Author: Barb

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #32 Pine Trees

This may be a difficult focus since everyone has different kinds of trees in their area but I am going to attempt to cover a variety just to get you started and to show you how the Handbook of Nature Study can help you in your local area. I used the poll on my sidebar to gather data about what trees would be an appropriate choice for each challenge.

This week we will start with pines since 87% of those polled in my recent survey responded that they had pines in their location. The Handbook of Nature Study highly recommends studying at least one kind of pine tree in the field and then the leaf/needle or the cone indoors, one specimen per child. I realize that not everyone will have the ability to study a pine tree up close so do the best you can. Even if you do not have any pine trees in your area, you can still start to learn the difference between evergreens and deciduous trees.

Here is a link that will introduce the difference between deciduous and evergreens: EHow.Com.
Here is a web page that has lists of pines by region-worldwide! Make sure to scroll down to find your particular area.
Answers.com-List of Pines

Outdoor Hour Challenge #32
Trees-Pines

 1. This week read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 670-675 to learn more about pine trees. Even if you don’t think you have any pines in your area, it is still interesting to read the information for future reference. Make sure to note the ideas suggested for studying pines in the lesson at the end of the section.

2. Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. This week you will have two suggested activities.

*If you have a pine tree of any variety in your yard or on your street, use the ideas from the lesson on page 674 and 675 to guide your observation of the pine tree.
Some ideas to get you started:
What is the general shape of the pine tree?
Is there one central stem running straight up through the center of the tree to the top?
What color is the bark? Is the bark ridged or in scales?
Study the pine leaves. Why are they called needles? How many needles in the bundle?
Does it have a cone?

*If you do not have a pine to observe or you would like an additional activity, take some time to lay under any kind of tree that is available. Look up at the branches. Listen to the sounds of the leaves. Try to spot some kind of wildlife in the tree. Have your children tell you with their words what they experienced while under the tree.

3. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing any trees you saw. Talk about anything that interested your child. Maybe they brought home a leaf or a cone to examine and you could look at them with a magnifying lens. This would be a good time to look up any pine trees you observed in your field guide and see if you can learn more about your particular pine tree.

4. Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you observed a pine tree, try to complete exercise 10 of the lesson on pine trees: Draw a bundle of pine needles showing the sheath and its attachment to the twig; the cone; the cone scale; the seed. Sketch a pine tree. You could also include a leaf or needle rubbing in your nature journal this week.

5. If you identified a tree this week, add it to your list of trees in the front or back of your nature journal. You can also use the Running List notebooking page. Make a note indicating whether it is an evergreen or a deciduous tree.


You can purchase all of the first ten challenges in a convenient ebook along with custom notebook pages.

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Painting Mental Pictures-Trees: Outdoor Hour Challenge #31

Oak Tree Yosemite Valley

I love oak trees. This oak is standing in a meadow in Yosemite Valley. I know this beautiful oak is not in our backyard but it was just such a perfect little scene of things that I had to capture it for my memory book and share it with you too. Charlotte Mason speaks in her writings about memorizing scenes to recall at a later time. This is one that will stick in my memory for a long time. The autumn light and the yellow-green of the grasses made this a perfect painting in my mind.

“The ability to take a mental picture of the beauties of nature is so fulfilling that it is well worth teaching our children how to do it…..Have the child look thoroughly at some landscape, then ask them to close their eyes, and bring up the image in their minds…..In the beginning the children will need help to get them started. So the mother might show how it’s done by saying, ‘Look at the trees reflected in the water. What do the leaves remind you of?’ until the children notice the main details. She should memorize a couple of mental images and impress her children by closing her eyes and describing it from memory.”
Charlotte Mason, volume one, pages 48-49

“Imagine what a treasure they will find when, years later, they are able to pull out memories etched in full detail of the beautiful scenery from their childhood home!”
Charlotte Mason, volume one, page 47

What a wonderful aspect of our outdoor time with our children! We can seize opportunities to instill in them a love and respect for nature as well as give them the gift of wonderful memories.

