have plans to hike to the top of Half Dome. I told them that they could go and I would stay behind and have dinner ready when they got down. 🙂

I am not really all that great with heights and since they are both teens now, they are eager to test their strength on a long, strenuous hike. Their dad is undecided about whether he wants to try it or not….we have some time to think about it.

Hope you enjoyed some scenes from our trip….grab the chance to go to Yosemite if you ever come this way.
I recently added a Squidoo Lens on Yosemite books: Yosemite for Families

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Barb — 7 Comments

Beans! Outdoor Hour Crop Plant Study

We grow beans every year in our summer garden. There is nothing like freshly picked beans to complement a summer dinner. It is one vegetable that everyone in our family loves.

My dad is a big time gardener and he has a *ton* of green beans this year. He picks them every day and has a full basket. This is a photo of a part of his garden. In the foreground are his pumpkins, then zucchini, and in the way back…green beans and tomatoes. On the right side he has okra, chard, and eggplant.

You cannot see it in this photo but he has an electric fence around the garden to keep out the deer. He still had trouble with gophers so he had to dig up all his garden beds this last winter and put mesh in the bottom of every single box. The gophers still dig in the garden but they can’t get up into the veggies.

The variety of beans that we are growing, in the photo above, has a pretty little flower and the bean itself has a purple/blue tint to it. They don’t get as long as the beans we usually grow but they are tender and sweet

Speaking of a pretty flower…how about this eggplant blossom? My dad is growing a row of Japanese eggplant. I hope he shares.

He was willing to share this zucchini that became a monster. 🙂 I regularly get zucchini and green beans from him since his plants are producing earlier and with more vigor than those in my garden for some reason.

Our garden is a blaze with colors and it is such a joy to sit outside and enjoy all the growing things and blooming things. The gladiolas are not blooming yet…they are something new this year so I am anxious to see how they do.

We did not sow any bean seeds this week as part of the challenge but we did soak some and then cut them open and look at the parts. This was the subject of our nature journal.

Did you eat green beans this week? We did!

I wasn’t so sure when we started these Crop Plant Outdoor Hour Challenges that I was going to enjoy them, but now that we are into the study I think my whole family is learning more than we thought we would….focus, it is all about focus. 🙂

Crop Plants Notebook Pages – Companion to the Crop Plants Challenges

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Barb — 9 Comments

Nature Notebooks-Like a Travel Journal

“Nature notebooks, which started with our P.U.S. (Parents Union Schools) have become like travel records and journals for students. They keep notes about all their finds: birds, flowers, fungus, mosses are described and sketched every season in the same way that Gilbert White did. A nature notebook can be kept by anyone anywhere. It can be used to record stars on their course in the heavens, or a fossil of an anemone on the beach at Whitby. These notebooks help to make science come alive and relate to the common man. Science should not be taught merely as a utilitarian means of preparing students for a career!”
Charlotte Mason, volume 6, page 223

I was reading through volume six of Charlotte Mason’s books this week and found this gem of a quote about nature journals. I am in total agreement with her about the nature journal becoming a travel journal for our children as well as for ourselves.

We have traveled with our journals for many years and it is enjoyable to look back at the entries from places far from home with fond memories.

Here are some examples:

Trip to Makaha, Hawaii….homeschooled while we were there for two weeks. Awesome experience for the boys.

Another journal drawing from the Makaha trip.

Yellowstone National Park and a day at the river that we all remember with our journal entries. I can’t explain how taking the time to journal a day is so powerful. It seems to blaze it into your memory so that years later….many years later in this case, we can all remember exactly what we did on that hot summer afternoon. This entry is from my oldest son’s journal.

This journal was done on a trip to Arizona. We had visited the Sonoran Desert Museum outside of Tucson and we saw three different owls that my son recorded in his journal.

Closer to home, this journal entry was done on a family hike to Eagle Lake. I remember that even my husband journaled on this day and it was great to see his experiences. This is my pen and watercolor sketch of the event.

This one I shared this entry not too long ago but it is another great way to document a trip in a nature journal. My son and I journaled on the same page and it is one of my favorite entries in my current journal. I know I will always look back on this page and remember the afternoon that we spent at Curry Village sketching and having a snack. Thanks Mr. B.

One last one from a trip we took a few years ago to the redwoods. It was our first time visiting Redwoods National Park and we made time for several entries while we were there. This particular entry reminds me that these were the falls that the boys climbed up and found their very first banana slug. They made me climb up the waterfall to take a photo of it for them. 🙂

Take your journals with you when you travel. Take time to sketch!

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Out on the Bike Trail Again

It was a hot summer day at our house and we were trying to think of ways to escape the heat. We decided to head up the mountain where it was about twenty degrees cooler and take a bike ride and have a picnic. (Another very crooked horizon in this photo….I had my little camera and the viewing screen is nothing but glare sometimes in the bright sun so I have no idea if what I am shooting is crooked or not.)

The trail was fairly crowded with others that shared our idea to cool off. We pedaled about eight miles round trip but since the temperatures were so much cooler, it was very enjoyable.

We mostly stayed in the forest but at one point we veered over to the lake and sat in the shade and had a drink.

Along the trail there were patches of Indian Paintbrush blooming like orange pokers tucked in and around the green grasses.

This pretty pink flower was blooming as well.

This was the first time I noticed this particular sign on a tree near where we stopped to picnic. I thought the graphic was rather clever.

It just so happened that this guy was trying to find a meal as well. He checked out under our table but then decided to dig little holes to see what he could munch on.

I actually was able to get rather close to take this photo since he was occupied with something tasty. He is a Golden-mantled ground squirrel….which looks like a chipmunk but with no stripes on his head.

We had a very refreshing day on the bike trail and there were plenty of interesting things to keep us entertained.

Author: Barb

Outdoor Hour Challenge- Crop Plants: Cotton

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Crop Plants #4
Cotton

Corn Study, Fibonacci, and Our Garden: Our Family Outdoor Hour

Sweet Blackberry Days of Summer

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants-Corn

Great Sunflower Project

New Outdoor Hour Challenge Ebook! Garden Flowers

Yosemite Amazes Me

Beans! Outdoor Hour Crop Plant Study

Nature Notebooks-Like a Travel Journal

Out on the Bike Trail Again

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!

Outdoor Hour Challenge Crop Plants #4 Cotton

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Crop Plants #4
Cotton