Posted on June 1, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter – June 2017 Garden Crops

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter

June 2017 Garden Crops

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. Members should have received their link already.

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 for the current month’s newsletter.

This month’s newsletter link will be available only during the month of May so be sure to download it before 6/30/17.

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:

This month’s newsletter has the theme of “garden crops”. I have included some fun and simple ways to complete some nature study in your garden.
I have written a new garden nature study idea that anyone can do with their children. It is a simple comparison of three seeds and then growing those seeds in a pot.
There is a chart outlining all of the crop plants that have Outdoor Hour Challenges in the archives.
As always, there is a planning page with simple to use ideas including a crop plant grid study from the archives.

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.

Wildflower Set #1 is found in the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level memberships.

PLUS there will be a new Wildflower set coming out sometime near the middle of June if you are interested in using that for your summer nature study. I will be making an announcement with details in the next week about this Set #2!

As a special promo, you can use the discount code WILDFLOWER5 for $5 off the Ultimate Naturalist Membership.

Handbook of Nature Study Ultimate Naturalist Membership

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

New Printables for Members – Rosemary and 3 Seed Project

New this month in the Member’s Library!

1. Rosemary Study Notebook Page – Use this page for your up-coming rosemary study. Watch for it in the month of June!

2. Seed Comparison – Use this notebook page along with the June 2017 newsletter activity idea for comparing three seeds, planting the seeds, and then watching them grow.

Handbook of Nature Study Members Only Printables List May 29 2017

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Posted on May 26, 2017 by Barb — 1 Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Sweet Pea Flower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Sweet Pea, Dodder, and Hedge Bindweed Wildflower Study

From the Archives and the More Nature Study – Spring ebook

This week we are going to look at some flowers that are featured in the Handbook of Nature Study that are actually vines. Vines are an interesting study to most of us…be sure to watch the YouTube videos to get your curiosity going!

Use the ideas in this Outdoor Hour Challenge to make careful observations of whichever flower you have access to and then follow up with a nature journal entry.

If you would like some inspiration from our family, here is a post from the archives: Wednesday Flower Study – Sweet Peas or this one Hedge Bindweed – Handbook of Nature Study.

If you have an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership, you have access to the More Nature Study – Spring ebook. The challenge in the ebook has custom notebooking pages for you to use with your vine and flower studies.

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Spring Wildflowers

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Wildflowers- Dandelions

From the archives and the Spring Nature Study ebook.

This week is going to be fabulous! We are going to be on a dandelion hunt with our children. This cheerful flower has so much to teach us as we look at the leaves, the flower shape, and the seeds. You can find these little beauties everywhere now that spring is bursting out all around us.

Use the ideas in this week’s challenge to dig into the Handbook of Nature Study lesson on dandelions. Create a record of your observations in your nature journal.

You can see our family’s dandelion study here: Dandelion Morning.

You can also give this challenge a try: Dandelion and Wildflower Photo Hunt

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

Members of the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey levels have access to the new ebook in their library. You need to click the “Members Area” button at the top of the website, sign into your account, and the ebook is there to download and save for your family to use when desired. If you don’t have a membership yet, I am offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.

Discount Code: Wildflower5

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Renee’s Garden Seeds 2017

Renee’s Garden Seeds
2017

When the package arrives each spring from Renee’s Garden, I get a little thrill! Seeing that envelope in my mailbox reminds me that garden time is just around the corner. I ordered my seeds before I knew we would sell our house so a few of the selections may not grow so well in my new climate zone.

I will be sharing my seeds with friends instead. This way I can still see how they perform and I won’t be sad that the seeds are going to waste.

Here is what I ordered this year (free from Renee’s in return for my sharing our results).

