Category: Getting Started

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Updated: How To Get Started With The Outdoor Hour Challenge

 

Outdoor Hour button
Step By Step Instructions for the Outdoor Hour Challenge
Updated June 2016
  • Receive my monthly newsletter on the 1st of the month (subscribers to the Handbook of Nature Study blog).
  • In the newsletter, view the printable Planning Page for the four topics for the up-coming month. If the topic is from the archives, I provide the link to the challenge on my blog and the link to the ebook it is from if applicable.This way you can prepare for the challenges ahead of time if you wish. The challenges are going to be topical and not seasonal.
  • If you own the applicable ebooks, you can open those and print the coordinating notebook pages to use during the month. This is not required but would supplement the current month’s work.
  • Print any activities from the newsletter that you wish to complete during the month.
  • Read my blog each Friday for additional supplementary ideas, activities, or printables that coordinate with the month’s topics. Please note that the challenges can be done at any time that is convenient for your family…even months later. For instance, the topic for September is insects but if in November you come across an interesting insect, go ahead and come back to the September challenges and complete them with your November insect.
  • Complete the challenges at your own pace.

Big Picture
The newsletter will focus on a specific topic of study from the Handbook of Nature Study. But, there will always be general ideas for study as well so you will find at least one challenge a month to fit any area, any season, and any age level. During months where the challenges offered fit your family’s interest and habitat, you can complete all four challenges if you desire or if you find that you can’t locate the current topic you may only complete one or two of the more general challenges. I hope that each family will find something to encourage them in their efforts to get outside as a family each month.

 

Getting Started Cover Button

Resources Needed:

  1. Monthly Newsletter so you have the topic, the challenge ideas ahead of time, and the newsletter printables.***
  2. Handbook of Nature Study book by Anna Botsford Comstock – I recommend the edition with the butterflies on front: Handbook of Nature Study.
  3. Highly recommended: An Ultimate Naturalist Library membership so you will have access to every challenge we cover during the year.
  4. Highly recommend: Nature journal or nature notebook.

Ultimate Naturalist Library @handbookofnaturestudy

 

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Getting Started With The Outdoor Hour Challenge Ebook Promotion

Important Information: 
This is a long entry but if you have any inkling that you will be joining us for the 
Outdoor Hour Challenge this year, 
please take a few minutes to read about how the whole thing is going to work.

I know there are a lot of readers of this blog that read my entries and then feel like they can’t do nature study for one reason or another. I know there are families that start off great and then loose steam. I know there are moms who just are not “nature” oriented and don’t enjoy the more difficult side of nature study like the hot/cold weather, bugs, dirt, and fear that their children are going to ask them questions they don’t know the answers to.

I would like to encourage all of you to just do what you can and try to accomplish a little outdoor time each week with your children. The purpose of this blog is to encourage you with some suggested ideas, help you learn how to use the Handbook of Nature Study, and to share with you some inspiration from other families around the world who have a desire just like you do to offer the important gift of outdoor time with your children.

To help you with your family nature study, I am starting a new chapter in the Handbook of Nature Study blog adventure. We will be using the monthly newsletters, posts from the archives, and general nature study challenges to encourage everyone from beginner to veteran to try some weekly or monthly nature study. I have lots and lots of fun ideas and free printables just waiting to share with you each Friday. The newsletter will outline the main topic for the month and give you suggested challenge ideas to apply in your family (more on that in next Monday’s post).

As another new feature of the Outdoor Hour Challenge posts each Friday,  I will be outlining a suggestion for using the Outdoor Hour Challenge Getting Started Ebook. I know many of you own this ebook already and perhaps started off using it in the beginning of your nature study journey but I am now going to show you how to use the resources in that book to enhance the current challenges. I will refer to specific challenges and notebook pages that you can use each week, making the Getting Started Ebook an integral part of your current nature study activities. You have it on your shelf…why not use it to your advantage?

 
If ever there were a time to join in with the Outdoor Hour Challenge, 
this would be it. 
It is clean slate time and we will all be starting fresh. 

Blog Logo 1
Discount Promo Has Ended: For the first time ever, I am offering the Outdoor Hour Challenge Getting Started Ebook at a special discounted promotional price for one week only. If you do not own this book already, now is the time to get a copy to use with our weekly challenges and then to continue using as you work your way from season to season.

Special Discounted Price – $6.95. 
Promo Has Ended

I will be referring to other challenges from the seasonal ebooks but the Getting Started ebook is going to take a special spot in every weekly challenge plan.