“Mental picture painting is a game that children enjoy, although it takes a good bit of concentrated attention and is therefore tiring. It should only be done once in a while. Still it is good to have children memorize some scenic landscape images because, while making the memory requires effort, the habit of looking more closely at detail is learned as an unconscious by-product when children are asked to make detailed mental images every now and then.”
Charlotte Mason, volume one, pages 48-49

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Where to Start with the Outdoor Hour Challenges: Update


Updated information is found at:
Outdoor Hour Challenge 2013-2014

Just about every day now I get an email from someone who wants to just get started with the Outdoor Hour Challenges but they don’t know where to start. There are several strategies for starting but I think the most important thing to remember is that one of the purposes in starting the challenges in the first place was to help parents learn to do a simple nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

So my best suggestion for newcomers is to make sure to complete the first five challenges and then join us where we are in the challenges at that time. This is my suggestion for newcomers as well as those that have gotten behind in the challenges.

The first five challenges contain such important information from the Handbook of Nature Study that I don’t think you should miss reading it. Those challenges set the stage for all further nature study and will give you a great overview of how to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

Here is a link to the very first challenge:
Outdoor Hour Challenge: Let’s Get Started

If you have sort of stumbled along the way and need to get started again with the challenges, pick a challenge you can get excited about. Take 15-20 minutes for nature study in your own backyard. Keep it simple and let your child enjoy the time outdoors. If the challenge is completed or if you just have a great adventure outdoors, either way you are successful.

If you need some ideas to inspire you from other homeschoolers, the challenges listed by topic on the sidebar. Click on the topic button, click the challenge you are interested in investigating, and then scroll to the bottom of the entry, there will be numerous links that have been shared from families from all over the world. I guarantee you will find something of interest.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me anytime.
harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/2009/02/announcing-outdoor-hour-challenge-ebook.html

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Milkweed Pods and Seeds: Outdoor Hour Challenge #30


We took some time to observe and learn about milkweed seeds as part of this challenge.

“The milkweed pod has been the admiration of nature students from the beginning, and surely there are few plants structures that so interest the child as this house in which the milkweed carries its seeds.”
Milkweed pods opening
“No sooner is our treasure open to the air than the shining silk begins to separate into floss of fairy texture.”

“…and altogether there are enough of the threads to float the seed, a balloon of the safest sort.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 493

The Handbook of Nature Study has a complete section of information and observation suggestions on pages 491-495.

We are going to plant some milkweed in our butterfly garden this year. I ordered the seeds from this website. We did not gather the milkweed seeds that are in the photos since we were at Yosemite National Park and it is against the law to gather seeds in a national park. 🙂

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Difference Between a Cocoon and a Chrysalis-Or a Cottony Scale Insect!

Updated information-see the edit below if you are interested in knowing the identification of this creature. Thanks to an anonymous commenter!

I was busy watering my lemon tree yesterday and I realized that there were lots of little cocoons on the bottoms of the leaves. I call them cocoons but my boys said they thought that they are a kind of chrysalis. I have never taken the time to learn the difference so it sounded like a good time to take out the Handbook of Nature Study.

“The pupa of a butterfly is called a chrysalis.”

“Many larvae, especially among the moths, weave about themselves a covering of silk which serves to protect them from their enemies and the weather during the helpless pupa period. This silken covering is called a cocoon.”

“After the larva has attained its full growth it changes its skin and its form, and becomes a pupa.”

Handbook of Nature Study, page 296

So I am thinking now that the boys were right and this is a chrysallis of some sort of butterfly. I have no idea what kind but we are going to bring one in and watch its development.

Here is some more info I found online.
From WikiAnswers:

  • A cocoon is a covering made of silk that encloses a pupa, and a chrysalis is the pupa of a butterfly. The chrysalis is covered in a hard, chitnous shell.
  • Note the difference: A cocoon is a covering of a pupa, and a chrysalis is a particular kind of pupa, usually with no enclosing cocoon.
  • Inside a cocoon, you will often find a pupa of a moth or other insect with an inner chitinous shell, but it is not called a chrysalis unless it is the pupa of a butterfly. The pupae of some insects have visible external body structures, such as wings and legs, as they develop, while others (such as moths) have a smooth outer shell that encloses the developing structures.
  • I learned a lot this morning after taking just about five minutes to look up the information in the Handbook.

____________________________________________________________________
EDIT: Someone left me a comment and identified this creature. It is a cottony scale insect. If you follow the link you will indeed find out that this is a female in the immobile stage.

“Adult female scales are almost always immobile (aside from mealybugs) and permanently attached to the plant they have parasitized. They secrete a waxy coating for defense; this coating causes them to resemble reptilian scales or fish scales, hence the name.”

