Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival-January 2010 Edition

Welcome to the very first ever Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival!

I hope you are encouraged and inspired by all the entries that were shared in this special debut blog carnival. Please feel free to leave comments on any blogs you visit. We all know how encouraging it is to have other nature loving families comment on our experiences. Enjoy the carnival!

Maria shares on her blog, Dirt Under My Fingernails, their very first Outdoor Hour Challenge. They were very happy to be Getting Outside.

Holli from Settled in my Home is just getting started with the Outdoor Hour Challenges and she wants to share their nature study time from Challenge #1, which includes a mouse, and Challenge #2 as well.

Quinn shares their first Outdoor Hour Challenge entry on her blog, On Just A Couple Acres. You are going to *love* her photos!

Photo from Michelle’s blog Delightful Learning

Michelle from Delightful Learning shares their wonderful entry for winter cattails. Theyfound a few surprises on their Outdoor Hour time as well. Don’t miss reading about their wonderful cattail experiment!

Angie shares their cattail study on her blog The One Thing. They had quite an adventure.

Kellie at the Blue House Academy shares their cattail entry…don’t miss the photos!

Amy at Together for a Reason shares their wonderful cattail nature study which was so much more than just cattails! Great job getting all those troops outdoors this week!

Michelle H. from Urban Cottage Homeschool shares their cattail entry which also included a little cross-country skiing! Love this idea!

Alex shares their family’s cattail entry on their Serendipity Homeschool blog.

Michelle from Delightful Learning shares their family’s study of two trees, the flowering crab apple and the willow tree in their yard. Don’t miss their wonderful nature journals.

Kelsey shares their winter tree study on her blog Mud Puddles.

Amy at Together for a Reason shares their family’s fantastic tree study along with their nature journals.

Sarah shares their winter study of their dogwood tree on her blog: Sunshine Daydream. She has some unidentified creatures living on her tree if you would care to help identify them.

Angie shares the beginning of their year-long tree study. They also picked a dogwood! Here is her entry on The One Thing.

“There is no prettier story among the flowers than that of the bracts of the dogwood, and it is a subject for investigation which any child can work out for himself.”
Handbook of Nature Study page 680

Don’t forget to check in the Handbook of Nature Study for more about the winter tree that you study. The HNS has many common trees and lots of great ideas to use to study your focus tree.

Desiree from As Long As It Takes shares their very first Outdoor Hour Challenge entry. They had a fantastic time outdoors looking at the moon and stars!

Rachel blogs at United for Christ about their winter sky and stars study. They share how they have become familiar with their Texas winter sky.

Samantha‘s family completed a winter color walk and they share their entry on their blog, To Be Busy at Home. This is a very easy winter nature study to complete on the spur of the moment.

Michelle wrote about their winter journals and making winter nature observations on her blog, Delightful Learning. They also completed Winter Wednesday #1 here on this entry: World of Winter.

Andi at The Learning Pomegranate shares their wonderful winter bird study.

Angie at The One Thing shares their study of winter ice. This is a fantastic way to conduct nature study in the winter.

Martha and her family were also focusing on winter birds…especially migration. Read her entry at Sunrise to Sunset.

Andi has another entry to share on her blog The Learning Pomegranate. This time it is for their Winter Mammal study.

Aurora from Knitting Longies wants to share their first Winter Wednesday challenge where they went out looking for colors.

Michelle from Delightful Learning shares their Winter Weeds in a perfectly lovely entry…gorgeous photos!

Thanks to everyone for all the entries and photos and participation. Please consider submitting your Outdoor Hour Challenge entries and your Winter Wednesday entries to the next carnival. Deadline for submissions will be February 26th and all entries from February are eligible. Here is the link for submissions: LINK.

Just for fun I will give you the link to all of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Photos of the Week on Flickr in a slideshow. It is hard to believe that in a few short weeks we will be marking our second year anniversary of the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Photos of the Week Slideshow

I enjoyed remembering all the great families that have participated over the years. I think I have watched some of your children grow up over the last two years.

Thanks again,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom