We’re experiencing a glorious summer weather pattern where it’s hot in the afternoons and very cool at night. It gives us a window of time in the mornings to get out and enjoy a good hike, go for a bike ride, or get things done in the garden before it’s too hot to enjoy it. If it gets too hot, we drag the kayak down to the river and enjoy a good float in the cool river water.
Get outside each day to explore a little nature before the temperatures heat up!
Nature journaling is a perfect indoor activity during the summer months. Pull out the journals along with a few art supplies to record your summer nature study discoveries. Give it a try!
Here are my pages from the past few weeks.
We have two different kinds of hummingbirds visiting our feeders. They are very different and easy to spot. The rufous hummingbird has such a mechanical sound to its wings that you can hear them coming from far away. The calliope hummingbird is very tiny and not as aggressive as the rufous. My page captures both of these amazing creatures.
It’s been quite a summer for bird’s nests in our yard. We’ve been curious and eager to see who would inhabit our nesting boxes. Well, we had two boxes filled with swallows, one box had mountain bluebirds, another box had chickadees, and the most interesting nest was built in a crack in a pine tree by a pair of pygmy nuthatches. Of course, I wanted to document all of this in my nature journal.
I’ve started to carry a small sketch book with me along with a pen to capture the random moments that inspire me. This page was done while kayaking at Sparks Lake with my daughter as we paddled towards the South Sister Peak. Love it!
Do you want some more specific nature journal ideas? Click over to my nature journal page and scroll down for the Once a Month Nature Journal Project idea buttons. There’s a lot there to keep you busy!
Don’t forget that I’m sharing a nature journal page each week on my Instagram account if you want to see the pages as they unfold. Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.And, if you want to create a page and share it on your Instagram for me to see, use the hashtag #OHCnaturejournal.
NotebookingPages.com is having their last ever discount on Lifetime Memberships and later this fall you will no longer be able to purchase a Lifetime Membership.
Wow! That is BIG news!
So, my friends, this is the time to pull the trigger and if you have been thinking about purchasing a membership to this amazing resource, NOW is the time. For the next few days, the Lifetime Membership will be sold at a huge discount of $25. This means for $72 you will have a complete library of 100’s of notebooking pages right at your fingertips….FOREVER!
You can even make 3 easy payments to help fit this resource into your homeschooling budget!
I have had a Lifetime Membership for many years, both during and post homeschooling. My boys benefitted from having a membership both from the pre-printed pages and the Notebooking Web App program where they could custom make their own pages and actually type onto the page and then print them out for their notebooks.
Our Favorite Pages
This sale starts today and will end at midnight on July 27th! You need to act fast to catch this soon to be gone membership to NotebookingPages.com.
In addition to receiving a Lifetime Membership during this sale, you will also receive a Lifetime Membership to MomsToolBelt.com. I have used my membership to MomsToolBelt to create my own custom calendars and planners for probably a decade. I love using the flexibility of this program to make my own planner that fit my household needs. You will too!
Now that we’re rolling with our summer nature study, I’m sure you’ve started to see your child’s interest in particular aspects of nature. Perhaps they’re fascinated with insects or they enjoy spotting new birds in your yard. Build on their interest by focusing a little more closely on those specific topics as you follow the suggestions in this week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Use the Handbook of Nature Study website to enhance your nature study after you choose a focus. Look for the topic tabs at the top of the page for the corresponding nature topic. On each of the tabbed pages you will find listed all of the Outdoor Hour Challenges and other activities related to that topic. This will make it easier for you to find information on the website to use in your focus area. For instance, if your child wants to focus on a study of birds, click the bird tab, and scroll down to view the topics to choose from. There are also listed book suggestions, available free printables, archived newsletters, and additional activity ideas.
Note: Archived newsletters, ebooks, and some of the printables are available to members of the Handbook of Nature Study. See the Join Us page for more information.
Summer Nature Study Tip: In addition to your nature time, take advantage of a hot afternoon to visit your (air conditioned) local public library to explore their shelves for books on your focus area. The information they glean from a well presented book on their field of interest will feed their enthusiasm for learning about nature.
