Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Starling Bird Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Starling Bird Nature Study

Inside Preparation:

Read the identification page on All About Birds for the European starling. Advanced students may wish to also read the Life History page, especially the “Cool Facts” section. Make sure to view the images on the Identification page and note the field marks for the starling.
There are several starling videos to watch on All About Birds.
Advanced study: Learn your local birds that are similar to the starling: myna, red-winged blackbird, grackle, Brewer’s blackbird.
Great Information: Discover Nature Close to Home (one of my Nature Book Project selections) – see pages 59-66. This is my affiliate link.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Take a bird walk and note any birds you observe during your fifteen minutes. During the autumn and winter, starlings have their speckled plumage and look like they have white spots. If it is the spring and summer, notice their iridescent sheen. If you happen to spot a flock of starlings, try to count them!
If you don’t see any starlings this week, make sure to take a few minutes to make careful observations of any bird found during your outdoor time. Talk about the color, shape, size, beaks, feet, or wings of the bird with your children. Give them some words to use and have them make a journal entry once you are back inside. Keep it simple and fun.

Follow-Up Activity

Create a nature journal entry for the starling. Use the notebook page in the January 2016 Handbook of Nature Study newsletter if you have access to a membership here on the website. Or, you can create a simple entry with a sketch and some notes.
Advanced study: Learn about how birds sleep! This is something that I am interested in learning more about and here is a great starting point: Where do birds sleep? Write a short summary of what you learned in your nature journal.

I highly recommend the NotebookPages.com North American Birds set for your nature study notebooks. Please note I am an affiliate and have used this product in the past and loved it.

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Year Long Study Winter Season Reminders

Seasonal Topics Reminders – Winter

Here are some ideas from year-long nature study topics we have done in the past:

Seasonal Milkweed Study – with free printable notebook page
Year-Long Queen Anne’s Lace Study and a free printable notebook page
Year-Long Pond Study – with a free printable notebook page
Year-Long Big Dipper Study – with free printable
Seasonal Cattail Study – with free printable
Seasonal Tree Study – with printable activities and a free notebook page
Year-Long Teasel Study – links to images and resources
Year-Long Burdock Study – links to images and resources
Winter Weather

Make sure to add your year-long study to your January or February nature study plans so you don’t forget!!!

Looking for more winter nature study ideas? Check the Winter tab at the top of the website.

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Nature Book Project – 2016 List

Here you go…my Nature Book Project List for 2016. I enjoy having a plan for reading nature related books and this year is a mix of books from my shelf and a few new ones as well. As part of this project, I have created a printable nature book project planner page so you can choose your own custom list of nature books. Print it out for some suggested categories. Please note that the book links below are affiliate links. I own all of these books

January- Discover Nature Close to Home – scroll down in this entry to see the review at the bottom

February-A Place for Birds and A Place for Butterflies

March- A Crow Doesn’t Need A Shadow

April- The Practical Naturalist

May- Break month.

June-Botany in a Day

July- Rockhounding Nevada– this one has been postponed, so no formal entry as of yet

August- Break month.

September- The 10 Best of Everything National Parks

October- The Nature Handbook

November- Bringing Nature Home – this one has also been postponed until a future date

December- Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling

Free Downloadable Printable – Nature Book Project Planner Page @handbookofnaturestudy

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Pines and Cones

This week we will be revisiting two different Outdoor Hour Challenges from the archives – Pine Tree Nature Study and Pine Cone Nature Study. Both of the challenges suggested for this week can be completed in any season and both contain a free printable of some sort to record your pine and cone study. There are links to the ebooks where each challenge is found so Ultimate Naturalist Members can download the corresponding ebooks with custom notebooking pages if desired.

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter Pine Trees (from the Winter ebook)

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Pine Cone Study (from the Autumn ebook)

NOTE: Members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have a new printable in the library: Pine Cone Investigation. Make sure to download and use this notebook page with your older students.

“Their foliage is evergreen but is shed gradually. The pollen-bearing and the seed-producing flowers are separate on the tree. The seeds are winged and are developed in cones.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 674

After reading through each challenge linked above, choose one or two things to keep in mind during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. Enjoy your fifteen minutes outdoors as you look for pines and cones and make sure to show interest in any item your child finds to observe or bring home to your nature table.

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Barb — 7 Comments

Nature Study Goals 2016

It’s that time of year when I am publishing my annual nature study goals for all to see. This provides me with the incentive to progressively work on my goals and to keep myself accountable at the same time. There are no surprises on this year’s list because the simple goals are actually the ones that end up being the most meaningful and reachable. For those that have been readers here for the past few years, you will see a few repeats of goals that have gone unfulfilled and this year I am determined to be better at planning a way to reach my goals.

