Supporting a Global Community in Their Nature Study
June 2012 Edition: Ocean Beach
The Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter is a companion to the Outdoor Hour Challenges that are posted here on the blog every Friday. In this issue there are special printable activities and a notebook page, additional links and ideas, as well as three contributed articles with wonderful ideas for your family to use at the ocean. I invite everyone to subscribe and get the newsletter each month in your inbox.
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 June. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still subscribe and receive the newsletter 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.
Make sure to click and save the newsletter link from the email for future reference.
If you have trouble getting the newsletter to download, try right clicking the link, save the link, and then open it. (The link is in the email and not in this blog post.) I am not going to be archiving the newsletters at this point. You will need to SAVE the FILE on your computer each month if you want to save back issues.
Most of you already know that the latest ebook in the More Nature Study series has been published but I will add a reminder here in this post that the first official challenge of the summer from this ebook will post on Friday, June 8, 2012.
Here we are again at another end of the month Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. This month brought many of us to the real meat of our spring time weather….colors, growing things, new beginnings. Nothing is more encouraging than seeing the season change, knowing soon that summer will be upon us.
The new More Nature Study Book #4 Summer Sizzle ebook is ready for you to purchase or you can wait until June 8, 2012 and you can see the first challenge. I wrote this ebook with summer vacations in mind and with some extra ideas for simple summertime nature study right in your own backyard.
Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Spring Peepers from the Beery Family – They discovered and recorded a spring peeper! Pop over and listen to the short video. Do you have spring peepers in your area?
Low Tide Object from Angie at Petra School – This family was determined to find something extraordinary during their low tide adventure. I think they succeeded and were rewarded with learning about something new right in their own local area.
Ordinary and Extra-Ordinary: Nature’s Timing from Kris at On the 8th Day – They had several insect visitors come their way…they used the opportunity to find the extraordinary in their ordinary day during a dog walk. They even followed up with a nature journal entry. Welcome to the carnival!
Extraordinary in the Ordinary from Tricia at Hodgepodge – The Hodgepodge family always does a good job of finding the extraordinary in their own backyard. This entry does not disappoint the reader with its colors and textures found right outside their door.
Fern Study (learning how much I still don’t know) from Amy at Hope is the Word -This is a great example of how to adjust your nature study to your circumstances, how to apply what you read in the Handbook of Nature Study, and then follow-up with a creative nature journal entry. Thanks for sharing your fern study with the carnival Amy.
Garden Snails
Slug and Snail Study from Crafty Cristy – They have made an extended study of slugs and have observed and learned a lot. I love the way they are following the interests of the children.
Pretty Petunias from Wendy at Loving Learning – They are joining the carnival with their petunia study using the Handbook of Nature Study. Excellent job and they even followed-up with a nature journal sketch. Thanks for joining us from South Africa!
OHC – The Meadow Buttercup from Shirley Ann at Under An English Sky – What a treat to see their buttecups! Shirley Ann shares her thoughts about the Handbook of Nature Study in this very encouraging entry.
Nature Study – Crows from Jamie at See Jamie Blog – They had a perfect opportunity to learn more about something right in their very own yard. A snake and a crow were the featured attractions! I love the way they seized the opportunity to complete an Outdoor Hour Challenge and some follow-up notebook pages.
Outdoor Hour Challenge Pileated Woodpeckers from Janet at Discovering Nature – They discovered a wood pecker nest back in April and have been watching the progress. Wonderful images of parents and babies!
May Nature Notes from Amy at Hope is the Word – They have adapted their nature study this month to fit their family’s circumstances. What a smart idea to go with color themed scavenger hunts outdoors. Beautiful images!
Make sure to subscribe to this blog so you will receive the download link for the monthly newsletter. The Outdoor Hour Challenge June 2012 Newsletter is themed: Ocean Beach. There are so many practical ideas for including a little nature study when you visit the sandy beach this summer!
The newsletter link will be available in tomorrow’s post and in every blog entry for the month of June. You need to subscribe using the subscription box on the sidebar of my blog in order to receive the link in your next email blog entry from me.
