Handbook of Nature Study Archives

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Barb — 13 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenges – Plans for October 2017 to August 2018

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Plans for October 2017 to August 2018

The academic school year is drawing ever closer and with it will be some changes here on the Handbook of Nature Study. Since my move to Oregon last spring, I have barely kept my head above water as far as writing new challenges, keeping up with blog posts, and creating a monthly newsletter. It is not a good feeling.

I want to bring some joy and passion back to my work here so I’ve made some hard decisions.

Things to Note

I will no longer be creating a monthly newsletter. This will free up my time to write more about what I am learning and experiencing here in my new Central Oregon home. I realize that most of what I’m doing in my monthly newsletter can easily be shared in blog posts so the content will still be there for readers but not in the form of a newsletter.
There will continue to be 2-3 new printables per month for members. Those printables are usually either a notebook pages or activity that can be found in the Ultimate and Journey level membership libraries.
I have one new ebook in the works for spring 2018 and possibly another one for summer 2018.

Nature Study Plans for October 2017 to August 2018 – Ebooks to Be Used from the Ultimate Naturalist Library

Note: I am going to list the ebooks that will be the basis for the next year’s nature study here on the Handbook of Nature Study. It is advantageous but not necessary to have access to the ebooks. The ebooks contain custom printables (notebook pages and coloring pages) that will enhance your nature study but you can just as easily complete a page in your own blank nature journal.

October 2017 to December 2017 – We are going to use the Autumn Nature Study ebook plans from 2010. Many of you have not worked through this ebook in the past and I am anxious to complete these challenges again in my new habitat. You can find all of the challenges listed on this page: Autumn Nature Study. Scroll down and you will see the specific topics for the Friday challenges during this period of time.

This series of Outdoor Hour Challenges was written to help your family learn more about each topic by using comparisons. I explain how to make comparisons and then use a Venn Diagram to help see the topic more in detail. (Venn Diagram instructions and printable included in the ebook.)

January 2018 to February 2018 – I’m super excited to use the ideas in the Winter Wednesday series here in my new Central Oregon home. These cold weather and winter related challenges are going to help all of us get to know more about our winter world.

March 2018 to April 2018 – Outdoor Hour Challenge Learning About Birds from 2016. Let’s use the bird challenges this spring to learn more about the birds in our yards and neighborhoods.

May 2018 to June 2018 – Summer Nature Study – Using Your Senses from 2010. We are going to be using eight of the challenges from this ebook. It is going to be a lot of fun to revisit so many of these older challenges once again.

July and August 2018 – Outdoor Hour Challenges – Getting Started ebook! This is the ebook that started the whole thing around here. I would love for newbies and veterans to join us working through the first ten nature study challenges before the next school year starts.

So there you have the plan for the year to come! I became very excited as I made these plans and I hope you will consider joining us for all or part of the nature study journey this time around. As always, make these plans work for your family by adding or subtracting things to customize your experience.

If you have any questions, you can comment here on the blog or send me a direct email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

Just as a sidenote: I miss the community we had built here using the blog carnival and Mr. Linky system from times past. I yearn to hear from families once in awhile to know how your nature study is going. It fuels me! So, if you have a moment over the next few months, shoot me an email or leave a comment. I love to hear your stories from your nature study time.

You can follow me on Instagram (Outdoorhourchallenge) to see my day to day nature study photos. I follow many of the OHC families so share your Instagram name and I will pop over and check your images out too!

Use the discount code NATURE5 to receive $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership!

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Posted on March 8, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Wildflower Series – Coming Soon to the Outdoor Hour Challenge

Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Nature Study Set #1

Don’t miss the special promotion code at the bottom of this email!

Exciting News! I am creating NEW wildflower challenges based on flowers that I have become familiar with over the years. These are flowers that are NOT specifically covered in the Handbook of Nature Study written by Anna Botsford Comstock. They will be flowers that many of you know about and have seen in real life and now you can use the brand new OHC lessons to create a meaningful nature study for your children. In addition to the specific flower, each challenge will help you learn about a different plant family.

