Enjoy a summer butterfly nature study! Here is an easy step-by-step on how to make a butterfly puddle right in your own backyard.
Over the years, I’ve observed butterflies along hiking trails in the muddy edges. There will sometimes be 10 or 12 butterflies sitting on the mud slowly opening and closing their wings. This behavior fascinated me! After a little research on the internet, I discovered that butterflies are attracted to mud puddles for not only the moisture but the minerals and salts that are present in the mud.
**Don’t miss the nature study and art giveaway at the end!
Summer Butterfly Nature Study – How To Make a Butterfly Puddle
So, this summer I’ve decided I want to make my own butterfly mud puddle, but make it in a large saucer. During my research, I ran across several websites and videos that explained how to make an artificial mud puddle that butterflies could use in my garden.
Basically, you add sand to the saucer along with some sort of mineral source. I decided to try compost, a little gravel, a few rocks, and a bit of Epsom salts with my sand. Then you add water to moisten your “puddle”.
Attract Butterflies to Your Garden with a Butterfly Puddle
Here’s a YouTube video for you to watch for a tutorial:
Simple and easy!
I would love for you to give this project a try with your children and let me know if you were successful too!
You can always leave me a comment, email me directly, or post an image on Instagram and use the hashtag outdoorhourchallenge.
More Resources For Homeschool Nature Study
For even more homeschool nature study ideas, join us in Homeschool Nature Study membership! You’ll receive new ideas each and every week that require little or no prep – all bringing the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool!
This time of year the butterflies are out, and there’s a cool canopy of trees teeming with all sorts of plant and animal activity. We are blessed with so many beautiful details to study with our children as we enjoy the outdoors.
If you are looking for an engaging way to start the homeschool year, why not raise butterflies and enjoy some nature journaling? We have just the giveaway!
Here’s what’s included in this hands-on science and art prize pack:
A set of 12 NuPastels
A magnifying glass
A copy of the beautifully illustrated Out of School and Into Nature: The Anna Comstock Story. Read more about the book here.
An Insect Lore Butterfly Garden with a certificate for caterpillars (This is so much fun!)
A 24-piece set of insect life cycle figurines from Insect Lore
You may enter once per day. Entry closes at 11:59 p.m. on August 9, 2022. You must be over 18 years or old to enter. U.S. residents only. The email provided in the giveaway widget will be used to contact the winner.
My husband and I were inspired by anothermeme to make up own of our own. We sat under a blanket one cold morning over a winter break and compiled a list of 99 homeschool nature study ideas and random outdoor sorts of things.
It was fun to list 99 things we have done or would like to do. We decided to narrow the list to things to do in the United States so feel free to use our list or come up with one of your own!
We have not done or experienced all the things on the list *yet* but it is fun to think about how we could check some of the items off the list in the future. If you take the list and post it on your blog, please leave me a comment so I can come and see which things you have completed.
We marked our completed homeschool nature study ideas with a star.
