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Visiting Maple Tree Country: Outdoor Hour Challenge #34

Our Outdoor Hours this week were spent along the northern California Coast and southern Oregon coast. Our first stop was camping at Humboldt Redwoods (great place for camping) where most of the tallest trees in the world live. We saw ancient redwoods towering overhead.

These trees are so tall and grow so densely that the forest floor is dark and quiet. It is quite the experience to hike along the trail and silently observe these magnificent trees up close.

The forest seemed to have its own atmosphere in and among the trees. The mist in some areas was high up in the canopy of the redwoods and it was dripping down on our heads as we hiked underneath.

In some parts of the redwood forest, it seemed as if the light never penetrated down to the floor and there were mushrooms and moss growing everywhere. It was like stepping back in time.

Mixed in among these forest giants are Big leaf maples. This time of year they are a brilliant yellow and orange and the leaves are *large*. My tree book says that the leaves are between 16 and 24 inches long.

Here is a leaf I saw on the ground that shows how big they are in real life.

“It is its autumn transfiguration which has made people observant of the maple’s beauty; yellow, orange, crimson, and scarlet foliage makes these trees gorgeous when October comes.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 628

This leaf was on a tree in Ashland, Oregon in Lithia Park. The trees in the park were just turning colors as we walked through last weekend. It was really cold and the air had a bite to it. We bundled up and enjoyed the walk.

After this trip along the Pacific coast, I have thought a lot about our dependence on wood from trees. We passed many areas in the forest where it had been clear cut, leaving nothing left standing to speak of. There were many, many lumber mills and great stacks of both logs and lumber.

Here is a stack of logs that we passed in the town of Eureka, CA. You cannot even imagine how tall and long these piles of logs are but this gives you an idea. It is a big reminder how useful certain trees are in our every day life. Look around you at this very moment and you will no doubt see lots of things made from wood.

I know that trees are a renewal resource but it does make you stop and think when you see so many areas clear-cut and then the piles of logs sitting at the mills. It truly is a balancing act….the love of the forest and the love of wood products.

Just a some thoughts as we travel along on this trip.

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Land of Oaks and Pines Part Two-Connections to the Past: Outdoor Hour Challenge #33

We have a variety of oaks in our yard and on closer inspection, we have a lot of baby oak trees as well. The more we looked, the more seedlings we found to observe.

I pulled some out for us to examine the roots….they were really long.

Here is the oak seedling we pulled out and you could still see the remains of the original acorn too. Just what I need, an oak tree growing under the magnolia tree. Crazy thing is that I know how this acorn ended up far from the mother oak. Western scrub jays will poke acorns into the garden in various spots as a means of storage. They will not come back and find all the acorns and that allows a new tree to sprout far from the original oak.


Here is another kind of oak growing in the backyard.

We collected a number of leaves to examine indoors and to try to identify which kinds of oaks we have in the backyard.The different shapes of leaves were interesting to note. We had big leaves and little leaves. They were shiny or dull, pointed or rounded, and in a variety of shades of greens.


Here is the collection.


California Black Oak-leaves are really large and have deep lobes and bristle tips


Either Interior Live Oak or Canyon Live Oak-I need to go do some more close observation of the trunks and acorns


I am pretty sure this is a Valley Oak.

I can not believe there are so many different kinds of oaks right here in our backyard. We are literally surrounded by oaks. I didn’t even collect leaves from all of them. I know we have a California Scrub Oak in the far back of the property.

Now for the great acorns we collected at my parent’s house. Look at that big guy. He is a beauty. I am fairly certain it came from an Interior Live Oak tree.

The Native Americans in our area used the acorns as a staple in their diet. They collected the acorns and stored them in granaries. They would grind the acorns up to make a flour. Here is a link that explains it simply. The Indian Grinding Rock State Park is near where I live and it is a fascinating place to visit to get an idea of how the acorn was used by the Miwok Indians. Actually there is a place on the creek near my parent’s house that has grinding rocks that were used by the Miwok that inhabited the area before the California Gold Rush. The oak trees were a vital part of their lives.

https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/2009/10/outdoor-hour-challenge-autumn-series_09.html

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #33 Tree Focus: Oaks

“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

Outdoor Hour Challenge #33  
Trees-Oaks

1. This week read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 639-642 to learn more about oak trees. Even if you don’t think you have any oaks in your area, it is still interesting to read the information for future reference. Make sure to note the ideas suggested for studying oaks in the lesson at the end of the section-Lesson 176.