That clears that up and shows you just how much I know about insects in general. I am continually learning.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #31 Beginning a Tree Focus

We are a perfect time of year to start our tree focus and the Handbook of Nature Study is full of information that will apply to a majority of people who participate regularly in the challenges. Remember that a tree may be something commonplace to you but to a child a tree can inspire imagination and awe. If we are enthusiastic about trees, it is sure to rub off on our children.

“Natural is our love for trees! A tree is a living being, with a life comparable to our own. In one way it differs from us greatly; it is stationary, and it has roots and trunk instead of legs and body; it is obliged to wait to have what it needs come to it, instead of being able to search the wide world over to satisfy its wants.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 618

Outdoor Hour Challenge #31  
Trees-Introduction

1. This week read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 618-622. Highlight any information that you wish to share with your children during your outdoor time. Make note of the labels in the diagram on page 619 showing the names of the tree parts. Use these names during your outdoor time.

2. Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. Start to notice all the different types of trees you have close at hand. If you have been following along with the Outdoor Hour Challenges, you will already have picked a tree to study for a year. Do NOT complete your seasonal tree study this week because we will be working on an autumn tree study in a future challenge. Use your time this week to observe trees with all your senses. If you can remember, use the correct tree labels with your children so they will begin to learn the names of the tree parts.

3. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing any trees you saw during your outdoor time. Were there some interesting cones, leaves, needles, or other parts to any trees you observed? Take a closer look at any objects you brought home with you. Parents: Look in the table of contents of the Handbook of Nature Study for any trees you have growing in your yard or on your street. Highlight trees you think you might encounter over the next six weeks. Read the information about one tree you think you might observe later this week or even in next week’s challenge.

4. Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. Let your child decide what part of the tree they would like to draw and label. If your child wants to draw the complete tree, this is a great opportunity to label each part using page 619 as a guide. If you have younger children, a leaf or needle rubbing is a great alternative and easy to complete. You could also think about keeping a collection of pressed leaves. You can use your flower press as a leaf press for this focus area. Use the free notebooking page linked below if want a quick and easy journal entry.

5. If you identified a tree this week, start a list of trees in the front or back of your nature journal. You can also use this Running List notebooking page to keep a record of your trees observed.


You can purchase all of the first ten challenges in a convenient ebook along with custom notebook pages.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #30 Weeds and Seeds

I don’t know about you but my garden has lots of weeds right now. It is going to take some serious effort to clean it up since I guess I have neglected it lately. This brought to mind a great idea for a challenge this week. Hopefully, you have some weed in your yard….or am I the only one?


I had already decided to introduce the idea of seed saving and then with all the weeds, I came up with a sort of combination challenge.

1. Weed study using the Handbook of Nature Study
2. Observing and collecting seeds.

As the flowers start to fade and dry, I try to gather a few of the heads to collect the seeds from. There are some flowers that are easier to get the seeds from and some that seem to not make it through the winter. I have saved a few seeds in the past by collecting the seeds and then pouring them all into a paper bag to sow in the spring. We will consider this a challenge-wide experiment to see what we can collect, save, and then what eventually grows.

Marigolds are an easy first flower to save the seeds from and I collect lots of the seeds and put them into an envelope for sprouting next spring. This pile is about six marigold blooms. They actually need to be a bit drier before I collect them but you get the idea how many seeds there are potentially in a small number of flower heads from the size of this pile.

Hollyhocks work well too but you have to remember they don’t bloom their first year so they are a long term plant in your garden.

I have never tried Morning glories but I am going to give it a shot this year and see how it goes.

If you want more information on saving seeds, there is a link below in the challenge that you can read.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #30
Weeds and Seeds  

1. This week we are going to have a two-part assignment.
Part 1: Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 512-513 on beginning a weed study. This is a terrific section to read aloud before your outdoor time this week. [Note: If it offends your family to say that “nature is the great farmer”, please feel free to insert God’s name in place of the word nature.] Skim down the table of contents in the weed section and see if you recognize any weeds from your area and read at least the introduction material to yourself before your outdoor time.

“A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 512

Part 2: Spend your 15-20 minutes of outdoor time with your children in your own yard or on your own street. Pay attention to two opportunities this week. First, look for some weeds growing in your own garden, yard, or along your street. Remind your children of the definition of a weed and see if they can apply it to your local plants. Secondly, see if you can find any seeds to collect and to observe and possibly save to grow next year.

