Here are some of my most popular nature study blog entries. They answer many of the most frequently asked questions about nature study that I receive from readers.
Andy Goldsworthy and his artwork have fascinated me ever since I first heard of him a few years ago. Many times when I am out and about on our hikes I wish I had the gumption to stop and create a little art myself with my kids. Here is a video to spark some interest and hopefully create a desire for you to create a little artwork of your own.
Here is alonger video but worth the visual treat….it has music so be prepared.
I really, really meant to post a mini-Challenge today for us all to complete this week but the day is over and here I am sitting at my computer wondering what happened to my good intentions.
So I will share a quote and some photos from my day instead, perhaps it will inspire you to get outdoors this week and have an adventure you can share with me.
“Nature Study is natural study, that is, studying by natural methods. It is intellectual, physical and moral development by and through purposeful action and reaction upon environment, guided, so far as need by, by the teacher…..Information comes from Nature Study, and that or enjoyment, usually both, may be what the child seeks; but from the teacher’s point of view the vitally important part of the lesson is the series of activities put forth by the child.”
The Nature Study Course, by John Dearness. 1905.
I have been thinking about this idea for a couple of weeks now and it is poking at my heart. I tend to guide too much and insert my thinking too much when we are observing and researching things we come across in our outdoor life. So maybe not having a mini-challenge is the challenge this week. Spend time outdoors with my boys, reacting to our outdoor setting, allowing them room to put in some effort…..another challenge for me.
Here are some photos from my day to round out this first Friday in December post.
Brown leaves falling on my new rock garden…it makes for a wonderful scene from my front window.
Plenty of leaves clinging to the big tree in the side yard.
Autumn red…should be a Crayola Crayon color.
The birches with their bright yellow leaves stand out brilliantly against the dreary autumn sky.
View from under the deck…with some green leaves on the vine. My husband’s metal butterfly sculpture makes a great silhouette don’t you think? I love the little curly-q’s on the vine that you can see now that much of the foliage has fallen off. Looks like doodles and I may just have to doodle them into my nature journal.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and spend some time outdoors with your children. I just checked our weather forecast and it says cloudy/showers for the whole weekend. Sigh.
I have been thinking about the award and what it means, bringing back great memories from the last year and how much the Outdoor Hour has become the center of a great community of blog readers and participants.
Many of you follow the challenges and post your links faithfully, some of you pop in when you get a chance and blow me away with your great family nature study, and there are probably many of you I haven’t even “met” but who read through readers and email. I think all of you deserve a little bit of this award….without you there would be no real reason to keep this nature blog.
I think this award belongs to the community we have developed and nurtured. Behind the award is a lot of effort not only on my part but by all the moms and dads who have slowed down to take the time and value outdoor activities with their children. You all make what I do have meaning. The fruits of my labor are viewed in the smiles and great learning that I see each week when I open up my links to glimpse into your nature study.
Although the award is a great honor and I realize that you all supported me by voting, I think the real reward is the everyday, week-to-week sharing of nature study that I am privileged to be a part of with families from all over the world.
Thank you very much for your support of this blog, Handbook of Nature Study.
I didn’t take a single photo in this post. Here are the captions that go with each one:
1. Water bird at Lake Tahoe, taken by my son this past October.
2. Typical family nature outing….my youngest being silly and if you look in the background you can see me taking photos.
3.Another beautiful photo with mom and her camera…..my two oldest sons have inherited my photography passion.
4. Rare photo of all three of my boys standing still with their mom…..this year’s camping trip to Northern California and the Oregon Coast. (Please note that this photo was taken on the last day of a week-long camping trip with four guys so I am a little rough around the edges.)