Outdoor Hour Challenge Time
If you have access to the Getting Started ebook, there’s a custom notebook page that you can use alongside Outdoor Hour Challenge #4 if you wish, or a number of blank pages you can print and use instead. Click the cover above to view a sample of this ebook.
The Getting Started ebook is included in all levels of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, including the Discover Level.
If this is your third week following along with the Getting Started series this summer, you’ve already accomplished some important steps in your nature study journey. OHC #1 helped you get outside with your children. OHC #2 showed you how easy it is to follow up with a discussion and words. Now, it’s time to take a few minutes after your outdoor time to put something on paper.
I’ve written at length here on my blog about nature journals. If you click over to my nature journal tab, you’ll find lots of information to inspire and encourage you and your children in your efforts to record the fascinating things you discover during your Outdoor Hour time.
It may make it more fun if you start a nature journal alongside your children, leading by example, writing your words down on a page. Don’t worry about sketching if you’re intimidated by the thought of drawing in your nature journal. (You can read my journey with my nature journal here: Drawing and Your Nature Journal.)
Summer Nature Study Tip: Use the hot afternoon hours to pull out the nature journaling supplies and work together to create a page or two using items you collected on a nature walk or you can work from photos you took during your Outdoor Hour.
It’s okay if they don’t want to create a nature journal every time you have your
Outdoor Hour Challenge time.
If you have access to the Getting Started ebook, there’s a custom notebook page that you can use alongside Outdoor Hour Challenge #3 if you wish, or a number of blank pages you can print and use instead.
The Getting Started ebook is included in all levels of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, including the Discover Level.
Overwhelmed with the thought of getting started with nature study? You may wish to read my entry: Nature Study the Gentle Way. In this entry, I share a simple idea that you could try in your family.
And an Update of My Nature Study Goals 2018 for the Second Quarter
We’re finally doing a summertime dance as the temperatures climb and the skies are clear. It’s been a struggle for me personally because my husband and I made a commitment to each other to get the yard done during June and July. Making it a priority has meant we have to pass on some recreational opportunities.
We still try to fit in our daily river walks and a few short kayak excursions when we can.
Plus, we did take a week and go camping on the northern coast of Oregon. The beaches there are either rugged or sand dunes. The weather was pretty good and we found a couple of places to kayak, including Lake Coffinbury, where we saw bald eagles!
We took advantage of the negative tide and did some tide pooling. I spotted a purple sea star, the most colorful one I’ve ever seen. There were loads of anemones and barnacles.
We’ve had an abundance of wildlife right in our backyard. My son saw this coyote pup strolling through the back fence and I was able to capture an image or too.
We have 5 birds nesting in our yard- 2 tree swallows, a chickadee, a Pygmy nuthatch, and a mountain bluebird! What a fantastic thing for this bird loving girl! My husband built the nesting boxes last year, a little too late in the season so we weren’t sure what to expect this year. Happy surprises!
The nuthatch nest is in this crack in the pine tree, believe it or not. Amazing!
The cattle are back in the pasture behind our house and we’ve so enjoyed seeing all the newborn calves. They sure are curious little things!
Here is my June list of birds seen from our back window. I love keeping track and now my friends come over and check the board every time they visit to see what new birds have been added.
Life is good here in my little part of the world.
Now here’s an update on my nature study goals as a way of keeping me accountable.
Nature Study Goals 2018 – 2nd Quarter Update
1. Nature Observer journal – I’ve continued to journal my observations almost every day. I find if I don’t take a minute to note what happened during the day that I forget the little things; the things that when I look back mean the most.
There are very few prompts I haven’t filled in from the many nature-related page ideas. I adapt the ones that really don’t fit my style. I’m trying not to make excuses and just do my best to keep the journal full of thoughts and observations that show the picture of what it’s like living here in Central Oregon.
2. Keep a record of the wildflowers that grow in my local habitat. I narrowed this goal to include my yard and the grassland between my house and the river. I keep my list in my Nature Observer journal.
3. Visit the High Desert Museum each month. I have failed at this! They have a new exhibit featuring rocks and the history of rock climbing that I really want to see, so I’ve now put it on the plan. Plus, I want to go see the raptors again.
4. Visit Sunriver Nature Center and see the garden. We ended up going to the Sunriver Observatory instead with some friends. It was awe inspiring as always, to look up at the stars and the planets Venus and Jupiter.
