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Posted on May 1, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival: #4 Spring is Bursting Out Edition

Last month’s blog carnival was all about winter but this month we see a real change in the season. The entries this time around show just how varied the spring season is for all the participants. This is a big carnival, full of inspiring entries.

I hope this Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival encourages you in your own family’s nature study. A few minutes outdoors each week can make a big difference!

Recap of the April Outdoor Hour Challenges:
Spring Series
#1 Year-Long Tree Study
#2 Spring Weather Study
#3 Spring Bird Study (Bird Songs)
#4 Spring Wildflower Study-Dandelions
#5 Year-Long Cattail Study

Year-Long Tree Study
Kelsey and her kids are observing their very own maple tree as part of their Year-Long Tree Study. Kelsey is reminded of the trees in her childhood memory and I’m sure her children are making some tree memories of their own.

Angie/Pebblekeeper and her boys are studying their Red alder tree as the subject of their Year-Long Tree Study. Make sure to check out their leaf print journals.

Alex shares her Spring Seasonal Tree Study of their birch tree. I bet their tree has leaves now…great notebook page example as well.

Holli and her children chose their beautiful dogwood tree as the subject of their Year-Long Tree Study. Excellent choice!

There is another pretty tree in Tricia’s entry for their Year-Long Tree Study, the redbud. I love their diligence in completing their study even after it started raining.

Angie in GA along with her boys completed both the Spring Tree and Spring Weather studies in this entry, Spring Creation Challenge. They had some beautiful blue skies to study their dogwood tree….love their photos and journals too.

Japanese cherry tree? That is what Amy and her family is studying for their Spring Tree Study. Check out their bird nest and eggs too!

Renee shares their Maple Tree Study and More Signs of Spring for carnival viewers. This study includes trees, birds, weather, and some moss. One of her children wrote in their journal, “Maple trees are cool to climb!” I totally agree.

Spring Weather Observations
Kelsey share their spring weather (sunshine, rain, hail, snow, clouds, and lots of wind) in their Spring Weather entry.

Brilliant blue skies and a sundial are the focus of Alex’s entry for Spring Weather entry. Look for the link for the sundial.

Angie/Pebblekeeper discusses how important the weather is their every day life. Weather study is the focus of their entry Spring Weather Observations. She writes, “The boys have become quite the meteorologists between knowing the cloud patterns and interpreting data available on line. ” Don’t miss their pencil shadow stick. 🙂

Amy always does a great job of adapting each challenge to fit the abilities of her children. Don’t miss their family’s Spring Weather Study, complete with journal pages.

Michelle from Delightful Learning shares their cloudy skies and how they used the Cloud Finder from the Spring Weather Observation challenge to learn more. Love their journal entries.

Tricia gives us another example of how they use workboxes to complete their Spring Weather observations. Her older children worked independently and then they all had a meal outdoors to enjoy the season.

Loni shares two entries as part of their Spring Weather study: Inquisitiveness and Living Picture Study and Rain or Not?

Spring Bird Study
Andi and her daughter completed the Spring Bird challenge, focusing on sparrows in their yard. They share some of the antics of these birds in their entry.

Don’t miss reading Tricia’s entry highlighting how their family incorporates birding and learning bird calls in their life. Read more about it here in her entry, Spring Birds. (I actually love the idea of having an “outdoor workbox” by the back door to help remind our kids of their nature study.)

Alex shares their Red-winged blackbird study along with a video. They also did a wonderful job incorporating the Cornell coloring book page in their journals.

This is the ultimate bird entry…..so inspiring and the photos really tell the story. Thank you Quinn for sharing your With Wings as Eagles entry in the carnival.

Amy shares a wonderful mother’s story about birdwatching along with a nest full of robin’s eggs. You can read their entry and view their journals in their Spring Bird Study post.

Kelsey includes in their entry their list of birds they recognize by call. Read about that and more in their Spring Bird Study.

Loni and her family visited the zoo and got some up close time with birds: Jacksonville Zoo. They also observed a Nesting Mourning Dove.

Dandelion Study
Tricia shares their Real Life Study of Dandelions. She tells me, “These studies make us notice so much more.” I couldn’t agree more.