Have you seen the new bundle? If you are new to the Outdoor Hour Challenge my Four Seasons Bundle and my More Nature Study Bundle will give you lots to work with!Click the buttons and read more about these specially discounted bundles of nature study ebooks.
Every reader of the Handbook of Nature Study (the book) knows who Anna Botsford Comstock is….the esteemed author of our nature study guide and lessons. She wrote the words that have touched my personal life in such a profound way, changing how we view the world in our own backyard. She may have touched your life in a similar way through the pages of the Handbook of Nature Study as you worked through the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
When the opportunity was offered to me a few years ago to visit and actually stay at her cottage in New York outside Ithaca, I wasn’t able to make the trip at that time. It was on my mind a lot through the years so when a last minute trip involved traveling in New York came up last month, I immediately contacted the family that now owns the cottage to see if it was available during our visit. It was! We made arrangements to stay for three days in the cottage that Anna and Henry Comstock built on the shore of Lake Cayuga.
” During the fall of 1906, we were making habitable The Hermitage, our summer cottage on Cayuga Lake. We put a large window in the living room which gave us a wide view of the lake. This room was given a hardwood floor and was ceiled, to make it warm. Here we set up the wood stove that had been in my mother’s parlor when I was a child. It had a grate and in the evenings we opened up its front doors; this made it as cheerful as a fireplace.” Anna Botsford Comstock
It was just like I imagined it…set in the woods, right near the water’s edge. The birds, flowers, and trees were those that Anna wrote about in her books. It was warm and cozy and somehow familiar.
We sat on the porch and enjoyed the sounds of the woods. The lake glistened as the sunset on that first day. I climbed into bed and thought how it must have been there over a hundred years ago when the Comstocks first built the cottage.
“Harry and I spent weekends there, and on each trip he would walk the mile and a half from Taughannock Station to The Hermitage, carrying on his back a basket filled with materials for fixing the house.The labor my husband performed in and about this place was remarkable.” Anna Botsford Comstock
The next morning I was up early for a walk in the woods. I ventured out alone for the first hike and as I stepped off the porch I heard birdsong and glimpsed a young deer sneaking across the road into a thicket of bushes. The woods woke up as I hiked up the trail and my eyes were trying hard to take in all the sights.
The green of the new spring leaves, the thin trunks of the trees, the rustlings of birds and the cry of the mourning doves. These were Anna’s woods. This was the place that helped inspire her to share her love of nature with teachers and children, bringing them into a relationship with common everyday things in their world.
There was teasel by the trail…new to me in person but familiar through the pages of the Handbook of Nature Study. Advanced preparation does work…I recognized it right away and remember that she had called it ” a plant in armor”.
“He added paths and built a fine wharf and a double-decked boat house, in the upper part of which we swung our hammocks, and from which we enjoyed the glory of many sunsets. The Hermitage was always a place where work was play; we dumped our cares at the Ithaca station when we left, but they were always waiting to jump at us on our return.” Anna Botsford Comstock
I made my way back to the cottage and by this time the boys were up and ready for the day. My husband and Mr. A took out the canoe onto the morning smooth water of the lake. Exploring a new place by water…leaving their cares behind as they paddled across the surface of the lake in the early morning sunrise.
Mr. B and I decided to take another hike through the woods and this time we noticed the wildflowers. These were the wildflowers of Anna’s books…the ones we don’t have in California.
The whole weekend was filled with the opening of eyes and hearts to a magical place, gently teaching us the way of the New York woods in which we found ourselves. One day it rained and we watched the drops fall from our dry spot on the porch. The fragrance of the wet woods was delightful…different than our Northern California woods. The rain stopped and we grilled dinner on the stone fire pit down by the water. We skipped rocks, sat and watched the fisherman go by on their little boats, and we shed our cares, refreshed.
At the end of the weekend, we had made many entries into our nature journals, took lots of photos, and made some memories of our own at this lakeside cottage.
