Outdoor Hour Challenge:
How about a Small Square Study this week? Use the directions from Challenge #9 to complete your own careful study of a square foot in your backyard or neighborhood. Look for signs of insects as you observe your square with a hand lens. Use the printable notebook page below to record your nature study or make a record in your nature journal using words and sketches.
Printable Activity Notebook Page:
This week the challenge extra is a free printable notebook page to go along with your square foot study.
Small Square Study – Living vs. Non-Living: As you complete your small square study, categorize the objects you find between living (or once living) and non-living. There is a place to list your items and sketch them too.
Getting Started Suggestion:
This week the challenge comes from the Getting Started ebook (Challenge #9). If you own the ebook, there are custom notebook pages to print to go along with this study.
“The teacher of nature study, like the teacher of any subject, will deny himself much if he does not go to the literature of the subject for help in his work. But there is an especial danger in such help on this subject. So soon as one takes to the book instead of to nature for questions that nature could easily answer, he loses the spirit of the work. One must be careful, therefore, to ask many questions of things themselves under the open sky, and to read with patience in nature’s book.” The Study of Nature by Samuel C. Schmucker 1908
Using the Handbook of Nature Study monthly grid study activities helps us to “read with patience in nature’s book”.
Almost every single task gets us outside with a little bit of focus but yet it is open ended. All ages can participate.
We never feel inclined to complete the whole grid at once but we read the tasks ahead of time just in case while we are going about our regular daily business we see something that relates to the grid study.
I also love that it makes a quick and easy start to a nature journal page where we can record some of our observations.
I printed our Insect Study Grids out in black and white, adding watercolor to jazz it up a bit.
So have you been able to use the grid to help your study of insects this month? I encourage you to give it a try and enjoy this relaxed form of nature study.
White-breasted nuthatch doing his upside down thing.
Scrub jay taking a bath in the lawn sprinklers.
We have had a busy week around the birdfeeders which always makes me happy. The birds are enjoying our yard, partaking in the plums, the sunflower seeds, the walnuts, the birdbaths, the sprinklers, and the various feeders. I sometimes get very distracted….especially when I pull the camera out and try to capture a few images.
We all love watching them and hearing their songs as we go about our day.
So far today, I have heard quite a few birds: American crow, California quail, Western scrub jay, White-breasted nuthatch, House finches, Anna’s hummingbirds, and our little titmouse.
The sunflowers are still going strong and my very first zinnia from the transplants my dad sent over is blooming! There is a whole row of zinnias just about to burst out in color! Doesn’t it make you happy to have colorful flowers in your garden?
I have to admit the garden is beginning to feel like autumn is coming…I have a bunch of clean up to do around the various boxes but it is still too warm to do it in the afternoon. I like to go out early and get it done while everything is still in the shade. No hurry though. Autumn will be here before we know it (matter of days!).
I managed to squeeze in another Tuesday Garden Party entry this year….
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
I finally remembered where I had seen lots of ants….on our backyard trumpet vines. This morning I had a chance to go out with Mr. A and take a closer look armed with our cameras and a desire to learn more.
After watching the ants for a few minutes, I realized they were not the only insect enjoying this colorful vine. The honeybees were buzzing right at ear level and even though I knew they were not interested much in me, I felt the need to keep getting out of their way. They were very active and in the photo above you can see there would be multiple bees in one flower. This one had four!
After coming back inside, we did some research online to reveal why the ants are on the trumpet vine. There seems to be two lines of thinking:
1. The ants are farming aphids that also live on the trumpet vine.
2. The ants are actually partaking of the nectar found in the trumpet vine blossom.
This led to more outdoor time trying to discover which it was in our case.They definitely were interested in the flowers so I think our ants were after the nectar of the flowers.
According to the USDA, the trumpet vine is a habitat to the hummingbird, the butterfly, and the ant. I thought it was interesting that the USDA also considers the trumpet vine to be an “invasive weed”. We have had trouble with it sending out its sucker roots and coming up in the lawn but we just keep mowing them down.
Of course, Kona needed a little attention when we were out looking for ants. Smile Kona!
