Posted on Leave a comment

Discover a Dandelion Nature Study for Your Homeschool

Though you may consider the dandelion a weed, there is so much to discover in this dandelion wildflower nature study for your homeschool. This is simple and delightful learning in your own backyard!

Though you may consider the dandelion a weed, there is so much to discover in this dandelion wildflower nature study for your homeschool. This is simple and delightful learning in your own backyard!

Dandelion Nature Study for Your Homeschool

Start with a little bit of inside preparation before you head outdoors.

Dandelion Nature Study in the Handbook of Nature Study


Read in the Handbook of Nature Study about dandelions on pages 531-535. After reading the suggestions on pages 543 and 535, choose several ideas from the lesson to complete during your Outdoor Hour Time.

Finding Dandelions in your Outdoor Hour Time


Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week in your own backyard or a near-by park. As you walk along, keep your eyes out for dandelions.

Suggestions for Dandelion Wildflower Observations

  • See if you can find several dandelions in various stages of growth.
  • Look at the leaves and collect a few for sketching later in your nature journal.
  • If it is growing in your own yard, you might like to dig up the complete dandelion plant and observe the roots.
  • Measure the height of several different dandelion plants and compare them.
  • Examine an unopened dandelion flower.
  • Watch a bee working in a dandelion.
  • Observe the seeds and how they are dispersed.
  • Observe your dandelions on a sunny day and then on a cloudy day. Note any differences.

Follow-Up Dandelion Nature Study Activities


Take some time to draw the dandelion in your nature journal or complete the notebook page from the Spring Series ebook. Make sure to record your observations of the dandelion and make a sketch of the leaf and flower. If you would like to see our sample study of a dandelion in our backyard, here is the LINK.

Studying the dandelion as a composite flower

Composite Flowers: Supplement to the Study of a Dandelion


The dandelion is a composite flower and the Handbook of Nature Study has a section to explain just what that means.

“Many plants have their flowers set close together and thus make a mass of color, like the geraniums or the clovers. But there are other plants where there are different kinds of flowers in one head, those at the center doing a certain kind of work for the production of seed, and those around the edges, doing another kind of work. The sunflower, goldenrod, asters, daisies, coneflower, thistle, dandelion, burdock, everlasting, and many other common flowers have their blossoms arranged in this way.”

Handbook of Nature Study, page 503

Observe your dandelion, perhaps with a magnifying lens, to see if you can observe the parts of a composite flower:

  • Look at the center of the flower for the disc flowers and around the edges for ray flowers. (illustrated in the diagram on page 575)
  • Examine the disc flowers in the center and see if they are open or unfolded. How many ray flowers are there?
  • Locate the bracts (green cover of the flower before it opens). Can you see the bracts on the back of the flower?
  • More ideas for studying a composite flower are found on page 503 in Lesson 131. Note: This lesson will be Lesson 135 in the older edition and in the Plants and Trees pdf it is on page 68.
art and nature for your homeschool

More Spring Nature Study Activities

Here are some more dandelion resources to enjoy!

  • Dandelions Outdoor Hour – I’ve always viewed dandelions as either a childhood delight or a nuisance. They tend to spread so quickly in a yard you are trying to keep free of weeds. But their seeds are also so much fun to blow and spread. A joy to watch catch the wind!
  • How to Draw a Dandelion Art Lesson – One of the icons of warm weather is the dandelion. Have you ever studied the detail of this beautiful creation? Oh there are so many ways you could paint it! This dandelion chalk pastel art tutorial is inspired by a photo I took last spring.
  • Take Along Nature Guides for Homeschool – I’m always looking for appealing books to help us out in our nature study to help spark my kids’ interest in all things outdoors.  When I found my first “Take-Along Guide” at a used book store, I was interested so I purchased it.  But it was later when I began really reading it that I became really interested.
Getting Started nature study close to home

Get your FREE Getting Started: Nature Study Close to Home (includes three challenges!)

Homeschool Nature Study Membership for Year Round Support

Can you believe all of these spring homeschool resources you will find in membership? You will also find a continuing homeschool nature study series plus all the Outdoor Hour Challenges for nature study in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. There are 25+ continuing courses with matching Outdoor Hour curriculum that will bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! In addition, there is an interactive monthly calendar with daily nature study prompt – all at your fingertips!

Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!

Though you may consider the dandelion a weed, there is so much to discover in this dandelion wildflower nature study for your homeschool.

Outdoor Hour Challenge by founder, Barbara McCoy. Additional resources by Tricia. Tricia and her family fell in love with the Handbook of Nature Study and the accompanying Outdoor Hour Challenges early in their homeschooling. The simplicity and ease of the weekly outdoor hour challenges brought joy to their homeschool and opened their eyes to the world right out their own back door! She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at You ARE an ARTiST and Your Best Homeschool plus her favorite curricula at The Curriculum Choice.

Posted on 2 Comments

A Beautiful Lupine Wildflower Nature Study for Your Homeschool

Enjoy a beautiful lupine wildflower nature study for your homeschool! Don’t miss the free lupine resource download and the free, live event! Details, below.

Enjoy a beautiful lupine wildflower nature study for your homeschool! Don't miss the free lupine resource download and the free, live event!

Lupine Wildflower Nature Study

This Homeschool Nature Study is part of the Wildflower Course with an accompanying Outdoor Hour Challenge curriculum ebook.

The lupine nature study includes:

  • indoor preparation and Handbook of Nature Study references
  • Outdoor Hour suggestions
  • additional resources on the host plant and butterflies that love lupine
  • custom notebook pages to use for the lupine flower and the pea family
  • advanced studies
  • drawing lesson

You may wish to watch this short video of lupine (including a bee visit): Lupine.

Make Your Homeschool a Little More Beautiful – A Free Event with a Lupine Nature Study!

Make your homeschool a little more beautiful with literature, art and nature study! Explore the beloved picture book, Miss Rumphius, with Sarah, Nana and Tricia. What a FUN way to kick off your homeschool year!

YOU are invited!

  • When: Wednesday, July 27th at 11AM PT/2PM ET
  • Where: Zoom platform

Sign Up To Participate

Get your free resources + info on the Live Event!

Make Your Homeschool Year a Little More Beautiful

    Sign Up To Participate and For Your Free Resources

    When you sign up you will receive:

    • Information for joining us for the live July 27 event
    • Your Read Aloud Revival Family Book Club Guide on Miss Rumphius
    • A Homeschool Nature Study lupine Outdoor Hour Challenge
    • Access to the replay for one week after the event

    Please note: A replay will only be available to those who sign up. Be sure to fill out the form, below!

    Here’s How to Be Ready for the Event

    For your literature time with Sarah, reserve or pick up your copy of Miss Rumphius at your local library or order online today!

    For your art time with Nana, you will just need a very few suggested supplies, below:

    • a starter set of chalk pastels (Our favorites are here).
    • construction paper (Nana suggests white construction paper for this lesson)
    • baby wipes or damp paper towel for easy clean up

    For your nature study time with Tricia, have your lupine download on hand.

    Remember to sign up, above!

    Enjoy a beautiful lupine wildflower nature study for your homeschool! Don't miss the free lupine resource download and the free, live event!

    Share On Social Media!

    Be sure to share your Make Your Homeschool A Little More Beautiful time on social media and tag @readaloudrevival @outdoorhourchallenge and @chalkpastelart – We can’t wait to see you participating and to see your paintings!

    And please invite your friends!

    Posted on Leave a comment

    A Beautiful Queen Anne’s Lace Nature Study for Your Homeschool

    Our family made great memories together one year while noticing and studying Queen Anne’s lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne’s lace nature study for your homeschool and see what you notice in each season too!

    If you don’t have any Queen Anne’s Lace to observe in person, choose two other neighborhood weeds to study and compare using the ideas in the challenge.

    Homeschool Nature Study members will find the suggestions in this challenge a great help in learning about this common wildflower. (Some call it a weed, but I prefer to think of it as a wildflower!) Members: Find this challenge in your Summer Continues Outdoor Hour Challenge curriculum ebook.

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    Queen Anne’s Lace Nature Study

    I suppose it’s the new awareness we have from last year’s summer study of Queen Anne’s lace. Or it could be recent rains. Or it could be that we didn’t really start looking for Queen Anne’s lace until late August of last year. Or it could be a combination of all those factors. Which, likely, it is.