This is a huge undertaking and much more time consuming than I originally anticipated, so I am going to create a series of smaller ebooks and release them over the next few years. I am planning on releasing the first set of five wildflowers by the end of March 2017. Then starting in April 2017, this series of fresh wildflower Outdoor Hour Challenges will post every Friday. The ebook will contain custom designed notebooking pages for each wildflower, including more advanced pages for older students.

Please note the notebooking pages will only be available to ebook users and the ebook will be available for those that have an Ultimate or Journey level membership.

A Little Background

In choosing which flowers to start with in this series, I tried to narrow the list to early blooming plants that many of you will have access to in person. I’ve also included suggested substitutions for flowers that may also be common in your area by listing related flowers in the same plant family. Learning more about the plant families is something I’m going to be stressing in this new series of nature study ideas by referencing the Botany in a Day book and providing internet links for you to use as resources.

Want a sneak peek at the topics?

Wild Mustard and Wild Radish (mustard family)
Shooting Star (primrose family)
Lupine (pea family)
Purple Chinese House (figwort family)
Yarrow (composite family)

This new ebook will be loaded into the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level memberships soon!

If you aren’t a member yet, you still have time to join and have immediate access as soon as it publishes.

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

Join us in April for this interesting series of nature study challenges!

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Magnet and Compass Fun

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Magnets and Compass

From the Archives and found in the Winter ebook

You can use any of the activities listed in this challenge to prepare for a study of magnets and/or the compass. Magnets are a simple item to carry along on a nature hike and after you have discussed what a magnet is and what it does, your children will have fun on a little magnet hunt looking for things in nature that are magnetic. Or, if your children are a bit older, you can use a compass to learn about the four cardinal directions and use this knowledge to describe a nature walk. Are you hiking east, west, north, or south?

I have an app on my iPhone that is a compass so you can look for that in your app store. I nearly always have my phone with me when I hike so it is easy to pull it out and find which direction we are headed. This is a skill that will help your child now and in the future as they learn more about maps.

I hope you have a great week of nature study and are able to get outdoors!

You also can complete this challenge as an alternative or as an additional study: Winter Sky and Stars.

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.

Spring Plans!

We will be working through a new series of wildflower challenges starting in April using a new ebook that will publish sometime in March. The new wildflower ebook will also be added to the Ultimate Naturalist Library so if you purchase a membership now, you will have the new ebook as soon as it is available. I will posting details about the new ebook soon.

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Barb — 2 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Schedule for Winter

Winter Plans

I have had some inquiries about the next season of nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Here are the specific challenges and dates for each of the up-coming months.

See the note at the bottom of this post for information about the spring nature study plans! Think wildflowers!!!

January 6 – off

January 13 – Winter Wonder

January 20 – Chickadee

January 27 – Tree Study – Twigs

February 3 – Sheep

February 10 – Mullein

February 17 – Galls

February 24 – Quartz

March 3 – Magnets and Compass

March 10 – Moon

March 17 – Pansy

March 24 – off

March 30 – Spring Observations (from the archives)

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 ebooks.

Spring Plans!

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Barb — 2 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Plans for Autumn and Winter

I know many of you are starting your school year shortly and I thought it might be helpful to share my plans for the Outdoor Hour Challenge for the up-coming autumn and winter seasons. This is a period in my life when keeping things simple is my primary goal. In meditating on what to do for the autumn and winter seasons as far as nature study, I decided it would be interesting and fun to work back through some nature study topics found in the archives.

This will free my time up to pursue a new series of Outdoor Hour Challenges to be published next spring!

Newsletter

Just a note to those who have asked- I am going to continue the Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter again this year! I would love to have some help writing articles so if you haven’t already heard from me about contributing to the newsletter, please email me or leave me a comment here with your contact information and I will explain how to submit an article.

Autumn 2016 Plans

Use the More Nature Study – Autumn ebook from the archives. Work through all of the topics and share our experiences. You can access this ebook in the Ultimate Naturalist Library if you are a member. It is not absolutely necessary to have the ebook but it does have custom notebooking pages for both regular and advanced learners. Please click over and read the entry that lists all of the ebook’s contents.

Winter 2016 Plans

Use the More Nature Study – Winter Wonder ebook from the archives. This book is part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. Again, it is not a requirement that you have the ebook but it is very convenient and helpful to have access to the challenges and the custom notebooking pages as we work through the series of nature study challenges.

Use the discount code NATURE5 to receive $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership!

Plus! I am reinstating the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival but instead of monthly it will be quarterly.

Here are the carnival dates:

November 1, 2016
February 1, 2017
May 1, 2017
August 1, 2017

All nature study type entries can be submitted, preferably entries that highlight the Outdoor Hour Challenge and Handbook of Nature Study newsletter activities. Deadline for entries for the first carnival will be 10/26/16. You can send in your entries to harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

You can grab one of the OHC Carnival buttons from this entry for your blog if you would like to share this event. A link back to this blog would be much appreciated. http://naturestudyhomeschool.com/

If you have any questions or comments about the plans, please feel free to email me or leave a comment here on the blog. harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

NotebookingPages.com Giveaway and Freebies!

You are not going to want to miss entering this giveaway over on the NotebookingPages.com!

She will be giving away THREE Lifetime Memberships to NotebookingPages.com AND THREE Ultimate Naturalist Library memberships in this event!

Click over and enter and then receive TWO sets of nature study notebooking pages as a free gift.

I highly recommend these resources to use in your family’s nature study notebooks and will be a valuable tool in your continued nature study adventure.

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Nature Study – Realm of Undiscovered

“In nature study any teacher (parent) can with honor say, “I do not know”; for perhaps the question asked is as yet unanswered by the great scientists. But she should not let lack of knowledge be a wet blanket thrown over her pupils’ interest. She should say frankly, “I do not know; let us see if we cannot together find out this mysterious thing….She thus conveys the right impression that only a little about the intricate life of plants and animals is yet known; and at the same time she makes her pupils feel the thrill and zest of investigation. Nor will she lose their respect by doing this, if she does it in the right spirit…..The chief charm of nature study would be taken away if it did not lead us through the border-land of knowledge into the realm of the undiscovered.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 3-4

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Barb — 18 Comments

The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library

Nature Study Just Got Easier For Your Family

-with hundreds of resources gathered into one convenient Ultimate Naturalist’s Library.

What Will Stay The Same Here At The Handbook Of Nature Study?

I will continue to publish weekly Outdoor Hour Challenges and topical blog posts for your family to follow along with if you choose. I am passionate about nature study and it brings me such joy to share my experiences with all my readers so that will continue as long as I possibly can, hopefully for many years to come.
The free monthly newsletter for email subscribers will continue to be published to encourage your family with their nature study. *Make sure to confirm the email coming soon to your inbox so you will continue to receive all the blog entries, monthly newsletters, and special offers from the Handbook of Nature Study.
All the past Outdoor Hour Challenges (150+) organized by topic and season will continue to be available .
Access to all the current free printables will remain available.
The monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival will continue to be published at the end of each month.
We will keep working through the scheduled 2013-2014 Bundle of challenges until the end of August 2014.

What Is Brand New?

Your family can choose from three levels of immediate access to the Ultimate Naturalist’s Library, each level containing valuable resources to make nature study easy and fun.

Ultimate($45) – All 12 Outdoor Hour Challenge ebooks ($87 value), all 36 archived newsletters (May 2011-April 2014), monthly printables, any new challenges for a year.*

Journey ($30)– Getting Started ebook, all 36 archived newsletters, monthly printables, any new challenges for a year.*

Discovery($20)– Getting Started ebook, all 36 archived newsletters.

*There will be quarterly releases of 6-9 Outdoor Hour Challenges and additional monthly releases of 2-4 printable resources. The first new challenges will be added to the Ultimate Naturalist’s Library in August 2014 for fall season nature study.

For the month of April 2014, I am offering a $10 discount towards the Ultimate level of membership. Just use the discount code: APRIL10.

The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library Is The Ultimate Nature Study Resource

Imagine having access to all the resources here on the Handbook of Nature Study, gathered into one convenient Ultimate Naturalist’s Library!
You will no longer lose your ebook files or forget what resources you have on hand because you have them all organized and available right here in the Ultimate Naturalist’s Library.
Ebooks, notebooking pages, newsletters, and printables are all organized and available 24/7 for a complete year.
There will be regular additions to the Ultimate Naturalist’s Library as we work through each year of nature study. Look for brand new challenges every quarter, monthly printables, and other valuable resources to be added throughout the year.
Equip yourself to guide your family’s nature study with the very best resources available here at the Handbook of Nature Study.
The current 2013-2014 Bundle will be available until 8/1/14.
The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library is going to provide support for all ages in your family with endless ideas for activities and follow-up work.

