Time for poppies. I love it when I see these golden orange flowers along the road and on the hillsides because I know that spring has arrived in our part of the world.
Isn’t this a happy flower? No wonder it is our state wildflower.
From the Handbook of Nature Study, page 565: “The California poppy is native of California; there it blossoms during the months of February, March, and April in greatest abundance. It is found in the desert as well as among the foothills.”
Pages 563 to 565 in the Handbook of Nature Study are devoted exclusively to the California poppy. The HNS also has a lesson on poppies in general starting on page 560.
Now this little beauty was starting to bloom on the same hillside but I don’t know what it is.
This I do know and it is purple vetch….anything purple is okay in my book.
Quote from Muir Among the Animals:
“When California was wild, it was one sweet bee-garden throughout its entire length, north and south, and all the way across from the snowy sierra to the ocean…..Descending the eastern slopes of the coast range, through beds of gilias and lupines, and around many a breezy hillock and bush-crowned headland, I at length waded out into the midst of the glorious field of gold. All the ground was covered, not with grass and green leaves, but with radiant corollas, about ankle-deep next the foothills, knee-deep or more five or six miles out….Sauntering in any direction, hundreds of these happy sun-plants brushed against my feet at every step, and closed over them as if I were wading in liquid gold.”
I can close my eyes and imagine how beautiful a place John Muir found in the early days of California’s history. If you are a fan of John Muir’s, this is a must read book.
It’s Coming Into Focus
1. In the Handbook of Nature Study, read “The Uses of Scientific Names” on pages 10 and 11. Also read “The Field Notebook” on pages 13-15. Highlight or underline the points that you would like to remember.
2. I am going to suggest that you pick a focus area for your nature study. Taking into account what you have close at hand, what season it is, and your child’s interest, look through the table of contents in the Handbook of Nature Study and pick one section that you will focus on for the next six to eight weeks. It might be a good time to study garden flowers (bulbs), wildflowers, birds, or trees if it is already warm in your area. If you still have lots of snow, you could focus on mammals, birds, or water forms. (For suggested nature study rotations using the Handbook of Nature Study, see the Ambleside Online’s nature study page for ideas. http://amblesideonline.org/NatureSch.shtml) If you have chosen a focus area, turn to the introductory page for that section and take the time to read just that page in the Handbook of Nature Study.
3. Take your 10-15 minute walk outdoors. Encourage your children to observe quietly for some of that time, helping to train them to be aware of the sounds as well as the sights of their own backyard. If you have chosen a focus, spend a few minutes looking for an object to study. Be alert to ideas for further research in your focus area. For example, if you have chosen birds as your focus area, you can look for feathers or nests as well as the birds themselves.
4. Follow up with discussion and research in your focus area if you have chosen one. If you have chosen a focus, begin a list of items that you have observed that fall within that subject. For example, if you have chosen birds as your focus, try to identify a bird you saw today, look it up in the Handbook of Nature Study, and read more about that particular bird if possible. Add the bird’s name to your list of birds seen for the term. Please Note: If your child found something to research other than an object from your focus area, be flexible and go with their interest.
5. Give the opportunity for a nature journal entry.
“The book should be considered the personal property of the child and should never be criticized by the teacher except as a matter of encouragement; for the spirit in which the notes are made is more important than the information they cover.”
“The making of drawings to illustrate what is observed should be encouraged.”
Last week I suggested a journal page after observation and discussion. Offer the opportunity once again for your child to draw and write a page to add to their notebook. I have found that if I pull out my nature journal and draw, the children usually want to join me. Model a simple journal entry if you need to. Remember it can be as easy as a quick drawing, a label, and the date. The whole idea is to start a new habit. Modeling the behavior, setting a good example with our attitude, and giving our children plenty of subjects to draw will all encourage them to give nature journaling a try.
For younger students, outlining the object in the nature journal and then having them color it in is a perfectly acceptable alternative to drawing the object. You can also do a rubbing by placing the object under the paper and then rubbing it with the side of a crayon.
This challenge is found in the Getting Started ebook which is included in every level of membership. The ebook provides the challenge as shown above as well as custom notebook pages for your follow up nature journal if desired.
Blackberry vines grew all around my resting spot yesterday on my hike. I decided to really observe them and then draw them for my nature journal.
Here are some leaves that I chose to draw.
After I started drawing, I realized just how many thorns there are on a blackberry vine. There are thorns on the vine and on the back of the leaf.
