“The scientific method of study is: Do not take things for granted, but find out for yourself. This method trains pupils to think for themselves. Too much talking by the teacher allows the pupils’ minds to lie idle and passive. Exercise strengthens them.”
Nature Study and Children
As you can tell if you are a regular reader of my blog, I love to quote old nature study books. These books are full of gems that still sparkle today with wisdom and practical advice. Timeless advice like you see above will help you be a better nature study guide.
Many of us are winding down our academics for the term and this week’s challenge is a great way to transition to the winter break. Weather observations are an easy to do while on a family walk or even from a window. Don’t overlook the power of a simple challenge. Remember the quote above.
Suggestions for this week’s challenge, pick one or do all five!
1. Take a walk and observe the weather. Informal nature study done while spending time together as a family is often the most meaningful. Get outside for a quick walk when you have a few minutes to spare.
2. Keep track of temperature for three days in a row. Record it in your nature journal to compare with future months. You can print a blank calendar page from Hearts and Trees.
3. Observe clouds over the course of a week. Advanced Study: Cloud Chart pdf and for everyone: Clouds That Look Like Animals and Cloud Types.
4. Complete a seasonal weather notebook page.
5. Finish the grid suggestions from the November Newsletter.
Our roses love the heat and this is our Disneyland Rose…sweet fragrance.
July weather is always hot but this year we have had alternating weeks of HOT and then cooling off to the 80’s. It makes for a nice mix of summer weather. The garden likes the heat but once the temperatures heat up we need to water our garden everyday. We don’t get much in the way of rain in the months of July and August and our heat does not bring any humidity with it.
The mullein this year is really TALL.
The nights are cool so we can expect to have cool breezes sometime in the night that are our natural air conditioning. We do most of our cooking outdoors this time of year, either on the grill or our outdoor oven. This keeps the kitchen cooler and we don’t have to run the a/c.
The yarrow, lavender, and butterfly bushes are full of bees.
We decided to complete these two activities from last year’s challenge:
1. Use some of your outdoor time to take temperature readings on your thermometer at sunrise (or early morning), noon, and then again at sunset. Record these temperatures, making comparisons. You can also use your outdoor time to use the suggested observations using your senses as noted in the box above.
2. Get up early and watch the sunrise. Note the place where the sunrises by observing something on the horizon such as a tree, a building, a mountain, or something else that can serve as a landmark for the sunrise. Do the same thing at sundown, finding a landmark to note.
Here are our statistics.
6 AM 59 degrees and 76% humidity
Noon 74 degrees and 52% humidity
4 PM 83 degrees and 32% humidity
The sky has been amazingly beautiful this past week. Although the temperatures are still a little cold, we have enjoyed bright sunshine every day except for last Friday when it snowed! Just a little. Today it hit 60 degrees on the thermometer with breezes from the south….just enough to stir up the pollen and drive me indoors. I really needed to get this Spring Weather Observation Challenge posted anyway.
We were able to do a little hiking this week in the afternoons where we noticed the buttercups are in full bloom. The hounds tongue and the shooting stars are still going strong as well.
Other things we noticed this week:
First mosquito
First hummingbird at the feeder
Dandelions!
Apple tree blossoming
Tulips blooming
Dew in the mornings and not frost
Longer daylight hours after dinner
Robins singing
Look at the color of that apple blossom bud! This is on our tree that we planted last year so I am excited to see it growing. I need to research whether it is better to let the apples form on a new tree or if I should take the blossoms off for a year or two to allow the tree to grow. I am new to apple trees.
So is anyone else already suffering from spring allergies? It has hit me fast and hard this year so whatever is pollinating right now is killing me. With sniffling nose and itchy eyes, I spent three days in the yard working on clean-up, pruning, and getting garden boxes ready.
They are looking better than they did when I shared our garden progress a couple of weeks ago. We are adding pea gravel around the boxes as a way to keep the weeds down. We have a stockpile of gravel in another area of the garden so we are just moving it by wheelbarrow from one side of the yard to the other. More on the garden next week when I have my plans done and a few more things to share.
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
Spring Weather is a welcome change for many of us around the world. The longer days and warmer temperatures give more time for outdoor activities. We have seen a variety of weather conditions in our neighborhood including more snow, hail, and then back to sunny days again.
This week you can click over the the Spring Weather Challenge for the specifics of this challenge.
Here are some suggestions:
Have your children describe any clouds they see in the sky.
Notice how hard the wind is blowing by how things are moving: leaves rustling, trees bending, etc.
Notice the wind’s direction. Where is it coming from?