Amanda shares their dandelion study, Dandy, Just Dandy with carnival viewers. I love that families with boys tackle even the flower challenges. They always add their own twist.

Jennifer says in her comment for this study, “We did the dandelion study today, and to be honest, I’m not sure I’ll ever look at another dandelion the same again.” I love that something as simple as a dandelion can open our eyes to what is right in our own backyard. You can read more about their wonderful dandelion study on her blog, PeaceLedge.

Kelsey and her children were able to complete the spring dandelion study this week. Read all about their insightful observations and view their journals HERE.

Andi and her daughter completed their dandelion study with tasting some dandelion greens…with bitter results. Read all about the Dandelion Study and view their photos. She has a photo of the biggest dandelion roots I have ever seen.

Signs of Spring
Michelle from the Urban Cottage is eager to share their Signs of Spring. Don’t miss their beautifully done journal pages.

Alex shares their Canadian Signs of Spring for carnival readers. Don’t miss the ducks in the garden!

Michelle from Delightful Learning shares their Wyoming Signs of Spring. Take a look at their seedlings! Great job on the journals too.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3 Time to Draw
Grubs from their garden are the subject of Loni’s children nature journals. Read all about this in depth study in White Grub Worms.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #4 It’s Coming Into Focus
Suzanne and her children had a wonderful time during their outdoor hour time. Don’t miss her wonderful photos in her entry, Appreciating God’s Creation. She says, “I guess it goes to show me that we can always see beauty amongst the “weeds” when we’re looking for it which is especially true of everyday life.”

Outdoor Hour Challenge #8 Up Close and Personal
Quinn has used her resources to complete this challenge with her children. Read how they completed Outdoor Hour Challenge #8 by examining a bird nest. Fascinating!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #9 One Small Square
Quinn shares there One Small Square from the woods…what a variety of life they found. You don’t want to miss her photos in this entry either.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #12 Garden Flowers-Seeds
Andi shares their From Seeds to Flowers entry in response to this challenge. I love the photos of the seed’s progress…so interesting, she even has a video!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #13 Garden Flowers-Flower Parts
Loni and her children have been busy learning about parts of a plant using garden plants. Check out their two entries: Flowering Mustard Greens and Greens- TheRoot System.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #21 Notebook Challenge
Loni shares their Toad or Frog entry as part of this challenge to draw in your nature journal.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #22 Butterflies
Loni has written a post about their Caterpillar Habitat. Lots of extra resources in this entry.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #42 Moss and Lichen
Michelle from Delightful Learning shares how one of their signs of spring created a desire for them to know more about moss. She shares their study in this entry, The Spring Journal: Moss and Lichen.

Please consider submitting your Outdoor Hour Challenge entries and your Spring Series entries to the next carnival. Deadline for submissions will be May 31, 2010 and all entries from May are eligible. Here is the link for submissions: LINK.

Thanks again,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

OHC Spring Series #5: Year-Long Cattail Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #5
Spring Cattail Observations

“It is an interesting process to take apart a cattail plant; the lower, shorter leaves surround the base of the plant, giving it size and strength. All the leaves have the same general shape, but vary in length. Each leaf consists of two parts; the free portion, which is long and narrow and flat toward its tapering tip but is bent into a trough as it nears the plant, and the lower portion, which clasps the plant entirely or partially, depending upon whether it is an outer or inner leaf.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 500

Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 500-502 in the Handbook of Nature Study if you have not done so before. It might also be beneficial to read it again this season and highlight the parts that contain information about the leaves of the cattail plant. We will be focusing this season on where the cattail grows and what the leaves look like as they grow up from the plant. Prepare yourself for this week’s outdoor time by reading #1, #2, #4, and #5 suggestions for study on page 502.

Note: If you are using the free version of the Handbook of Nature Study, the cattail section starts on page 551. If you are using the free version from HomeschoolFreebies, you need to look in Plants and Trees, page 65. (Thanks Angie.)

Outdoor Hour Time:
Enjoy your outdoor time this week at your cattail spot. If you have been participating in the year-long cattail study since last autumn, you will know just where to look for cattails. Use the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study to talk a little about the habitat where your cattails are growing.

Please note: If you do not have any cattails to observe in your area, you may wish to choose another local plant to observe in each season throughout the next year.