Old Favorites:

Pixie Sunshine Container Zinnias

Astia Container Zucchini

Classic Slenderette Bush Beans

Chocolate Cherry Sunflowers

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Baby Belle Mini Snack Peppers

Watercolor Silks Container Dahlias

Snow Sonata White Cosmos

Heirloom Chocolate Daisy

New to Me:

Bee Heaven Container Salvia

Pepperbox Poppy Heirloom Herbs

Summer Splash Marigolds

My current garden is in climate zone 8A and my new climate zone is 5A. Big difference!

“According to our data, you have a very, very short growing season.”

The National Gardening Association

Yep, 53 days for a growing season is very short! We will not be trying to grow things like tomatoes or peppers unless we create a greenhouse sometime in the future. I am told there is a very nice Farmer’s Market in our new area that I can visit to get loads of fresh veggies. I think that is a much better strategy for 2017.

I will look at creating a new garden as a challenge. If you have any experience with growing a vegetable garden with a really short growing season, I would love to hear your comments.

Join us for this new series of wildflower nature study challenges. Wildflower Nature Study Set #1.

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Posted on March 17, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Pansy Flower

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Pansy Flower Study – From the Archives and in the Ebook

This challenge is coming at exactly the right time! Even with the snow last week, my garden pansies are blooming in their little pot. Most garden nurseries are beginning to have pansies for sale now that spring is upon us. With the variety of colors available, you could have a rainbow of pansies for your nature study observations!

Use the ideas in the archived challenge to create the opportunity for observing a pansy, planting a pansy, and creating a nature journal entry documenting your flower study.

For more garden flower challenges, click the Garden link at the top of the Handbook of Nature Study website.

If you are interested in purchasing an Ultimate Naturalist Membership at this time, you will gain access to the custom notebooking pages that go along with each of the challenges in the ebook.

Note: You do not need to purchase the ebook to participate but they are handy to have for planning and for the regular and advanced notebook pages included in each one. Click the graphic at above to go over to check out the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.

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Posted on October 26, 2016 by Barb — 6 Comments

Outdoor Mom’s Journal – October 2016

“Bright yellow, red, and orange,
The leaves come down in hosts;
The trees are Indian Princes,
But soon they’ll turn to ghosts;
The scanty pears and apples
Hand russet on the bough;
It’s autumn, autumn, autumn late,
T’will soon be winter now!”
Allingham

I think October is a very surprising month. It never is the same from year to year as far as weather and mood. October 2016 has been another busy outdoor month in our family because the weather has been fairly mild with some rain but all of that at once over the course of a weekend. This allowed for getting out and experiencing a little fall color in our area.

During the first week of the month, a friend and I hopped in the car on a bright sunny day to take a drive up in the high country and look for some pretty trees. There were some aspens with golden yellow color but not as many as usual. I think our “normal” is changing along with our weather patterns. Still, it was a wonderful outing and we were able to fit in a nice day hike up at Lake Tahoe.

Then, mid-October, we took off in our truck and trailer to visit Oregon again. We had some places to check out and friends to meet up with so although the weather wasn’t ideal for being outdoors the whole time we were in Oregon, we did manage to sneak in a few hikes along the various rivers. Our first few nights we stayed in the Eugene, Oregon area along the McKenzie River.

We camped at Tumalo State Park in Bend, Oregon...a new favorite spot! The camping was so enjoyable even with sprinkles from time time. The hiking along the Deschutes River was peaceful and we went in both directions along the river’s edge starting from the bridge at the campground. There is a wonderful day use area at this state park too and I imagine in the summer it is a busy place! But in October it was empty and quiet.

We also strolled along the Deschutes River right in the town of Bend at Drake Park and Mirror Pond. This particular autumn day was colorful with storybook houses along the riverbank and the snow capped mountains in the distance. Just perfect.

The high point of our trip was a hike to Tumalo Falls outside Bend. It was a misty morning but we still wanted to take advantage of our time in Bend by experiencing this popular hike to the top of the waterfall. The parking lot was empty when we arrived and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We extended our hike up the trail paralleling Tumalo Creek. Amazing!

We were also able to squeeze in a visit to Newberry National Volcanic Monument. More about this in a future post!