5. Take 3 new hikes. Twin Lake hike, Smith Rock – not new.
6. Get the kayaks out in a new local spot. My oldest son bought a canoe and my middle son bought a kayak so we’re all able to get on the water and explore the local area. So far, we’ve kept to our familiar stretches of river but we have plans next week to go exploring.
Additional Goal Related Items
We purchased our National Parks pass and visited Lewis & Clark National Park, which is really a group of places centered around Astoria, Oregon. Visiting these places and then kayaking on the Lewis & Clark River were a highlight of our camping trip last month.
Our backyard landscape is coming together. We’ve discovered that we can transplant many grasses and wildflowers and even an aspen tree to fill in our garden spaces. It’s a very big learning process and we need to keep reminding ourselves that it will take many years to accomplish what we want to in this space.
Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.If you would like me to take a look at one of your images on Instagram, use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge.
Want to join in the Outdoor Mom post?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
During our outdoor time this month we went…
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…
This week we’re going to be getting back to basics. Keep it simple by taking your 15 minute outdoor time, looking for something of interest with your child, and then follow up with a short discussion of what you experienced. Use the prompts in the original challenge to inspire your child’s thinking about what they experienced during their time outside. Share what you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy about your nature time with your children.
Quote:
“In nature-study the work begins with any plant or creature which chances to interest the pupil.”
–Handbook of Nature Study
For now, be content to just talk about what you saw while outside. Aim to keep your nature study time a pleasurable adventure, building a lifelong habit of getting outside and being refreshed by noting the amazing things happening right outside your own door or in your very own neighborhood.
Was it too hot? Be creative about when you go outside for your nature time. Mid-afternoon might not be the best time. We always enjoyed getting out early during the summer to beat the heat. Your family may enjoy going out in the evenings. Pick a time when you are most relaxed and can enjoy getting outside with your children.
If you have access to the Getting Started ebook, there’s a custom notebook page that you can use if you wish or a number of blank pages you can print and use instead.
The Getting Started ebook is included in all levels of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, including the Discover Level.
This is the easiest of all nature study challenges because it really is just getting outside with your children for 15 minutes to enjoy your time together. Take a walk in your neighborhood, a park, or even just your own backyard. Keep it simple and make sure to use the suggestions for following up on any interest found during your outdoor time.
I realize for many families it is very hot during the afternoons at this time of year, but this challenge can be done at any time of the day. It might be fun to take an early morning walk or an evening walk.
If you have access to the Getting Started ebook, there is a custom notebook page that you can use if you wish or a number of blank pages you can print and use instead.
The Getting Started ebook is included in all levels of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, including the Discover Level.
The month of July is typically hot, sometimes too hot for a lengthy nature study session during the afternoon hours. But, using the ideas linked on the planner page, you may find a perfect summer time routine that includes fifteen minutes of nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenges. Keep it simple and carve out the time to be with your children as you explore your yard and neighborhood during July.
In addition, I’ve created a few new printables for you to use this month as well. These are available to Ultimate and Journey level members.
Tree Study Notebook Pages: These beautiful pages are perfect for using after your study of the sequoia, aspen, birch, and spruce trees.
Note: I will be creating more tree pages in the future. If you have a particular tree you would like featured on a notebooking page, let me know in an email or comment and I will add it to my “to do list”.
Nut Study Notebook Page: This is a simple and fun way to pull some nature study into your daily life. Take the time to research your favorite nuts and then make a record of it for your nature journal.
June was packed with lots of outdoor time here in Central Oregon. Most days we were close to home, observing and loving what we discovered in our own yard. But, we also did a bit of traveling to enjoy a completely different habitat. All in all, June has been an excellent month for nature exploring and journaling.
The ocean is a refresher and we were completely delighted with the change of scenery. The ocean waves, the sandy beaches, the tide pools, and the coastal forests made a perfect backdrop for all of our exploring.
Here are my pages for your inspiration:
This is the time of year for new plantings and creating new garden spaces. We got a load of free rocks and used them to begin a new section of our rock garden. I found some plants to transplant and purchased a bit of yarrow to fill in the spaces.