The last few years with the Outdoor Hour Challenge have been a wonderful way to intensify nature study in our family. I know for a fact that if I had not been writing and sharing so much on this blog that our nature study might not have been so enriching and consistent. The community that has developed surrounding the Outdoor Hour Challenges has encouraged our family tremendously in our attempts to keep a love of nature study alive…I could not have done what I have done without many, many faithful readers and contributors to the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
On the personal side, Friday is always looming for me with another challenge to post and then there is the need for me to post our results. After much thought and reflection, I see our family skipping many opportunities for nature study that come up each week because it is not the assignment for the week. I feel more and more like nature study is a job and not the joy I want it to be.
I have two years left with my sons at home. Two years for them to have me as their nature study companion and me to have them as a captive audience. I don’t want to miss the chance to make nature study a meaningful part of their lives, not just another school assignment.
I also realize that I am miss the balancing part of my personality, the artistic side. I look at my art supplies sitting so near but I know my hands are busy with the computer and my heart is divided. I have one son who has a creative soul and I need some time to spend with him not only in developing his love of beauty through nature study but lots of free time and play with paints and other art supplies.
So after much thought, reflection, and prayer I have decided a few things will change, if not in practice at least in my attitude. I am wise enough to know when I need to shift gears and make a few changes. I think that comes with turning 48 years old this year….yes, I am really close to the half century mark.
The blog will not look much different for you dear readers until perhaps January once the Autumn Challenges are completed. I have some amazing ideas to work on in the meantime and I will share my list of things that I brainstormed regarding the blog and the Outdoor Hour Challenges below. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.
To Summarize My Thoughts and Intentions
I will still be here this season with the Autumn Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, posting on Fridays and sharing lots of great stuff with you and reading what your families are up to as you complete the Autumn Challenges. You will still have my complete support and attention.
I will be posting the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival on the first of the month. There is nothing but joy associated with this project.
There will not be a new 2011 Winter Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges ebook. There are already two complete series of challenges available both in ebook format and listed on the blog as the Winter Wednesday series. I am still contemplating whether to write a new Winter 2011 Art and Music Appreciation ebook.
I will still be sharing what our family does with the Handbook of Nature Study as the opportunities arise and our nature study takes shape again.
Rest assured my brain is still formulating a new idea. The idea has been simmering for quite some time and I may be ready next spring to actually share with you some exciting new ways to more creative nature study and journals.
I have two new products to review and a giveaway in the works. Stay tuned for that in the next month or so….you will not want to miss them.
There is plenty to do around this blog to keep any family busy for a very long time. I just took an inventory of what is available on the blog sidebar for you to use with your family.
52 original Outdoor Hour Challenges
8 Bird Challenges
7 Crop Plant Challenges
Autumn 2009 Challenges =10
Winter 2010 Challenges =10
Spring 2010 Challenges =10
Summer 2010 Challenges =12
Autumn 2010 Challenges =10 (not listed yet but they will be over the next few months)
Winter Wednesday Challenges =9
That is a total of 128 challenges you can complete with your family!
So, there you have my thoughts for the week, month, and rest of the year. 🙂
I love what I do here on this blog and I am not going anywhere, just taking a different approach.
“All the facts available and pertinent concerning each topic have been assembled in the ‘Teacher’s Story’ to make her acquainted with the subject; this is followed by an outline for observation on the part of the pupils while studying the object. It would seem that with the teacher’s story before the eyes of the teacher, and the subject of the lesson before the eyes of the pupils with a number of questions leading them to see the essential characteristics of the object, there should result a wider knowledge of nature than is given in this or any other book. ” Handbook of Nature Study, Preface. Written in 1911 by Anna Botsford-Comstock.
Anna Botsford-Comstock never meant for the Handbook of Nature Study to be the complete sum of information about any one topic. Her aim seems to have been to equip the teacher with information so she could ignite some questions in her students. The students armed with good questions would set out to complete a nature study that led to a wider knowledge of what was right in their own world.
The Handbook of Nature Study, if used wisely, can help parents become better nature study guides. This large volume gathers concise information and nature study starters into one book, giving more time to be outdoors with our children rather than preparing lessons from scratch.