Click over to the Getting Started Page and you can take advantage of this special offer from now until the end of the month (midnight 8/31/12).

Make sure to read the post on Monday, August 27, 2012. 
I will be giving you step by step instructions for the new and improved Outdoor Hour Challenge. 
What You Can Do To Help Me

Now, tell me in a comment if you have a particular reason you have not started with nature study or you started off great and then let it drop. I will attempt in future posts to address your reasons and your particular situations. Plus I just like to hear your comments and get to know you all better. I loved hearing your thoughts when I did my blog survey a few months ago. You can leave an anonymous comment on this blog if you are too shy to use your name. 🙂

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Outdoor Hour Challenges – Getting Started With Nature Study

Getting Started Outdoor Hour Challenge ebook

Getting Started Challenges 1-10 – Now there is a second edition available!

#1 Let’s Get Started
#2 Using Your Words
#3 Now Is The Time To Draw
#4 It Is Coming Into Focus
#5 Keeping a List
#6 Collections
#7 Your Own Field Guide
#8 Magnifying Lens
#9 One Small Square
#10 Picnic

Tips for Getting Started with the Outdoor Hour Challenge:

  • I always suggest that families start with the first ten Outdoor Hour Challenges, making sure to read the pages in the introduction of the Handbook of Nature Study as suggested in each challenge. Anna Botsford Comstock’s words there are what created in me a better method of teaching “nature study”.
  • If you would like to try out some simple nature study ideas, you can access the first ten Outdoor Hour Challenges linked above. These challenges are also in the Getting Started ebook which is included in every level of membership. The ebook includes corresponding custom notebook pages to use in your nature journal for each challenge.
  • You can see and download a sample challenge and notebook pages: OHC Getting Started Ebook Sample.

Handbook of Nature Study Ultimate Naturalist Library

What To Do After You Complete the First Ten Challenges

Keep your nature study rolling after the first ten challenges by joining us in our weekly nature study activities using the Handbook of Nature Study. Each week there will be a suggested Outdoor Hour Challenge for your family. It is so easy to get started by clicking the graphic below and reading a detailed description of how to participate this coming year!

If you have any questions, please email me!

2020 to 2021 plan graphic with ebook covers2

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New to The Challenges: Help to Get Started

Outdoor Hour button

Question from reader:

Hi Barb! Your blog is amazing! Thanks for taking time in making our lives easier. I’m about to complete Challenge #1. And I have to say if it weren’t for you none of this would’ve happened. I just have a question: After reading the first 8 pages of the Handbook of Nature Study and going outdoors with my children they said that what they liked the most were the ants {3 1/2 yo son} and hiking and the breadfruits {8 yo son}. So, where do I go from here???

My response:
Welcome to the OHC! I am so glad to hear that you are getting outdoors with your children. They both picked interesting topics to learn about.

With an interest, first check the table of contents in the HNS. If it is listed there, you can turn and read to yourself the information shared there and then look at the lesson that goes along with it. There are questions listed to help you get started with a more in depth study. Since your children are still fairly young, I would pick a few interesting facts to share with them from your reading and them perhaps one question to investigate the next time you have your nature study.

I know ants are listed in detail in the HNS so that will be an easy one. Breadfruits are not listed but perhaps you could pick an aspect of the tree to investigate further. You could do a quick internet search for breadfruits and come up with a few interesting facts to share with your child if you would like to. Then you could look at the leaves, trunk, or branches of the tree and apply Lesson 172 (Tree Study) from the HNS to your breadfruit tree. You could dissect the breadfruit itself and make a sketch of what you find in your nature journal. You could make leaf rubbings in your journal. You could observe how the tree looks now and then look again in a few months to see if there are any changes.

Keep it simple and easy. I love that you are willing to follow your child’s lead.

Let me know if you need any more help.

Barb

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Announcing the Outdoor Hour Challenge eBook!


We are very excited to announce that our first Outdoor Hour Challenge eBook is ready for purchase. We have finished writing and polishing the first ten challenges into a great resource for families.

Here is an excerpt from the introductory pages:
It is a quiet revolution going on in families all over the country. Children are spending more time outdoors with their families as they explore their own backyards and neighborhoods. The Outdoor Hour Challenges have provided the needed push for more people to get outside and spend just a few minutes each week learning about the plants and animals they encounter as they venture out their own back doors.

