Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
Watermelon Nature Study and First Day of Summer Notebooking Pages
Watermelon Nature Study Notebook Page: Use this page along with a fun afternoon of eating watermelon to make close observations of the inside of a watermelon. Look for the seeds, the rind, coloration of the outer skin. This is a perfect hot summer afternoon activity.
First Day of Summer Notebook Page: It is coming up fast! Plan a first day of summer nature study session to make some observations and then sketch a few things you find of interest.
(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)
Note: If you have any subjects you would like me to create nature notebook pages for, please let me know in a comment here on the blog or in an email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
Use the discount code NATURE5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!
This week we’re starting to work through the Nature Study Continues – Summer! I invite you to join us for a fantastic series of nature study plans with the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Now that it’s spring, it is so exciting to be starting off the series with a colorful garden flower.
“We call it bachelor’s button; but in Europe it is called the cornflower, and under this name it found its way into literature….Their tubes flare open like trumpets, and they are indeed color trumpets heralding to the insect world that there is nectar for the probing and pollen for exchange.”
Handbook of Nature Study
Use the suggestions in the Handbook of Nature Study linked below to take a look at some garden flowers this week. If you have access to the bachelor’s button, learn more in depth about the composite flower using Lesson 131 in the Handbook of Nature Study.
If you want to purchase the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels.
We had a tease of spring before the cold temperatures crept back in and the rains came pouring down. My friend keeps track of the rainfall numbers and we’re on track for a record breaking year as far as inches of rain. Here in Central Oregon we have a fairly dry climate, some call it the High Desert because of the low rainfall and dry air. You wouldn’t think so right now with the water standing in our yard and the rivers running very high. I’m dreaming of the long, warm summer days.
In the meantime, we jump outside when the sun is out and work on the garden and get out to observe all the amazing things we have in our area.
Here are some nature highlights from our month.
We have two pairs of tree swallows nesting in our yard again this year. We’ve observed them going in and out of the boxes early in the morning and then later they take off to swoop and dive out over the river. They sometimes come back to sit on the fence in the sunshine. They are such graceful and pretty birds and I’m so pleased they are nesting here again.
There’s also a nest up on the back of our bbq house. I noted some dried grasses on the ground behind the shed and wondered where they came from. On investigating it further, I looked up to see a big nest up on the top of the wall. The kind of bird has yet to be determined.
What a fantastic surprise to look outside the other day and see the colorful Western tanager at our bird feeder! There ended up being five males and two females that were enjoying the suet feeder.
We braved the weather to get in a hike at Smith Rock State Park on a weekday afternoon. It’s a very popular place on the weekends, so my aim was to get there on a day and time when we wouldn’t have so many other people on the trail. Success!
There were so many wildflowers to see along the trail and there were lots of birds too! My favorite flower of the day was most definitely the arrowleaf balsamroot that was growing along the ridge of the canyon. There was quite a display of color!
Now for a couple of pages from my nature journal.
I attempted to draw a scene from the hike. The water coming over the dam from the lake and the resulting rainbow in the spray was one of my favorite moments to capture as a reminder of this day with my daughter on the American River in California.
My son was out hiking behind our house in the evening and he spotted a slow moving animal in the distance. As he got closer, he first thought it was a beaver but when it climbed a tree he realized it was in fact a porcupine! I still haven’t seen it, even though I’ve been trying to keep my eyes open for it when we’re out in the evenings. This page is the result of my research in the hope that I will soon spy my very own porcupine.
I’m still playing catch up in my nature journal so hopefully I’ll have a few more pages next month to share. In the meantime, if you want to look at the page on my website with hundreds of nature journal ideas, please feel free to use them as inspiration.
There are many, many nature journal ideas included in the archives of the Handbook of Nature Study newsletters. If you have any level of membership, make sure to download the newsletter index to make finding a topic easy.
“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 576
Growing and then studying your own sunflowers is a great way to learn the growing cycle of a garden flower…from planting seed to harvesting seeds.
Last week, the challenge was to plant some sunflowers. This week our challenge is to make some observations once your sunflowers are blooming. If you have access to sunflowers now, either in your own garden or from a farmers market, take the opportunity to use the lesson’s suggestions to go deeper into a composite flower study.
Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages on sunflowers (pages 574-578). I can’t think of a better way to study sunflowers than to follow Anna Comstock’s lesson in this section of her book. Read the narrative and then go over the observation suggestions.
Don’t miss seeing our images and nature journal pages!
If you have access to the Garden ebook, make sure to pull out the sunflower art activity using a painting by Van Gogh.
With this challenge, we’ll be finishing our official work in the Garden Flower and Plants ebook. If you’ve been working in this book along with us for the past eight weeks, you’ll want to make sure to check if there are any nature journal pages you need to add to or finish up. See page 37 in the ebook for a list of wrap-up activities. Of course, you can continue working on your garden flower challenges and notebook pages as long as you have an interest.
If you want to join us for the summer series of nature study challenges, we’re going to be starting with the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook on May 31, 2019. If you have an Ultimate or Journey level Membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you have access to this ebook and the detailed plan for the summer in your account.
This post is LONG overdue. I’ve had such a crazy last few months that it was hard to put my “Outdoor Mom” thoughts together. I felt more like an indoor kind of mom because of my surgery, recovery, weather, and then having a mom who needed my care. Things just got pushed aside.
Although I never lost the desire to be outdoors, even in the thick of my recovery from double hip surgery, I kept my eyes outside on the birds and wildlife that came my way. Then when I was sitting in the hospital day after day with my mom, I would look out the window and take quick walks around the edges of the parking lot to find something refreshing to observe.
My nature journal has been neglected until the past few weeks when finally things have settled down a bit and I can take those few minutes a week to record my reflections and thoughts.
Outdoor Mom – May 2019
During our outdoor time this month we went…
While in California, my daughter and I took a long hike along the American River. It was very green and there were already many wildflowers along the trail. We must have seen a hundred butterflies as they fluttered across our path and landed on flowers.
It was warm and we were so glad we made the decision to hike early to beat the heat and the crowds. It makes my heart happy that my grown children enjoy a hike with their mama when we can make it happen.
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
We managed a kayak/canoe paddle down the river one afternoon in the bright sunshine. We didn’t encounter a single other person on the whole trip. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy having the river to ourselves but it makes us wonder why we rarely see anyone on this section of the water. On this particular day, we were joined on our paddle by mallards, swallows, Canada goose, red-winged blackbirds, and a heron. All of us are hoping to get together for many more kayak trips over the next few months.
One last image…or two…or three…
I haven’t shared beautiful wildflower photos in a long time. So, to make up for that, here are some from our hike that I love!
Some variety of white lupine
Variety of pink allium
Fiddleneck
Indian pink
Chinese lanterns
Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.If you’d like me to take a look at one of your images on Instagram, use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge.
Want to join in the Outdoor Mom post?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
During our outdoor time this month we went…
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…
“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
Growing sunflowers is one of the most satisfying long term nature study projects your family can do together. After examining the seeds and then sowing them in the dirt, you’ll be anxious for them to sprout and bloom! Put your children in charge of keeping them watered and then when they bloom they’ll have seen how from a single seed you get a beautiful garden flower.
Make sure to click the link below to the original challenge to find the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study to read with your children. Learn all about the sunflower and other composite flowers in this nature study lesson.
If you’d like to see one of our family’s sunflower nature study entries, you can read it here: Outdoor Hour Challenge #29
Don’t miss seeing our images and nature journal pages!
We’re winding down our work in the Garden Flower and Plants ebook. If you’ve been working in this book along with us for the past eight weeks, you’ll want to check if there are any nature journal pages you need to add to or finish up. We’ll be moving on in two week to the next ebook on our yearly plan.
If you want to join us for the summer series of nature study challenges, we’re going to be starting with the Nature Study Continues – Summer Sizzle ebook on May 31, 2019.
If you have an Ultimate Membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you have access to this ebook and the detailed plan for the summer in your account.
Get Ready for Wildflower Season – Outdoor Hour Challenge Ebooks
Are you ready for wildflower season? It’s coming whether you’re ready or not! The Outdoor Hour Challenges will be taking us outdoors from now until the autumn season and it’s so nice to have a library of wildflower nature study ideas at your fingertips for all those wildflowers you may encounter.
I’m especially proud of the three newer wildflower focused ebooks I’ve created in the past few years.
Fireweed
Salsify
Forget-Me-Not
Paintbrush
Common silverweed
Henbit
Cow Parsnip
Columbine
Chicory
Cocklebur
Fireweed
Salsify
Forget-Me-Not
Paintbrush
Common silverweed
Additional Wildflower Challenges
I’ve written Outdoor Hour Challenges for every wildflower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study. You can find them under the “Garden” tab on my website. That’s dozens of wildflowers to choose from!