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    It’s abundant. We point and yell, “Look!” everywhere we drive. Lace lines the roadsides to the north Georgia mountains where we trekked last week. Lacey patches are right across the street – almost as tall as Middle Girl.

    “Nature study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful…”

    ~ Anna Botsford Comstock, The Teaching of Nature Study
    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    (Above photos of her taken with my phone when we quick pulled off the road).

    family homeschool nature study

    And Queen Anne’s lace thrilled us in the usual spot we checked back in spring. When we went on a family walk that Sunday night before Memorial Day – there it was!

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    Ready for the picking.

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    We scooped a few blooms and brought them home to study up close. To sketch.

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    We also found a beautiful robin’s egg, right in the middle of the grass, while on our walk. We figured the recent winds and storms may have blown it out of its nest.

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    Our up close studies helped us appreciate. As I sketched my flower, I noticed the hundreds of little, tiny flowers…

    nature journaling

    …the umbrella looking underneath, the pink tinges of a young blossom.

    nature journaling

    The children appreciated the certain color of green, the hairy stems, the dot in the center.

    “The chief aim of this volume is to encourage investigation rather than to give information.”

    ~ Handbook of Nature Study
    homeschool nature journaling

    During sketching we noticed that the outside flower clusters open first, just as the Handbook of Nature Study says.

    Queen Anne’s lace makes this mama happy. It reminds me of childhood.

    Homeschool Nature Study for Your Family

    Join us this summer! Enjoy some deliberate delight with nature walks and simple, joyful learning.

    Make great memories by studying Queen Anne's lace throughout the seasons. Enjoy this beautiful Queen Anne's lace nature study for your homeschool.

    How about you? Is Queen Anne’s lace lining your roadsides?

    Tricia and her family fell in love with the Handbook of Nature Study and the accompanying Outdoor Hour Challenges early in their homeschooling. The simplicity and ease of the weekly outdoor hour challenges brought joy to their homeschool and opened their eyes to the world right out their own back door! She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at You ARE an ARTiST and Your Best Homeschool plus her favorite curricula at The Curriculum Choice.

    Posted on Leave a comment

    Charlotte Mason Nature Study: Simple Ideas for Wildflowers

    These timeless Charlotte Mason nature study ideas are as relevant today as when they were written and I’m forever grateful for the encouragement these gave me when I was a new homeschooler. The ideas for this post have been taken from Volume One of Charlotte Mason’s homeschooling series.

    Charlotte Mason Nature Study: Simple Ideas for Wildflowers includes ideas for how to help your child engage in nature and study wildflowers.

    Charlotte Mason – Simple Nature Study Ideas for Wildflowers

    My children benefited from Miss Mason’s simple and consistent approach to learning. We didn’t waste time learning things for a test, but were encouraged to explore and observe the natural world right outside our doorstep.

    I would like to offer you the road map to learning about wildflowers in a “Charlotte Mason” way by giving you a short list that summarizes her ideas found in Volume One on page 51 under the subheading of “Flowers and Trees”.

    Elements of a Wildflowers Nature Study

    Your child should be able to:

    1. Describe the shape, size, and placement of the leaves.
    2. Note whether there is a single blossom or a head of flowers.
    3. Observe the flower and its habitat so well that it can be recognized in any location in the future.
    4. Use a field guide to learn about the wildflower (with help from a parent if needed).
    5. Collect, press, and make a record of the flower’s habitat and location. ***
    6. Optional: Make a watercolor of the flower or the whole plant.

    *** It’s important to note that we shouldn’t be picking flowers in great numbers. Many wildflowers do not last long once picked and therefore are wasted if not going straight into a flower press. Here is Anna Botsford Comstock’s advice on picking wildflowers from the Handbook of Nature Study:

    “Some flowers are so abundant that they can be picked in moderation if the roots are not disturbed, if plenty of flowers are left for seed, and if the plant itself is not taken with the flower….Everyone should have the privilege of enjoying the natural beauty of the countryside. Such enjoyment is impossible if a relatively small number of people insist upon picking and destroying native plants for their own selfish interests.”

    HNS page 460
    blue flag iris

    More Wildflowers Nature Study Ideas for Your Homeschool

    If you’d like help in getting started with a wildflower study, I have some thorough posts with some ideas for your family:

    There are three sets wildflower curriculum available in Homeschool Nature Study membership!

    Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!

    Charlotte Mason Nature Study: Simple Ideas for Wildflowers includes ideas for how to help your child engage in nature and study wildflowers.
    Posted on

    The Ultimate List of Garden and Wildflowers Homeschool Nature Study (Outdoor Hour Challenges)

    You can enjoy a simple garden and wildflowers homeschool nature study with these resources we have gathered for you to use in your own backyard. It is such a delight to study and learn about a garden and the beauty of wildflowers!

    It is such a delight to study and learn about a garden and the beauty of wildflowers with our garden and wildflowers homeschool nature study for all ages.

    Wondering how to start? Grab our FREE Getting Started with Homeschool Nature Study Guide!

    The Ultimate List of Garden and Wildflowers Homeschool Nature Study Using the Outdoor Hour Challenges

    NOTE: If the challenge is included an Outdoor Hour Challenge Curriculum ebook in Homeschool Nature Study Membership, it is noted directly after the challenge. If you have a membership, you will be able to pull up the ebook and print any notebook pages, coloring pages, or other printables for your nature study.

    • Autumn Apples – Autumn
    • Bachelor’s Buttons – Summer Continues
    • Bee Larkspur/Delphinium – Summer Continues
    • Black Eyed Susans – More Nature Study Summer
    • Black Swallowtail – Spring Continues
    • Bleeding Hearts – Winter Continues
    • Blue Flag Iris – More Nature Study Spring
    • Crocus – Winter
    • Daisy – More Nature Study Summer
    • Daffodil – Winter
    • Earthworms – Spring
    • Geranium – Spring Continues
    It is such a delight to study and learn about a garden and the beauty of wildflowers with our garden and wildflowers homeschool nature study for all ages.
    • Monarch Butterfly – More Nature Study Summer
    • Nasturtiums – Spring Continues
    • Pansy – More Nature Study Winter
    • Pears – More Nature Study Autumn
    • Petunias – Spring Continues
    • Robins – More Nature Study Spring
    • Salvia – Autumn Continues
    • Snails – More Nature Study Spring
    • Sunflowers
    • Sweet Peas – More Nature Study Spring
    • Tulip – Winter
    • Violets – Winter Continues
    It is such a delight to study and learn about a garden and the beauty of wildflowers with our garden and wildflowers homeschool nature study for all ages.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Nature Study

    These challenges can be found in Homeschool Nature Study membership.

    • Wild Mustard and Wild Radish
    • Shooting Stars
    • Lupine
    • Purple Chinese Houses
    • Yarrow
    • Henbit
    • Cow Parsnip
    • Columbine
    • Chicory
    • Cocklebur
    • Fireweed
    • Salsify
    • Forget-Me-Not
    • Paintbrush
    • Common Silverweed

    Homeschool Nature Study: Wildflower and Weed Challenges

    • Azalea – Forest Fun
    • Bitterbrush – High Desert
    • Bloodroot – Winter Continues
    • Bluets – Spring Continues
    • Burdock – Autumn Continues
    • Buttercups – More Nature Study Spring
    • Cattails Spring Observations – Spring
    • Cattails Summer Observations – Summer
    • Cattails Winter Observations – Winter
    • Chicory – Wildflowers Continue
    • Cocklebur – Wildflowers Continue
    • Columbine – Wildflowers Continue
    • Common Silverweed – More Wildflowers
    • Cow Parsnip – Wildflowers Continue
    • Dandelions – Spring course (Here is an example of a Dandelion Outdoor Hour!)
    • Dodder – More Nature Study Spring
    • Dutchman’s Breeches – Winter Continues
    • Evening Primrose – Summer
    • Fern – More Nature Study Spring
    • Field Horsetail – Autumn
    • Fireweed – More Wildflowers
    • Forget-Me-Nots – More Wildflowers
    • Hedge Bindweed – More Nature Study Spring
    • Henbit – Wildflowers Continue
    • Hepatica – Winter Continues
    • Jack in the Pulpit – Spring Continues
    • Jewelweed – Autumn 2015
    • Lupine – Wildflowers
    • May Apple – Spring Continues
    • Milkweed –More Nature Study Autumn
    • Mullein – More Nature Study Winter
    • Mustard and Radish (wild) – Wildflowers
    • Paintbrush – More Wildflowers
    • Pearly Everlasting – Summer Continues
    • Poison Oak – Creepy Things
    • Pondweed – More Nature Study Summer
    • Poppies – More Nature Study Spring
    • Prickly Lettuce – Autumn
    • Purple Chinese Houses – Wildflowers
    • Queen Anne’s Lace Autumn Observations – Autumn
    • Queen Anne’s Lace Summer Observations – Summer
    • Rabbitbrush – Forest Fun
    • Big Sagebrush – High Desert
    • Salsify – More Wildflowers
    • Shooting Stars – Wildflowers
    • Skunk Cabbage – Forest Fun
    • Snowberry (shrub) – High Desert
    • Squirrel Corn – Winter Continues
    • Teasel – Autumn Continues
    • Thistles – More Nature Study Autumn
    • Trillium – Spring Continues
    • Vine Study – More Nature Study Spring
    • White Water Lily – Summer Continues
    • Winter Berries – Autumn Continues
    • Winter Weeds – Winter Wednesday and More Winter
    • Yarrow – Wildflowers
    • Yellow Adder’s Tongue – Spring Continues
    • Yellow Ladies Slipper – Spring Continues
    • Crop Plants – Clover
    • Crop Plants – Beans
    • Crop Plants – Corn
    • Crop Plants – Cotton
    • Crop Plants – Strawberries
    • Crop Plants – Pumpkins
    • Crop Plants – Tomatoes
    Homeschool Nature Study Membership

    Join The Homeschool Nature Study Membership for Year Round Support

    Can you believe all of these garden and wildflowers resources you will find in membership? You will also find a continuing series on gardens and wildflowers plus all the Outdoor Hour Challenges for nature study in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. There are 25+ continuing courses with matching Outdoor Hour curriculum that will bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! In addition, there is an interactive monthly calendar with daily nature study prompt – all at your fingertips!

    first published January 2011 by Barb, updated by Tricia March 2022

    The Ultimate List of Garden and Wildflowers Homeschool Nature Study Using the Outdoor Hour Challenges
    Posted on Leave a comment

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge: Indian Paintbrush Wildflower Nature Study

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge

    Indian Paintbrush Wildflower Nature Study

    There are so many species of paintbrush that you’ll need to look in your local field guide to see which ones you may have in your region. Most paintbrushes bloom between May and September, often in large clusters with other flowers. They are easily identified by the brightly colored spike at the top of the stem, looking much like the end of a paintbrush.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge Indian Paintbrush

    If you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you’ll find the complete challenge with images, more links to resources and videos, journaling ideas, a notebook page, and ideas for studying flowers in the figwort family. You’ll need to sign into your Ultimate or Journey level membership to see the book download. See the sample below to see what is included in each Outdoor Hour Challenge.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower 3 Covermaker
    Ebook includes nature study lessons for common silverweed, fireweed, salsify, Indian paintbrush, and forget-me-nots.

     

    Here’s a sample from the Wildflower ebook: Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Ebook #3.

    To purchase an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership, click on over to the Join Us page at any time.

    ns_thesebooks

    Posted on Leave a comment

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge: Forget-Me-Nots Wildflower Nature Study

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge

    Forget-Me-Nots Wildflower Nature Study

    We’ve reached the end of the third wildflower series of Outdoor Hour Challenges here on the Handbook of Nature Study. I sure have enjoyed taking a few minutes each week to learn about these common wildflowers. Next week, we start the herb series of challenges with the study of cilantro!

    But this week, take a few minutes to read about and view some images of forget-me-nots in preparation for a wildflower study of a sweet little flower many of you have in your local area. Our yard has quite a few small patches of these blue beauties. It took me a few years to realize that these were actually forget-me-nots!

    Outdoor Hour Challenge forget me nots

     

    Where should you look?

    • Look up the range map on USDA: Forget-Me-Not Range and also the Woodland Forget-Me-Not range. Check to see if you have forget-me-nots in your local area.
    • Look for forget-me-nots in meadows, stream banks, and shrub-steppe habitats with aspens.  Normal blooming time is from May to August.