We ended up walking around the garden and ticking off a few of our insect grid tasks…and finding two surprising insects which I will save for my grid study entry next week. I love the way we start off looking for something as simple as an ant, find ourselves asking a question that we answer with more research, investigate some more about a plant we have in our backyard, and end up really enjoy our time together. Although we had a focus in mind when we went outside, the nature study part was very relaxed and natural.
Right in our own backyard.
I am going to record the insects we saw on my insect list from the monthly newsletter, make a nature journal entry for the trumpet vine since we did all the research, and mark off several of the squares on our insect grid.
Hope you are enjoying your monthly focus on insects this month and don’t forget to send in your blog entries for the carnival.
This has been the summer that I have become the relaxed gardener. I haven’t done much but water and pick flowers. Have I missed the garden fussing? Honestly? Not at all…and it made me realize something that had not occurred to me before.
We have not been without summer veggies and it made some friends and my dad happy to share.
We have had an abundance!
My dad shared his tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, green beans, okra, strawberries, and eggplant.
My dad has quite the garden going this year and it is fun just to peek in and see what he has growing and of course pick a few things to bring home for our dining pleasure. I took the photos above earlier this morning as we toured his garden boxes together.
Apples, walnuts, figs, and grapes are all ready to eat or almost ready.
We do have lots of fruit ready or almost ready to eat. I decided relaxed gardeners can plant fruit trees and then wait ten or fifteen years and enjoy the yummy harvest almost labor free. We trim and water our trees but they pretty much take care of themselves for the better part of the year. The trick is to plant things that you like to eat, make sure they are planted in the right spot, and then harvest as soon as you see the fruit getting ripe….before birds and critters find them.
Of course we have created a garden and spaces for things besides edibles for humans….we feed a variety of creatures who happen to dwell in, under, above, and around our garden.
Birds continue to be our nature study subject of choice at this time of the summer. Our list from last month of feeder birds included: Western scrub jays, House finches, Lesser goldfinches, White-breasted nuthatches, Anna’s hummingbirds, Mourning doves, Oak titmouse, and Black-headed grosbeaks.
This video from Cornell University was in my inbox this week…it made me anxious for the annual Project Feederwatch that many of us participate in starting in November. (It also reminded me of my awesome trip to Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology last spring….which I didn’t ever blog about!) I found this video very interesting and it tells about how researchers are using common tracking technology to answer big questions about feeder birds: Tracking Backyard Birds.
This may be my last official Tuesday Garden Party entry for the season. The summer has gone by so very fast but each time I post something garden related it makes me happy. Maybe next year will be more of a gardening year for me or I may just glean my summer veggies from friends and family again.
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
Here are some additional clarifications about the Outdoor Hour Challenge, the blog carnival, and the newsletter.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
You can complete your nature study on any day of the week.
Even though we call it the Outdoor Hour Challenge, it does not need to be a complete hour of nature study. I actually encourage shorter, more frequent sessions during your week.
There are suggested notebook pages with each challenge but you can just as easily use a blank nature journal and create your own record of your Outdoor Hour Challenge. The notebook pages are not required.
Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival:
This is a monthly carnival for participants of the Outdoor Hour Challenge and not a general nature study blog carnival.
Suggested topics are in the monthly newsletter but you are welcome to submit any blog entry showing how you completed any of the Outdoor Hour Challenges from the very first one to the current one.
You may also submit blog entries showing how you using the Outdoor Hour Challenge newsletter activities like the study grid, nature journal suggestions, and other printables.
Blog entries written in the current month are eligible. (No posts from your archives are eligible.)
Monthly Study Grid from the Newsletter:
There are four topics suggested in the monthly newsletter study grid. Generally they will be offered each Friday during the month in this order: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right. For those of you who plan on sticking with the order offered on the blog that should help you out.
You are welcome to complete the topics in any order that makes sense to your family. As explained in the instructions, you can come back and complete a challenge as the opportunity arises even months later and then submit the entry to the blog carnival at that time.
In months where there are five Fridays, I will consider the last Friday as a “catch up” day and there will be no new ideas presented. You can choose to do any challenge that fits your area and interest.
Remember we are starting with a fresh outlook on nature study with this new format for the Outdoor Hour Challenge. I know many of you are determined to make nature study a regular part of your homeschool week or month and that is so very encouraging to me personally. Don’t be discouraged if your first attempts as getting outdoors are not picture perfect. Just getting the kids outside is the first step. Hopefully over time, as you gain confidence, it will get easier. Email me with any comments or questions and I will try to help as much as I can with encouragement and advice.
Have a great week looking for insects! We have already had trouble finding some ant subjects but we did have encountered some lacewings, moths, and butterflies. I think we will start some notebook pages with those insects and then keep our eyes out for some ants to observe.
Welcome to the first of the September 2012 Outdoor Hour Challenges. Whether this is your first or your fortieth nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study, please know that I am so glad that you are here and that you are going to join us for a new round of nature study in your own backyard.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week’s challenge, which you can complete at any time that is convenient, is to take a closer look at the subject of ants using the Handbook of Nature Study. You will find the original study here on my blog by following this link: Outdoor Hour Challenge-Ants (from the Spring 2010 ebook).
Printable Notebook Page:
This week the challenge extra is a free printable notebook page that will give you a place to record any of your insect studies. There are two versions for you to download and use with any of the insect challenges. Please use these with any insect you decide to study this month and not just ants.
Insect Study – record your field guide notes and a sketch Insect Notes – simple page with wider lines for younger students
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own this ebook, this week’s ant study would be a great start to Challenge #7 – Your Own Field Guide. You could start with ants and then add more entries as you observe more insects this month. Note there is a create Your Own Field Guide notebook page in the ebook for you to use with this challenge.
Don’t forget that the Getting Started ebook has a complete selection of generic nature journal pages at the back for you to print and use with any challenge.
A few weeks ago I asked for readers to comment and let me know what keeps them from starting nature study or what happens to make them stop once they get going.
Sally made a comment that resonated with many of you. She shared that she has a hard time focusing, was easily distracted by really good ideas, and felt that she needed to cover academic subjects first while she had the children’s attention. You can read all the comments here: Getting Started With the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
After some thought about Sally’s comment and her struggles, here are my best suggestions that come from both my experience and from those I have seen over the years who have successfully kept nature study a consistent part of their homeschool life.
Set aside fifteen minutes a week to get outside with your children. Have no other agenda other than to spend time outside concentrating on finding something of interest.
At first your own yard may seem boring, but I guarantee if you really focus on finding something, you will find it. If you feel you need a task to accomplish, pick one of the first three Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Don’t feel you have to spend big blocks of time outdoors…everyone can spare fifteen minutes.
#1 Let’s Get Started (Observations) – Make sure to do the reading in the Handbook of Nature Study before you go outside (Honestly, it is eight short pages with pictures so it won’t take you that long.) This challenge suggests that you let your children find two things they want to know more about…..it can be anything. Nothing says you have to know anything about those two objects but that is what you spend the next week talking about and looking up.You don’t need to follow-up with a nature journal entry…the power of just getting outside for a few minutes will become the motivating factor for wanting to do this more often. Concentrate on making nature study a consistent part of your week and opening your eyes to what you have in your own backyard. It takes a few weeks to establish this habit but it is worth the effort. You may like to read this entry: Finding the Ordinary to Be Extraordinary. Take nature study one day at a time and one object at a time.
#2 Using Your Words – If you are Charlotte Mason homeschooler, this challenge encourages nothing more than simple narration. You are still allowing your child to explore for just a few minutes with you outside and then to share that experience with words. It is a simple task but very powerful. Once you get on a roll and you are spending some time finding something interesting and adding in some discussion, then you are going to see that this is the foundation of every single other nature study session you can ever have. Don’t make it complicated.
#3 Now is The Time To Draw – This is where I think a lot of families start to have trouble. I highly recommend that you read the two pages suggested in the Handbook of Nature Study. Nature journals can take many forms and you can spend lots of time bogged down with making the decision between a journal or a binder, watercolors or markers. We have tried every which way in our family and it doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is that you offer the time and the supplies to record the experience and then over time your child will find a method that works for them. Just get started! Put away the fancy artsy nature journal books for now and just let your children record a simple sketch, the date, and a caption. There will be time in the future to add in some more decorative entries once you have established the habit. Plenty of time…..keep it simple for now. If all you ever did was to repeat those three challenges each month, you will have given your children a gift by allowing the time and motivation to be outside. It does not need to be complicated. You do not need fancy equipment, lots of nature journal supplies, a library of field guides, or a background in biology.