We will always remember our weekend spent on Lake Cayuga at the Comstock’s beloved Hermitage Cottage. Special thanks to Christiana and Alison who graciously opened up their family cottage to our family, making this trip to New York even more special.
I hope my readers enjoyed glimpsing our weekend….we all need to remember to build in our families a rich heritage of outdoor experiences. Who knows who it will touch in the future?
Next time I will share our day at Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology and Sapsucker Woods! More connections were made to the Handbook of Nature Study.
More Nature Study Book #4 – Summer Sizzle is the last ebook in the More Nature Study ebook series. This completes the cycle of seasons using the Handbook of Nature Study with options for more advanced study of the world in your own backyard. Families have found it easy to offer nature study from their youngest to their oldest children using this series of nature study plans. My own family has greatly enjoyed having the options to bump up the simple plans to a more in-depth study when we came across a topic that interested us.
The challenges in More Nature Study Book #4 cover a variety of topics and I have done my very best to allow for differences in habitat and availability of subjects. You will always be able to adapt each specific challenge to fit a broad range within that topic. For example, when the topic is the Cottonwood Tree, I give suggestions for choosing another summer tree in your own neighborhood if you do not have a Cottonwood to observe up close.
I know summer nature study tends to be more relaxed so I have included simple follow-up activity options that will enhance and support your outdoor time. When you study the Cottonwood, one of the suggestions is to eat a snack or meal in the shade of a backyard tree. The rock study encourages you to complete some simple follow-up projects using rocks. You are going to find the challenges in the More Nature Study Book #4 a wonderful supplement to many of your family’s outdoor activities.
The challenges in this ebook will be posting on the Handbook of Nature Study blog starting on June 8, 2012. They will continue for ten weeks and finish on August 10, 2012. Of course, you are welcome to complete the challenges in any order and then submit your blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. See the Blog Carnival button on the sidebar of my blog. Outdoor Hour Challenge: More Nature Study Ebook #4 – Summer 2012 Summer Sizzle
Ten challenges using the Handbook of Nature Study. See a list of topics and a Sample Challenge.
15 regular notebook pages and 12 coloring pages
18 additional upper level notebook pages for advanced or experienced students
10 Charlotte Mason style exam questions
Complete list of supplies needed (nothing fancy or expensive)
Detailed instructions for each challenge, with links (including YouTube videos) and printables
Nature journal suggestions and examples
Special Bonus Features! Summer Photo Challenge and Summer Sunflower Grid Study!
All the challenges will coordinate with the June through August 2012 Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletters
Alternate ideas to adapt the challenges to your local area
Our world is full of vines…I never noticed how many vines there are in our neighborhood until we focused on vines for the past few weeks during our outdoor time. The vine above is a Common sulphur pea that grows wild in our area and is a native plant. I always just call them sweet peas. These are growing on our hiking trail and they don’t bloom very long since they are on the sunny dry side of the trail. They are a delight while they last.
Blackberry vines – This tangle is right alongside our walking trail. They don’t get a lot of water here on the dry side of the hill so they aren’t very sweet and plump. The wild critters benefit from these patches of blackberries.
I think these are Himalayan blackberries and are an invasive species in our part of the world. I have them in my yard…creeping in wherever I don’t whack them back or chomp them down. I keep a very small manageable patch in my front yard for the birds and for my own early morning picking pleasure in the summer. Nothing like a freshly picked, sun-warmed blackberry for your breakfast.
Sweet peas – These are the purple-pink sweet peas that grow wild alongside the walking trail. They come back year after year. I am cultivating a nice patch of them in my backyard, hoping they will fill in a spot with their brightly colored flowers. We read in the Handbook of Nature Study that studying the sweet pea should be a garden lesson so we will save it for the summer. (We did a previous sweet pea study and you can read it here along with my little video.)
English ivy – This is a vine that grows over and through our fence from our neighbor’s yard. We spend quite a bit of time cutting it back since we really don’t want ivy taking over our yard. It is pretty and green but that is about all I can say nice about it.
Hedge bind weed – We have this growing under our birdfeeder. We are watching it grow and then in a few weeks after it has bloomed we will pull it all out. (I am keeping just a few of the hedge bindweed plants on the advice of a fellow gardener who told me it could quickly take over.) We did a previous study of this plant here: Hedge Bindweed if you want to take a look.
Vetch – This was the plant that led to a complete afternoon of study. We actually have two varieties of vetch along our hiking trail. The one above is Hairy vetch and then we also have Spring vetch.
The spring vetch almost looks like a small sweet pea (same family, different genus). It took some time to find information on these two vetches because neither plant was in our wildflowers field guide. I presume this is because they are non-native plants. We found this interesting because these two plants are seen everywhere in our area. I have started keeping track in my nature journal of native vs. non-native plants…interesting exercise.
We decided we needed to keep this as an on-going nature study and we will be watching as the hedge bindweed and sweet peas in our garden as they mature over the next few weeks. We have had fun noticing if plants twine in clockwise or counter clockwise directions. It becomes sort of an obsession. Keeping a focus always adds an enjoyable layer to our outdoor time and nature study.
Don’t forget to share your Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in May are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 5/30/12 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.
I really like to play with watercolors in my nature journal…it is a wonderful way to brighten up a rather ordinary idea for a journal page.
I try to periodically record random thoughts and ideas in my nature journal….keeping a record of what activities we have been doing or things we have observed that don’t necessarily merit a whole journal page. Lists are an easy nature journal technique and even the most beginning of journalers can do a list.
So combining both ideas into this Watercolor Block Nature Journal suggestion seemed the perfect blend of color and simplicity.
Start by using your favorite watercolors. When I want to be super fast, I pull out my Prang Semi-Moist Watercolors. I also recommend using a larger flat brush which makes it easy to make big splotches of color.
Freehand some color blocks using colors to match your particular season or subject. Make some blocks tall and some wide. You don’t have to put as many blocks as I did if you want to make it even simpler or if you are doing this activity with a young child.
Let the page dry and then record your thoughts. I use Prismacolor Markers in my nature journal (I wrote a review of these markers HERE). I made sure to use one of the color blocks for the month and year. You could even sketch something in one of the blocks if you want to since this is your nature journal. I love to do make some doodle-style frames for my color blocks with swirls, dots, and dashes. Be creative and have some fun!
Note:
If you are reading this in a reader or an email, the Amazon links for the watercolors and Prismacolor Markers may not show below. You will need to click over to the blog to see which ones I use.
More Nature Study Book 3 Vine Study – Sweet peas, Hedge bindweed, and Dodder
Vines: Plants that have the habit of climbing upon other plants or upon sides of houses. Stems of vines are not strong enough to stand alone, seeking support to help get their leaves up into the life-giving sunlight. Some vines climb by twisting their stems around the support plant while others have special “holders” which are called tendrils.
Inside Preparation Work:
Read these pages in the Handbook of Nature Study to prepare you for this week’s challenge. 1. Sweet Pea: 588-590 (Lesson 164) *vines with tendrils. 2. Hedge Bindweed: 518-520 (Lesson 137) *twining vines. 3. The Dodder or Love Vine: 520-522 (Lesson 138) *tendrils with sucker.
If you would like to start your sweet peas from seed, follow the instructions in Lesson 164. This study could then continue into the summer months and end in a study of the sweet pea flower using Lesson 164.
Use your outdoor time for this challenge to explore your yard and neighborhood looking for vines of any kind. Don’t worry if you can’t find a sweet pea, dodder, or hedge bindweed but apply your knowledge and vocabulary to any vines you do find.
Make sure to observe closely how the vine climbs. If the vine is a twining vine, note which direction the vine wraps itself around the support plant. If the vine has tendrils, note their color, size, and direction.
Optional: Plant sweet pea or morning glory seeds for your own vines to observe over the next few months.
Follow-Up Activity:
Follow up your outdoor time with the opportunity to record an entry in your nature journal with your vine observations. Ebook Users: You can use the vocabulary found on the chart in the ebook.