Back at the homefront, our garden was starting to show signs of fading for the season. We did a big clean up before our Oregon trip and left just the few things that might produce a bit more (being hopeful).

Now begins the slow slide into winter here in my neck of the woods. This is the time of great activity in my yard, the leaf raking kind of work that just always seems to be calling me. Thank goodness I have two grown men in my house to help gather and dispose of the great heaps of leaf death. Sigh.

I miss the long autumn walks with my kids but they send me images of their autumns for me to enjoy.

Hudson Valley Hiking — Hudson Valley hiking October 2016-from my daughter

So what have you been up to this month? Join me here by commenting or leaving me a link to your blog entry.

Outdoor Mom’s Journal

Whether your family spends a few minutes a week outside or hours at a time, share what is going on in your world.

How Do You Join?

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 week 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….
I added nature journal pages about….
I am reading…
I am dreaming about…
A photo I would like to share…

You can use the free monthly newsletter along with the Handbook of Nature Study book for your nature study. Adding a membership gives you access to the Ultimate Naturalist Library’s ebooks and printablse which provides members with even more in-depth studies each month.

Read more about it!

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Barb — 3 Comments

Outdoor Mom’s Journal – Summertime

If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen some glimpses of our outdoor life this past month. We keep finding excuses for getting out of the house and taking advantage of the summer temperatures and sunshine to explore some familiar and new to us places. My husband has worked in wildland fire fighting for over 20 years so we never really had a “normal” summer where we could take a week’s vacation. Now that he is nearing his retirement, he is making the choice to arrange his schedule to be able to take off a day here and there and even a week for a camping trip. It is wonderful!

I realized as I wrote this post that I haven’t taken a really good photo of us in the kayak…I promise I will this month and share a little about our new water adventures using this slow and quiet means of transport. It makes for some wonderful nature watching!

In the garden….we are experiencing a lot of butterflies this year. My office window is on the second floor over the front yard garden and I see butterflies flutter by as I work. Sometimes I just can’t resist running out there with my camera to try to capture their beauty. This tiger swallowtail was a perfect subject against the bright summertime blue sky. I never get tired of watching these magnificent creations.

Not quite as majestic, but still amazing, are the fiery skippers with their huge eyes and antennae.

We had such a great time learning about the marine snails (mollusks) on our trip to Oregon. There is just so much to learn and my husband has become my most devoted nature partner. We read and explore and then research some more about whatever catches our interest. This is such a great way of learning as we self-direct the topics and ways in which we learn. If you have any doubts about this kind of learning for your children, you may want to try it yourself to see the way it reaches your heart. It is the connections we make as we learn that make the deepest impact on our life. I will never look at the lowly marine snail in the same way again.

In this image you can see the stack of books I had on my desk this morning. I have been doing a lot of reading and research and it really shows in the variety of books that have collected there on my desktop.

I have a pot of morning glories outside my back window and I can see it from my kitchen sink. Every morning there is a beautiful surprise unfolding in the early hours. I love this image of the flower puffing out and bursting open. This is the actual color of the blossom as it was opening today…amazing!

Outdoor Mom’s Journal

Whether your family spends a few minutes a week outside or hours at a time, share what is going on in your world.

How Do You Join?

During our outdoor time this week 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….
I added nature journal pages about….
I am reading…
I am dreaming about…
A photo I would like to share…

You can use the free monthly newsletter along with the Handbook of Nature Study book for your nature study. Adding a membership gives you access to the Ultimate Naturalist Library’s ebooks and printablse which provides members with even more in-depth studies each month.

Read more about it!

Posted on August 19, 2016 by Barb — 1 Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Ant Insect Study

Summer Ant Study – from the archives

Ant Study

This is a topic that never gets boring…ants are everywhere and once your children start hunting they will find more to observe than you ever imagined. Use the options below to complete a nature notebook page for ants. If you don’t find ants, look for any insect of interest!