What Do Your Children Really Need From You?
Your children need you to encourage them to be outside on a consistent basis, learning to explore and to observe closely what they have in their own world. They need to see your enthusiasm. They will need your help to learn more about things that interest them by taking them to the library to check out books or to find the answers from the Handbook of Nature Study or on the internet and then share with them the next time you are outside. They need you to regularly allow time to just be outside during all the seasons….we can all bear fifteen minutes a week even under even the most uncomfortable circumstances.
Read pages 2 and 3 and then realize that many families need to stick to the Observation column for a very long time. The Reasoning section will happen as you gain confidence and your children begin to make connections. The more time you spend in observations, the more you will have to build on as your children grow and mature.
This download will also help you if you have multiple ages in your family. The younger ones will stick to the Observation column and more mature students will move on to the Reasoning and then eventually Expression columns. There is no hurry.
Hopefully there is something here in this post that will help get you going if you have become stuck. I promise to keep the new Friday challenges simple and to give you the guidance you need to give the Outdoor Hour Challenge a try and to keep at it through the next year. We can all encourage each other with comments and examples.
If you ever get frustrated and need me to give you a pep talk, please let me know.
I have a few more entries in response to the comments left in the blog entry from two weeks ago.
Lavender is one of my favorite garden plants and garden scents. I love the green-gray foliage and the purple spiky flowers that sit right at the ends of the long stems. It makes me happy to watch the bees and butterflies zipping in and out as they partake of the lavender’s goodness. My husband teases me because I have so many lavender plants tucked away in almost every corner of our yard. Funny part is that I have a few more patches planned and he just doesn’t know it yet.
Now that I have read The Lavender Lover’s Handbook I feel much better equipped not only to make a good choice in varieties but I also know better how to prune and care for my lavender. It seems I have been doing a few things completely wrong as far as maintaining my lavender plants.
The book, The Lavender Lover’s Handbook from Timber Press, is a visual treat from start to finish. It really is the sort of book you could just page through and enjoy the colorful images. But, after reading and studying this book over the summer, I have found that the information shared in its pages is worth slowing down to read.
Why do I love this book and recommend it to gardeners?
1. Practical value: This book will help you decide which of the over 100 varieties available would be a good fit for your climate and garden space whether that space is a border, a hedge, a container, or a rock garden. There are lists for top picks for cold weather, humid summers, strongest scents, shade of purple desired, early bloomers, and all season bloomers.
2. Detailed Help for Planting, Pruning, Harvesting, and Drying: This is by far the most useful section to those of us who already have lavender in our gardens. I gleaned many tips for making better use of my lavender and making sure my plants will flourish and bloom for a long time to come. This is the section that showed me I was pruning my lavender all wrong…..now I know how to do it properly and I will let you know how it goes next summer.
3. Exciting suggestions for using your lavender: Now that I have a huge lavender harvest each year, I am looking for ways to use this herb to its full potential. The section on lavender recipes has captured my interest with things like lavender sugar, herbal vinegar with lavender, and lavender cookies. Besides recipes, there is a section on lavender scented creations: lavender wands, lavender wreaths, lavender fire starter(!), and also learning how to use lavender in your household cleaners.
Whether you are a beginning lavender gardener or a veteran, you are going to find this book a treat to read. It has found its way onto my gardening reference shelf for easy help and fresh ideas as we go through lavender season.
I received these four books from Timber Press to review and I received no other compensation. The opinion expressed here is my own after reading and using the book in my own garden. You can read my review of Gardening Projects for Kids if you are interested in hearing how much I loved that book!
To help you with your family nature study, I am starting a new chapter in the Handbook of Nature Study blog adventure. We will be using the monthly newsletters, posts from the archives, and general nature study challenges to encourage everyone from beginner to veteran to try some weekly or monthly nature study. I have lots and lots of fun ideas and free printables just waiting to share with you each Friday. The newsletter will outline the main topic for the month and give you suggested challenge ideas to apply in your family (more on that in next Monday’s post).
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 September. 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.
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