A friend of our family says to “plan your work and then work your plan”. There is wisdom in that thinking.

Nature Study Goals 2016

Complete 2 out of 4 Outdoor Hour Challenges each month posted on Fridays. I think this is ambitious goal. I will be including our experiences in my monthly nature study recap posts.
Research and learn about four birds. Learn the call, field marks, and create a nature journal.
Focus on learning my local wildflowers. Create some sort of record of each flower. I have not decided what form this record will look like but once I get started I am hoping it will come together.
Take Yosemite photos from the Yosemite photography book- Since this was a fail last year, I am going to aim to take three photos during each trip in 2016.
Visit a new national park. (You can see a list of my national parks entries below.) We are thinking Bryce Canyon, Olympic, or Rocky Mountain depending on which way we head out from California.
Visit two new state parks.
Identify three rocks from my original challenge. This has been more difficult to accomplish than originally anticipated but with a more concentrated effort I think we can really make this happen.
Read 10 nature related books!

I always love to read your goals so leave me a comment with your goals or a link to your blog if you post an entry there. Thank you for always being so supportive of my goals as the year rolls by.

Be Inspired! Be Encouraged! Get Outdoors!

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Barb — 4 Comments

Handbook of Nature Newsletter – January 2016

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter

January 2016 – Birds

Please read the following explanation outlining how to get this month’s newsletter.

The newsletter link is not in this email but will come separately. There may be a delay in your receiving the email so please don’t email me until the second day of the month if you haven’t received the link on the first. For some reason, some email providers take longer to receive the newsletter email.

If you don’t receive the separate email with the download link, you probably aren’t subscribed to the blog yet. This will take less than a minute to do if you follow the steps below.

If you are a subscriber and you haven’t received your newsletter email yet, check your SPAM inbox. Some subscribers have found the email buried in SPAM inbox.

If you need to subscribe:

You will need to go to the Handbook of Nature Study, look to the top right corner for the box to type in your preferred email address, and then confirm the email that comes to your email inbox.
Once you subscribe, you will receive a thank you email from me with the download link.

This month’s newsletter link will be available only during the month of January so be sure to download it before 1/31/16.

Remember! All of the archived and current newsletters are available as part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library…every level!

Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:

Bird related resources and articles with a contribution from Shirley Vels of Under an English Sky.
Starling bird study and notebook page
Bird Tally List printable

Resources for your Nature Library: I have started to build a nature library store on Amazon that will feature by category my favorite nature study books and resources. Take a look and see if there is anything you would like to put on your wish list for your family’s nature study library: Handbook of Nature Study Nature Library Suggestions on Amazon.com. Note this is my affiliate store to items I personally recommend and have read or seen in person.

Please note that Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level members have access to members only printables each month in addition to the newsletter printables. You will need to log into your account and then go to the “Other Releases” section.

Need help getting started with your nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study? Check out the fresh “Getting Started” page here on the website!

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

Backyard Birds – November and December

I am thoroughly enjoying my Project Feederwatch counting this year…we added a few new feeders that are closer to my viewing window and that makes counting super easy. Even watching our “ordinary” birds gives me such pleasure. Here are some images from my counting days of my fine feathered friends.

Finches!

Loving our mockingbird and watching him visit every morning to a particular tree and then to a blackberry vine in the corner of our yard…always sitting at the top.

I caught this sparrow with his mouth full of seed. Love his feet too!

This is one of the woodpeckers that visit our feeders and trees just about every day now. They aren’t very big but they are beautiful birds.

Here is my list of birds that have come to visit during the months of November and December.

November and December Bird Lists

White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
House finch
White-breasted nuthatch
Western scrub jay
Anna’s hummingbird
Spotted towhee
Northern mockingbird
Evening grosbeak
American robin
Mourning dove
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Lesser goldfinch
Titmouse
Northern flicker
European starlings
California towhee
Bewick’s wren
Fox sparrow

What birds did you see this month?

These are affiliate links to products I have used and love.

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Barb — 2 Comments

December Nature Photos

I am sharing our family’s nature photos for the month of December after enjoying the November entry so much. With my grown children so far away and all of our busy lives, this is a simple way we can connect and share our love for the outdoors in a simple way despite the distance. I hope you enjoy the McCoy family December nature photos!

This is my husband’s entry for the month. He really enjoyed the refreshing trip to the ocean and taking a really long walk on the sand.

My daughter Amanda shared this photo on Instagram earlier this month with the hashtag, “I am my mother’s daughter.” Yes indeed. She has a new feeder outside her window and she is enjoying the birds that are visiting. In fact, she says the feeder can be emptied in one day they love it so much! Guess I better send her a gift card for some birdseed.

