This is the easiest of all nature study challenges because it really is just getting outside with your children for 15 minutes to enjoy your time together. Take a walk in your neighborhood, a park, or even just your own backyard. Keep it simple and make sure to use the suggestions for following up on any interest found during your outdoor time.
I realize for many families it is very hot during the afternoons at this time of year, but this challenge can be done at any time of the day. It might be fun to take an early morning walk or an evening walk.
If you have access to the Getting Started ebook, there is a custom notebook page that you can use if you wish or a number of blank pages you can print and use instead.
The Getting Started ebook is included in all levels of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, including the Discover Level.
The month of July is typically hot, sometimes too hot for a lengthy nature study session during the afternoon hours. But, using the ideas linked on the planner page, you may find a perfect summer time routine that includes fifteen minutes of nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenges. Keep it simple and carve out the time to be with your children as you explore your yard and neighborhood during July.
In addition, I’ve created a few new printables for you to use this month as well. These are available to Ultimate and Journey level members.
Tree Study Notebook Pages: These beautiful pages are perfect for using after your study of the sequoia, aspen, birch, and spruce trees.
Note: I will be creating more tree pages in the future. If you have a particular tree you would like featured on a notebooking page, let me know in an email or comment and I will add it to my “to do list”.
Nut Study Notebook Page: This is a simple and fun way to pull some nature study into your daily life. Take the time to research your favorite nuts and then make a record of it for your nature journal.
June was packed with lots of outdoor time here in Central Oregon. Most days we were close to home, observing and loving what we discovered in our own yard. But, we also did a bit of traveling to enjoy a completely different habitat. All in all, June has been an excellent month for nature exploring and journaling.
The ocean is a refresher and we were completely delighted with the change of scenery. The ocean waves, the sandy beaches, the tide pools, and the coastal forests made a perfect backdrop for all of our exploring.
Here are my pages for your inspiration:
This is the time of year for new plantings and creating new garden spaces. We got a load of free rocks and used them to begin a new section of our rock garden. I found some plants to transplant and purchased a bit of yarrow to fill in the spaces.
We walk in our meadow just about every day and the purple iris were all blooming the first few weeks of June. I love seeing them as we walk the trail.
Also from our meadow walks, we noted a “new to us” flower, Rydberg’s penstemon. It’s always exciting to discover a new plant to add to our nature journal!
This page is the first of our pages from our coastal trip. I wanted to make some quick notes about a multitude of things we saw during our hikes. I love a good recap page!
I did my best to create a few sketches with colored pencils that represent a few of the highlights from our trip to the tide pool. I love combining sketches and words on a page.
Don’t forget that I’m sharing a nature journal page each week on my Instagram account if you want to see the pages as they unfold. Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.And, if you want to create a page and share it on your Instagram for me to see, use the hashtag #OHCnaturejournal.
Homeschooling for high school using the Charlotte Mason method is a dynamic and living way to teach children. It gives your family room to personalize their learning.
Living ideas are derived only from living minds.
Homeschooling using the Charlotte Mason style is marked by a use of good living books. Living books are books that are written by someone who has a passion or interest in the subject, usually in a conversational or narrative style.
When I homeschooled my teenage sons, I tried to include living books in every science course. These kinds of books drew interest and excitement to the topics we learned about in our science curriculum.
A good living book is worth its weight in gold and can give even the most reluctant student a reason for digging deeper into various aspects of science.
Inspiration versus Information
My aim in homeschooling my children was to inspire a love of learning and not just to feed them dry facts. Living books inspire thinking and don’t just provide information. Think back to when you were in school and you had a true learning experience, one that impressed you and has stuck with you all these years later. In my experience, those times were inspired either by passionate people fired up about a topic, a book that was written to give you a window into another time or person’s life, or when you made a connection from the written page and related to your real life in some way.
It takes less energy to learn something from a living book than it does from a text. Learning takes place without all the effort to memorize and drill the facts. Learning takes place because it is meaningful and you own it right from the first reading.
“A book may be long or short, old or new, easy or hard, written by a great man or a lesser man and yet be the living book which finds its way to the mind of a young reader.”
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Series, Volume 3
Living Books in High School
How to Use Living Books in Your Science Courses
Most of us feel more comfortable using a text as the foundation of our high school science courses. This doesn’t mean that we need to limit our assignments to the text. Why not add in a few living books to supplement your learning? I found that when I left one day open during the school week for a living book reading and follow-up narration, we enjoyed our studies so much more. It balanced out the textbook learning and made it more meaningful.
Tips for Offering Living Books in High School Science
1. Assign a living book each week. I broke longer books down by chapters or pages and assigned a short reading each week.
2. Allow for some kind of narration – oral, written (summary on a notebook page works well), project, or additional research.