Some Suggestions for a Spring Cattail Study

How wide a strip of land do the cattails cover?
Are they near a stream, brook, or pond?
Observe the kind of soil where your cattails grow.
How are the leaves arranged-growing opposite or alternating?
Describe the leaves’ texture, color, shape.
Have your child make as many observations as they can during your outdoor time of the cattail. (Keep it fun.)

Follow-Up Activity:
Make sure to allow some time after your outdoor hour to discuss any subjects that your child finds interesting. Encourage the completion of a nature journal entry recording your observation of your cattails. You can use the notebook page created for the Spring Series ebook, the notebook page from Autumn, a blank page.

Make sure to encourage your child to sketch the cattail leaves. Also try to include a little of the habitat that your cattails are growing in during this season. Include in your sketch any insects, birds, or animals that you observed near your cattails during your outdoor time.

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one book, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the winter months as well. Please see this entry for more details:

Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Evening Walk

Last Friday, it was a perfect evening for a hike. We took advantage of the longer daylight hours and the warm spring air to hike our familiar trail.

We spotted some Purple Chinese houses right off the bat as we began our way down the canyon.

I had my eye out for some Fairy lanterns and I found many that were just getting ready to bloom. I spotted this one blooming along a side path.

The Golden brodiaea is blooming right now too!

My son spotted a few Larkspurs just starting to bloom.

Also there were some California poppies.

We found another big cluster of Mule’s ears blooming in our meadow.

Now wasn’t that worth the effort to get out and take a walk after dinner???

If you would like to see some photos from our Arizona desert trip, pop over to my other blog and you can view them in the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival entry!

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Barb — 7 Comments

Our Dandelion Morning

As part of the Spring Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, we spent a sunny morning looking for the tallest dandelion in our yard. We have quite a few this year, partly because we have left our “wild side” wild and partly because it is just a good year for dandelions.

I gave my boys a ruler and a camera as we went out the door. I challenged them to find the tallest dandelion they could see in our backyard. They knew just where to look and as our dog followed them around, they measured and took photos. I wandered around the yard looking at all the growing things and the number of bees we have in our flowers.

They tried to convince me that the dog ate the biggest one. Our dog does love it when you blow the seeds and she will try to catch the seeds in her mouth as they fly around in the air. It is actually quite funny. She will also lay in the dandelions and eat the leaves.

So here is the verdict. They found one that measured just at twelve inches high.

They brought a few flowers in to look at and I took the opportunity to draw a few things in my nature journal. I noticed in the evening that the dandelions that were in the vase had all closed up tightly. This morning in the sunshine they were open again.

Another day this week we will go out early in the morning and observe to see if the flowers are closed up and if they open up later in the sunshine.

It was a fun study for all of us and it gave us a really good excuse to be outdoors on a school day.

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Barb — 19 Comments

OHC Spring Series #4: Wildflowers-Dandelions

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #4 Dandelions

Inside Preparation Work:
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study about dandelions on pages 531-535. After reading the suggestions on pages 543 and 535, choose several ideas from the lesson to complete during your Outdoor Hour Time.

Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week in your own backyard or a near-by park. As you walk along, keep your eyes out for dandelions.

Suggestions for Observations

See if you can find several dandelions in various stages of growth.
Look at the leaves and collect a few for sketching later in your nature journal.
If it is growing in your own yard, you might like to dig up the complete dandelion plant and observe the roots.
Measure the height of several different dandelion plants and compare them.
Examine an unopened dandelion flower.
Watch a bee working in a dandelion.
Observe the seeds and how they are dispersed.
Observe your dandelions on a sunny day and then on a cloudy day. Note any differences.

Follow-Up Activities:
Take some time to draw the dandelion in your nature journal or complete the notebook page from the Spring Series ebook. Make sure to record your observations of the dandelion and make a sketch of the leaf and flower. If you would like to see our sample study of a dandelion in our backyard, here is the LINK.

Composite Flowers-Supplement to the Study of a Dandelion
The dandelion is a composite flower and the Handbook of Nature Study has a section to explain just what that means.