2. Spend 15 to 20 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. The weather should be getting cooler for most of us and it is a very enjoyable time to be outdoors. Take advantage of this time before the cold and wet weather sets in. This week you will have two suggested activities. In addition, how about taking a photo of your child with a tree in your yard? This is a great way to document growth of both the tree and your child over time.

*If you have an oak tree of any variety in your yard or on your street, use the ideas from the lesson on page 641 and 642 to guide your observation of the oak tree. Take along your magnifying lens if you want to get a closer look at the bark or leaves of your tree as you spend time outdoors. Don’t forget to look for acorns. If you have an oak tree to observe, it would be fun to share a photo of your acorn. There are many types of acorn shapes and sizes and it would be great to see what your particular acorn looks like.

*If you do not have a oak tree to observe or you have an additional time period for nature study, choose another variety of tree to observe. Study the leaves on your tree and then describe the shape of the leaf, the edges, the color on top and below, count its ribs and veins, and then describe how it feels and how it smells. Encourage your children to observe quietly for a few minutes of each outdoor time period.

3. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing any trees you saw. Talk about anything that interested your child. Ask them to give you a brief description of something they saw while on their nature walk. Refer back to challenge number two for more ideas on how to encourage oral narration of your nature time. This would also be a good time to look up any oak trees you observed in your field guide and see if you can learn more about your particular oak tree. If your child found something else of interest, look it up in the index of the Handbook of Nature Study. Read over the pages before your next nature study time so you will be ready to share the information with your child.

4. Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. There is a suggestion in the Handbook of Nature Study to draw your oak in the fall and then again in the winter. Also, the Handbook suggests finding three leaves from your oak that differ in form, and then sketch them in your notebook. If you would like to complete a notebook page, see the link below to choose one for your child’s journal. A nature journal entry can be as simple as a sketch, a label, and a date. See challenges two and three for alternatives to drawing in your nature journal.

5. If you identified a tree this week, add it to your list of trees in the front or back of your nature journal.

 OHC Blog Carnival
You can link up by clicking the carnival button and sharing your blog entry or you can send the information directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.


You can purchase all of the first ten challenges in a convenient ebook along with custom notebook pages.

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Land of the Oaks and Pines: Outdoor Hour Challenge #32

We live in an area where the predominant trees are oaks and pines. Pines usually are taller than the oaks so it is easy to pick them out of the landscape. We can stand on our back deck and see dozens of pines and oaks. We have identified a few of them by name but we still have some trees to work on getting to know. The tall pine in the photo above we identified as a Gray pine or Digger pine. Pinus sabiniana. It is native to our area.


Pines are usually identified by looking at the needles. This particular pine has needles in bundles of three. The needles are a gray-green color and are about 7-14 inches in length.


Here is a cone that we found under the tree. Our field guide says, “They are brown, long-stalked, uneven-based, and equipped with strong, downward-pointing, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thorns. ”

Of interest to me, the seeds were once an important food of Native American. They also ate the buds and soft green cones from this pine. Of course, squirrels love the seeds too.

“The appearance of the unripe cone is another convincing evidence that mathematics is the basis of the beautiful. The pattern of the overlapping scales is intricate and yet regular-to appreciate it one needs to try to sketch it….The shape of the scales of the cone is another distinguishing characteristic of the pine, and sketching the outside of the scales from several different species of pine cones will develop the pupils’ powers of observation…”
The Handbook of Nature Study, page 672

It sounds like the basis of another day’s nature study to me. I will gather a few different cones and have them on hand.


This photo is my attempt to show you how the color of the needles on this pine are a gray-green color and not the dark green of some of the other pines we have in our area.

