“Out in this, God’s beautiful world, there is everything waiting to heal lacerated nerves, to strengthen tired muscles, to please and content the soul that is torn to shreds with duty and care….nature study is not a trouble; it is a sweet, fresh breath of air…She who opens her eyes and her heart nature-ward even once a week finds nature study….a delight and an abiding joy.” Handbook of Nature Study, Anna Botsford-Comstock
I was having a terrible day. Nothing was going right and I was in a very foul mood. My teenage son noticed my frustrations and suggested we take a mid-day, middle of the week hike to the river. It was a hot September day and the sun was blazing down and the last thing I thought I wanted to do was to go outside. He reminded me that I always feel better after getting some fresh air so I jumped in the car with Mr. A and Kona dog, still quite grumpy.
We chatted a bit on the way to the river but I continued feeling the effects of working too much and having some looming deadlines. As we rounded the bend and pulled into the parking lot, I realized that I was actually starting to feel bit better. We hiked down the familiar trail to the river through oaks and pines, smelling the hot oak leaves in the baking noontime sun. I could hear the river now as it traveled over the rocks and past the gravel shore. Kona heard it too and she got very excited. Swimming in the river is one of her favorite things to do. It wasn’t long before she had found a stick for us to throw in the water for her to retrieve…her favorite game of all.
We found a spot to sit and dip our feet in, watch the water roll by, and soak in some sunshine and fresh air.
I was feeling much better by now.
Before long the boy and the dog were off exploring this and that as I enjoyed the view.
The color of the rocks in the sparkling water.
The fresh smell of the air as it comes over the river.
The freezing cold temperature of the river water.
Birds flying overhead, along the water, and between the trees. I glimpsed a woodpecker and heard a crow.
The lapping of the water on the rocks.
Slippery moss at the water’s edge.
I was glad for the reminder from my teen. Yes, even I need to be reminded of the healing and refreshing aspects of just getting outside and breathing the air. I took a photo to remind me of this day, spending time with Mr. A, knowing that he soon will not be around to remind me to get outside even when I don’t feel like it and the weather is hot or cold or wet or whatever.
Just get outside for a few minutes if you are having a bad day. You will find your smile again too.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week we will be using the Mammal Study Grid from the November 2012 Newsletter. Print the grid out, cut it to include in your nature journal, and then take a few minutes during your week to complete some of the suggested activities. If you haven’t subscribed to the blog yet, you can do so now and you will receive the newsletter link in the next entry.
Suggested Activity:
This week’s extra is a YouTube recording with a catchy little song about mammals.
If you don’t see the YouTube player you may need to click this link: Mammal Song.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own this ebook, this week’s challenge wouldcorrespond nicely with Outdoor Hour Challenge #4.Start a focus study of mammals this month and see how many mammals you can find to learn more about in your local area. You can use the notebook page provided in the ebook for each mammal you study.
November 2012 – Mammals
This edition of the newsletter is packed with loads of useful information and ideas for a study of mammals using the Handbook of Nature Study. Although there are many, many mammals that can be studied, I chose to limit my suggestions to those covered in the Handbook of Nature Study. The mammals listed in the HNS are many of the common mammals you may have contact with in real life or have in your neighborhood.
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
Learning Styles – My contribution to the newsletter this month is on learning styles and how they apply to a study of mammals.
2 articles contributed by OHC participants showing their urban nature study
Book review by an OHC participant – The Burgess Animal Book for Children
Interview with a new OHC Family – so very encouraging!
November Study Grid and Bookmark – Mammal Theme
2 coloring pages
Show and Tell, Favorite Links, Winter Bundle Special Offer
I have attached the newsletter download link to the bottom of my blog feed so if you are a subscriber you will receive the link to the latest newsletter at the bottom of every post for the month of November. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still subscribe and receive the newsletter link in the next post that comes to your email box. You can subscribe to my blog by filling in your email address in the subscription box on my sidebar.