Here is a close-up of the thorns on the back of the blackberry leaf. If you click on the photo and make it larger you will see something very interesting. Did you click? Did you see the little insects that I believe are aphids? How cool is that?
“The scientific names given to the parts of plants have been the stumbling block to many teachers, and yet this part of plant study should be easily accomplished. First of all, the teacher should have in mind clearly the names of the parts which she wishes to teach; the illustrations here given are for her convenience.” Handbook of Nature Study page 456
In the Handbook of Nature Study, you will find a nice diagram of the leaf parts on page 457. On the blackberry leaf it is easy to find all the parts and now I can name them with any leaf.
Here is my nature journal entry for this plant.
It was a great hike and I will be sharing more of what we saw as the days go by.
March 1, 2008
Dear Nature Friends,
Today we took our Outdoor Hour Challenge on the road, or should I say trail? The last Friday of every month we take the day off from our regular schooling to have a Nature Day. This is something I have been doing all year with my 12 and 14 year old sons. We take the day and focus on some aspect of nature that fits in with our science lessons or our interests.
Please remember when you read my post and view my photos (and a short video) that we have been doing nature study in our family since these two boys were able to walk….a long time. We also live in a moderate climate and have limitless access to wilderness. This hike is literally out our door and a few miles away. On a scale of one to ten, this day was a perfect ten. I hope that puts our experience in perspective for you beginners. This is what your nature study can look like in a few years if you keep at it, little by little.
In challenge number 1 I shared our hike on a new trail…the one with the ferns and the unusual bud. We wanted to take the hike all the way to the river this time so after a short stop at our tree in the woods, we headed over to the trail head. We set off at a quick pace but soon we found wildflowers blooming and of course I had to stop to take a few photos.
Buttercup
I wasn’t able to identify this one yet, need to see it flowering.
We saw our first butterflies of the season, big brown ones and little blue ones. The sun was actually hot and we shed a layer of sweaters and sweatshirts…good thing I had my backpack on this hike. 🙂 We had good conversation as we hiked along. Oh, we saw what the “unusual looking bloom” was from our last trip. It is actually just the way the leaves pop out on this particular plant.
It was a long downhill hike to get to the river, I think about a mile and a half but the hard part is that it was a really steep downhill grade. I kept thinking about the hike back up with great dread. Would the hike be worth it we kept asking?
The minute we hit the edge of the river and I was shedding my pack, the boys excitedly called to me to come over and look at something. I could tell it was something good by the tone in their voices. Wow! A whole pool of California newts!
We spent quite a bit of time watching them in their courtship dance in the crystal clear water. Fascinating and we felt so grateful to have seen it. My youngest slipped into the water with one foot and had a soaking shoe, sock, and pant leg for the rest of the hike. After a few photos and a video, we all sat at the edge of the river and rested and listened and just soaked it all in.
Yes, you can train your children to sit quietly and listen.
The boys were soon doing their usual river thing…throwing in rocks. I sat and worked in my nature journal drawing the blackberry leaves and vine next to me. The boys found a little gold flake in the gravel at the edge of the river. We actually live near where the California Gold Rush started on this very river.
I need to make a note to put a little vial for collecting things in my backpack. This flake was dropped into the rocks and was never seen again. He wants to go back and try again some time.
But the highlight of the day happened right when we were packing up to go back up the trail…..yes, you haven’t seen the highlight yet. The boys spotted a frog that had just jumped out of the water onto a rock. Back out comes the camera to try to get a photo for their nature journals.
While getting a few good photos, two of the frogs started croaking. Their throats blew up like balloons and the sound of it was awesome. Would you like to hear? [If you are on email subscription you will need to come over the the blog to see the video..I think.]There are actually two frogs croaking in the video and they croak at about 25 seconds and 50 seconds into the video. When we got home we pulled out our field guide and identified this as a Pacific Treefrog.
Both boys wanted to do their journals on the newt.
I got a new scanner but I have not learned how to operate it very well yet…maybe next scan will be better.
Thanks for sharing our very exciting “day out” with us. Hope it inspired and encouraged you in to have some of your own adventures with nature study. Our family looks forward to each time we have to share time out of doors. The answer to the question earlier about whether the hike would be worth the effort? Yes, totally and completely. I would go again right now….sore muscles and all.
One last photo of my son and I kneeling over the water trying to see the frogs.
