Spring wildflowers cheer my very soul. They seem to sing out to all of us that warmer days are coming and we don’t need to stay so much indoors anymore. We took a walk near the river yesterday and found so many pretty little flowers to enjoy. Above there are Baby Blue Eyes and Fivespot…there were whole patches of them on a sunny little hillside.
Round every corner there were more blue flowers….how many blue flowers do you know?
Okay, I have to admit that this is by far the best image I have ever taken of this particular flower….and it was with my iPhone! I love that you can even see a little ant enjoying the golden yellow color in the sunshine. These meadow buttercups are everywhere right now and they make the day seem brighter.
Here is going to be my first shrub for my Nature Study Goals for 2013. I will do my research and identify the shrub and add it to my nature journal…watch the blog for more information on this one.
Nothing so pretty as Sierra Nevada Pea…..just now starting to shoot up and twine itself among the other wildflowers and weeds. Love this pink one the best!
So hopefully my wildflowers have cheered you up if you are having cold weather….and inspired you to go look for your own wildflowers if you have the opportunity.
1. How about a spring cattail hunt? Find your own patch of cattails and complete some observations using the Handbook of Nature Study. There is even a freeSeasonal Cattail Notebook Pageto print!
2. Look for signs of spring in your part of the world. What better way to enjoy the early spring time outdoors? Use the suggestions in the challenge and then print the Signs of Spring notebook pagefor your nature journal.
3. One of the most popular “wildflower” challenges of all time is the Dandelion Challenge from the Spring Series! Everyone loves a good dandelion study and with this commonly found plant your family can enjoy a little flower study too!
4. Here is one that all of you gardeners will enjoy…earthworms! We love digging down into the fresh spring soil and that means lots of earthworms. My boys loved to go on an earthworm hunt while I pulled a few weeds in the garden boxes.
5. Everyone has weather….you can all take some early spring weather observations no matter if there is snow on the ground or you are experiencing rain showers or you have blue skies and white puffy clouds. Print a weather notebook page and have some fun outside recording your weather and observations.
There are lots more spring nature study ideas on the Spring Tab at the top of my blog. Pick one and enjoy a few minutes outdoors this week. Have you seen some signs of spring in your neighborhood?
Outdoor Hour Challenge: For this challenge we are going to be on the lookout for any mushroom/fungus that we spy in our backyard or local area. Be sure to check out the previous mushroom nature study challenge from the Autumn Series of 2009. There is also a suggestion from the Handbook of Nature Study to capture a series of mushrooms in watercolors (page 717). I think this is such a wonderful idea and hope to start with one mushroom watercolor this week.
You may wish to print and take the printable below with you during your outdoor time to record any mushrooms you find to observe. If you need an explanation for the vocabulary used with the printable, see the links below (also found on page 717 of the Handbook of Nature Study).
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #3. Drawing mushrooms in your nature journal can be fun and interesting…a great way to really see all the parts. Include labels, the date and location you found the mushroom, and any other fun facts from your outdoor time. Make it personal and special.
We had a flock of Cedar Waxwings come through yesterday and I was able to capture some pretty images of them up in the trees. They don’t ever stay long but I love to watch them…..we usually hear them before we spy them up in the trees. They have such a distinct sound.
So enjoy a couple of images of my friends the Cedar Waxwings.
They came on a Project Feederwatch day when I was observing the feeders. We have had fewer birds but more of a variety now that the season is changing. I say bring on the springtime weather!
The trees all continue to pop out with colors and this finch was spotted up in the tree just singing away.
What a great time of year to observe some birds and record the experiences in your nature journal.
So what birds have you seen in your yard this week?
What a delightful addition to our nature table! Moss in a pot adds some color and texture to our little growing area of the nature table where we also have several varieties of cactus growing. The light seems just about right here for the moss and so far we have watered it once a week and it is still going strong.
The moss on the plate above was the specimen we brought inside to examine as part of the Moss Challenge from last week. We viewed it closely with our eyes, magnifying lens, and camera lens. There really is a lot to see and the parts of the moss are really interesting.
After viewing, I took a small pot and filled it with some regular garden soil and then placed our specimen on the top. I watered it well from the top and then pressed it firmly onto the soil. I did a little research and it said that moss really does like to be watered from the bottom so when I need to water it I place it in a small bowl of water and let it sit until the whole thing is moist.
Here are few images that we took with our camera…really showing the capsules and the stems.
Amazing structure and no wonder it is soft and enjoyable to the touch!
