OHC Blog Carnival – October Newsletter Edition

Have I told you all lately how much I love hosting this carnival? Well, I do….a lot. I think the Outdoor Hour Challenge with its rather simple idea of getting outside with our children a few minutes each week and then sharing together our successes and adventures has become a BIG deal to me. I love every word and image that you put into your entries.

Thank you for sharing with me and with all the readers of the carnival…wishing you all a fantastic November of nature study…just wait until you see the newsletter tomorrow! Inspiring!

Zonnah shared their leaf notebook pages.

Fall Color Walk

• Zonnah shares their Fall Colors entry with carnival readers. They made a fall color collage as part of their follow-up…beautiful!
• Kristin from Broom and Crown shares their desert fall version of fall color in A Return to the Neighborhood Nature Walk. I think they did a great job using this challenge to focus on their neighborhood color.
• Tricia from Hodgepodge Homeschool and her family join the carnival this time with their Fall Leaf Walk. Actually she titled it, “Fall Leaf Walk is Our Favorite and Our Best”. Love that! She also shares how the upper level notebooking pages from the ebook are helping her family. Thanks for your kind words Tricia.
• Amy at Hope is the Word has submitted their Fall Colors in Our Backyard #1 for you to click over and read. They focused on the maple in their backyard and did some outside journaling of the leaves. She also shares some great tree book selections. I love Crinkleroot!
• Janet from Across the Page has written a wonderful post called Leaf Love. What a joy to read about their leaf walk and to be introduced to a new poem that will be going into my own nature journal. Thanks Janet!
• Anne from About a Bug writes about their Fall Tree Study and Fall Color Walk.  They did some painting as part of their work and some rubbings too!
• You are going to enjoy reading Shirley Anne’s entry from her blog Under An English Sky: OHC – Autumn Color. Not only did they see colorful leaves but they recorded their other color findings in their very well done nature journals. Be inspired!
• Angie enters their Fall Color Walk photo journal which shows their Oregon autumn rainbow of colors. They made quite a collection.
• Robin from Harris Homeschool writes about their Nature Walk where they found some fall color, then used the Fall Color notebook page to follow-up their outdoor time.
• Julie and her son treat us to their fall color walk….in Zion! You can read their entry Fall Colors and see for yourself how they took the OHC on the road. (That is her son with the praying mantis in the photo below!)

Julie’s son found a gigantic praying mantis.

Chipmunks/Squirrels

• Julie from the Homeschool Balancing Act shared their day in Zion National Park, this time with journaling, hiking, and squirrels to compare.  I would love to go to Zion in the autumn sometime soon to see the colors of the trees and the rocks.
• Desiree from Hoeks-in-UK has submitted their Squirrel Hunt entry for carnival readers. Their part of the world does not have chipmunks so they did a great job adapting this challenge for their local squirrels. They followed up their outdoor time with journal pages and an art project.
• Tricia from Hodgepodge shares their Chipmunks and Squirrels Nature Study. They chose to spread the study out over a week’s time and complete the suggested activities including the free lapbook from HomeschoolShare. Don’t miss reading their entry.
• Makita enters their Chipmunks and Squirrels Nature Study study for carnival readers to enjoy. Their family has lots of experience with both subjects and her daughter has written a report comparing and contrasting squirrels and chipmunks. I love it when families can combine nature study with more academic subjects like researching and writing.

Amy shared their colored leaf activity.

Leaf Study

• Jenny Anne from Royal Little Lambs submitted their Leaf Study entry for the carnival. It looks like they really enjoyed making their sketches and rubbings.
• Tricia and her children also completed the Up-Close Leaf Study and they share their wonderful entry with carnival readers. They couldn’t find their hand lens so they came up with some clever alternatives.
• Zonnah and her son adapted the leaf study and she shares it in her entry, Leaves Up Close. See her image above.
• Diana joins the carnival with her Leaf Study and a follow-up art project featuring pointillism.
• Desiree shares the Nature Walk and Fall Nature Notebooks with carnival readers. They did a great job recording their outdoor time.

Ellen’s daughter Anya took this gorgeous image of an orb web.

Fall Webs (from last month)

• Tricia and her family completed their Cobweb Hunt and How To Draw a Web entry and have submitted it to the carnival. They have a glorious spider to share! Tricia also has shared their follow-up study of a really beautiful web in their backyard. Don’t miss it: More Spider Web Studies and the Shirt To Prove It. 
• Makita shares their Spiders and Their Webs entry with carnival readers. She even has an intriguing video of two spiders building a web together…interesting! Their family also wanted to share their special Meeting Dr. Jane entry with carnival readers. What an inspirational story!
• Ellen has submitted another wonderful entry Webs and Cookies. They did a great finding webs and taking great images. They also followed up with some spider web cookies!

Potpourri

• Desiree from the UK shares their Pear Study as part of their first Outdoor Hour Challenge. They did a great job observing, recording, and then eating their pears.
• Makita gives us their families Leaf Roller Update. I am so glad that she made the effort to bring home one to look at and then they found some more! Excellent way to get this challenge done. Makita also wrote a wonderful post sharing Self Directed Journaling done by her young son. What an inspiring example.
• Makita also shares an unexpected but fascinating field trip with carnival readers: Sweet Tart Cranberries!
• Anne is busy learning right alongside her daughters and you can read all about their Constellations – Big and Little Dippers study on her blog Harvest Moon at Home. They also submitted their Grasshopper Nature Study which has some great images and information.
• Zonnah has shared their Praying Mantis entry with some awesome up close images!
• Kristin from Broom and Crown found a great way to incorporate a little fun in their nature study. Read about it in her entry, Nature’s Maracas. 
• Leslie and her daughter completed their fall pear study…yummy entry with a wonderful follow-up notebook page: OHC: Yes You Can Compare Pears. They were also able to complete their amazing Milkweed! study too so don’t miss seeing their fantastic images.

Newsletter Giveaway
After a random drawing, the October Newsletter giveaway gift goes to Julie from Homeschool Balancing Act.  She will be getting the the Window Star from Ann at Harvest Moon By Hand ($10 value). Congratulations and please email me so Ann can get you your beautiful Window Star. (I LOVE mine!)

See you all next month! Remember that November’s Newsletter link will be for subscribers of the blog only. Please click over to the blog and subscribe using the form on the sidebar.