Now for a pine tree story. This pine is a Monterey pine and is not native to our area. They do grow naturally along the coast of California but we live in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The previous owners of our home must have planted it in the yard and we have watched it grow in the last twenty years to a towering height over our property.


Earlier this year we cut down this huge Monterey pine. It had grown too close to our propane tank and out over the whole lawn. Its roots were pushing up the sidewalk and we were afraid it would soon get into the water pipe we have running from the front to the back of the property. It had to come down.


Here is a photo of the men in the tree as they limbed the branches and lowered them down. Some of the branches were as big as tree trunks. This was a mighty big tree. I could hardly watch the workers as the scurried up and down the tree trunk and then way out onto the limbs to cut sections off. Note the sweet gum tree in the foreground and how it has no leaves but the pine is still green.


Here is the trunk all neatly cut into chunks. We had a friend who took the wood and is drying it to use in their woodstove. We never liked pine to burn but some people love the heat it gives off. This was the perfect opportunity to observe the trees rings up close.


Here is a close up photo of the sap seeping out from the downed tree trunk. It was very sticky. I know from personal experience. 🙂


The other interesting thing to note about the pine was the thickness of the bark. The pattern of the edge was so pretty.

Here are some cones that came from the tree. I shared this photo before but it really shows how the cone opens up as it matures to allow the seeds to be exposed.

It was sad to watch the tree be cut down but now that it has been some months we can see the difference in the surrounding trees. They have ample sunlight now and they are filling out their branches. One oak in particular seems to have really benefited from the pine removal. Our lawn is so much greener now that it isn’t constantly covered in needles.

We will be observing more pines as the focus continues but I thought we could share our special tree cutting down story in this entry.

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Slow Start to Our Tree Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge #31

Our start on our study of trees was sort of slow. The boys have been spending all their free time with our new puppy and I guess the only way to entice them to a nature walk is to bring the dog along.


We have a number of trees that are starting to get their autumn color and my son brought to my attention that the sweet gum trees are making the rocks underneath them shiny.


Note the leaves that have already fallen from the tree.


The leaves are getting shiny too.

Here’s what it says on Wikipedia:
“The gum resin, also known as liquid amber or copalm balsam, yielded by this tree has no special medicinal virtues, being inferior in therapeutic properties to many others of its class. It is a kind of native balsam, or resin, like turpentine. It may be clear, reddish or yellow, with a pleasant smell like ambergris.”


This is my garden companion….she is watching a bird on the lawn with great intent in this photo. (Ignore the weeds in the photo…they were left there in the name of challenge #30 or at least I keep telling myself that is the reason.) She does her own kind of tree study and is an expert tree climber.

We took a few hours to go up to a local apple orchard. We all enjoy the apple harvest time of year and all of its yummy treats, both the kind you eat and the kind you can see, smell, and feel.

The trees were loaded with apples.

Now for the kind of treats we look forward to all year. Apple doughnuts. No explanation needed
except for maybe the fact that we each enjoy a different kind…with nuts, or crumbs, or glazed, or plain, or cinnamon sugar.

I think there is no better way to learn about a tree than to eat the fruits of its boughs.

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Outdoor Hour-Weeds or Plants? Another Weed Post

“A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 512

This week as I was watering the garden and flower beds, I spent some time thinking about weeds. The boys and I discussed the definition of a weed and how our yard is filled with plants that we call weeds that others might actually cultivate in their gardens. The unidentified weed above is growing alongside a few things I planted and it has proven to be healthier and more prolific than anything I intended to grow.

The definition of a weed and a plant in my yard come dangerously close. If the plant has some redeeming value like a pretty leaf or a pretty flower or a colorful berry, I sometimes leave it in the ground.


The unidentified plant from above looks like it is covered in beads to me and it is hard to really call it a weed but since it is growing in my flower bed where I didn’t plant it….it is a weed although I left it again this week and didn’t pull it out.