3. Look for ways to connect the text to your living books selections by pulling in biographies of scientists or explorers.
4. Create interest in a topic by drawing connects between the text and your nature study.
5. When on field trips, look in the bookstore at the museum, science center, nature center, planetarium, or state/national park for living books you can include in your science courses.
Living Books for High School Biology
“They learn what to observe, and make discoveries for themselves, original so far as they are concerned. They are put in the right attitude of mind for scientific observations and deductions, and their keen interest is awakened.”
Text = Apologia Biology: If you’re using this text, I have written a blog entry sharing how we incorporated nature study into each of the modules in the book. It has detailed suggestions of topics, additional books, and nature study ideas for you to use as inspiration.
This is the foundation of all of our informal biology study from elementary age to high school age. I have written dozens of nature study lessons based on this book.
I have written lots of advanced nature study ideas and included them in my Outdoor Hour Challenge ebooks. My high school aged sons used these as a weekly supplement to their biology study.
Here are particular ebooks that you may find helpful in planning a high school level nature study course. You can click this link to find all of these ebooks: Handbook of Nature Study.
Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer Nature Study Continues Series – includes advanced nature study ideas and advanced notebooking pages for follow-up learning and narration.
More Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer Nature Study Series – includes advanced nature study ideas and advanced notebooking pages for follow-up learning and narration.
All of these ebooks are available in my Ultimate Naturalist Library membership. This membership includes all 21 of my nature study ebooks, 76 archived nature study newsletters, and a growing library of additional printable notebook pages and activities.
Here are the additional “living books” we added in to fit the interests and learning styles of our children.
Field guides for all subjects are an absolute MUST: Trees, Wildflowers, Birds, Mammals, Insects, Mushrooms. Taking the information from a text and then going outside to observe your subjects brings the study to a new level. If you take the time to use a field guide, now you have real knowledge about the real world.
Living Books for High School Chemistry
These books can all be used for narration exercises. My boys kept a written summary of each of the books on notebook pages.
Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History: This one you might want to preview. I didn’t like it as much as some people do, but my boys enjoyed reading it and narrating back to me at our weekly discussions.
The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things.: This is much more than a lab idea book. There’s a narrative chapter and then a demonstration of the concept that uses fairly easy to find materials. Great supplement to any chemistry course you are completing.
Living Books for Human Anatomy
Human anatomy is a fascinating look at our own bodies. Dry textbooks can provide information in an organized way but a good living book will give the student something to think about and to observe in their own body. We have used the following books as the complement to our text.
The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body: My son loves the artwork and the text narrative in this book. Like all David Macaulay books, it is full of interesting facts that are shared in an enjoyable way. My son copied some of the illustrations into his anatomy notebook with colored pencils….all inspired by this book.
I Am Joe’s Body (A Berkley/Reader’s Digest book): This simple book is a quick read but gives lots of ideas and things to think about. It’s worth finding used and having for your high school age student.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: This was one I wasn’t sure about until we received it and read through the first few chapters. I found it interesting and supportive of our Christian point of view.
Exploring the History of Medicine: More like a text than any of the other books, but we devoured the stories in this book. We skipped the questions and used the table of contents as a jumping off spot for further research and narration.
Mr. Fisher says, ‘There are real books, and there are textbooks.’ The day is soon coming when everyone will realize that textbooks have no educational value. We hardly ever use textbooks in our Parents Union Schools. Whenever possible, we use books that spark the imagination and have a touch of originality. These are the differences between a real book and a text book.
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Series, Volume 6
Additional Links to Science Related Blog Entries I’ve Written:
Making Apologia Texts Work in Our Family: My real life experience with Apologia science texts shows how we adapt to fit our learning styles and tastes using some alternative methods.
I’ve long been a fan of the Story of Science series by Joy Hakim. We used these science books alongside our history lessons. I love the layout of these books and the information is presented in a chronological order. I’m including them in this post because my teenage sons thoroughly enjoyed reading these books because of the narrative style and the obvious love for science that the author shares. You could very easily include these in your living books list for science, perhaps covering a chapter or two a week. This would make these books span a few years’ time.
Story of Science Series – link to see more about these books, including sample chapters to download and read.
There are ways to draw in living books to every topic if you search hard enough. Our study of chemistry, physics, marine biology, and human anatomy have all been enhanced by selected living books offered every week for narration of some sort. Some of the books we stumbled upon, some were recommended by blog readers and friends, and some we already had on our shelves; we just needed to get them down off the shelf and read them one at a time.
I encourage you to consider including living books alongside any science text you offer to your students. You will not regret your decision!
Summer and Queen Anne’s Lace just seem to go hand in hand. Although to most of us this is a common roadside wildflower, it has such charm and beauty that I look forward to its appearance each year. I haven’t spotted any on my property yet, but you know I have my eye out for it so we can enjoy it here in Oregon just as much as we did in California.