“Many plants have their flowers set close together and thus make a mass of color, like the geraniums or the clovers. But there are other plants where there are different kinds of flowers in one head, those at the center doing a certain kind of work for the production of seed, and those around the edges, doing another kind of work. The sunflower, goldenrod, asters, daisies, coneflower, thistle, dandelion, burdock, everlasting, and many other common flowers have their blossoms arranged in this way.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 503

Observe your dandelion, perhaps with a magnifying lens, to see if you can observe the parts of a composite flower:
Look at the center of the flower for the disc flowers and around the edges for ray flowers. (illustrated in the diagram on page 575)
Examine the disc flowers in the center and see if they are open or unfolded. How many ray flowers are there?
Locate the bracts (green cover of the flower before it opens). Can you see the bracts on the back of the flower?
More ideas for studying a composite flower are found on page 503 in Lesson 131. Note: This lesson will be Lesson 135 in the older edition and in the Plants and Trees pdf it is on page 68.

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Barb — 1 Comment

My Favorite Little Binoculars

Per request, here is information on the binoculars I carry in my purse….yes they are that small but they are mighty powerful as well. They are easy to use and lightweight. I can very easily carry them in a jacket pocket or around my neck when we are hiking. You can see me wearing them in the photo above from our trip last week to the desert. Can you guess where we are?

Big clue in the background.

You can read more at Eagle Optics-Energy.

They come in a variety of colors too so you can pick your favorite.

I have the green pair. They come with a pouch and the pouch can clip onto your belt if you like to carry things that way.

This is an affiliate link…love and own this product.

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Barb — 11 Comments

Bird Songs: Our New Area of Interest

Photo by my son Mr. A of Cedar waxwings in our front yard.

This is our blog entry for the Spring Series of Outdoor Hour Challenge-Bird Study #3.

I have discovered that learning about birds comes in layers.

You start noticing the birds in your yard or neighborhood.
You discover that you indeed have birds in your yard and then develop a desire to know their name.
Start to notice the colors, beaks, sizes, etc so you can identify the bird using your field guide.
Find yourself reading the field guide just for fun.
Start noticing birds as you drive around town for your daily activities. Begin to see birds everywhere and wonder what their story is. The story becomes part of the fun of birding. Does this bird live in your neighborhood or is it a visitor? What does the bird eat? How does it makes its nest? How does it fit into the habitat of your neighborhood?
Now you want to take a few special day trips to places you might see new birds. You notice a pond and you look for water birds. You visit a park with a wooded area and you go on the hunt for some new birds, perhaps a woodpecker.
You pack a compact pair of binoculars in your purse just in case you might need them.
You get a second copy of the field guide to carry in the car.
Now you want to keep track of your birds, listing those you have seen and identified.
You dream of seeing certain birds you have only studied in the field guide. It is like a treasure hunt only with birds.

Now in our family, we are at the point where we can hear lots of unidentified birds and we want to know who they are. As we hike along, many times the birds are high up in the trees and they are well hidden from sight but we can hear them loud and clear.

This is where this challenge has really challenged our family.

We chose three birds to learn the calls for this week, keeping them in mind as we go outdoors. We picked the Red-tailed hawk, the American robin, and the Oak titmouse.

We decided that the hawk we hear many times each week is not the Red-tailed hawk but the Red-shouldered hawk. We are now going to take our good binoculars with us to see if we can get a good visual of the hawk the next time we see him soaring overhead. Now that we have armed ourselves with some good visual descriptions, we feel that we can tell the two hawks apart.

The boys surprised me when they said they didn’t know the song of the robin so they now know what to listen for in our yard. I hear the robin’s song early in the morning and I will point it out to them next time I hear it. The titmouse is one that I hear before I actually see him. His flight is so fast that it is easy to miss him but if we can listen for him in the trees, we will know he is there.

We have already picked out our next three birds to learn the songs for and it will fun as the weeks go by to increase our skill at identifying birds by their calls.

I purchased these two items last year and I have not used them as much as I would like to.

The IFlyer Wand and ScanBook: I saved up for this gadget and purchased it to help us identify birds by their calls. The wand reads the bar code of the bird in the book and it plays the bird call for you to listen to. You can also purchase stickers with the bar codes to put into your own bird field guide and scan those instead of the ScanBook that comes with the wand. This gadget isn’t as easy to use as I would like and I’m not sure at this point if it was worth the money. It is definitely fun to use but very expensive.