This beauty of a weed actually is growing in the gravel along my walkway. It is so green when most of my yard is turning brown already. It has a delicate white flower with a little yellow trumpet center. The leaves are a pretty shape. I left it in the ground too.


This weed is found all over my yard. It has the softest velvet leaves. I hate to pull it out…so I don’t. It is actually easier to pull it up when it is larger so leaving it in the ground really is a timesaver in the long run.


This blackberry vine is creeping under the fence from our neighbor’s yard. We have a constant battle with blackberry vines. I do have two places that I let them grow in the corners of the front yard so I can harvest a couple dessert’s worth of berries each summer. My husband whacks the vines as soon as he sees them. My husband considers this a “weed”.

This little tiny red berry is on a creeping plant under my crepe myrtle. I have spent a lot of time pulling it up but decided it can just stay. It is no longer considered a weed but a ground cover. (See the tiny mimosa trees also growing among the rocks? More on mimosas below.)

Right now, the plant shown above is my biggest “weed” in the garden and lawn. Tiny little mimosa trees are growing *everywhere*. We cut down a huge mimosa tree earlier this year but the seeds from the leftover seed pods are sprouting by the hundreds, if not thousands. I was making progress pulling them up by making it a goal to weed out fifty seedlings a day but I grew tired of the chore and now they are everywhere again. I need to get back to working on them a little every day. My point is that some people might consider a mimosa a great tree in their yard and actually encourage its growth but for our family the mimosas have to go and so they are considered a “weed”.

For more information on the weeds and seeds challenge, here is a link.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #32 Pine Trees

This may be a difficult focus since everyone has different kinds of trees in their area but I am going to attempt to cover a variety just to get you started and to show you how the Handbook of Nature Study can help you in your local area. I used the poll on my sidebar to gather data about what trees would be an appropriate choice for each challenge.

This week we will start with pines since 87% of those polled in my recent survey responded that they had pines in their location. The Handbook of Nature Study highly recommends studying at least one kind of pine tree in the field and then the leaf/needle or the cone indoors, one specimen per child. I realize that not everyone will have the ability to study a pine tree up close so do the best you can. Even if you do not have any pine trees in your area, you can still start to learn the difference between evergreens and deciduous trees.

Here is a link that will introduce the difference between deciduous and evergreens: EHow.Com.
Here is a web page that has lists of pines by region-worldwide! Make sure to scroll down to find your particular area.
Answers.com-List of Pines

Outdoor Hour Challenge #32
Trees-Pines

 1. This week read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 670-675 to learn more about pine trees. Even if you don’t think you have any pines in your area, it is still interesting to read the information for future reference. Make sure to note the ideas suggested for studying pines in the lesson at the end of the section.

2. Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. This week you will have two suggested activities.

*If you have a pine tree of any variety in your yard or on your street, use the ideas from the lesson on page 674 and 675 to guide your observation of the pine tree.
Some ideas to get you started:
What is the general shape of the pine tree?
Is there one central stem running straight up through the center of the tree to the top?
What color is the bark? Is the bark ridged or in scales?
Study the pine leaves. Why are they called needles? How many needles in the bundle?
Does it have a cone?

*If you do not have a pine to observe or you would like an additional activity, take some time to lay under any kind of tree that is available. Look up at the branches. Listen to the sounds of the leaves. Try to spot some kind of wildlife in the tree. Have your children tell you with their words what they experienced while under the tree.

3. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing any trees you saw. Talk about anything that interested your child. Maybe they brought home a leaf or a cone to examine and you could look at them with a magnifying lens. This would be a good time to look up any pine trees you observed in your field guide and see if you can learn more about your particular pine tree.

4. Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you observed a pine tree, try to complete exercise 10 of the lesson on pine trees: Draw a bundle of pine needles showing the sheath and its attachment to the twig; the cone; the cone scale; the seed. Sketch a pine tree. You could also include a leaf or needle rubbing in your nature journal this week.

5. If you identified a tree this week, add it to your list of trees in the front or back of your nature journal. You can also use the Running List notebooking page. Make a note indicating whether it is an evergreen or a deciduous tree.