Here is a website for more information on collecting and saving seeds from your garden.
Saving Seeds

Possible seeds to look for that are easy to find and grow:

  • Sunflowers
  • Dandelions
  • Marigolds
  • Cosmos
  • Zinnias

Optional Activity:
If you want to really find some seeds and you have access to a little open ground like a pasture, meadow, or field, try this activity.

Sock Seeds
They say this activity works best in late summer or early fall.

2. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing anything you found of interest. Topics might include the weeds you observed, the beginnings of the change in the plants and trees in your neighborhood for the autumn season, or the change in weather if you have any. If you are completing the Sock Seed project, spend some time examining your socks before you plant them in the soil. Use a magnifying lens to get a closer look.

This challenge is part of my Garden Flowers ebook. This ebook has ten garden-related challenges that will walk you through a study of garden flowers using the Handbook of Nature Study. In addition to the challenges already written, there will be more photos, nature journal examples, book lists, and totally new notebook pages designed to go with each of the Garden Flower Challenges.

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Late Summer Sunflower Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge #29

We studied composite flowers earlier in the year so it was fun to compare those flowers with the sunflower from our garden.

We also shared some of our nature journal entries with the sunflowers sketched in.

Now we were ready to go through Anna Comstock’s directions for a more intensified study of the sunflower. If you take the time to go through this study, you are going to learn many fascinating and amazing things about the ordinary sunflower. The design of the Creator is all over this flower…I think we could go through this study again next year and still find loads of things to be amazed by.

“…while at the center lie the buds, arranged in an exquisite pattern of circling radii, cut by radii circling in the opposite direction; and at the very center the buds are covered with the green spear-points of their bracts.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

“All this flower has to do is to hold its banner aloft as a sign to the world, especially the insect world, that here is to be found pollen in plenty, and nectar for the probing.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 575

“But the stems are very solid and firm, and the bend is as stiff as the elbow of a stovepipe, and after examining it, we are sure that this bend is made with the connivance of the stem, rather than despite it.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

“They finally become loosened, and as the great stem is assaulted by the winds of autumn, the bended heads shake out their seed and scatter them far afield.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

We followed the book’s directions and found examples of each of the kinds of florets as described on page 577 in the Observations section. We learned so much just by trying to find each of the different kinds and then really examining them. If you need more help, there is a diagram on page 575. We learned about the “community”of flowers that make up the sunflower heads.

Here is one of my nature journal entries that features my sunflowers. This summer has been filled with lots of sunflower times and I enjoy going back through my journal and seeing their progress.

It is a sad time when the sunflowers are finishing up their life cycle. I am going to be gathering a few handfuls of seeds to save for next year’s garden. The flower heads will be left out in the garden for the birds to feast on and then later this fall, we will do our garden clean up and pull out the remains. This is the first year that we have had finches all summer eating the leaves of our sunflowers. It is amazing that those tiny birds can sit on the leaves and the leaves don’t bend over. The finches must be truly lightweight to accomplish this.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their sunflower study this week. If you didn’t get a chance to do it this year, there is always next year! Plan ahead!

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Squeezing Some More Fun Into the Last Days of Summer

There is nothing more refreshing than soaking your toes in the crystal clear water of mountain lake. It is one of my favorite things to do on a hot summer day. We started out at our house with the temperatures at around 97 degrees and by the time we drove the one hour trek up and over the mountain it was around 82 degrees and breezy at the lake. As the afternoon wore on, it cooled to a perfect 78 degrees.

We had some beach time, a long walk, and then we grilled up some dinner.

Someone had piled the rocks up at the lake’s edge and it captured my attention as I waded along the edge. A lone duck swam by and decided to get in the photo for all of us to enjoy.

The pinecones are littering the forest floor and you can see how dry this area is in the summer. Not much rain falls here in this season except for the occasional late afternoon thundershower. Many of the forest animals use the pinecones for food. This forest is mostly Jeffrey Pines and Lodge Pole pines.

We had a late afternoon bbq/picnic that was yummy. The best part of our bbq according to the boys was the marshmallow roast. Afterwards, the skewers were used for a little sword fighting…of course.