“Outdoor journaling is something a family can do together, and it offers reason and focus for being in nature. Linda Chorice, assignment manager at the Missouri Conservation Department’s Springfield Nature Center, points out that journaling demands no special equipment, only a pad of paper or a spiral notebook, several pencils, and a pencil sharpener. ‘While your journal may never be published as a historical document, it will serve as a personal record of your outdoor experiences, allowing you to accurately relive your memories each time you open its cover,’ she says.
All of these activities can teach children patience and respect for the other creatures on the planet, even if the lessons take a little time to accrue.”
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
Outdoor Hour Challenge #3 Now is the Time to Draw 1. Read pages 16-17 of the Handbook of Nature Study. (These pages cover the sections “The Correlation of Nature Study With Language Work” and The Correlation of Nature Study and Drawing”.) Highlight or underline those parts that will help you understand better the connection between nature study, language arts, and drawing.
2. This week take your 10-15 minute nature walk. If you have tired of your own backyard, venture down your street, around your block, or to a near-by park. Remember Anna Comstock’s words, “Nature study is for the comprehension of the individual life of the bird, insect, or plant that is nearest at hand.” (page 5) Don’t worry about taking any equipment with you this time. Continue working on being quiet and observing things with your senses. While on your walk, be alert to new subjects for your further research.
3. Follow up with discussion and the opportunity for a nature journal entry.
“Too much have we emphasized drawing as an art; it may be an art, if the one who draws is an artist; but if he is not an artist, he still has a right to draw if it pleases him to do so.”
“From making crude and often meaningless pencil strokes, which is the entertainment of the young child, to the outlining of a leaf or some other simple and interesting natural object, is a normal step full of interest for the child because it is still self-expression.” (both quotes from page 17 of the Handbook of Nature Study)
These quotes are important to remember when we are discussing journals. The purpose of a nature journal is to record a memory of the experience and have a place to keep track of thoughts or observations. It can be as simple as a single drawing with a date and a label to start off with.
Discuss your nature time with your child and again try to draw out some words from your child’s experiences. Keep in mind what you read about the connections between nature study, words, writing, and drawing. Your child might need help deciding on a subject to record in their nature journal. You should explain that you would like them to start making a book of with their experiences from their nature study. If they make a page for the book each time they have nature time, they will have a whole book filled with their own words and drawings to look at by the end of the year. If they are reluctant, write down their descriptive words on a sheet of paper and leave a blank space where they can come back later and draw if they feel like it.
Here are some easy ideas for nature journal pages other than drawing:
1. Make leaf rubbings.
2. Tape small flat things into the nature journal. (leaves, flower petals, seeds)
3. Print out a photo that you took while on your nature walk and let the child write the caption.
4. Press flowers or grasses between pages of a book and later add it to the journal. (We will learn more on that in a future challenge this spring.)
5. Outline an object with a pencil and then color it in.
Nature journaling is meant to be a follow-up activity and not a replacement for your time spent outdoors. Please feel successful in this challenge whether you end up with a nature journal page or not. If they don’t draw this week, maybe they will want to make a page next week.
Optional assignment for parents:
Take a look at your attitude towards outdoor time. Has it changed since starting these challenges? Are you committed to keeping up your Outdoor Hour time because you see the benefits stacking up in your family? Have you started keeping your own nature journal or photo album of your experiences outdoors with your children?
I have truly enjoyed hosting these challenges and reading your experiences. Some of your entries have made me smile, or do a happy dance, or even shed a few tears. This is so much bigger than nature study.
I would like to share a quote with you from Laura’s daughter. (The World is Our Classroom) When she was asked to give three words about what she felt on her nature walk, she said, “My daddy’s hand.” Or how about one last quote from Judah (Judahmo) with his three words, “I had fun.” That about sums it up.
This challenge is found in the Getting Started ebook which is included in every level of membership. The ebook provides the challenge as shown above as well as custom notebook pages for your follow up nature journal if desired.
This morning we had our official Outdoor Hour Challenge #2 time outside in the sunshine…we had a whole weekend of rain and wind making the sunshine all the more inviting.
My son found a “huge, ugly, insect” on the pavement and he wanted me to come and share in the ugliness. I am not a bug person. I am an outdoor nature-loving person, but definitely not a bug person. I am learning to not be so disgusted by insects and usually make friends with whatever we find after learning about it. If you are squeamish, close your eyes to the photos below.
It looked like a grasshopper to my son so we turned to the section for grasshoppers, crickets, and cicadas. What do you know? It was the *first* insect in the section. Bingo! Then we turned to the page that gave the description of the Jerusalem cricket and we found that we are within the range and habitat for this insect. After reading the size and brief description, our identification was verified. This one was easy. Insects are not always that simple to put a name to. I must admit that my older son said that it looked like a potato bug. Guess what? He was right too, Jerusalem crickets are also known as potato bugs.
Here is his journal entry.
To make up for the really yucky bug photo, here is one of violets we saw growing in our lawn.
So I think we were successful this week in our assignment. I did all my reading and enjoyed it very much as expected. We actually had quite a bit of outdoor time this past week cutting a tree down in our backyard. We also identified two new birds this past week.
Very little compares to identifying a new bird in your feeder. This one was so unusual that we just couldn’t stop looking at it.
The photo does not do it justice. It is bright yellow, with distinct markings of black and white. It was fairly good size so we got a pretty good look at it.
Although the photo didn’t turn out well, the memory will be forever with us.
Yesterday we saw a bunch of blue birds that we had never seen before. We were out driving in the car when we saw nesting boxes all along a fence. We saw flashes of blue and realized that they were birds fighting, not only in the air but on the ground. The birds were very aggressive. When we got home we pulled out our field guide and identified the birds as Western bluebirds.
I shared the following information with a friend about how I identify a bird by explaining how I identified the Evening grosbeak. I personally like using the Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Birds.
Steps I Use To Identify a Bird
1. When I am trying to identify a bird, I rely heavily on color. The bird we saw in our feeder was a bright yellow so that narrowed it down as far as identifying it. The Audubon guide that I suggested for birds is organized by type of bird (clinging, perching, duck-like, etc) and then by predominant color. This makes it fast to skim through a lot of birds visually.
2. After I look at color and general type, I look at size. (sparrow-size, robin-sized, goose-size, etc) The Aububon guide does group from smallest to largest.
3. After color, type, and size, I look at beaks. This is really easy in the Aububon guide because on the photo pages there are three bird photos on a page so there are less pages to look through.
4. If I hit on the right bird by doing that method, I usually do a Google image search on the internet to confirm my findings. If I missed and didn’t get the right bird but I am in the right ball park, I go to whatbird.com and do a search there.
That pretty much sums it up. I know that others have different methods for identifying birds with a field guide but this works for our family.
Using Your Words
1. Read page 15 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (The Field Excursion) Read page 23-24 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (How to Use This Book) Make note of any points you want to remember. My favorite is “The chief aim of this volume is to encourage investigation rather than to give information.” This is where many people misunderstand the HNS. It is not a field guide but it teaches us how to help our children with nature study.
2. “It is a mistake to think that a half day is necessary for a field lesson, since a very efficient field trip may be made during the ten or fifteen minutes at recess, if it is well planned.” Challenge yourself to take another 10-15 minute “excursion” outdoors in your own yard again this week. Before setting out on your walk, sit with your children and explain to them that when you remain quiet during your nature time, you are more likely to hear interesting things. Brainstorm some sounds they might hear and build some excitement about remaining quiet during their nature walk this week. Take your walk and if they get rowdy, use the universal finger over your lips sign to get them to quiet down. Set a good example and be quiet yourself, modeling how to listen carefully.
3. After your walk, challenge your children to come up with words to describe the following things:
One word to describe something they heard. (For example: rustling, snapping, crunching or chirping)
Two words for something they saw. (For example: tall trees, frozen water, red birds)
Three words for something they felt. (For example: freezing cold wind, rough sticky pinecone)
The point of this assignment is to get them to start thinking about what they see as they go along. Each time they take a nature walk they will develop more and more vocabulary and this will eventually trickle down to their nature journals. If they have difficulty coming up with things to say, help them out with some of your own words to get them started and they will soon catch on. Once we start identifying objects they see on their nature walks, you will be surprised at how easily they remember the specific names of plants, trees, and birds.
4. Optional nature journal entry:
Use their words as the basis for a simple nature journal entry. If the child is too young to write in the journal himself, you can write for them. “Everything he learns should be added to his nature notebook by him or, if he’s too little to write, his mother.”Charlotte Mason, volume 1, page 58.