Note: You can download your newsletter from the link in two ways:
If your link is clickable, right click the link and then “save link as” to save the file on your computer.
If the link is not clickable, cut and paste the link to your browser, open, and then save your newsletter to your computer.
Did you have a good month of tree study? Our family had a full month enjoying our trees and having an idea of what to look for each week helped focus our eyes to notice things that might have been missed otherwise. Oaks were the tree of the month for us and we found the variety interesting, identifying several kinds for our nature journals. We made plans to continue our tree study into next month because we need to still observe our cottonwood (the subject of our year-long tree study).
Thank you to everyone who took the time to email me about the new Outdoor Hour Challenge format and letting me know how well it is working in your family. What a great community of nature study lovers we have in our midst! Take a few minutes to check out this rich and full carnival….spread some cheer by leaving a few comments as you read the entries.
Oaks and Acorns
Shirley Ann from Under An English Sky gives the account of their tree study this month: OHC-The Oak. As usual, she does a wonderful job of weaving her nature study into their week’s activities. I love seeing how joyful their nature study is.
Cristy from Crafty Cristy shares how their Observation of Acorns developed and the reflections she has made about tree study after completing some of the tree grid ideas.
Lisa from What We Do has submitted their Oak Tree Study for the carnival. They observed and identified the galls on the leaves as well….great job!
Rachel from All Things Bright and Beautiful shares their study of Tree Pests (or bad bugs as her daughter calls them). They did a wonderful job learning about insects that affect trees including the acorn weevil. I learned a lot from the study.
Amy at Hope is the Word writes about their Oak Tree Study and shares it with the carnival for this edition.They did a lunch time study and found some mighty tall oaks to observe along with the acorns and leaves.
Sara from Garner Goings On shares her oak study entry: Growing in Knowledge of Oaks and Acorns. What a wonderful glimpse into their oak study and their growing acorn collection for each oak they identified this month. Don’t miss seeing their notebook pages where they recorded their findings.
Our local reservoir is getting low but it made for a beautiful reflection of the autumn tree landscape.
Tree Grid Study
Cristy from Crafty Cristy submits their October Grid Study! One of the grid activities was to count the trees you can see from your window. Her son counted 115 trees! Don’t miss seeing some more of their tree activities in this entry.
Robin from Academia put together a post of some of their tree grid activities: A Look At Trees. Check out Tabbi’s four tree part images…love the roots!
Tricia shares How to Frame Your Days With Nature Study. In this entry she shows how scattering short periods of outdoor time throughout your day can make nature study a part of your regular routine. Using some of the tools in the monthly newsletter, including using things like the tree grid study, help her children to enjoy their outdoor time even more.
Melissa from Tending the Home Fires joins the carnival this month with her entry: Outdoor Hour Nature Study-Tree Grid Study. They have been doing the grid activities and this entry shows some of their highlights. What a great family nature study!
Jen from Snowfall Academy shares their entry: Fall Nature Study. Catch a glimpse into their autumn world and read how they are working at keeping a balance between structure and freedom in their outings.
Sarah from GranWood Explorers has given a thorough account of their October Outdoor Hour-Focusing on Trees for the carnival. Check out their list of trees and don’t miss the photo of the beech tree! Glorious! Carol from Journey and Destination has submitted her October Nature Notebook entry for you to enjoy. Take a look at two trees they had the chance to observe and then enjoy the bird images too!
Virginia from Livin’ Lovin’ and Learnin’ put together a beautiful image filled entry sharing their tree study in The Beauty of Trees. They also are sharing their Trees-A Focus on Leaves and a Bit on Seeds in this edition of the carnival. I invite you to read how she is using her children’s interests to keep the study of trees going and her plans for the future too.
Virginia from Livin’ Lovin’ and Learnin’ also shares their November-The Grid: Trees entry with the carnival. She shows how their family is using the nature study grid from the newsletter to encourage some independent nature study.