Describe the temperature of the air and/or look it up on a thermometer.
Notice any precipitation that you may have this week: sprinkles, rain, mist, sleet, snow, fog, hail.
Follow up can include the notebook page from the Spring Ebook, the freeSeasonal Weather PDF, or an entry in your own nature journal. You can also print out this activity and use it to identify clouds that you observe in your nature study: Cloud Key.
You may also be interested in my Spring Nature Study Ebooks!
We all have weather…..no doubt about it. Our family seems to notice the weather everyday and we often talk about how cold or how dry or how windy it is in comparison to last year or to the previous season. Sort of related this week, two family members came to me at separate times to tell me that the days are definitely getting longer. I had actually noticed it in the mornings and this morning in particular I realized that I did not need to turn the back lights on when I took the dog outside. The sky was just tinged with blue and the only luminary that I saw was Venus…nice and bright!
Weather Chart from the Autumn Series Ebook
We started this week keeping a daily record of our temperatures, sometimes several times a day just to see the variation. We compared this to our autumn study record that we kept in November 2010. There is virtually no difference except for perhaps we had more rain in November. We are going to keep going with our chart and see when we have a change in our weather.
Our tree silhouette study goes pretty much all winter so I had to try to come up with a new aspect to offer to the boys this week. We decided to note tree buds and to bring in some twigs from the forsythia bush to see if we can force some blooms.
Our sweet gum tree is already making some changes…the buds look like this right now.
Our birch is looking pretty much the same, it is in a shadier and cooler part of the yard.
The forsythia twigs are all gathered in a vase, sitting in the front window. I will let you know when and if they blossom.
Hope you had a great week of winter nature study and are getting outdoors a little each week to discover some interesting things in your part of the world.
These two challenges can easily be combined into one outdoor excursion. Both challenges can also be done from the comfort of your own window if it is bitterly cold outdoors. Observations can be made and then recorded in your nature journal or if you have the ebooks you can record your findings on the accompanying notebook pages.
Snowshoe Tracks with Aspen Silhouettes
Even if you don’t do anything else this week, try to get outside for some fresh air and a good walk with your children.
My love of hiking and really seeing our surroundings has rubbed off on my dear husband. This is his image from his early morning hike last week. He many times hikes at sunrise, usually with a buddy. We have had lots of fog and this particular morning the fog was sitting just over the river in the winding river canyon.
What a great gift from him to share his view! Believe it or not, the road you see in the photo is the “highway” to his “office” up in the woods. Don’t you envy his commute?
NOTE: If the challenge is included an ebook, it is noted directly after the challenge. If you have an Ultimate Membership, you will be able to pull up the ebook and print any notebook pages, coloring pages, or other printables for your nature study.
The links above are Amazon affiliate links to resources I own and love.
I headed out with the boys for a walk in our neighborhood to see what interested them from our November World. I tried hard to just listen and observe what they commented on or stopped to look at as we spent some time in the crisp November air….we are expecting snow any time now so the air is cold, about 38 degrees F. The wind howled last night and the rain came in but now snow yet.
Back to our walk….I made a mental list as we walked of all the things they noticed.
Golden mushrooms- not very large and partially hidden under some fallen leaves.
Dark clouds and little peep holes of blue shining through occasionally (Hey, look at the blue sky Mom!)
The variety of colors of leaves on the ground.
The differences between the two kinds of oaks we saw….one has big leaves and the other has small pointy leaves
The sound of a crickets in the late afternoon.
Pretty good list for just a casual walk don’t you think?
I challenged myself to just take a walk and not bring my camera. I know how much I can be distracted by my own interests when I have the camera in my hand. I wanted on this walk, for this challenge to just spend time with the boys and notice things. I noticed that the air is different as the storm makes its way into our area, a sort of stillness that feels heavy. There is also a smell of dampness from the morning dew that isn’t present in the summer. There are still colors to be seen if you look closely and try to find them in the autumn weeds.
The birds seem more active when the weather is changing and after our walk I spent some time filling feeders and listening to the boys talk about the red-tailed hawk they saw earlier in the week, still gushing about its greatness and size.
It feels good to be living a life so close to our natural environment and learning about the lives of other creatures that cross our path. It is comforting to learn about the cycles of birth, growth, death, and then rebirth that takes place right in our own backyard. Yet, with all the knowledge of such things gained in years previous, we know there is so much more to glean as we keep inviting the opportunities to come by making time to get outdoors every week….just about every day.
Our November World has pretty much turned into a Winter World since I started writing this post a few days ago. We have had really cold temperatures and wild weather. It now feels like time to start thinking about winter nature study.