Our front yard is a great habitat for moss since we pulled out the lawn. The cracks in the pavers and the area below the retaining wall have moss that adds such a great feel to the yard. We did not plan on the moss but it just invited itself to grow in the cracks and crannies.
The big rocks in the foreground were bright green with moss a month or so ago but since we have had warmer temperatures and drier days the moss has turned sort of brown. I know with the next rain it will green up again so I will enjoy that when it happens. You can see our Lamb’s ear plant here in this image…one of my favorite low water plants in our front yard….I know it spreads but with the big rocks right there and the retaining wall behind, it can’t go too far.
So there you go…our continuing moss study! Don’t forget there is a free printable in the Moss and Lichen Challenge that you can use to record your own moss study.
How about your family? Have you found some moss to explore with all your senses?
“The mosses are a special delight to children because they are green and beautiful before other plants have gained their greenness in the spring and after they have lost it in the fall; to the discerning eye, a mossy bank or a mossy log is a thing of beauty always.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 709
Outdoor Hour Challenge: This week continue looking for lichen and moss to examine closely. Use lots of descriptive words as you observe your subjects. You can view and use the information from Outdoor Hour Challenge #42: Moss and Lichen.
Use this notebook page to record your sketch and notes about any moss you find this month as part of your outdoor time. The Handbook of Nature Study has information about Hair-cap moss in Lesson 197.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #2.This is the perfect challenge to put all those wonderful moss and lichen words in your nature journal records. Help your child get started by spending a few minutes discussing all the amazing things you noticed about moss and lichen while outdoors.
Fungus, lichen, and moss have been at the top of our nature study list for a few weeks now in anticipation of this month’s grid study….that is one advantage to being the author of the challenges. 🙂
I feel like we have done a decent job so far at keeping our eyes open and finding some subjects for our fungus, lichen, and moss studies. I highly recommend pulling out your March Newsletter and printing out the Study Grid….keep it in sight so you will remember to spend a few minutes each week looking for subjects to enjoy.
Words that come to mind as part of this grid study are amazing, colorful, and surprising.
Amazing – How do I miss really seeing all these lovely things? The more time we spend looking at them up close, the more amazed we are at their variety and heartiness.
Colorful – From deep greens and bright spring greens to orange and then all the way to black….there is no end to the variations.
Surprising – We found subjects at the river’s edge, alongside our walking trail, up in the mountains in the snow, and in our own yard.
Here is my number one moss, lichen, and fungus hunting buddy….after her swim in the river. Kona is always ready to accompany us on our expeditions…especially if there is water involved. She is also amazing, colorful, and surprising…
Hopefully you are finding some things of interest for your own Mushroom/Lichen/Moss study….make sure to share your entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
You are welcome to submit any of you blog Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Entries for the current month are due on 3/30/13..
A whole new month is ahead of us….hopefully filled with fungus, moss, and lichen! This is a topic that probably many of us won’t put at the top of our nature study favorites but it is very interesting and it can be like a treasure hunt for your kids. I strongly urge you to give it a try, even if you just use the grid study found in this month’s newsletter.
Above all, have fun outdoors!
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
Print the March Newsletter page with the Mushroom, Lichen, and Moss Study Grid (page 8). Prepare a little before your outdoor time by discussing what the month’s focus is and where you might find some subjects to study. If your children are like mine, they will have some ideas about where to look. Use the printable below to learn a little more about mushrooms and the vocabulary that goes along with your study.
If you need more help getting started, click over to my Misc/Seasonal page and find specific challenges for mushrooms, lichen, and moss which will direct to reading in the Handbook of Nature Study.
Note: We will be focusing on moss next week and mushrooms the next. You can use this week’s challenge as an introduction to the month’s study and then go deeper in the next few weeks if you want to wait.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #8.This challenge is all about looking closely at things you find during your outdoor time. Take along a magnifying glass or bring home a sample to look at under your microscope. Record your results on the accompanying notebook page or in your nature journal.
Keeping a nature journal using notebooking pages has been a part of our routine for many years. Each page is a treasure, showing some aspect of our personalized learning. Taking the time to slow down and record a memory, an experience, or an interesting fact takes nature study to a higher level.
But, it is always easier to have a stock of pages on hand to quickly print when the mood strikes. That is where this month’s blog sponsor comes in….NotebookingPages.com has a huge library of pages you can use that are ready to go. Although I use many, many of their pages in our homeschool, I will introduce the nature study sets we use in our home for you to get a taste of. You will see just a sampling of the pages available and for most topics there are multiple choices with lines or no lines, some with illustrations and some with a variety of sketch boxes. There will always be a notebooking page you can adapt to your area and topic.