Tree Poetry
Heidi from Home Schoolroom has submitted their Kicking off Our Focus on Trees With Poetry entry. They each took a different idea from the challenge and made some wonderful entries for the journals. Her daughter even completed a lovely cinquain!
Seasonal Tree
Shirley Ann from Under An English Sky submits their OHC Seasonal Tree Study for this edition of the carnival. You will be interested to see how to measure the height of a tree and the width of the crown using instructions that she provides in her entry. Thanks!
Kim from Homepiecing has joined this edition of the carnival with their Maple Tree entry. They have a glorious maple in their yard that they observed up close and recorded in their nature journals.
Nicole from Journey to Excellence writes up their seasonal tree entry for autumn: Which Tree is Yours? They each picked a tree at their park and they will following its changes throughout the year.
Potpourri
Michelle from Following Footprints has written up their Outdoor Hour Challenge #7 featuring a study of chickens using the Handbook of Nature Study with her little ones. What a great job they did on this challenge! Don’t miss reading their entry and seeing their journals too. They also completed Outdoor Hour Challenge #8 – What a treat to read! I think it will encourage you too.
Cristy from Crafty Cristy substituted a study of goldenrod for the Queen Anne’s Lace…what a wonderful study! You can read all about it here: In the Wonderful Days of Goldenrod. (She includes a poem that you may like to use in your nature journals.)
Anne from Harvest Moon at Home has submitted their Goldfinches/Yellow Birds Outdoor Hour Challenge for you to enjoy. What an informative entry for such a pretty bird that many of us have in our backyards! Anne has also completed their Blue Jays and Bluebirds entry as part of the the OHC. Don’t miss seeing their nature journals too!
Martha from Sunrise to Sunset sent me her photo of some giant ant hills in Garner, Texas. Wow!
Kris from On The Eighth Day shares their Ant Study (September Newsletter Topic). Wow! They have some really big ant hills to observe. I learned about something we don’t have here in our part of the world.
Kim from A Child’s Garden writes about their Signs of Autumn while on a trip to the apple orchard. It looks like they enjoyed their nature study and their delicious apples. (My favorite apple is a Fuji!)
Jamie from See Jamie Blog has written a wonderful reflection on their vacation nature study: Nature Study on Tybee Island. She shares howunstructured nature study has become a part of their everyday life and the enjoyment it has added to their family.
Angie from Petra School has submitted their One Small Square-Low Tide entry for you to enjoy. They found so many interesting things revealed for this period of time. Don’t miss seeing her images of low tide creatures and their nature journals too.
Bethany from Little Homeschool Blessings share their Autumn Cattail Study. Looks like a great start to a year of observations. Brings back memories of our family’s cattail study from a few years ago. Fun!
Don’t forget to share your blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in November are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 11/29/12 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com or submit them at the blog carnival site (link on the sidebar of my blog).
Also, tomorrow’s post will have the November Newsletter download link in the footer so make sure to subscribe now to receive it first thing in your inbox! You can subscribe on the sidebar of my blog.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
The benefits of a year long tree study cannot be measured. Getting to know a tree season by season allows your family to take nature study to a new level by observing a tree in its complete annual cycle of growing. Use the links below to complete your tree study. Mark your calendar to remind you to complete a tree study in each season for the next year. After that, pick another tree and start all over again. Think of all the trees you will know by the time your children are grown up and on their own. This would be a wonderful gift to give your children.
You may also like to read this entry for additional simple ideas to get you started: For the Love of Trees
Four Seasons Tree Photo Project:
To accompany this challenge, print these notebook page for your nature journal and attach a photo of your tree in each season.
>Four Seasons Tree Photo Project Notebook Page: One page for each season’s observations and a photo or sketch.
Getting Started Suggestion:
You can complete Challenge #3 Now is the Time to Draw along with this Four Seasons Tree Study. Pick something from your tree to draw in your nature journal.