At this point, you can pull out some colored pencils or crayons and invite them to illustrate their nature journal page if they want to. I always leave it as an option for my boys and I would say about half the time they draw. I feel like the nature walk and the discussion is the meat of our nature study and that it is the most important part of what we do. “No child should be compelled to have a notebook.”HNS page 14 (Next week we will read about drawing in our nature journals in the Handbook of Nature Study, page 17.)
5. If in your discussion of your nature walk your child expresses a particular interest in something they saw or heard or felt, make a note of it for further research later in the week. Remember to check your Handbook of Nature Study index for more information about your nature interests.
This challenge is found in the Getting Started ebook which is included in every level of membership. The ebook provides the challenge as shown above as well as custom notebook pages for your follow up nature journal if desired.
It is my wish to guide you in using the Handbook of Nature Study. This entry will be about how to use this book with objects that you find in your local area that are not specifically listed in the index. I think this is such an important skill to develop.
How about we use some specific examples? Sebastian over at Percival Blakeney Academy found some plumeria blossoms on her nature walk with her children. She didn’t find the plumeria listed in the HNS‘s index. How can we use the book to learn more about this flower? 1. Turn to the table of contents and scan down until you get to “Plants”. Turn to the introductory pages starting on page 453. 2. Read to yourself the introduction on how to begin the study of plants and their flowers. 3. Turn to the section on “How to Teach the Names of the Parts of a Flower and of the Plant” on page 456. This will give you some specific names for parts of any flower and they could be applied to the plumeria bloom. If you want to get some further ideas for studying the plumeria blossom, you could ask yourself what plant or tree you think the plumeria resembles and I thought of the dogwood tree since they are both blooming trees. 1. Turn to the section on the dogwood on page 680. 2. Read through the section and see if there are any tidbits you can apply to your study of the plumeria. Make sure to get to the observations section and use the suggestions that would apply to the plumeria. (Can you see how many petals the flower has? How many stamens has it? Can you see the pistil? Find one of the flower-heads not yet opened and watch it open and develop. Sketch the bracts from below.)
It is not a perfect study of the plumeria but it will give you ways to observe the flower. The Handbook of Nature Study is meant to help you learn to observe and investigate rather than as a source of information. (see page 24)
Want another example? Jessica at Trivium Academy shared about finding a tree stump and how she talked about the tree’s rings and how it grows. What if you weren’t sure what the rings meant and were not sure how to explain how a tree grows to your child? Here’s how I would go about using the Handbook of Nature Study to help find the answers. 1.Turn to the table of contents and scan down in the plants section until you get to trees. Read the list of subtopics for trees and find any that sound like they might help in your investigation. 2. Turn to page 618 and read the introduction to yourself. On page 620 there is a photo of a cross-section of a tree trunk and this section might be helpful to read. There is a heading on page 620 relating the way a tree grows. Read that and highlight any parts you want to eventually share with your children later in the week.
It took me a long time to figure out how to use the book without being frustrated. The Handbook of Nature Study is a wonderful tool in training parents how to teach their children to investigate nature. We just need to be more familiar with the ways to use it in our homeschooling.
“The author feels apologetic that the book is so large. However, it does not contain more than any intelligent country child of twelve should know of his environment; things that he should know naturally and without effort, although it might take him half his life-time to learn so much if he should not begin before the age of twenty.”Handbook of Nature Study, page xiii
We have been counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. It started on Friday and will continue through today. We have had all the usual customers at the feeders and a few surprises too!
The white-crowned sparrow usually feeds in our front yard in the forsythia bush which has a blackberry vine tangled in it with some of last summers berries all dried up and ready for eating.
The dark-eyed juncos are a frequent visitor to our feeders and they enjoy both the platform feeder and eating from the ground beneath it.
The hanging feeders were filled with sparrows, finches, and the occasional nuthatch.
Here is our official bird count for Friday:
5 Western scrub jays
2 titmouses
1 red-breasted nuthatch
1 spotted towhee
2 California towhees
6 white-crowned sparrows
12 dark-eyed juncos
1 house finch….probably more we just didn’t catch them when we were counting
7 house sparrows
Those were in the feeders but we also saw in our yard: 1 American crow 2 American robins
In our travels yesterday, we saw: 3 turkey vultures 40+ Canadian geese 6 wild turkeys
This is a great family project that we have participated in for the past three years. If you miss it this year, mark your calendars for next February so you won’t forget!