The Outdoor Hour Challenges have become a favorite activity among homeschoolers and now with the ease of having the first ten challenges gathered into one convenient eBook, more families can enjoy the benefits of nature study each week with their children. The challenges encourage each family to spend fifteen to twenty minutes each week focusing on nature study close to home in their own backyards, neighborhoods, or local parks. No fancy equipment is necessary and the challenges help families make the small steps needed to get started. Families from all over the world are participating and learning just how many benefits there are to sharing in nature study.

If you haven’t started with the challenges yet or you would like to have the very first ten challenges in one easy to use eBook format, you can now purchase them along with some exciting new features.

Here is what you get with the purchase of this eBook.

  • The first ten Outdoor Hour Challenges simply explained and illustrated.
  • Examples from my own family that I have shared on the blog, grouped with the appropriate challenge.
  • Links to the Challenges on the Handbook of Nature Study Blog.
  • A notebook page specifically designed for each challenge as well as twelve more generic pages to use with any nature study.
  • Lots of photos and examples from our nature journals.
  • Additional materials and resources in the Appendix.
  • Links to various types of nature study information that will help you complete the challenges.
  • Suggestions for field guides to use with beginners.
  • Tips and ideas from the Handbook of Nature Study blog.
  • You can see and download a sample challenge and notebook pages: OHC Getting Started Ebook Sample.


Please note that the challenges in the eBook are exactly the same challenges that are offered here on the blog.

 

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Where to Start with the Outdoor Hour Challenges: Update


Updated information is found at:
Outdoor Hour Challenge 2013-2014

Just about every day now I get an email from someone who wants to just get started with the Outdoor Hour Challenges but they don’t know where to start. There are several strategies for starting but I think the most important thing to remember is that one of the purposes in starting the challenges in the first place was to help parents learn to do a simple nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

So my best suggestion for newcomers is to make sure to complete the first five challenges and then join us where we are in the challenges at that time. This is my suggestion for newcomers as well as those that have gotten behind in the challenges.

The first five challenges contain such important information from the Handbook of Nature Study that I don’t think you should miss reading it. Those challenges set the stage for all further nature study and will give you a great overview of how to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

Here is a link to the very first challenge:
Outdoor Hour Challenge: Let’s Get Started

If you have sort of stumbled along the way and need to get started again with the challenges, pick a challenge you can get excited about. Take 15-20 minutes for nature study in your own backyard. Keep it simple and let your child enjoy the time outdoors. If the challenge is completed or if you just have a great adventure outdoors, either way you are successful.

If you need some ideas to inspire you from other homeschoolers, the challenges listed by topic on the sidebar. Click on the topic button, click the challenge you are interested in investigating, and then scroll to the bottom of the entry, there will be numerous links that have been shared from families from all over the world. I guarantee you will find something of interest.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me anytime.
harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/2009/02/announcing-outdoor-hour-challenge-ebook.html

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #10 Our First Outdoor Dinner/Picnic

We had been trying all week to get outdoors to have a picnic to complete Green Hour Challenge #10 but the weather just did not cooperate. It rained and then even though the sun was out, it was really still too cold to eat outside. I was determined to eat out on the deck this weekend and it could not have worked out better. We spent the whole weekend working in the backyard because the weather was perfectly perfect.

We added a few more plants to the new butterfly garden, replaced some jasmine plants that didn’t make it through the winter, and I found two new hydrangeas that I wanted in my newly made flowerbed…a pink one and a pretty blue one.

Sunday evening rolled around and we threw some steaks on the barbeque and got out the chair cushions for the deck chairs. All was going well. The kids lit the tiki torches just fine and we went inside to grab a few more things for the table. My youngest son went out on the deck and discovered that one of the torches had completely lit on fire. My husband, who is a firefighter, was so calm and ran over to try to put it out. The older children ran and got the garden hose and put the flames out.

So after the excitement died down, we really did have an enjoyable meal. The sky was beautiful and air was warm. It felt so nice to be outdoors together enjoying a nice dinner.
first spring dinner
Here is the sky on this beautiful spring day.

spring sky
Here are a few more photos from the week’s nature time.

Figs are on the tree already!
fig tree 2
Our sunflowers have sprouted it seems like overnight and we are going to have a bumper crop.
sunflower sprout
We also continued our tree study in the woods but we are going to also pick a tree in our backyard to use for the seasonal Green Hour Challenge, more on that in another entry.

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Our Small Square: Outdoor Hour Challenge #9

We had a chance today to enjoy the spring weather and complete our small square project. My son picked the spot and marked it out for us. Right away he picked the big objects out but I challenged him to list all the small items he found in his square. He used his magnifying glass and we used a small stick to dig around in the dirt a bit and we found a few things to be interested in.

