Sitting on my desk is a small vase of flowers I collected a few weeks ago. Although they’re all dried up now, they are a fond reminder of an afternoon spent walking and collecting a few blooming things with my daughter.
This inspires me to share an idea with you readers. Why not go out on a crisp autumn day and collect a few flowers, weeds, and grasses from your neighborhood to enjoy in a vase?
You may be able to sneak this catfish study in before your weather turns cool. I know plenty of families that know just where to go to catch a catfish but just in case you don’t, use the links in the study for more information and the awesome narrative story in the Handbook of Nature Study to glean some facts about the catfish.
Some young boys have the patience to sit and fish for hours. My oldest son loved to go fishing in the Mokolumne River and he would many times catch a big, fat, smelly catfish. He would be so proud of himself. Most times he would catch and release because he really didn’t like cleaning fish.
After your indoor preparation, use your outdoor time to find a pond, creek, or river to visit as part of this study. Build appreciation for the habitat and look for ways to learn about fish when the opportunities arise in the future.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Our family has used Dover Coloring Books for many years and we’ve built up quite a large library of books on a variety of topics. I know there are many new readers to the Handbook of Nature Study blog that might appreciate an introduction to these inexpensive resources and a few tips on how to use them in their homeschooling nature study.
Let’s start off by saying that coloring books can be used in many ways and with different learning styles.
Not all children enjoy coloring in a coloring book and I don’t blame them. It can be tedious to try to find the “right” colors to use or to keep the markers or crayons neatly within the bounds of the black lines. I had one child who no matter what you suggested would color every image his own way…quite the creative spirit.
On the other hand, many children find it comforting to not have to stare at a blank page when creating a nature journal page. They very happily complete the page with realistic colors using either markers, crayons, watercolors, or colored pencils.
Older students find it helpful to use the black line drawings in a coloring book as a starting point for creating their own drawings in their nature journals, using the coloring book drawings as a template for their own work.
However your family would like to use the Dover Coloring Books in your homeschool or nature study plan, you’ll be glad you purchased a few to have in your nature library. Creative and nature loving children will enjoy these as a complement to their own nature journal. We used these coloring books on the long, cold days of winter when we couldn’t get outside to explore.
Please note these are Amazon affiliate links to coloring books I’ve purchased and used in our family’s nature study lessons and the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Most of the ebooks found in the Ultimate Naturalist Library here on the Handbook of Nature Study website include images from the Dover Coloring Books. If you have a membership, look for them at the back of your ebooks.
If you’d like to become a member, please click the graphic above to go to the Join Us page for more details on purchasing a membership today.
You may wish to click over and read more about our family’s experience with Dover Coloring Books.
It may take a bit of research but it is entirely worth the effort to find a small brook or creek that your family can visit frequently as part of a yearlong brook nature study.
Our family found that on homeschool days that went awry, a little jaunt to the creek always cleared up the bad moods and attitudes. Combine your visit to the brook with a few observations and use the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study in Lessons 207 and 208 along with the Outdoor Hour Challenge to really get to know the geology and the living things in your brook.
“The best time to study a brook is after a rain, and October or May is an interesting time for beginning this lesson. The work should be continued during the entire year.”
Handbook of Nature Study Lesson 207
Your frequent visits may lead to many questions that can be answered over time about the water, rocks, plants, birds, and other animals that inhabit this pleasant ecosystem.
If you have access to the ebook, there are two notebook pages to choose from for your nature journal. One of the notebook pages can be used in each season to record your observations and the other is a more advanced style notebook page where your child can record a more thorough report of what they observed and learned about the way a brook is part of the larger ecosystem.
Members can use page 4 of the February 2016 newsletter that outlines a four seasons creek study. Page 5 of that same newsletter has a printable creek study nature journal page.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Did you hear that? Rattle, tat, tat, tat! Run, look out the window, there’s a sapsucker visiting again. I hear their tap or their call and I try to sneak a peek. There is such joy in seeing this colorful woodpecker each year, a reward for the effort put into learning about him and all the other birds that come to visit.
Sapsucker in our yard this past April 2020.
Your family can learn about this interesting and beautiful woodpecker with this Outdoor Hour Challenge.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Topics in this ebook include:
Swallows and swifts
Catfish
Jewelweed
Prickly lettuce
Cockroach
Field horsetail
Catbird
Calcite, limestone, marble
Chicken
Turkey
Hedgehog fungi
Sapsucker
Brooks
You may want to look at the Learning about Birds ebooks for additional bird study ideas using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. There are two other woodpeckers featured in this book: downy woodpecker and hairy woodpecker.
Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
1. Autumn Weed Notebook Page: This notebook page is a complement to any autumn weed or wildflower nature study. During the month of October, we will be studying jewelweed and prickly lettuce. If you don’t have either of those plants to study in real life, you can use this notebook page along with any weed or wildflower you want to focus on. You can get some autumn weed nature study ideas here: Autumn Weed Study.
2. Pond Nature Study Set-18 pages of notebooking pages included: As part of your family’s autumn nature study, you can start a year long pond study. Use the notebook pages in this set to follow up your pond time with a few of the more common subjects you may encounter. Topics include: dragonfly, damselfly, ducks, freshwater clams, mayfly, nutria, reeds, smartweed, water boatman, water snails, water spiders, water strider, whirligig beetles, aquatic insects, aquatic plants, pond fish, pond mammals, and tracks in the mud.