I am still working on drawing trees in my nature journal. Each time they look a little different but not quite right yet. 🙂 I will not let it stop me from trying though since I still love the memory attached to each imperfect tree I draw.

We saw many Brewer’s blackbirds with their “distinctive yellow eye”. The other bird that we observed in an unusually large number was the American robin. The robins were actually being chased by the Golden mantled ground squirrels that were running around gathering seeds. As we were eating our dinner, three white headed woodpeckers were climbing up and around a tree just across the path.

The leaves on this aspen looking like jewels fluttering in the breeze. The leaves have the slightest hint of yellow, letting us know that fall is coming quickly.

I am really surprised to see that the aspen tree is not included in the Handbook of Nature Study. I found a great additional resource for California residents to use as a supplement to the Handbook. It is called, California Forests and Woolands: A Natural History by Verna R. Johnston. I love to read the narrative style of this author and the sections are the perfect length to read out loud to the family after a nature walk. I highly recommend it to California residents.

In this additional resource, it has a wonderful description of the aspen tree starting on page 140.

“The most widespread tree in North America, Quaking Aspen in California occupies a narrow zone through the high elevations at 6,000 to 9,000 feet, from San Bernardino Mountains of southern California to the Oregon border. It’s airy, sun-dappled groves enfold white trunks supporting leaves that shimmer in the slightest wind on their slender, flattened leaf stalks.”

The end of another great afternoon was spent watching the creek from the bridge. We were observing the crayfish (crawdads) in the creek and some small little fish. In a few weeks, this creek will be filled with spawning Kokanee salmon that swim upstream. Can you see our reflection in the water in the photo above?

I just hate to see the days getting shorter and shorter. We spent some time outside last evening on our back deck just taking in the sounds and sights of the darkness of the late summer twilight. We heard an owl screeching in a tree in our yard and we saw two shooting stars. The air was warm and we were feeling a little melancholy about the changing of the seasons. My husband and I are both very much summer people so when the change to fall hits we feel it acutely.

We are busy squeezing as much summer into our days as possible.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #29: Sunflower Study

“ Probably most people, the world over, believe that sunflowers twist their stems so that their blossoms face the sun all day. This belief shows the utter contentment of most people with a pretty theory.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

I completely enjoyed reading this section of then Handbook. I actually learned many things that are now firmly implanted in my memory thanks to Anna Comstock and our own investigation of our garden sunflowers.

This week I hoped the challenge would be a follow up to our early summer’s planting of sunflowers. I know many of you have sunflowers happily growing in your yards so this challenge is for you.

If you didn’t plant sunflowers or they didn’t grow for some reason, check you local florist for a sunflower you can purchase and then observe in your kitchen and then dissect as the week goes by. I saw loads of sunflowers being sold at our local farmers market so be creative and see if you can find an actual sunflower to observe this week or next week.

“The sunflower is not a single flower, but is a large number of flowers living together; and each little flower, or floret, as it is called, has its own work to do.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

Outdoor Hour Challenge #29
Sunflower Study

1. This week we will complete a study sunflowers. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study about sunflowers on page 574-578. I can’t think of a better way to study sunflowers than to follow Anna Comstock’s suggestions in this section of her book. Read the narrative and then go over the observations suggestions and decide how your family will complete this challenge.

2. Make sure to spend 15-20 minutes of outdoor time this week with your children. If you planted sunflowers at the beginning of the summer, check on their progress. Observe your sunflowers in the garden. Afterwards, follow the directions from the Handbook of Nature Study for a study of sunflowers. Anna Comstock suggests bringing one sunflower inside for closer observation. If you do not have sunflowers in your garden, check your local florist, farmers market, or with your neighbors who may have a sunflower to share.

3. Give the opportunity for a nature journal entry. Your sunflower can supply the inspiration for this week’s journal entry. You may also wish to check out some of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings for further inspiration.
Here is a link:
http://www.vggallery.com/misc/sunflowers.htm
https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/2009/07/new-outdoor-hour-challenge-ebook-garden_27.html

This challenge is part of my Garden Flowers ebook. This ebook has ten garden related challenges that will walk you through a study of garden flowers using the Handbook of Nature Study. In addition to the challenges already written, there will be more photos, nature journal examples, book lists, and totally new notebook pages designed to go with each of the Garden Flower Challenges.

Ultimate Ebook Library @handbookofnaturestudy