I have found that using the Handbook of Nature Study has prepared us for the opportunities that arise….even months later. The photo above was taken on our recent trip to Yosemite. My son noticed this marshy meadow stream and he immediately started looking for tadpoles. There were none, but he did notice some damselflies and dragonflies which we had studied a year or so ago from the Handbook. He could tell me which ones were which by looking at their wings.
On this same hike we encountered our very first ever Yellow-bellied marmot. (He was busy eating flowers!) We only knew what it was because we had done a study of rodents with the Handbook of Nature Study. The Handbook does not cover Yellow-bellied marmots, but we applied what we already knew about other mammals like the woodchuck and squirrel. When we got back home we looked up the marmot and realized that it is a kind of ground squirrel so we were not far off in our observations. The point is that we were equipped with some basic knowledge and then were able to apply some questions from a previous study.
I think Anna Botsford-Comstock would be happy to know that her ideas and her Teacher’s Stories are as valid today as they were way back in 1911.
“Indeed, research suggests that children, when left to their own devices, are drawn to the rough edges of such parks, the ravines and rocky inclines, the natural vegetation. A park may be neatly trimmed and landscaped, but the natural corners and edges where children once played can be lost in translation.” Last Child in the Woods, page 117
This important book is on my summer reading list again. It is an easy read and each time I glean a few more points to apply to our family and refine my thinking about getting outdoors. Reaffirming my belief that all children need to be outdoors every day keeps me actively working on the Outdoor Hour Challenges and other related projects.
We are in the middle of planning a big front yard makeover and I have decided that for our family we will incorporate native plants, some rocky outcrops, and more shelter and food for the local wildlife. My boys are more interested in watching birds and animals than they are with a large expanse of grass. Our wild side has taught us this spring that we enjoyed observing the insects, flowers, and grasses more than we ever enjoyed the well manicured lawn.
I once read a post written by a mom who had little by little converted her suburban backyard into a wild place for her children. She brought in some rocks for lizards and insects to take shelter in. She included a big log so the kids could watch the decomposition and the living creatures that lived in, under, and on the log. She made a sand pile for digging with pails and shovels at the ready. There were places to play in the hose and make mud. It has always stuck with me that with a little effort on her part she offered a place with interesting and attractive edges even in a small backyard.
When my boys were young, we planted herbs, edible things like berries, and each child had their own garden box. We kept tree stumps for child size tables. We planted trees for climbing and swinging. On hot summer days we spread out blankets underneath the trees in the shade.
Our butterfly garden with its colorful flowers and bushes shelters not only insects but hummingbirds. Allowing some room for exploring in our backyard has given us endless nature study opportunities as well as a place for the children to wander during their own time, to dream and play and wonder.
This time outdoors is essential to our child’s development. The effort you put into creating space for unstructured play will be seen in your child’s happy face and heart. It is an investment in their mental and physical health.
Look at the edges…..see if you can make some changes today.
Edit to add: I received a comment and some email about becoming a National Wildlife Federation Certified Habitat. We did that for our backyard some years ago and that is really what brought this sort of idea to my head in the very beginning. Now I am anxious to get started in the front yard.
“But if the child chooses the material, the subject will lack continuity: what then?
Nature is not consecutive except in her periods. She puts things together in a mosaic. She has a brook and plants and toads and insects and the weather all together. Because we have put the plants in one book, the brooks in another, and the bugs in another, we have come to think that this divorce is the logical and necessary order.
If all the things mentioned above are taught, then the life of the brook will be the thread that ties them all together. It is well to introduce the pupil to a wide range of material, in order to increase his points of contact with the world.”
Liberty Hyde Bailey
I think there is a lot of wisdom in the above words written by Liberty H. Bailey in The Nature-Study Idea (1909).
He gives us two illustrations in order to understand the connective idea of nature study led by our children.
The first is a mosaic where the pieces are fit together to make a beautiful image.
The second is a thread, weaving our study together within some focus area.
What a wonderful way to remind ourselves of the way our children will build a love for the natural world and its Creator.
This old book can be found at Google Books: The Nature Study Idea by L.H. Bailey. Sidenote: Anna Botsford Comstock dedicated the Handbook of Nature Study to Liberty Hyde Bailey which I found very interesting.
It is very important for those of us who take our children out into the woods for nature study to be able to recognize poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac.
Where we live we have an abundance of poison oak and this time of the year it is actually very pretty and easy to identify. I know in other parts of the country there is poison ivy and sumac as well.
This video does a great job of explaining everything you should know before you take a walk in the woods and potentially come into contact with poison oak, poison ivy, or sumac. Knowledge is always a good thing.
My husband says that in his job as a wildland firefighter, they use Tecnu after any exposure. We are going to get some and have it on hand for those times we think we may have come into contact with poison oak.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will try to find answers for you as best I can. I would hate for you to unknowingly expose anyone to something potentially dangerous. On the other hand, don’t get too worried either. Just remember the “leaves of three, let it be” rule and you should do a good job of avoiding contact. We have had our share of poison oak rashes in our family and I think most of our exposure comes from our family pets. Don’t miss that part of the video.
We have quite a few new participants in the Outdoor Hour Challenges so I want to give a big welcome to everyone….hope to see your nature study entries soon.
Find the Extraordinary in the Ordinary I challenge you to find five ordinary things in your backyard or in your everyday life that you can study and learn something more about. Find something extraordinary in something you have come to think of as ordinary and usual, so usual that you may not even notice it anymore.
Sebastian actually gave me this idea that I think would be a great challenge for nature study close to home. In order to start developing the idea, we challenged ourselves to go out in our backyard and find something extraordinary. I decided we needed a little clearer definition.
Extraordinary: beyond the usual, far more than usual, more than expected
It is that “more than expected” part that we want to develop an eye for in our family.
Here are the five things we will be learning about from the Handbook of Nature Study, the field guides from our nature shelf, or internet sources like WhatBird.com and eNature.com.
The blue of the morning glory is outstanding and we have never done a formal study of this garden flower. Now is the time to do it since we have lots of blossoms to observe. We already have decided how extraordinarily blue this flower is…not very common in flowers I think.
While we were outside, the cat was chasing this Alligator lizard. Lizards are not an extraordinary creature in our backyard but as we watched this lizard, we started to wonder about its defense mechanism…the breaking off of the tail to distract its attacker. We are going to do some more research about this extraordinary ability.
This California Towhee is a regular visitor to our feeder, or rather under our feeder. We have never taken time to focus our nature study on this particular bird but now we will. I’m sure there is something extraordinary about it that we don’t know yet. The most visible difference we have noticed about the California Towhee is its very long tail…hmmm….maybe that is extraordinary.
We have noticed an increase in hummingbirds in our yard this summer and there have been two in particular that we would like to study more in depth. I was unable to get a photo of the hummingbirds but thought you might enjoy seeing my new feeder. I think maybe the two unusual hummers we saw were migrating and I would love to learn more about where some of our hummingbirds go at different times of the year.
Caterpillars have been dropping out of the Sweet gum trees and before they can crawl away, the birds swoop down and eat them. These caterpillars are busily eating the leaves from the tree but we don’t know exactly what they will be once they go though their life cycle. Look at those colors, now that is extraordinary! We are going to try to identify these critters as part of our challenge.
Now we have a list of things to investigate.
1. Morning glories
2. Alligator lizards and their tail
3. California Towhee
4. Migrating hummingbirds
5. Caterpillar from the Sweet gum tree.
You can take the challenge to find the extraordinary in the ordinary if you are up to it! Find something in your yard to focus on and really see the beauty, the design, and the magnificence of something that perhaps you have been overlooking. It could be as simple as the dandelion in the crack of your sidewalk. It could be the robin gathering worms in your lawn. It could be the ants on your kitchen counter. The possibilities are endless.
If you take the challenge and you blog about it, leave me a comment and I will come over and read about it.
I will be posting our results over the next few weeks.