During this summer challenge, as linked in the archive post above, you’ll be using your senses of sight, smell, and touch to learn more about Queen Anne’s Lace (or wild carrot). Since this plant is not a true native plant to most of us, your family can decide whether you consider it a weed or a wildflower. Some states list it as a noxious weed.
Advanced Study: You can read an interesting article here about the topic of wildflower versus noxious weed: Problem Plants.
Here’s a free printable notebook page for you to use after your summer study!
This ebook is found in the Ultimate level membership for you to download and use with your family. If you would like to gain access to this ebook, you can purchase a membership now and have instant access.
Are you having fun using all your senses with the Outdoor Hour Challenge? Use the ideas in this week’s challenge to engage your child’s senses as much as possible.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy learning about these two interesting mammals that are active at night. We’ll probably be focusing on raccoons this time around since we have some that live in our neighborhood.
Make sure to read the lessons in the Handbook of Nature Study as a way of preparing for a future raccoon or skunk sighting.
This ebook is found in the Ultimate level membership for you to download and use with your family. If you would like to gain access to this ebook, you can purchase a membership now and have instant access.
It’s time to mark your calendars for your summer nature study observations! Whether you are starting a fresh year-long nature study project or continuing with one from this spring, here is a list of ideas here on the Handbook of Nature Study to inspire you. Later this summer I will be sharing a brand new year-long nature study featuring willows so look for that in an upcoming week.
Summer Seasonal Observations
I know summer is a time for casual nature study but pick something to look for and then revisit that topic every season for a year and you will be surprised what you learn. This kind of nature study is valuable because it helps us slow down and note the changes that occur from season to season. It will also help you learn how to anticipate the turn of the season as you recognize the changes in the natural world around you.
Pick one and get started by clicking the link to the archived entry that will give you lots of ideas for completing your own year-long nature study.
This is the perfect early summer nature study challenge! The crickets are already singing in most areas and it won’t be hard to take some time in the evening to use your sense of hearing to observe these interesting insects.
With gardens come grasshoppers and/or katydids. Such funny insects to observe! Can you catch a few to observe for awhile?
Use the information in the archived challenge to use your senses this week with your children.
This ebook is found in the Ultimate level membership for you to download and use with your family. If you would like to gain access to this ebook, you can purchase a membership now and have instant access.
We’ve been watching birds in our yard since we moved here a year ago. We’ve now seen the complete cycle of birds in each season. I’m thrilled every time a new kind of bird shows up at a feeder or within sight of our windows. Now, the nesting boxes are being occupied by a couple of bird families. The tree swallows are the most fascinating to watch as they bring the materials into the box for their nest. How do they fly with those long grasses in their mouth? How do they manage to get them through the little hole and into the box? Truly a miracle of life!
In our garden, we are building…..
Construction has begun on our new yard landscape. We picked the pavers for the walkways and patio so now all we need to do is make a plan for getting them laid. My husband is working part time at a landscaping and floral nursery down the road from us and this is how we’ll finance the bigger purchases of rock, sand, and the majority of the trees and shrubs. It’s been awesome to have an expert help us at least get started with this huge project. Now that we’re underway, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
I’ve had to do quite a bit of research about native plants in anticipating the filling of our garden beds. I don’t want to spend a lot of money purchasing things that will not survive our harsh, long winters. Or as I’ve discovered from experience, plants that the deer will eat in one night. Instead, it makes sense to take the time to find out the best way to spend our money and energy and still end up with a yard that is beautiful and will stand the test of time.
I am dreaming about…..
The promise of another summer season here in Oregon is just about to be realized. I can feel the days getting longer and the landscape is filling up with green things and flowering things and life in general. The river is calling us to come and float on its cool clear water. The sun is warm on my face and shoulders when I’m out in the garden. I can’t wait to be in the middle of July when all my family is going to be around me for a big anniversary picnic!
One last image…..
This is just the start of something pretty outside my bedroom window for the birds, bees, and butterflies. It just makes me happy to think of the seasons to come where I will be able to look out my window and see a little nature looking back at me.
Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.If you would 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…
This week’s challenge is one that we originally had a hard time completing. But, because we prepared ahead of time and were patient, when the opportunity arose to see evening primrose during a hike, we could identify it and enjoy seeing it in person. It really is a very pretty flower!
Do some research and see if you have evening primrose in your area. If not, use the information in the archived challenge to learn about another night blooming flower like moonflower or Four-O-Clocks.
I wrote an entry about planting seeds in my garden to have some of my very own night blooming flowers: Night Blooming Flowers.
This ebook is found in the Ultimate level membership for you to download and use with your family. If you would like to gain access to this ebook, you can purchase a membership now and have instant access.