Someone told me that you can buy an app for your iPhone that does the same thing: iBird. They thought it was a great app but since I don’t have an iPhone, I haven’t checked it out personally.

Western Birding By Ear: This set of CDs helps you systematically work through bird calls. There are three CDs to listen to and a booklet to go along with the CDs. I think in the long run these CDs will be very beneficial and make the learning of bird calls much easier.

My boys have learned to use the iFlyer after going through this challenge. The CDs are now in our car and we will be listening to them as we do our weekly driving.

I look forward to hearing about your bird studies!

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Wildflowers Again….Our Daily Walk

Starting off with some pretty clover.

Next are some Mule’s Ears…this is the biggest clump I have ever seen with them all in bloom. Perfect. (Ignore the camera strap in the corner of the photo.)

So much like a sunflower and the bloom is rather large. You can really see the soft looking texture of the leaf which gives this flower its common name.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying the blossom.

Next came the lupine again….so much of it now along the trail: Miniature lupine.

Here is its leaf.

Last but not least, the California poppy. You can see one getting ready to open up and the other still in the bud stage with its “hat” on.

I have about four entries worth of photos to upload but I am out of time this evening. Stay tuned….our bird entry is coming up in a day or two as well.

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Barb — 12 Comments

OHC Spring Series #3: Spring Bird Study

This is one of my favorite bird studies of all time! I am very interested in learning to identify birds by their call since many times I do not actually see the bird but hear it up in the trees. My boys are really helpful in recalling bird calls and they are actually better at this skill than I am. We have made our list and I will share with you our results in another post.

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #3
Spring Bird Study

Inside Preparation Work:

As part of our spring nature study this week, we will prepare by learning about some familiar bird songs. Read about the “Songs of Birds” in the Handbook of Nature Study on pages 42 and 43.
Here is a link to a page that will help you learn about to listen to and then identify birds by their calls:

Songs and Calls

Brainstorm a list of birds you know that live in your area. Pick two or three to research on the All About Birds website. Look up each bird and listen to their bird songs. Challenge your children to imitate the bird song and to listen for it when they go outside.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Spend your 10-15 minutes of outdoor time this week looking and listening for birds. You might try going out several times during the week at different times of day to listen and observe.
This will be a week you can work on a few minutes of quiet time while you are in your backyard or local park. Remind your children that if they are quiet even for one minute they might hear a bird or other animal. One minute can see like a lifetime for young ones so use your good judgment on this activity.

Follow-Up Activity:

Take a few minutes to follow-up on any interest that came from your outdoor time even if your children were interested in something other than birds. Review the bird songs you learned and practiced during your preparation work. If you saw an unfamiliar bird, try to identify it using a field guide. Learn more about identifying birds here on this page: Bird Identification Skills.
If you do not have a field guide, you can try this online bird site to help identify birds: WhatBird? And this website for additional information as well: AllAboutBirds.
Don’t forget to look up any birds you identify in the Handbook of Nature Study and see how Anna Botsford Comstock suggests you learn more about that particular bird by reading the narrative and the accompanying lesson.
Allow time for a nature journal entry using the accompanying Spring Bird notebook page from the ebook or your own nature journal.

If you are really interested in learning more about birds, you can work through my bird series of Outdoor Hour Challenges that are found on the Bird Page here on my blog. .

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Keeping it on the Wild Side

We have a section of our yard that I like to keep sort of wild just to see what will happen there. It borders our neighbor’s yard and sometimes he gets a little zealous and mows the “weeds” down. He doesn’t see the beauty in dandelions, Queen Anne’s Lace, Spring Beauty, Chickweed, and California Poppies. Well, maybe he enjoys the poppies, but it is nearly impossible to mow without cutting them all down.

I had a chance to get out there and make some close observations, capturing some of the flowers and plants before our neighbor gets back from his vacation and gets antsy to mow.

1. Blackberry vines, 2. Wildflowers Spring Beauty, 3. Wild grasses 1, 4. California Poppy, 5. Close Up Dandelion, 6. Wild grasses 2, 7. Widlflowers yellow, 8. Wildflowers blue, 9. Wild side

If you have a spot in your yard that you can let the “weeds” grow, I highly recommend taking the time to check out what you have right there in your own yard.

Amazing stuff.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!