Our family loves this beautiful picture book that combines gorgeous paintings of a tree in all seasons along with questions to help you really see how a tree looks differently throughout the year. I highly recommend this book from my personal library.
“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
“Come over the meadows with me, and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold;
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold”
-from Songs of Autumn
I love Google Books…you can find so many wonderful books that are in the public domain to use in your homeschooling and nature study. I have had one ebook downloaded and on my desktop just waiting to use with our nature journals…and to share with you.
Nature in Verse by Mary Lovejoy is a whole year’s worth of poetry organized by seasons. Whether you read these aloud or use them as copy work in your nature journals, this downloadable ebook is a gem.
Poetry is another way to use the words you find as you spend your time outdoors. Not everyone likes to take a stab at poetry but if it is your interest or you are a linguistic learner (or your child is a linguistic learner), it is fun to listen to poetry and to play with words. See last week’s challenge for more ideas on using poetry in your nature journal.
We attempted to write some poems for our nature journal but it just didn’t happen this week. We did have fun manipulating words and it was sort of a silly time for the two of us…I cherish those times with my son just as much as any poem we could have written.
Just the act of slowing down and gathering words, giving our children more words to describe their outdoor experiences, and then taking time to share word pictures is a gift they will carry with them into their adulthood.
“The habit of storing mental images can’t be overrated. It can comfort us and refresh us. Even in our busiest times, we can stop and take a mini-vacation in our own piece of nature to be refreshed and gladdened by ‘the silence and calm of things that can’t speak or feel.’…..anyone who tries hard to really see can have it, and parents can train their children to do this.” Charlotte Mason, volume 1 page 50
Sometimes I just like to record words that come to mind and after they are written in my nature journal they end up sounding like poetry…free form style. Some people collect items for a nature table and some of us like to collect images and words to remember an experience.
This week we found some thistles during a walk with the Kona dog. They always look so pretty but I know that if I touch them they are rather dry, hard, and the thorns will give a good poke. We took some photos and then I drew some autumn thistles in my nature journal along with some words. My words record the experience of seeing some goldfinches hanging upside down to glean some seeds from the thistles. How do they do that without getting stuck by the thorns? They seemed very happy and content as they enjoyed the thistle seed meal.
So whether you actually write a poem or just play with words in your journal, I encourage you to give it a try. Start with a simple sketch and then perhaps a word or two to express your feelings about the subject. Remember that a journal is a personal expression for you and your child….no need for perfection.
“As soon as a child is old enough, he should keep his own nature notebook for his enjoyment. Every day’s walk will give something interesting to add–three squirrels playing in a tree, a blue jay flying across a field, a caterpillar crawling up a bush, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider suddenly dropping from a thread to the ground, where he found ivy and how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, and how ivy manages to climb.” Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 54
I am submitting this entry to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and if you have any entries you would like to submit, you can send them to this email address: charlottemasonblogs@gmail.com. The official blog carnival site is not working so you will need to send them directly to this email.
Now that one complete challenge each month is to use the grid study…we are making better use of it as we go about our weekly outdoor time. This week we had tennis plans with some friends at the park and we combined this with some time observing the oak trees that surround the courts.
I brought our tree field guide, our journal supplies, and the tree grid to help us glean more from our observations. There is a picnic bench right under the great big oak that you see in the top image. It is very different from the other oak we observed last week in our backyard. This one has a bunch of large trunks coming up from one spot and reaching out to make a crown.
These acorns are much larger than the ones we have on the California Black Oak tree in our yard. We also noticed that there are two growing together, opposite each other. This was a clue to the identify of the type of oak once we pulled out our field guide.
Here is a photo of the trunk with the bark and woodpecker holes. Which reminds me that I need to add the woodpeckers we saw to our bird list for October. We keep a running list each month of the birds we see and now that we have three year’s worth of data it is interesting to compare.