If you would like some pond study ideas, you can click over to see this study from my archives: Pond Study.
(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
Members also have access to the Nature Planner pages in their library.
Print out this month’s page and use it to stimulate your weekly nature study time.
These are Amazon affiliate links to two books I have purchased and used with my family’s pond study.
I’m excited to be learning about the field horsetail this week for our nature study lesson. We have a patch of it that we’ve been observing on our street and along a favorite hiking trail. I hope to glean some new information about this interesting topic right alongside all of you.
It isn’t particularly pretty but it does have an interesting life cycle story. Use the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock (Lesson 196) along with the link to the original challenge below to learn more.
Please note that the original challenge and the ebook have the wrong page numbers for the Handbook of Nature Study. The correct pages are 706-709 or just look for Lesson #196.
If you have access to the ebook, there are two notebook pages to choose from for your nature journal.
Alternate study: Take your outdoor hour time and look for any autumn weeds you have, especially those with seeds. Contrast your weed with what you learned about the field horsetail.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Now that autumn is rolling on in and I’m winding down my garden season, I thought it was time for an update to my July entry on what was going on in my yard’s wildside. To get you up to speed, you can read the first entry in this wildside series here: Keeping A Wildside – Oregon Style.
Mostly, autumn is a time of mowing and cleaning up what’s left and reflecting on what I might do differently next year.
The whole idea of a wildside is to keep an area of your yard “wild” to see what grows there naturally. This provides a natural habitat for your native bees and birds to use for food and shelter. Allowing the plants to go to seed will keep your wildside growing from year to year.
I left a large patch of plants growing along the fence until I knew for certain what they were. It turns out they were prickly lettuce. They aren’t an especially pretty plant and I’m thinking next year I’ll pull them up when they sprout in the spring. (There will be a prickly lettuce nature study coming soon!)
My lovely mullein has sort of taken over the one side of our berm garden. I love mullein but we had so much of it that I went ahead and pulled it up by the roots to clear a space in the garden for some more yarrow. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of mullein for our family to enjoy along with the birds and bees.
The experience of allowing a wildside allows for me to change my mind about a particular plant once I identify it. I allow something to grow until I can see if it’s a native, if it’s beneficial to birds or birds or other animals, and if it isn’t something that’s going to completely take over the area. It’s a lot more work to allow things to grow before you decide if you need to weed them out, but I learn a little more each year and I’m getting much more proficient at knowing what should stay and what should go.
We mowed most everything down once it went to seed so we’re sure there will be a new crop of dandelions, yarrow, tansy mustard, purple dead nettle, and collomia once spring comes again.
We have one thing left to do this year before the weather turns too cold and the ground too hard to dig. We’ll be transplanting some native grasses from one side of our yard to fill in a bare spot. The grasses will help create more of a “wildside” on the side of my husband’s shop. Transplanting grasses is fairly easy and as long as you get a good root ball, they take off growing like nothing ever happened.
Observations
The ground squirrels are all back in their burrows until next spring. I’ll miss them periscoping up out of their holes to scurry along the tall grasses. Their holes are all still visible but there has been no sighting of them for weeks.
Our swallows and bluebirds are all gone from their nesting boxes and we’ve cleaned the nests out for the season. I find nests so interesting. Each species of bird has their own way of going about building a nest and with our attempt at keeping a wildside, I think it helps the birds have the right kind of nesting materials they need to successfully raise a clutch of eggs. You can see how the bird artists use the grasses, leaves, and twigs gleaned from our yard.
Good night wildside. We shall see you on the other side of winter!
From the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey Level Memberships
It’s always fun to take on a photo challenge and this printable will be something that everyone in your family can use. There are two different photo challenge lists: one for younger children, one a little more advanced.
Members can print their Autumn Photo Project printable by logging into their membership, scrolling down to the printables lists, and locating the Seasonal section. Print the page, cut the lists out, and adhere one right into your nature journal as a reminder!
If you would like to go on an autumn photo hunt and you still need to purchase a membership, do it today!
Use discount code FALLPHOTO for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. Code expires 9/30/2020.
We did the Insect Photo Hunt in August and now we are going to work on the Autumn Photo Project in September and October.
This week is an insect hunt. Take time to prepare for your nature study by reading the lesson for cockroaches in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. You may not find a cockroach but don’t be discouraged!
Look for any insects in your yard or neighborhood. Talk about what makes an insect an insect. (Find information on this in the Handbook of Nature Study in the introduction to insects section. In my copy of the HNS it’s found on pages 294-300.)
There are suggestions in this challenge for observing any insect you find during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. Remember there are many insects listed under the Insect Tab on the website for many common insects you may encounter. Feel free to study a different insect this week if your children are interested in learning about their insect discovery. In addition, there is an Insect Photo Hunt activity printable available to everyone if you decide you want to try that challenge.
There are easy to use notebook pages in the ebook for members to use after their cockroach nature study.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
View the original challenge here: 
View the original challenge here: 