Note: If you have visited NotebookingPages.com before and been overwhelmed, please note that they have done a complete makeover and navigation of their many resources is now much easier and simpler.
How to Personalize Your Pages
Use colored pencils or watercolors
Add an image from your study
Use the pages to keep your life list of birds
Keep track of your garden plants
Complete a four season nature study project
Add your own stories to the page…front or back
I have always had a Treasury Membership which gives me access to all the notebooking pages on the website plus all the new pages she adds during the membership year. There is no need to download every page when you purchase your membership because along with the membership comes access to all those pages forever.
But, if you are just looking to add access to pages for your nature journal and aren’t ready to jump into a full membership, you can purchase individual sets to build up a library of pages to choose from for your nature journal.
Tip: If you purchase a set of notebooking pages, print out the table of contents as a reference. This way you will have a complete list of available notebooking pages and you will be able to quickly find the page you need when the time comes.
Basic Nature Study Set
Click over and see all 292 pages in this set for your to choose from: plants, trees, flowers, rocks, weather, etc. There are primary and regular lined pages with a variety of borders, boxes, lines, and prompts. You will have access to cover pages, bordered pages, and a special Creation Notebook set too. Follow the link above and view every page you will get in this Basic Nature Study Set. $10.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013).
Birds: North American This is the set we use the most in our family with 97 different birds and over 280 pages available at this time. $8.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013). World This set adds 30 more birds and over 680 pages available at this time. $5.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013). Tropical This set adds 43 tropicalbirds for your nature study. $5.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013). All About Birds This set of 55 pages is a must have for any family that is studying birds. It includes pages for parts of the bird, feathers, migration, and plenty of general birds pages to make it valuable as a reference.$2.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013).
Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers This set includes pages for 45 plants featured in the Handbook of Nature Study. I love the variety of pages that are offered for each plant including coloring pages, lined pages in both primary and regular-8 different styles for each plant. $12.95
Please note: If you already own the Notebooking Treasury Membership, you have access to all these pages already and can find them in your Member Download Center.
Another month of using less plastic and I can already see a huge difference in our attitudes and lifestyle. But, there are still some areas we could improve in. Our family is not seeking to totally eliminate all plastic but to greatly reduce the wasteful practices we were falling into without thinking.
This is the key…think about what you are purchasing and then how you are going to reduce your plastic consumption before you bring it home.
We have not cleansed the kitchen of all plastic. We decided that since we already owned all those reusable plastic containers, we would use them for now. They will be replaced with non-plastic alternatives when the time comes. For our family, this is a gradual process that will probably take a year to totally figure out how to make it work.
Thanks for all the suggestions from last month in your comments. I appreciate every one and hope you will keep the suggestions coming this month.
#3 Bringing less plastic home from the grocery.
Last month I shared how we are attempting to use all reusable bags for shopping….well, I still forget sometimes. But, I found an answer that is simple and easy…a reusable stuff bag. This bag from Chico Bag unfolds into a full size bag with shoulder straps (Diana’s suggestion from last month’s comments). You can purchase one on Amazon: ChicoBag Reusable Shopping Tote/Grocery Bag.I can attach it to my purse or keys using the clip provided and this way I always have at least one reusable bag to use at all times.
The other brilliant idea that my husband had was to ask at the meat counter and the deli counter if they could wrap our meats in paper rather than a ziplock bag. No problem! The meats come home and we put them in reusable containers at home instead which is one extra step but we don’t end up with plastic bags that we can’t reuse.
If all else fails, take the item without a bag if possible.We have done this at Home Depot a number of times this month and now it seems silly when they want to use a plastic bag to carry out one small item. It is just a bad habit. (Makita spoke about doing this in her comment from last month.)
It only makes sense to bring less plastic home if we are trying to reduce our wasteful plastic usage.
Have you found a product you like for packaging sandwiches for lunches? Leave me a comment!
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I can attach it to my purse or keys using the clip provided and this way I always have at least one reusable bag to use at all times.
![North American](<a href="https://notebookingpages.com/archives/1107?ap_id=BarbaraMccoy" target="_blank" ><img src="https://notebookingpages.com/wp-content/uploads/affiliate-images/npc-square-birds-na-300X300.png" alt="Birds of North America Notebooking Pages" border="0" /></a>){kind=link}
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