We found quite a few of these clusters from the tree near the square. I suspect they are full of pollen since I noticed when they are on the tree that they send off little “puffs” of something every so often in the breeze.tree bud seed thing

Then we found some of these little plants that are not grass or dandelions.
little plant

A few misc. seeds were underneath the leaves in our square and we have no idea what kind they are.

doing our square
We both enjoyed digging around in the soil and we did see one small ant.

Here is his journal entry for the day.
small square journal
We are both interested to identify the tree that the clusters came from so that is our assignment for the next week. It is hard to identify since it currently has very small leaves and doesn’t look anything like the tree we see in the summer.

That was our Outdoor Hour assignment this week, nothing fancy right in our own yard but still very interesting.

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Desert Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge #8

Here is our family’s Outdoor Hour Challenge #8. 

We just returned from our week long adventure in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. It was so surprising to find so much life and color and activity in this part of our world. If anyone says there is nothing to do for nature study in the desert, I can now whole-heartedly disagree. We spent every waking minute in the great outdoors exploring the fascinating world of the desert, even in a sudden desert rainstorm and at sunrise. We were hiking in Saguaro National Park just about everyday and found that we grew to love this place.

If you have been reading my blog this week, you will have seen some of the more interesting plants and birds that we have encountered. I will be posting more over there in the weeks to come.

Before we left for our adventure, the boys and I read several books to prepare us for what we would be seeing up close and personal. The most interesting and recognizable plant in the Sonoran Desert is the saguaro cactus. (pronounced sa wah ro) This cactus is a whole ecosystem in itself and we were able to observe the many phases of its growth while on our trip.

 

Here is a landscape with the saguaro sticking up prominently.
The saguaro grows very tall and provides shade for itself with its spines and grooves.

tall saguaro
It also provides homes for birds like the cactus wren and the gila woodpecker. They make their nests inside the saguaro. Here is a photo where you can see the nest holes.

saguaro with bird nest holes
Here is a gila woodpecker sitting on the saguaro and if you look closely, you will see a sparrow in a nest hole near the top of the saguaro.

saguaro and woodpecker
Here is a close up of the cactus itself.

close up saguaro
We enjoyed a sunrise walk in the desert and the colors and sounds are not soon to be forgotten.

 saguaro at sunrise
There are so many things to tell you about from this trip but I will narrow this entry down to the saguaro cactus. Maybe later this week I will share all the many other birds that we encountered. I have some awesome hummingbird photos to share and some others that will surprise you that we found in our desert wanderings.

We did some close up work last week at home for this challenge with our hand lens. The most interesting thing we found was looking at the bark of our cedar tree…..there is so many interesting things in there like spider webs and egg sacs. If you didn’t get a chance to use your hand lens last week, I encourage you to take a few minutes this week to give it a try.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #9 One Small Square

“Children should be encouraged to quietly and patiently watch the bee, spider, ant, caterpillar or other wildlife that crosses their path. If this seems dull to them, they just need to watch more closely, because their alert eyes can catch the smallest ways of insects in ways that grown-ups can’t without magnifiers.” Charlotte Mason, volume 1, Outdoor Life, page 57

one small square
Outdoor Hour Challenge #9
One Small Square
1. Let’s give ourselves a challenge.
Gather yarn, scissors, ruler, and four rocks. (optional: small garden trowel and magnifying lens)

Measure off one square somewhere out in your yard or near-by park. (I prefer to do this somewhere I can dig up a few inches of soil and not get into trouble.) Use your ruler to place rocks in a one foot square plot. Use the yarn to mark off the edges of your square. If you are completing this challenge with younger children, you might consider making a two foot square plot to investigate to make it easier. Each child could have their own square if you wish.

Now the challenge comes in. See how many different things you can find in your square. If there are leaves, lift them up and see what is underneath. If there are rocks or gravel, scrape them aside and see what is underneath. If there is grass or weeds and you have permission, use your trowel to dig up a few inches under the grass, moving it carefully to the side to replace when you are done observing. Use your hand lens if you have one along with you on your challenge.

2. Add any new items to your focus list that you are keeping in your nature journal. Add any items to your collection that you found during this week’s challenge time. Give an opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you used your hand lens during this week’s challenge, encourage your child to draw something they saw that you would not normally see like a small insect, worm, or seed.

Getting Started Outdoor Hour Challenge ebook

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.