Under the main tree we saw this new oak sprouting….which technically isn’t part of the tree but we thought it was interesting. Looking at the image now it also shows the dry, brown leaves of this oak tree.
My tree pages using the tree grid and bookmark from the October Newsletter. (Amazon link to journal below)
So then we pulled out our tree field guide (A Field Guide to Western Trees-Peterson Field Guides) and tried to determine just what particular oak we were enjoying at the park on a glorious October afternoon. Turns out it is an Interior Live Oak. We were interested in the fact that the leaves can either be smooth (like ours) or they can be “sharp-toothed”.
So for my nature journal pages for our tree study, I am using the Tree Grid and bookmark from the newsletter, my tree poetry from last Friday’s Using Your Words challenge, and then I will add some additional observations and maybe an image I print our from our photos.
We still have some tasks left from the Tree Study Grid to complete but there is plenty of time in the month to work on them. We have had some debate about which tree is “closest to our house”….it might even mean getting out a measuring tape to have an official closest tree.
I have a nature study group trip this week and I have been gathering some things to take for all of us.
I thought you might like to see what I pack for our group…nothing too exciting.
Colored pencils and Number 2 pencils with erasers
Scissors (for cutting the grids)
Tape
Pencil sharpener (can’t see it in the photo)
Assorted field guides (which I put in my daypack)
A couple of magnifying tools
Clipboards with the study grid (we are going to work on insects on this trip)
Even though we are going to be working on insects, I decided to bring in a few other field guides. We have quite a few lizards right now and I know some of the boys are going to want to chase those. I also always bring a bird field guide since that is one that we always seem to need.
I have gleaned some wonderful ideas from all of you as I watch you work with your grid studies….so many ways to use this simple idea. I hope that showing you a glimpse into our tree grid study will encourage you to give it a try this month or any other month you feel like studying trees.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
Ready for a simple nature study challenge this week? Let’s use Challenge #2 Using Your Words to enjoy our outdoor time as we notice trees in our own backyard and neighborhood. Spend your fifteen minutes observing a tree up close and then follow up with some words. Your children can share their special words orally and then write them down if they wish.
Poetry and Nature Study Activity:
This week the challenge is to record your special words about trees in poem form for your nature journal.
Tree Poetry:Use this notebook page to record the words from your outdoor time. Choose one or more of the suggestions to get you started with your very own poem.
Getting Started Suggestion:
This week’s challenge comes directly from Challenge #2 Using Your Words. If you own the ebook, then you have a custom notebook page you can print to use in your nature notebook.
We have spent quite a number of our outdooor hours observing and learning about oaks. We are blessed with many different kinds of oaks right in our own yard so they are constantly a backdrop for many of our studies. Here is a link to one of our entries that shows the variety we have: Oak Tree Study.
“The California Black Oak is strikingly unlike all other deciduous Oaks in the Golden State, for its broad thin leaves are jaggedly lobed, with the veins running out beyond the leaf margins as fine bristles.”
A Natural History of Western Trees.
We have noticed the woodpeckers that enjoy the tall branches, the Scrub jays that frequent the crown, and we are even thinking this is the tree that the bats use for shelter…not sure. It is a truly abundant food source for much of our local wildlife, including bears.
“…it has one admiring friend, the California woodpecker, who finds its acorns, bitter to our palates, exactly to his taste….This handsome redhead devours what he can hold of acorns, and lays up great stores of them, like a squirrel.”
There is always something to learn and to make note of as we revisit even a common tree to our area.
We are looking forward to observing:
The yellow leaves of autumn and then seeing the bare branches.
The dropping of acorns.
Finding a California Black Oak with acorn holes.
In the spring, pink or crimson of the new foliage.
Another successful oak tree study….thanks to our ability to see beyond the ordinary.
Printable notebook page for Extraordinary in the Ordinary.
) and tried to determine just what particular oak we were enjoying at the park on a glorious October afternoon. Turns out it is an .JPG)