Advanced study: Research more vines and how they climb (How Plants Climb). Summarize your information in your nature journal.
Advanced study: Make your own time lapse video of a vine twining or using its tendrils.
If you planted sweet pea or morning glory seeds, continue to record their growth over the next few months in your nature journal.
My dear sweet husband surprised me by making a new garden arch for my front yard. We had talked about adding a decorative arch, kicked around a few ideas, and then he added his creative touch. I love the way it makes a sort of “window frame” to the lower part of the garden. He is going to fill in the bare spot with another sage. The poppies are filling in naturally and I think by next year they will be to this lowest part of the yard.
He added a few of my favorite things….birds, butterflies, vines. (Maybe all this garden beauty will distract me from my neighbor’s falling down fence.)
He didn’t stop there. He finished up the top terrace of the front yard….he eliminated much of my wildside garden but now it is going to be filled with more wonderful color. Just a note: He used the idea I found on Pinterest to spray a solution of vinegar and water on the weeds before trying to remove them. He sprayed last weekend and let it sit for a week. It was awesome how easy those weeds just hoed out of the ground. He was able to do this entire area in less than an hour! I didn’t get a “finished” shot….I will soon.
We are adding more yarrow…a different color this time. The yarrow in our front yard is amazing right now…what a great performer with no water and lots of sunshine.
Maybe someday this new section will be as colorful as the established part of the garden. Here is an image from the top terrace looking down onto the yarrow, lavender, butterfly bush, poppies, and dogwoods. We also added some lamb’s ear among the rock garden. I am going to see if spreads too much but it has added a new texture to the yard.
Switch gears now and head to the back butterfly garden.
The columbine is starting to bloom! This is such a wonderfully happy flower that loves my semi shady spot in the butterfly garden. Look at those colors!
How about the shape? Isn’t it interesting to see how different the back of the flower looks from the front? I am adding this image to my nature journal…I think watercolors.
Last but not least, I wanted to share another one of my swallowtail visitors to my back garden. This magnificent butterfly spent quite a bit of time yesterday fluttering among my potted plants. He seemed to like the bright pink dianthus the best.
So now you know what I am one delighted nature mama. I love this time of 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!
This week we walked the same trail to view our ferns. We tried to remember how many ferns there were back in January and there seems to be more ferns now and they are larger. Comparing photos I think we are correct.
Magnificent ferns on our hiking trail.
I was interested in the Western sword fern but Mr. B was interested in the California Maidenhair fern. Both are plants that we have looked at closely before. The Maidenhair fern is interesting because it has a black stem and looks like lace…sometimes you have to look twice because you think the green parts are floating in air but really they are attached with delicate black stems.
We had a field guide to consult and to glean a few new facts from. Mr. B did a nature journal page for the California Maidenhair fern from our hiking trail. He thought the stalk was a purple/black…I will have to look closer the next time we hike down the trail.
California Maidenhair Fern – March 2010 (Best photo I have that shows the stalk.)
Now do you want to see some of our California wildflowers from further up the trail? We were busy this time stopping and noting all the colorful flowers there are right now.
This is a colorful time of year in our part of the world.
I am keeping a running list of wildflowers seen on this particular trail for the whole year of 2012.
Keeping a list…nothing fancy about this page in my journal.
I just add to my list in my nature journal when we get back from our hike. It is interesting to see the patterns and successions of blooms.
Making fern prints with ink. See link below.
We will be revisiting ferns again this summer as we visit several spots in California that have ferns. I think it will be fun to add to our collection of fern prints that we started back in January.
It is not too late to join in with your own fern nature study….. If you own the More Nature Study Book #3 for spring, there are plenty of simple ideas to glean more information about your local ferns or prepare for the future when you may encounter ferns during your travels.
I am linking up to a new to me monthly meme at The Homeschool Scientist. Click over and join in.
If you have trouble getting the newsletter to download, try right clicking the link, save the link, and then open it. (The link is in the email and not in this blog post.) I am not going to be archiving the newsletters at this point. You will need to SAVE the FILE on your computer each month if you want to save back issues.