You can have access to the ebooks in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships.
In addition, there are many other summer related challenges available in the summer ebooks.
“Why do we call a plant a weed? Is a weed a weed wherever it grows? How did this weed plant itself where I find it growing? Of what advantage is this weed?”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 513
When Anna Botsford Comstock uses the term “weed”, she many times means what we would commonly call a “wildflower”. If you look in the Table of Contents in the Handbook of Nature Study, you will see a long list of “weeds” that are subjects of complete lessons in this nature study volume.
From my personal experience, I have this conversation every spring with my husband over whether a dandelion is a weed or a wildflower. He has given me the gift of dandelions in our yard, even though he really wants to weed them out. I love their happy color and have observed many an insect benefiting from our leaving a few dandelions at the edges of our yard. (Read about my “wild side” here: Wild Side #1
and Wild Side #2)
This week click over to read the original challenge from the Garden ebook and then pick a weed to observe, looking carefully for its seeds. This activity can be done periodically as the seeds develop during the summer season. Make it a weed and seed hunt!
We’re continuing to work through the Garden Flower and Plants ebook over the next few weeks. If you own this ebook or have access to it in your Ultimate Naturalist Library, you’ll want to get it out and read the first few pages that outline how the ten week series of garden challenges work together and can be done in any order that makes sense to your family. The ebook has planning pages as you choose, observe, and then learn more about each garden flower you study.
If you would like to purchase a membership so you have all of the challenges at your fingertips and the custom notebooking pages too, click over to read all the details and download a sample: Garden Flower and Plant Challenges.
You may wish to look at the June 2013 Newsletter if you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
There’s a lot of great information on wildflowers in this post that I wrote last year. Click over to find helpful hints for your seeds and weeds study:
Summer Nature Study with the Outdoor Hour Challenge
It’s coming soon! Summer!
I have just finished editing and updating all three of the summer themed nature study ebooks. These ebooks contain 31 nature study topics for you to choose from over your summer break. This is the time of year that you may have some time available for getting outdoors with your children to enjoy the summer season without distractions. Click the links below to see the specific topics to choose from in each book. Along with the challenge, there are custom notebooking pages for each topic which will make your life easier if you are interested in keeping a nature journal.
If you’re new to the Outdoor Hour Challenge, you can find all three of the ebooks in the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership. (See below for a discount code to use with your purchase!)
I’ll list the summer themed ebooks below and if you want to click over to see the specific topics covered, you can easily do that by clicking the book title.
For a complete list of summer season nature study topics, you can click the summer tab at the top of the website.
Use the discount code SUMMER5 for $5 off your Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.
If you’d like to have access to all of the summer ebooks, you’ll find them in the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.
In addition to the summer books, there are 16 additional nature study ebooks in this membership.
This year we’re going to cover the four series noted in the graphic above: Autumn 2009, Winter Series 2010, Garden Flowers and Plants, and More Nature Study – Summer. Click the graphic to read more about the year’s plan.
“To watch the little plant develop, to study its seed leaves and what becomes of them, to know that they give the plant its first food and to know how a young plant looks and acts, are all items of legitimate interest in the study of the life of a plant…”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 458
It’s spring and a favorite garden related nature study lesson is to be found while germinating seeds. This is an activity that children of all ages can do with help. I remember doing this with my boys when they were preschoolers and they were so proud when their seeds grew and then eventually bloomed. Don’t think this is something too advanced for your family.
Take time to make daily observations! The progress can be a perfect topic for a nature journal page too.
Keep it simple and have fun! Your children will gain so much firsthand knowledge of plants and seeds by completing this Outdoor Hour Challenge. Click the link below to get started!
If you’re a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, there are printables in the library for making seed comparisons that would be a perfect companion activity to this Outdoor Hour Challenge.
We’re continuing to work through the Garden Flower and Plants ebook over the next few weeks. If you own this ebook or have access to it in your Ultimate Naturalist Library, you’ll want to get it out and read the first few pages that outline how the ten week series of garden challenges work together and can be done in any order that makes sense to your family. The ebook has planning pages as you choose, observe, and then learn more about each garden flower you study.
If you would like to purchase a membership so you have all of the challenges at your fingertips and the custom notebooking pages too, click over to read all the details and download a sample: Garden Flower and Plant Challenges.