This is one of my favorite images from the month. I took this through the window of the squirrel eating under my birdfeeder. He was posing so nicely and looking right at my camera. Don’t you just love his little paws?

One last image from my son in New York. They have had unusually warm weather this month…quite the opposite of last year. I love the misty morning view from his street.

Hope you enjoyed a wonderful December and created some of your own family memories too!

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

Winter Nature Study 2016 – January Plans and Ideas

Many people have asked if there is going to be a new nature study ebook posted for the first quarter of 2016. The answer is no…but there will be fresh ideas each Friday posted here on the blog for you to use with your family. I will be sharing those specific topics in this month’s newsletter and providing specific direction on how to complete the week’s nature study challenge as well as informing you which ebook from the archives the challenge is taken from.

This means if you are an Ultimate Naturalist member here on the blog or you have the ebooks from past year’s purchases, you will be able to pull those up on your computer and print the notebooking pages that go along with each week’s challenge.

January 2016 Challenges:

The four challenges are found here on the Handbook of Nature Study, three from the archives and one new one. I am pulling information and ideas from the Handbook of Nature Study book by Anna Botsford Comstock as well as the book, Discover Nature Close to Home by Elizabeth Lawlor. ISBN 9780811730778.

Pine Trees and Pine Cones
Winter Seeds
Squirrels
Starlings

Make sure you are subscribed here and you will get the January 2016 newsletter on the first of the month with a planning page to print and to use with the new challenge format.

This is going to be a lot of fun to revisit many of the old topics that so many new participants have never had a chance to use. Stay tuned for the first Friday in January and you will see how it is going to work!

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Barb — 9 Comments

Nature Study Recap For 2015 – Favorites, Projects, and More

As the end of the year draws nearer, I am thinking about and wrapping up my nature study goals for 2015.

2015 was a year of change and of upheaval in our family…I am not all that great at handling changes so having some nature study goals and a plan to keep myself from ignoring the restorative power of being outside was a huge blessing. I need to balance my life with not only thinking about nature but actually getting out into it on a regular basis. It grounds me. It comforts me. It keeps my mind more positive….the quiet time for prayer and meditation under the sky is one of the best ways I know to keep putting one foot in front of the other when you face challenges in life.

Goals Update

1. Yosemite Photo Project: As I determined in the third quarter, this photo project was just not going to happen in 2015. I’m not sure why I had such a hard time with getting going but I’m pretty sure it had to do with lack of planning. I have a spring trip to Yosemite on the books and reservations made so perhaps I will get my act together before then to actually accomplish this goal in 2016.

2. Visit one new state park: Accomplished this one!!! Sugar Pine Point State Park . We also visited Sunset Beach State Park last month with our boys. What a glorious place to beach walk!

3. Visit one new national park: Accomplished during the second quarter – Zion National Park. PLUS Pinnacles National Park too!!!

4. Visit a bird refuge: We actually visited the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey back in October. I will be posting a complete entry about it soon!

5. Take one new hike: We did a lot of hiking this year but none from the local hiking guidebook that I purchased last year. I realized this also didn’t happen because I had no clear plan…the spot in my planner is blank still. Lesson learned.

6. Read ten nature-related books this year: I accomplished this goal with flying colors! I enjoyed having the books chosen ahead of time and I have already started to compile my list for 2016 which I will be sharing soon!

7. Rock project: None added in 2016. I either don’t like rocks as much as I thought or I can’t convince myself that I want to pursue this goal. But, one of my books for 2016 is on rockhounding and it has specific places that we can visit to collect rocks for our collection. I am excited about this goal again!

8. Create one nature journal entry each month: Yes! Using the Once a Month Nature Journal ideas, I have been able to create at least one page a month.

You might like to read the Planning Nature Study for the Year post from last month for some ideas to get you started.

Here are some of my favorite entries from the year if you haven’t seen them already.

Summer Days Filled With Goodness: I loved this hike that my husband and I took back in July. Keeping a blog helps keep those memories alive and I love sharing them with all of you readers.

Outdoor Mom’s Journal – November: This was an entry all about our trip to the East Coast with our kids…highlight for our year!

Zion National Park: This was a fantastic road trip to Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks! Wish I could do it again right now!

So that ends another year of nature study…now to create goals for 2016! Reflecting on my circumstances in life may alter the goals on the list but I will make the goals and see what happens. I invite you to join me in 2016 with your own list that helps your family get outdoors together and learn more about the plants and animals that share your world.

There is always something new to learn!

Author: Barb