You can purchase all of the first ten challenges in a convenient ebook along with custom notebook pages.

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Painting Mental Pictures-Trees: Outdoor Hour Challenge #31

Oak Tree Yosemite Valley

I love oak trees. This oak is standing in a meadow in Yosemite Valley. I know this beautiful oak is not in our backyard but it was just such a perfect little scene of things that I had to capture it for my memory book and share it with you too. Charlotte Mason speaks in her writings about memorizing scenes to recall at a later time. This is one that will stick in my memory for a long time. The autumn light and the yellow-green of the grasses made this a perfect painting in my mind.

“The ability to take a mental picture of the beauties of nature is so fulfilling that it is well worth teaching our children how to do it…..Have the child look thoroughly at some landscape, then ask them to close their eyes, and bring up the image in their minds…..In the beginning the children will need help to get them started. So the mother might show how it’s done by saying, ‘Look at the trees reflected in the water. What do the leaves remind you of?’ until the children notice the main details. She should memorize a couple of mental images and impress her children by closing her eyes and describing it from memory.”
Charlotte Mason, volume one, pages 48-49

“Imagine what a treasure they will find when, years later, they are able to pull out memories etched in full detail of the beautiful scenery from their childhood home!”
Charlotte Mason, volume one, page 47

What a wonderful aspect of our outdoor time with our children! We can seize opportunities to instill in them a love and respect for nature as well as give them the gift of wonderful memories.

“Mental picture painting is a game that children enjoy, although it takes a good bit of concentrated attention and is therefore tiring. It should only be done once in a while. Still it is good to have children memorize some scenic landscape images because, while making the memory requires effort, the habit of looking more closely at detail is learned as an unconscious by-product when children are asked to make detailed mental images every now and then.”
Charlotte Mason, volume one, pages 48-49

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Where to Start with the Outdoor Hour Challenges: Update


Updated information is found at:
Outdoor Hour Challenge 2013-2014

Just about every day now I get an email from someone who wants to just get started with the Outdoor Hour Challenges but they don’t know where to start. There are several strategies for starting but I think the most important thing to remember is that one of the purposes in starting the challenges in the first place was to help parents learn to do a simple nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

So my best suggestion for newcomers is to make sure to complete the first five challenges and then join us where we are in the challenges at that time. This is my suggestion for newcomers as well as those that have gotten behind in the challenges.

The first five challenges contain such important information from the Handbook of Nature Study that I don’t think you should miss reading it. Those challenges set the stage for all further nature study and will give you a great overview of how to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

Here is a link to the very first challenge:
Outdoor Hour Challenge: Let’s Get Started

If you have sort of stumbled along the way and need to get started again with the challenges, pick a challenge you can get excited about. Take 15-20 minutes for nature study in your own backyard. Keep it simple and let your child enjoy the time outdoors. If the challenge is completed or if you just have a great adventure outdoors, either way you are successful.

If you need some ideas to inspire you from other homeschoolers, the challenges listed by topic on the sidebar. Click on the topic button, click the challenge you are interested in investigating, and then scroll to the bottom of the entry, there will be numerous links that have been shared from families from all over the world. I guarantee you will find something of interest.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me anytime.
harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/2009/02/announcing-outdoor-hour-challenge-ebook.html

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Milkweed Pods and Seeds: Outdoor Hour Challenge #30


We took some time to observe and learn about milkweed seeds as part of this challenge.

“The milkweed pod has been the admiration of nature students from the beginning, and surely there are few plants structures that so interest the child as this house in which the milkweed carries its seeds.”
Milkweed pods opening
“No sooner is our treasure open to the air than the shining silk begins to separate into floss of fairy texture.”

“…and altogether there are enough of the threads to float the seed, a balloon of the safest sort.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 493

The Handbook of Nature Study has a complete section of information and observation suggestions on pages 491-495.

We are going to plant some milkweed in our butterfly garden this year. I ordered the seeds from this website. We did not gather the milkweed seeds that are in the photos since we were at Yosemite National Park and it is against the law to gather seeds in a national park. 🙂