    Remember that the complete challenge with videos, printables, and careful observation suggestions is available to Ultimate and Journey level members here on the Handbook of Nature Study.  You will need to sign into your Ultimate or Journey level membership to see the book download.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower 3 Covermaker
    Ebook includes nature study lessons for common silverweed, fireweed, salsify, Indian paintbrush, and forget-me-nots.

     

    Here’s a sample from the Wildflower ebook: Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Ebook #3.

    To purchase an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership, click on over to the Join Us page at any time.

     ns_thesebooks

     

     

    Posted on Leave a comment

    Forbs and Pocket Gophers

    Forbs and Pocket Gophers

    I love it when I’m researching and learning about one topic and it leads me to another interesting topic. This often happens with nature study when an answer to a question just makes you curious about something else.

    I’ve been reading about pocket gophers because we have many that live and are active in the habitat behind our house here in Central Oregon. Their holes are everywhere! (If you’re interested in learning about pocket gophers, there’s an Outdoor Hour Challenge in the High Desert ebook that will help you get started.) We’ve been wondering just what they eat and it turns out their diet includes “forbs”.

    I had no idea what a “forb” was, so we decided to research the term.

    Forb:

    “A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory.”

    -From Wikipedia

    Basically, most wildflowers are forbs. Grass is not a forb.

    A pocket gopher’s diet consists mainly of forbs, eaten from the roots and pulled down into their tunnels. Most pocket gophers do not venture too far from their tunnel entrances to look for vegetation to eat.

    So my dear readers, follow those “rabbit trails” when you are researching a topic. You never know what gem you will discover. I learned a new term to use in my nature study.

     

    Pocket Gopher Nature Study Outdoor Hour challenge

     

     

     

    Posted on Leave a comment

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge: Salsify Wildflower Nature Study

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge

    Salsify Wildflower Nature Study

    When I first saw salsify, I thought it was a giant dandelion. Upon closer examination, I realized the leaves and flowers are quite different. Here in the U.S., there are 2 plants that are called salsify:

    Salsify or oyster plant (tragopogon porrifolius) which has a white root and purple flowers.

    Salsify or goat’s beard (tragopogon dubius) which has a black root and yellow flowers.

    alsify wildflower june 2021

    Here are a few ideas to get you started.

    • Look for salsify along roadsides, vacant lots, pastures, and disturbed areas. Normal blooming time is from May to September.
    • This should be a fairly easy flower to spot if it’s blooming. It looks like a really large dandelion, purple or yellow depending on where you live. The seed head is also a larger version of the dandelion.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge salsify

    If you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you’ll find the complete challenge with images, more links to resources and videos, journaling ideas, a notebook page, and ideas for studying flowers in the aster family. You’ll need to sign into your Ultimate or Journey level membership to see the book download.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower 3 Covermaker
    Ebook includes nature study lessons for common silverweed, fireweed, salsify, Indian paintbrush, and forget-me-nots.

    Here’s a sample from the Wildflower ebook: Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Ebook #3.

    To purchase an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership, you can click on over to the Join Us page at any time.

     

     

     

    Posted on Leave a comment

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge: Fireweed Wildflower Nature Study

    Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge

    Fireweed Wildflower Nature Study

    Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) gets its name from its ability to quickly populate a recently burned out or disturbed area. It’s hard to believe how this wildflower springs to life after a devastating wildfire, but it does so among the ashes!

    Here are a few ideas to get you started.

    • Look for pink spires of flowers on top of tall leafy stems with narrow willow-like leaves. See the images in this ebook and in the links below. Here’s a nice YouTube video for you to watch: Fireweed.
    • Look up the range map on USDA: Fireweed Range. Check to see if you have fireweed in your local area. Use the printable fact sheet from the USDA to learn all you can about this common wildflower: Fireweed Plant Guide.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge fireweed

    If you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you’ll find the complete challenge with images, more links to resources and videos, journaling ideas, a notebook page, and ideas for studying flowers in the evening primrose family. You’ll need to sign into your Ultimate or Journey level membership to see the book download.

    Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower 3 Covermaker
    Ebook includes nature study lessons for common silverweed, fireweed, salsify, Indian paintbrush, and forget-me-nots.

     

    Here’s a sample from the Wildflower ebook: Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Set 3 Sample

    To purchase an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership, you can click on over to the Join Us page at any time.