99 Homeschool Nature Study Ideas
Outdoor Hour Challenge – 99 Outdoor Sorts of Things to Do – United States Version
1. Make maple syrup. 2. Stand under a redwood/sequoia. * 3. Ski down a mountain. * 4. See a saguaro cactus. * 5. See an alligator in the wild. 6. Find a shell on a beach. * 7. Skip a rock on a lake. * 8. See a sunrise. * 9. Pick an apple from a tree. * 10. Grow a sunflower. * 11. Sleep under the stars in a sleeping bag.* 12. Find the Big Dipper.* 13. Climb a sand dune. * 14. Walk in the rain with or without an umbrella. * 15. Find a fossil. 16. Take a photo of the Grand Canyon. * 17. Go to the lowest point of North America-Badwater, CA * 18. See a raptor fly. * 19. Be able to identify ten birds.* 20. See a mushroom. *
21. Visit a tide pool. * 22. Visit a volcano. * 23. Feel an earthquake. * 24. See a tornado. 25. Experience a hurricane. 26. Catch snow on your tongue. * 27. See a deer in the wild. * 28. Touch a dolphin. 29. Go ice skating on a pond. 30. Go fishing. * 31. Go snorkeling.* 32. Whittle a stick. * 33. Gather chicken eggs. 34. Milk a cow or a goat. 35. Ride a horse. * 36. See a moose. * 37. Gather acorns.* 38. Pick berries and eat some.* 39. Watch a lightning storm. * 40. Build a campfire.* 41 Press a flower.* 42. Use binoculars to spot a bird. * 43. Identify five wildflowers. * 44. Take a photo of Half Dome. * 45. Find a piece of obsidian. * 46. See a tumbleweed. * 47. See a wild snake.* 48. Watch a spider spin a web. * 49. Climb a tree. * 50. Get lost on a hike. * 51. Watch ants in a colony. * 52. Hatch a butterfly. * 53. Climb a rock. * 54. See the Continental Divide. * 55. See the Northern Lights. 56. See a bear in the wild. * 57. Dig for worms. * 58. Grow a vegetable and then eat it. * 59. See a bat flying. * 60. Feel a sea star. * 61. Swim in the ocean.* 62. See a geyser erupt.* 63. Walk in the fog. * 64. Observe a bee.* 65. Find a bird’s nest. * 66. See a beaver’s den.* 67. Go whale watching. * 68. See a banana slug. * 69. Stand on the edge of a cliff.*
70. Blow a dandelion. * 71. Throw a snowball and build a snowman.* 72. Cook an egg on the sidewalk…can you actually do that? 73. See a lightning bug. Or do you call it a firefly?* 74. Visit a cave. * 75. Make a sandcastle. * 76. Hear a cricket. * 77. Catch a frog. 78. Watch for the first star in the evening.* 79. Smell a skunk. * 80. Feel pine sap. * 81. Feed a duck. * 82. Learn to use a compass or GPS.* 83. See a buffalo. *
84. Get wet in a waterfall. * 85. Swim in a lake. * 86. Walk on a log. * 87. Feel moss.* 88. Jump in a pile of leaves. * 89. Fly a kite. * 90. Walk barefoot in the mud. * 91. Hear a sea lion bark. * 92. Hear a coyote. * 93. Pan for gold. * 94. Crack open a nut. * 95. Go snowshoeing. * 96. Feel a cattail. * 97. Smell a pine forest. * 98. Sit under a palm tree.* 99. Walk across a stream on rocks.*
What would you add to the list?
More Resources For Homeschool Nature Study
For even more homeschool nature study ideas, join us in Homeschool Nature Study membership! You’ll receive new ideas each and every week that require little or no prep – all bringing the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool!
Here is some encouragement for you with 3 tips for nature journaling when you think you can’t sketch. My personal nature journal is a source of great joy and it gives me such pleasure to create pages that record my observations and memories of a particular day, excursion, or season.
This post is directed to moms who think that they can’t start a nature journal because of a lack of drawing skills.
Nature Journals For The Mom Who Doesn’t Sketch
I do very little actual sketching in my nature journal but have learned to use a variety of techniques to keep each page fresh and in touch with my personal style.
So what should you remember if you think you can’t sketch and you want to start a nature journal?
3 Tips for Nature Journaling When You Think You Can’t Sketch
1. Keep it simple and don’t be afraid to get started in nature journaling.
A blank page can intimidate even the most seasoned journal-keeper. Work through your fear of failure by starting small and keeping it simple. Be a good role model. If you have children and you are encouraging them to keep a nature journal, you can empathize with their feelings of inadequacy. Be brave and your children will look to your example and be more confident about their own journals.
2. Use a variety of ideas…find something that works for you.
You are not required to sketch. Try something else. Keep a list, include an photo, copy a poem or some facts…just get started. Don’t wait. You may someday feel like sketching or watercoloring in your journal but it is not a requirement. There are no rules for nature journals. Use color and a few well placed decorations to make your journal more personalized if you feel inclined.
3. A nature journal can be a private place of joy.
Keep in mind the purpose of a nature journal and remind yourself that it is a personal keepsake and record of your thoughts and experiences. You do not need to share it with anyone…in real life or on the internet. If it makes you happy that is all that counts.