The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library is going to be the resource you love for years to come!

Posted on October 10, 2013December 29, 2021 by Barb — Leave a comment

Handbook of Nature Study – Using Older Editions

Which edition of the Handbook of Nature Study???

I use the edition with the copyright date of 1967 (paperback edition ISBN 0-8014-9384-6) for page numbers and lesson numbers. (Shown above in my affiliate link.) If you have a different version of the Handbook of Nature Study, you can easily find the corresponding pages by using the following suggestions.

1. Topic – almost every Outdoor Hour Challenge is a focused on a specific topic found in the Handbook of Nature Study. Use the Table of Contents to find that topic by looking for the appropriate category.

2. Lesson Number- almost every Outdoor Hour Challenge points you to a lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study. In the older editions those lessons are given in Roman Numerals. Many of the lesson numbers are the same but unfortunately not all…your best bet is to use the Table of Contents.

Special instructions
1. If you are using digital copies that came in a number of downloads, you will need to print the table of contents from the first download and use it as a guide to which pdf to use for your Outdoor Hour Challenge. (Homeschool Freebie of the Day offers the Handbook of Nature Study as a free download from time to time.)
2. For the challenges that give you a few pages to read in the introduction of the Handbook of Nature Study, I have given you the section names so you can find them in your edition of the book. (I edited the first ten Outdoor Hour Challenges to include section names.)

I hope that helps you use whatever edition of the Handbook of Nature Study you have on your shelf.

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Autumn Cattail and Small Square Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Autumn Cattail Study with a Small Square Study Too!

Here is the original Autumn Cattail Nature Study Challenge from 2009.
Optional free notebook page in the Autumn 2009 Free Notebook Page
You could use this opportunity to make some Seasonal Pond Study observations and use the free printable to record your results.
Another idea is to use the Small Square Study-Living vs. Non-Living at your cattail habitat. This challenge includes a free printable notebook page.
Note for those that coming up on their spring season, you can use the Spring Cattail Study if you would like!

Additional Activity – Cattail Acrostic Poetry Activity

Just for fun, I have created an acrostic poetry notebook page for you to use to go along with your cattail study. For each letter in the word “cattail”, have your child write a word or phrase that describes the cattail. Use the box on the page for a sketch, a rubbing, or a photo. This is meant to be a fun way to extend your cattail study so you might offer to help your child or you can skip it until a future date.

Cattail Acrostic Poetry Printable Activity

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started Ebook, you may wish to completeGetting Started – Challenge #9 Small Square Study. You can use the ideas in this challenge to complete a small square study at your cattail habitat. Use the accompanying notebook page to record your results.

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Category: Handbook of Nature Study

Outdoor Hour Challenges – Plans for October 2017 to August 2018

Use the discount code NATURE5 to receive $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership!

Wildflower Series – Coming Soon to the Outdoor Hour Challenge

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Magnet and Compass Fun

Spring Plans!

Outdoor Hour Challenge Schedule for Winter

Winter Plans

Spring Plans!

Outdoor Hour Challenge Plans for Autumn and Winter

Use the discount code NATURE5 to receive $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership!

NotebookingPages.com Giveaway and Freebies!

Nature Study – Realm of Undiscovered

The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library

Nature Study Just Got Easier For Your Family

-with hundreds of resources gathered into one convenient Ultimate Naturalist’s Library.

What Will Stay The Same Here At The Handbook Of Nature Study?

What Is Brand New?

For the month of April 2014, I am offering a $10 discount towards the Ultimate level of membership. Just use the discount code: APRIL10.

The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library Is The Ultimate Nature Study Resource

The Ultimate Naturalist’s Library is going to be the resource you love for years to come!

Handbook of Nature Study – Using Older Editions

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Autumn Cattail and Small Square Study

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!