Printable Notebook Page:
There are two versions of the generic insect notebook page for you to download and use with any of the insect challenges.

Insect Study – record your field guide notes and a sketch
Insect Notes – simple page with wider lines for younger students

For Members:

This challenge was originally published in the Spring Nature Study ebook. If you have this in your Ultimate Membership library, you may wish to print out the custom notebook page that goes along with the nature study ideas.

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Barb — 3 Comments

Renee’s Garden Seeds – July 2016 Results

End of July Garden Update

-Renee’s Garden Seed Review for 2016

Please note that I received free seeds as part of a promotional privilege from Renee’s Garden Seeds. I am going to share my honest opinion of seeds we have used for many years.

What did we plant this year?

Blue Lake Heirloom Pole Beans – So far we have only lush looking plants and no beans to harvest. We planted these on 5/23 so we should have seen some beans forming. I’m not sure what is going on with these.

Classic Slenderette Bush Beans – This are a winner! We have been enjoying this easy to grow and pick variety for over a month now. They are tasty, tender, and I find them super easy to pick. The plants are compact and have given us an abundance of beans.

Pandorino Italian Grape Tomato – I planted these in the wrong spot and they are shaded by the zucchini. The plants are starting to look great so maybe there is still hope that they will produce some tomatoes soon.

Raven Dark Green Zucchini – Yum, yum! We are eating this zucchini every other day now that it is producing. The plants look great and the zucchini is easy to pick and tastes delicious!

Sundancer Sunflowers – These are growing well but no blossoms yet.

Scarlett O’Hara Heirloom Morning Glory – This is such a pretty color flower and it is just getting started blooming. I am going to enjoy it for some time to come.

Snow Sonata Knee High White Cosmos – These are something new we are trying and they look healthy…hopefully some flowers soon!

White Wonder – Heirloom Double Feverfew I can’t find any of these growing in the box…maybe I’m missing them and they will come up later.

Mighty Lion – Butterfly Zinnia Amazing flowers! This is my favorite new zinnia ever. The flowers are so large and orange that you can’t help but be happy when you see them in the garden.

Paradise Mix Echinacea – Butterfly Flowers This is another one that doesn’t seem to have grown.

White Bishop’s Lace- Butterfly Flowers Pretty flowers! This is another new flower in the garden box and you can be sure it will be grown again!

I am loving my garden this year…in the actual square foot garden boxes. The last few years with the drought we have been unable to plant a real garden so this is a delight.

If you are creating a garden journal or using your garden as your nature study subject this summer, I highly recommend the notebooking pages linked below. Please note these are my affiliate links.

Note these are affiliate links to products I love!

Download a FREE sample of A-Z Animal Notebooking Pages from NotebookingPages.com.

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Category: garden

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter – June 2017 Garden Crops

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter

June 2017 Garden Crops

PLUS there will be a new Wildflower set coming out sometime near the middle of June if you are interested in using that for your summer nature study. I will be making an announcement with details in the next week about this Set #2!

New Printables for Members – Rosemary and 3 Seed Project

New this month in the Member’s Library!

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Sweet Pea Flower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Spring Wildflowers

Renee’s Garden Seeds 2017

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Pansy Flower

Outdoor Mom’s Journal – October 2016

Outdoor Mom’s Journal

Read more about it!

Outdoor Mom’s Journal – Summertime

Outdoor Mom’s Journal

Read more about it!

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Ant Insect Study

Renee’s Garden Seeds – July 2016 Results

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!

<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-17884" alt="HNS Newsletter June 2017 cover" src="https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/HNS-Newsletter-June-2017-cover-791x1024.jpg" width="334" height="431" />Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter

June 2017 Garden Crops

PLUS there will be a new Wildflower set coming out sometime near the middle of June if you are interested in using that for your summer nature study. I will be making an announcement with details in the next week about this Set #2!

New this month in the Member’s Library!

Outdoor Mom’s Journal

Outdoor Mom’s Journal

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!

Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter