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OHC Blog Carnival: Can You Believe it is June?

Here we are at the beginning of June…so glad that summer is almost here in our part of the world. This month’s carnival is a great mix of challenges and old as well as new faces. I hope you enjoy reading the entries and hopefully they will encourage you to get outdoors this month and do some nature study with your children.

This week on Friday, June 4th, I will be posting the very last Spring Series Challenge. I will be taking a break for a couple of weeks but look for the first Summer Challenge on June 18th.

Don’t forget the new Summer Nature Study: Using Your Senses ebook will give you lots of ideas for outdoor learning during this season. I will post about it here on the blog when I get it ready, hopefully today or tomorrow. It is jam packed with great stuff for you summer nature study!

I want to thank everyone who took the time to share your links both in the challenges and for the blog carnival. You all are so encouraging to me as I read every entry. I wish you a great June outdoors with your families.

Spring Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges: May Topics
Apple Tree
Cats
Snakes
Earthworms

June 1st Edition of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival

Samantha shares some insights about nature study in this lovely entry: It Begins With Me. Although this entry is not part of any challenge, it is a wonderful reflection on how we need to remember that passion and interest in nature starts with us as the role models.

tulip tree finished journal
Spring Series #1 Spring Tree Study
Phyllis at All Things Beautiful discovered a new tree in their yard and their family was on a quest to identify it as part of their spring nature study. What a great way to learn about a new tree.

Quinn from Inside the Picket Fence shares their spring tree study with some heavenly photos! This post will make you feel like spring.

Dandelion measuring
Spring Series #4 Dandelions
Amy at Together for a Reason shares their dandelion study this time and I love the way her photos tell a story. She has a brand new baby in the house and she still made the time to complete this study with all the rest of her children. I find that very inspiring.

Michelle from Delightful Learning also completed a dandelion study with her family. This is one dandelion study you don’t want to miss…they made a delicious dandelion dish that most of the family loved to taste. Thanks for the extra effort and information.

Loni from Hearts in Training shares a really thorough study of dandelions. So much great information here and two lovely notebook pages she has graciously shared for us all to use in our own dandelion study.

Amber from Refined Metals Academy got their nature study started with this dandelion study. If you have little ones, check out how she made this study fit her crew. I hope to see more entries from Amber in the future.

Cattail watercolor with stipling
Spring Series #5 Year-Long Cattail Study
Angie/Pebblekeeper shares their cattail study on their blog Petra School. They did an awesome job studying their patch of cattails and you must make sure to click the link in her entry for their photo gallery. It will inspire you to look for your own cattails to study.

Alex from Serendipity Home School completed another cattail study with her children. This is their third season and this time their cattail were really puffy.

Apple
Spring Series #6 Apple Trees
Alex over at Serendipity Home School submits their entry for apple trees. I love the leaf rubbing on the nature journal page and the extra books she suggests. Thanks Alex.

Apple trees and more were studied as part of this challenge for Tricia at Homeschool Highlights. Lots of inspiring photos will encourage you to get outdoors and do your own tree study soon.

cat B
Spring Series #7 Mammal Study-Cats
Tricia and her children completed a study of their family cats as part of the Spring Series Challenges. Maybe it is because I am a cat lover but I really enjoyed their entry.

Clara the cat was the subject of Alex from Serendipity Home School‘s cat study. They made lots of great observations and their photos are adorable.

Garter snake journal
Spring Series #8 Reptile Study-Snakes
Angie/Pebblekeeper at Petra School has submitted their snake study for carnival readers. She is one awesome snake mama!

Another great snake entry. (Yes, I said that.) Check out Tricia at Homeschool Highlights for their family’s study of snakes.

Earthworm Dissection
Spring Series #9 Earthworms
Tricia at Homeschool Highlights worked on this earthworm challenge with her children and much to their disappointment, they didn’t find any earthworms to study in real life. They will be ready when they do find some in the garden.

Jolanthe from Homeschool Creations shares their earthworm study. Check out the worm jar in action.

St Johns Wort
OHC #1: Let’s Get Started
Mosey has entered their very first Outdoor Hour Challenge entry as part of the carnival. She writes about the enthusiasm that her children had as part of this challenge. Please pop over and welcome her to the challenges.

OHC #4 Focus Area Challenge
Loni from Hearts in Training shares an entry titled, Only a Male Jumping Spider.

OHC #15 Garden Flowers – Drawing
Pauline from Giggly HQ has completed a lovely entry as part of this challenge. Thanks for inspiring us to draw in our nature journal.

Butterfly Mosaic
OHC #21 Notebook Challenge
Loni at Hearts in Training shares their cicada study and a great notebook page. Thanks Loni!

Crop Plants: Strawberries
This entry from Phyllis will make you want to run out and study your very own strawberries. Check out their family entry on All Things Beautiful.

Please consider submitting your Outdoor Hour Challenge entries and your Spring Series and Summer Series entries to the next carnival. Deadline for submissions will be June 30th, 2010 and all entries from June are eligible. Here is the link for submissions: LINK.

Thanks again,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

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A Study of Snakes: Armed with New Information

I waited to post my snake entry until the results of the snake poll were in. It was interesting to me to see just how my readers experience snakes. There were 113 people who responded to the poll.

How Often Do You See Snakes?

Frequently 9 votes
A few times a month 17 votes
A few times a year 55 votes
Rarely 24 votes
Never 7 votes

What Kind of Snakes Have You Seen?
Garter 78 votes
Milk 8 votes
Water 37 votes
Rattlesnake 18 votes
Other 64 votes

We are not a big snake family. Although we have had pet iguanas in the past and currently we have fire-bellied toads, snakes have not been a big fascination with my children. Our only on-going contact with snakes has been through our cats when they bring a dead one home and leave it on our doorstep. They are usually the small kind that don’t bring much distress when we see them.

Fire-bellied Toad
I do not take many photos of snakes so I decided to share our fire-bellied toads instead. This is Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley.

Occasionally we will see bigger more scary snakes on our hikes. This spring we have seen two rattlesnakes, one dead and one alive and curled up practically in the middle of the trail. We gave him some distance and left him alone.

We decided to research the garter snake since this is the most common one we see in our backyard or neighborhood. We found more information on this website: Identifying California Garter Snakes. After looking at the ranges and the photos of the garter snakes we potentially could see in our area, we narrowed our garter snakes down to two kinds:

Sierra Garter Snake or the Mountain Garter Snake

Garter snake journal
We made drawings and journal entries for both these snakes and the next time we come across one, we will be better equipped to identify it.

We also made a list of potential snakes to study in the future:
California Kingsnake
Western Rattlesnake
Gopher snake
California Striped Racer
Western Yellow Bellied Racer
Northern Rubber Boa

My son brought me the current issue of the National Wildlife magazine to show me an article on garter snakes. Lots of interesting bits in the article that helped us understand this snake a little better. (If you click the link above it will take you to an online version of the article, scroll down to the part about garter snakes.)

I encourage all to pick a snake and take a few minutes to learn some facts about it. I find it interesting that the more I know about something, the more I appreciate its beauty. Yes, even snakes.

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Cat Study: One of Our Favorite Subjects

kittens 2006
These are our cats Cocoa and Espresso who in 2006 came to live with us. Yes, we can tell them apart…you look at their ears and one has white hair inside and the other does not. They also have very different personalities and habits so once you get to know them you really don’t even need to look at their ears to identify them.

It seems like we have a never-ending cat study at our house. We have two beautiful Bombay cats (we are sure that they are mixed with something else as well) that love to socialize with us during our homeschooling day. We can’t help but to see these gals up close on a regular basis.

Cocoa Up Close
We did do a little more research on the Bombay cat breed and we discovered that we have English Bombays and not American Bombays. It was obvious when we took a look at the differences. We know that they are mixed with something else because they have some longer fur and some white hair in a spot on their chest but they are most definitely related to the Bombay breed.

Cat in a flower pot
Our cats are remarkable sleepers. They spend most of their days sleeping in various parts of the house. As the photo above shows, they have always been able to find a comfortable place to sleep.

Cocoa's Favorite Sleeping Spot
Cocoa loves to sleep on Mr. A’s bed curled up in his big fleece gecko.


Here she is sleeping on my bed. I put out a piece of fleece fabric for her to sleep on or else she will curl up on my pillow. She will sleep on her back like this for long periods of time. I think it is very strange.

Espresso is more of a “sleep where it is convenient gal”. She sleeps on kitchen chairs, curled up in a box, or laying on the back deck in the sun.

Cat in the Window
They are both big time hunters and they will watch from the inside of the window as the birds sit in the feeders. Their tails will be swishing, ears alert, eyes wide, making cat sounds as they watch.

Espresso helping with science
They also like to frequent the school table and sit on papers, binders, or textbooks. No matter that we might be actually trying to work…they make themselves at home.

Our lives are full of the entertaining things that cats do and especially since we are home all the time do we enjoy having them around to keep us company and warm. We recently found one hiding in a paper bag and we left the bag out for a few days and it became the favored sleeping spot for both cats.

Espresso in the Bag
My husband does not consider himself a cat lover but these two feline girls have captured his heart. They will even jump into his lap for a good scratch under the chin and then they reward him with a lap full of purring, furry, sleeping cat. Cats are smart.

This was a fun challenge and my boys and I decided we could write about our cats every week, telling a new tale of their sweetness.

Instead, next time I will posting about our snake studies…..not quite such a lovable entry.

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In Between Rain Storms

Wildflower Bouquet

We braved a few raindrops and took to the walking trail this afternoon. The weather held out so we could enjoy the abundance of wildflowers.

Scotch Broom
Although this is an invasive plant in our area, it is just amazing right now. This Scotch broom or Common broom is bursting with color.

Scotch Broom Close-Up
Just look at that color in this close-up. Does it look like a “noxious weed” to you? I know that it disturbs the ecosystem but it very pretty to look at…sigh.

Queen Anne's Lace 5 26 10
And here is the first of the season….usually a long season in our area. Our Queen Anne’s Lace is in its usual spot right on the side of a particular spot on the trail.


From NotebookingPages.com Wildflower Set

As I type this there is a downpour of rain right outside my window. I am really glad we were able to take a walk in between rain storms.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge Spring Series #8: Reptiles-Snakes


Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #8
Reptile Study-Snakes

“There are abroad in the land many erroneous beliefs concerning snakes. Most people believe that they are all venomous which is far from true. The rattlesnake still holds its own in rocky, mountainous places, and the moccasin haunts the bayous of the southern coast; however, in most localities, snakes are not only harmless but are beneficial to the farmer.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 193

Inside Preparation Time:
Snakes are a topic that most children are interested in learning more about. Read pages 193-194 in the Handbook of Nature Study. Make sure to highlight perhaps four or five points that you want to relate to your children before you observe a snake. Our local pet shop always has a few snakes available and they are eager to let us take a look and perhaps even hold one or two. Check around and see if you can find a local pet shop or a zoo that has a good reptile display as part of this Outdoor Hour Challenge.

Choose one or two snakes to learn about that you may find in your local area (Lessons 49-51)

  • Garter or Garden Snake pages 194-196 (This snake is the most widely distributed snake in North America.)
  • Milk Snake or Spotted Adder pages 197-198
  • Water Snake pages 198-199
  • Various snakes discussed with images pages 200-203

Outdoor Hour Time:
It is rare to observe snakes in the wild. This challenge is more about general knowledge and arming ourselves with some truths about a creature that perhaps we might encounter at some point in our lives.

You have two choices.
1. Take a field trip to a pet shop or zoo to observe a snake in real life. You may also know someone who has a pet snake that would be willing to let you observe their snake. Make sure to complete the inside preparation work before you go so you have some facts about snakes ready to share.
2. Talk about where a snake would live in your local area. You might need to do a little research for your particular state. Spend 15 minutes outdoors playing snake detective carefully looking for signs of snakes. You will be successful even if you just enjoy your backyard and observe anything that your child finds of interest. The most important thing is to get outdoors!

Follow-Up Activity:
Complete a notebook page for any or all of the snakes you researched during your preparation work or you observed up close. You can use the provided notebook page from the Spring Series ebook or a blank nature journal. You can look up your snake on the internet and use the image found there to draw your snake for your journal. Make sure to show the colors of your snake as best you can.

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the spring months as well as custom notebooking pages for each of the challenges. Please see this entry for more details:
Spring Series Cover
Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Handbook of Nature Study Ultimate Naturalist Library

The Summer Nature Study ebook is included in the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!

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Wildflower Surprises

Our last hike took us to a new area of our local mountains. Hiking along we noticed several new wildflowers. I was anxious to get home to look them up in the field guide.

Yellow star tulip 1
This is the first one: Yellow star tulip!

Slender iris -not sure
This one I think is a Slender iris.

What a wonderful way to learn about a new area by getting to know its wildflowers. I marvel at each new creation that I see. These two new wildflowers now are safely recorded in my nature journal.

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More Bees than Usual?

lupines clover and a bee

Has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of bees this year? It seems to me that our garden is just alive with bees and perhaps we have added enough flowering plants to attract more bees or there really are more bees like I am imagining.

In our hiking around the countryside, I have noticed more wildflowers this year as well. The clover is everywhere and perhaps with the abundance of flowers, there is a relationship with the number of bees.

Always more questions to answer….

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Weekend in the Garden

I’m tired after a really busy weekend. Spring weather and the call to be outdoors getting dirt under my fingernails kept us busy, busy, busy.

Here are a few images to share a few glimpses into our weekend.

squirrel in the birdfeeder
Our resident squirrel in the birdfeeder. I love his tail.

Onions and radishes
Harvesting the radishes and the first round of onions.

Blueberries 5 14 10
Blueberries growing so round and plump.

lavender close up
Lavender that is alive with bees.

First weeding of the garden
The first round of weeding around the garden boxes is complete thanks to Mr. A. He and I have been working diligently at getting the weeds under control before the warm weather sets in for good. The boxes are all ready for the seedlings we have been nursing upstairs.

Cricket on a rose petal
We found this guy when we were working in the roses. It was perfect timing since I am working on a cricket challenge for the Summer Series ebook. We were able to do some up close observations before we left him comfortably back on the rose bush.
Edit to add: K left me a comment saying that there is an ovipositor so my he is really a she. Thanks K.

First Strawberries of the Season
No one says that hard work in the garden does not have its rewards. Yummy first strawberries were picked and eaten. The best ever end to a long weekend outdoors, except for maybe the grilled burgers my dear husband made us for dinner which we ate outside on our deck.

Hope you all had some time to get outdoors and enjoy whatever your world offered this weekend. I know that some of you have written to say that you don’t have an apple tree to study but you could just as well study any tree you find in the Handbook of Nature Study as a substitute or you could do a general apple study using some apples you have on hand. If all else fails, spend fifteen minutes outdoors with your children and enjoy whatever comes your way.

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Our Apple Tree Study: Spring Time

Spring Series-Apple Tree Study

Apple blossoms
Our new apple tree’s blossoms. Photo from 4/22/10 taken by my son Mr. A.

Our study took a turn when we had a huge rainstorm and an inch of snow a few days later. Our weather has been very unstable so we had to postpone our plans to observe our own newly planted apple tree and then drive up the road from our house where there are apple orchards by the acre.

We were finally able to do both parts of the study yesterday.

Our tree's little apples
First our tree….this is the first year we are observing this tree. It had blossoms some time ago but now I am assuming these are the baby apples.

Our tree's leaves-apple
The leaves are a nice texture and we found quite a few bugs crawling on the branches. My husband used the garden hose to spray them off and today they were still not back.

Apple Tree tag
This particular tree has had different kinds of apples grafted onto one trunk. Gravenstein, Fuji, Red Delicious, and a Rome.

It will be interesting to watch this tree mature.

Now for our drive to the apple orchard.

Apple Hill Sky with clouds
The sky was amazing with its white billowy clouds. My boys actually told me to stop and take a photo….as we stopped the car we realized that there was a field of sweet smelling lupine on the other side of the road.

Lupine Apple HIll 2
What a delight and a surprise to see this sight right near-by our home.

Apple
The orchards are all green and no longer full of blossoms.

Apple Orchard 2
It seems as if you could walk down the rows and feel the apples growing on the trees. I love apples.

Typing up this entry and viewing these photos makes me think that spring really is here. I can see it in the photos. Hooray for spring!

Just another note: I have seriously been lacking in my posting on this blog this week because of the time I am devoting to writing the Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges. There is just so much to research and to pull together so we will have a wonderful adventure this summer with the challenges. I am really looking forward to sharing my new ideas with you soon.

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Hike to the River: Spring Wildflowers

Red Shack Trail

Friday we took a long afternoon hike to the river near our house. This is our usual trail but we went the entire distance to see how high the river is with some of the spring runoff from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The wildflowers are amazing right now…here are a few favorites.

Mustang Clover close up
This was really the star of the wildflowers on this particular hike, mustang clover. This flower is blanketing the hillsides. What a show!

Mustang Clover 1
Here is a photo of it along the trail.

Poppies
The other wildflower making its glorious appearance is the California poppy.

American River
We made it to the bottom of the river canyon and realized our beach is completely covered in water right now. We had to be content to sit on the rocks and watch the water rush by.

Resting on the trail
On the way back up, we stopped for a break in the shade. The insects were buzzing and we even saw our first mosquitoes of the season.

purple monkeyflower
Here is a new to me wildflower on this trail, purple monkeyflower. There was a patch growing right along the trail on a moist bank.

Pearly everlasting 1
I also saw for the very first time on this trail some pearly everlasting.

Two new wildflowers to add to our running list for this trail.

Hope you enjoyed seeing our outing. We definitely had a wonderful time on this spring afternoon.