Taking it one page at a time, you will build a treasured spot for your nature study and outdoor memories.
More Nature Journal Encouragement For The Entire Family
Here are some more ideas and encouragement on nature journaling for you and your children:
It’s time for a ladybug homeschool nature study! We love ladybugs in our garden. It is as simple as that. They always make me smile when I see them crawling around in the grass or on the rose bushes. Maybe it is the nostalgia of childhood memories that flood in when I see ladybugs….you know, singing *that* song.
A Ladybug Nature Study For Your Homeschool
Anyway, here are some thoughts from the Handbook of Nature Study that I enjoyed:
“The ladybird is a beetle. Its young are very different from the adult in appearance, and feed upon plant lice.”
From the Handbook of Nature Study, page 366
“These little beetles are very common in autumn and may be brought to the schoolroom and passed around in vials for the children to observe. Their larvae may be found on almost any plant infested with plant lice. Plant and all may be brought into the school room and the actions of the larvae noted by the pupils during recess.”
“From our standpoint the ladybird is of great value, for during the larval as well as adult stages, all species except one feed upon those insects which we are glad to be rid of.”
From page 365:
“The ladybird is a clever little creature, even if it does look like a pill, and if you disturb it, it will fold up its legs and drop as if dead, playing possum in a most deceptive manner.” I don’t usually have to go far during the summer to find a ladybug or some aphids. The boys will point out that I have a ladybug in my hair or there will be one hiding among the weeds on the edges of the garden box. They just seem to go hand in hand with summer gardening.
I found a ladybug larva and a ladybug in my garden. This is an example of how taking the time to focus on something different in your own yard leads to a lot of really great information and then satisfaction.
I took this photo the other day in the garden and I posted it here on my blog. Someone identified it as a ladybug larva. (Thanks Margie!) I checked it out and they were right. The amazing part about it to me is that it is so big compared to the adult ladybug.
Studying Ladybug Larva
I looked it up in the Handbook of Nature Study and sure enough there is an illustration on page 364 that really shows the differences between the larva, the pupa, and the adult.
“…for they do not in the least resemble her; they are neither rolypoly nor shiny, bur are long and segmented and velvety, with six queer, short legs that look and act as if they were whittled out of wood; they seem only efficient for clinging around a stem….the absorbing business of the larva is to crawl around on plants and chew up the foolish aphids or the scale insects.”
Handbook of Nature Study page 365
Here is another photo I took the other day and I sort of thought it was a ladybug but it wasn’t quite the same as I had seen before.
Free Getting Started in Homeschool Nature Study Guide
Did you enjoy this ladybug homeschool nature study? Join us for our Outdoor Hour Challenges bringing The Handbook of Nature Study to Life in Your Homeschool! Download your copy here.
Looking for ways to encourage your child to explore things in nature? Using a magnifying lens in homeschool nature study is not only fun for children but it helps them see more clearly the wonderful world of objects we have all around us. Try one of the ideas below to help your child get started making careful observations of natural items.
5 Ways to Use Your Magnifying Lens in Homeschool Nature Study
“Adults should realize the the most valuable thing children can learn is what they discover themselves about the world they live in. Once they experience first-hand the wonder of nature, they will want to make nature observation a life-long habit.”
Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, page 61
#1 – Nature Station With a Magnifying Lens
Create a magnifying glass station with natural items either indoors or outdoors. Collect a few things to have on hand to start but them encourage your child to find a few of their own while outdoors playing or during a nature walk.
#2 –Square Foot Nature Study
Use your magnifying lens in homeschool for a square foot study. There are plenty of ideas here on my blog to help you get started. You can follow-up with this entry: Small Square Study-Living vs. Non-Living.
#3 – Examine Insects With a Magnifying Lens
Collect a few insects to examine close up with your magnifying lens. Look for dead insects in window sills, in the garden, or in spider webs. If you can capture a live insect and put it in a clear container, use the magnifying lens to get a closer look. Have your child observe closely the wings, the legs, the antennae, or the eyes of insects using a magnifying lens. Another tip is to place the insect on a mirror and then you can see the underside easily.
#4 –Create a New Level of Tree Homeschool Nature Study
As part of a tree study, use your magnifying lens to examine the bark, the leaves, and the cones or acorns of a tree in your yard or neighborhood. You can also use the magnifying lens to compare two trees with careful observations.
#5 – Use the Outdoor Hour Challenge Homeschool Nature Study Magnifying Lens Activity
Discover the wonder of ordinary objects using this magnifying lens in homeschool nature study activity. Use the suggestions on the page to spark some ideas for objects to collect and observe. There is a place to record a few sketches and some follow-up thoughts if your child is interested in keeping a record of their magnifying lens activity.
Homeschool Nature Study Activities
Find this activity in Challenge 8 Getting Started in Homeschool Nature Study Guide available in membership and HERE.
The simple act of keeping weather records in our homeschool will keep us in touch with our natural world and build an appreciation for the science behind common folklore and traditions.
Do we personally need to keep track of the weather? Probably not. We could just rely on a weather app or the television meteorologist. Many people live, work, and play indoors in climate-controlled environments. They live as if the weather has little effect on their daily lives.
Keeping Weather Records is Homeschool Science
Keeping weather records has not only been a pastime for thousands of years, but it has also been essential to predicting the weather and its effects on everyday life. What should we wear? When should we travel? Is it time to plant our garden? We make many of our decisions based on the weather and its patterns and cycles.
Do you eagerly look forward to Groundhog Day each February? Many of us are curious to see if the groundhog will see his shadow, indicating another six weeks of winter or not. Turns out he is not a great predictor of spring.
Tradition, Scienceand Common Weather Expressions
Have you heard any of the weather folklore that people have historically used to predict the weather? Read about the science of these expressions in the Almanac.
Red skies at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.
If there is a halo around the sun (or moon), then we can expect rain quite soon.
Dew on the grass, no rain will come to pass.
All these sayings are based on observations over time. When we take note of the weather and the patterns created over time, ideally writing the details down, the relationships between what we see out the window and what is coming soon becomes clearer. The record does not need to be elaborate or take much time. Our family has a clipboard with a weather chart and pencil on our front table near the window. Not every day, but often, we note the weather conditions.
Create a book of firsts – keep track of the first rain, first snow, first frost, etc.
Keep some weather records this season and see if your family can find some patterns and connections between the observations made and predicting the weather.
Join The Homeschool Nature Study Membership for Year Round Support
Find all the Outdoor Hour Challenges for homeschool nature study in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. There are 25+ continuing courses with matching Outdoor Hour curriculum that will bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! In addition, there is an interactive monthly calendar with daily nature study prompt – all at your fingertips!
A book can transform your thinking completely or it can validate what you have experienced in your own life. Some books do both, like Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. This is a must read book for all homeschool families who are endeavoring to expose their children to the natural world on a regular basis.
Note: affiliate links are included.
Last Child in the Woods
“There is a real world, beyond the glass, for children who look, for those whose parents encourage them to truly see.”
Richard Louv
We all know he is right. Children are just not getting outside for free play and even sadder they are not even wanting to be outdoors anymore. Sometimes the parent is too afraid to allow them the freedom to roam outside or sometimes it is the lack of availability of an appropriate outdoor space that is the cause. Either way, it is a sad world when children are living indoors most of their days.
Last Child In The Woods gives solid reasons and then practical ideas for restoring this nature play time for our children. Also, there is a section that talks about children that perhaps have the “eighth intelligence” which is the child whose learning style is that of a Naturalist type. Louv lists descriptions of children that have this specific learning style which you may find helpful in understanding just how to help your child with this type of intelligence.
Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
I will list a few teaser points from the book that I have highlighted in my copy of the book that I think apply to what we do here at Homeschool Nature Study with the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
“…during the nineteenth century, nature study, as it was called, dominated elementary school science teaching. Now that nature study has been largely shoved aside by the technological advances of the twentieth century, an increasing number of educators have come to believe that technically oriented, textbook-based science education is failing.”
“By expressing interest or even awe at the march of ants across these elfin forests, we send our children a message that will last for decades to come, perhaps even extend generation to generation.”
Homeschool Nature Study For Your Family
This book is a perfect complement to reading in the Handbook of Nature Study. I think Anna Botsford Comstock would have felt the need to write just this sort of book if she lived in our modern age. The principles are the same, the message embraced in everything Anna Botsford Comstock created: Get children outdoors looking at the world around them.
I highly recommend that you look for this book at your local public library and then read it.
I invite you to read and have your thinking transformed, creating in you the need to spend time outside with your children.
A simple homeschool plant life nature study learning the parts of a flower. Flowers are a wonderful first nature study topic for many children, especially those flowers they find and ask about on your creative nature walks or even in your own backyard. Keep it simple and fun!
“All the names should be taught gradually by constant unemphasized use on the part of the teacher; and if the child does not learn the names naturally then do not make him do it unnaturally.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 456
Plant Life Nature Study – Learning the Parts of a Flower
This plant life nature study is going to be helpful to all families as they strive to learn the technical names for flower parts. Make sure to read the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study and look up the link in the challenge with a printable with the flower parts labeled. Don’t make this too much of a drill or memorization assignment. As the need arises, use the proper names for the flower parts as you go through your outdoor time and find garden flowers or wildflowers to observe.
More Flower Nature Study Activities
You will also enjoy this parts of a flower printable from our friends at The Homeschool Scientist.
Our sister site, You ARE an ARTiST, has a parts of a daffodil art lesson included in the I Drew It Then I Knew It Science series with Nana.
Homeschool Nature Study Lesson Plans
If you are a member here at Homeschool Nature Study, you will find this plant life nature study flower challenge in the Garden Flower and Plant Curriculum ebook in your membership library. In the ebook you will find a custom notebook page designed for use with this particular challenge.
The book Birds, Nests, and Eggs is the perfect beginner’s book for homeschool nature study. It’s also a wonderful take along guide that features many of the common birds that we see in our yards and neighborhoods.
(Note the link above is an Amazon affiliate link to a book that I own and love.)
The illustrations give a wonderful look at something we don’t often see because they are hidden from sight. The nests are shown in such a way that you can see the shape and what materials are used for creating just the right container for the fragile bird eggs. The eggs are also shown in full color. This is a fun way to learn more about birds and their life cycle. In addition, you’ll find some fun bird related activities to try and to weave into your backyard bird study.
When I found my first “Take-Along Guide” at a used book store, I was interested so I purchased it. But it was later when I began really reading it that I became really interested.
I would recommend reading through your Take-Along Guide before taking off on your nature walk. Then you can put it in your bag and bring with you on your walk and use it to identify things as you go. Read more of the Take-Along Nature Guides for Homeschool.
BirdResources to Use in Your Homeschool Nature Study
Examples of Nests and Eggs: This is a page on the Cornell website that shows actual nests and eggs for many common birds. Spend some time with your children clicking the images and viewing them together.
Nestwatch: This citizen science program is something your family could participate in if you have a nest in your yard. Take a look and see if it’s something you can incorporate into your nature study plans.
Bird Nest Studyin our Homeschool Nature Study Membership
You can find even more bird nature study ideas in the Learning About Birds Outdoor Hour Challenge curriculum. This ebook curriculum is available in annual Homeschool Nature Study membership.
Here are some simple ways to study nature in your homeschool. Start in your own yard then let your discoveries grow out like ripples in a pond.
“Nature study is, despite all discussions and perversions, a study of nature; it consists of simple, truthful observations that may, like beads on a string, finally be threaded upon the understanding and thus held together as a logical and harmonious whole.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 1
Simple Ways to Study Nature in Your Homeschool
In the Handbook of Nature Study, the emphasis is learning about your own backyard. At first you may feel as if there is nothing interesting in your own backyard, but I have learned that the more you focus, the more you see.
Nature Study in Ripples – Start in Your Own Yard
Nature study is about training the eye to perceive what you have at hand. Learning to see and then learning to compare are two valuable skills you can develop with nature study. These skills will pop up in other areas of your life. Charlotte Mason wrote that learning to see the beauty in nature was the beginning of becoming more skilled as an artist.
“Nature study cultivates the child’s imagination, since there are so many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes, which affect his imagination as much as does fairy lore; at the same time nature study cultivates in him a perception and a regard for what is true, and the power to express it.”
The backyard can hold your attention for a long time if you are diligent about looking for a variety of things to observe. Most of us have:
plants
birds
trees
rocks
insects
invertebrates
and mammals (that will visit us at least at certain times of the year)
Challenge your family to pick something each week to learn more about. This is a long-term project that you will find such satisfaction in doing together as a family. Each family member can develop their special area of interest. I love flowers and birds. My husband is a tree person. The boys enjoy insects, birds, and the garden. Amanda loves flowers and growing them in her garden. We all enjoy discovering a new critter in the backyard.
Nature Study in Your Neighborhood
Once you have awakened the desire for nature study you can widen out your range and spend time in your neighborhood as part of your nature study time. The circle widens a little and you begin to see your neighborhood street or park as another source of great nature study subjects. Your neighbor may have an interesting tree or you may have access to a pond to look for another whole range of plants and animals. The comparing and contrasting continue as you relate your backyard habitat to this new habitat.
“A twenty minute trip with a picnic lunch can make a day in the country accessible to almost anyone, but why do it just one day? Why not do it lots of days? Or even every nice day?”
I think we could easily spend a lifetime learning about all the interesting things in this slightly wider circle of exploration. Charlotte Mason suggests finding places within a twenty minute distance from your home to visit for frequent picnics and outings. The benefits of finding a few places to go regularly for family walks are immeasurable. It takes dedication to pack everyone up in the car and drive a few minutes but once you are on your way, you don’t regret the decision. Really, there is no real need for a car if you can walk to an interesting area in twenty minutes or so. Be curious about your local area and try to seek out a few interesting spots to walk and then rotate visiting them during each season.
The next step is to increase your circle even more….to ripple out even farther than your neighborhood. Perhaps you have a nature center, a state park, or a national park that is within a day trip’s distance. Occasionally it is refreshing to travel a bit to build excitement for a different habitat than you normally have access to for nature study. In our area we have within a few hours travel the Pacific Ocean, temperate rainforests, a conifer forest, oak woodlands, a river delta and wetlands, a bay, an estuary, farmland, sub-alpine trails, a hot springs, and so on. Get out a map and draw a circle around your home town that extends a hundred miles in radius. Look within that radius for places you can visit on a long day’s trip. You might be surprised what you come up with in your own area.
“Adults should realize that the most valuable thing children can learn is what they discover themselves about the world they live in. Once they experience first-hand the wonder of nature, they will want to make nature observation a life-long habit.”
Start as close as you can and then work your way farther and farther from your home. Spend as much time as you want in each area perhaps going back several times to a specific place to really get to know it. Experience it during every season.
As your children grow older, you can increase your ripples to include longer road trips or special trips to fascinating habitats.
“Nature does not start out with the classification given in books, but in the end it builds up in the child’s mind a classification which is based on fundamental knowledge; it is a classification like that evolved by the first naturalists, because it is built on careful personal observations of both form and life.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 6
More Simple Ideas for Your Nature Time in Ripples
The idea is a simple one. Think of ripples in a pond. The experiences you have close to home will help you develop skills and knowledge to later compare and contrast with other habitats. Learning about seeds and plants in your backyard will give your child a frame of reference when he goes to learn about seeds in wildflowers, or sequoias, or a cactus. Learning the skill of using binoculars to observe a bird on a tree branch in your yard will train him to use that skill when you are out on a nature hike in a marshland. Learning to sit quietly to see what you can hear in your own backyard will be time well spent for those times that you would like to observe something interesting on a nature outing, perhaps a deer or a squirrel.
So much of our modern life is spent indoors. Our families need the refreshing spirit that comes from being outdoors and under the sky. We can start nature study in a small way in our own yards, but once the ripple is started, you never know where it might take you.