We walk in our meadow just about every day and the purple iris were all blooming the first few weeks of June. I love seeing them as we walk the trail.
Also from our meadow walks, we noted a “new to us” flower, Rydberg’s penstemon. It’s always exciting to discover a new plant to add to our nature journal!
This page is the first of our pages from our coastal trip. I wanted to make some quick notes about a multitude of things we saw during our hikes. I love a good recap page!
I did my best to create a few sketches with colored pencils that represent a few of the highlights from our trip to the tide pool. I love combining sketches and words on a page.
Don’t forget that I’m sharing a nature journal page each week on my Instagram account if you want to see the pages as they unfold. Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.And, if you want to create a page and share it on your Instagram for me to see, use the hashtag #OHCnaturejournal.
Homeschooling for high school using the Charlotte Mason method is a dynamic and living way to teach children. It gives your family room to personalize their learning.
Living ideas are derived only from living minds.
Homeschooling using the Charlotte Mason style is marked by a use of good living books. Living books are books that are written by someone who has a passion or interest in the subject, usually in a conversational or narrative style.
When I homeschooled my teenage sons, I tried to include living books in every science course. These kinds of books drew interest and excitement to the topics we learned about in our science curriculum.
A good living book is worth its weight in gold and can give even the most reluctant student a reason for digging deeper into various aspects of science.
Inspiration versus Information
My aim in homeschooling my children was to inspire a love of learning and not just to feed them dry facts. Living books inspire thinking and don’t just provide information. Think back to when you were in school and you had a true learning experience, one that impressed you and has stuck with you all these years later. In my experience, those times were inspired either by passionate people fired up about a topic, a book that was written to give you a window into another time or person’s life, or when you made a connection from the written page and related to your real life in some way.
It takes less energy to learn something from a living book than it does from a text. Learning takes place without all the effort to memorize and drill the facts. Learning takes place because it is meaningful and you own it right from the first reading.
“A book may be long or short, old or new, easy or hard, written by a great man or a lesser man and yet be the living book which finds its way to the mind of a young reader.”
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Series, Volume 3
Living Books in High School
How to Use Living Books in Your Science Courses
Most of us feel more comfortable using a text as the foundation of our high school science courses. This doesn’t mean that we need to limit our assignments to the text. Why not add in a few living books to supplement your learning? I found that when I left one day open during the school week for a living book reading and follow-up narration, we enjoyed our studies so much more. It balanced out the textbook learning and made it more meaningful.
Tips for Offering Living Books in High School Science
1. Assign a living book each week. I broke longer books down by chapters or pages and assigned a short reading each week.
2. Allow for some kind of narration – oral, written (summary on a notebook page works well), project, or additional research.
3. Look for ways to connect the text to your living books selections by pulling in biographies of scientists or explorers.
4. Create interest in a topic by drawing connects between the text and your nature study.
5. When on field trips, look in the bookstore at the museum, science center, nature center, planetarium, or state/national park for living books you can include in your science courses.
Living Books for High School Biology
“They learn what to observe, and make discoveries for themselves, original so far as they are concerned. They are put in the right attitude of mind for scientific observations and deductions, and their keen interest is awakened.”
Text = Apologia Biology: If you’re using this text, I have written a blog entry sharing how we incorporated nature study into each of the modules in the book. It has detailed suggestions of topics, additional books, and nature study ideas for you to use as inspiration.
This is the foundation of all of our informal biology study from elementary age to high school age. I have written dozens of nature study lessons based on this book.
I have written lots of advanced nature study ideas and included them in my Outdoor Hour Challenge ebooks. My high school aged sons used these as a weekly supplement to their biology study.
Here are particular ebooks that you may find helpful in planning a high school level nature study course. You can click this link to find all of these ebooks: Handbook of Nature Study.
Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer Nature Study Continues Series – includes advanced nature study ideas and advanced notebooking pages for follow-up learning and narration.
More Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer Nature Study Series – includes advanced nature study ideas and advanced notebooking pages for follow-up learning and narration.
All of these ebooks are available in my Ultimate Naturalist Library membership. This membership includes all 21 of my nature study ebooks, 76 archived nature study newsletters, and a growing library of additional printable notebook pages and activities.
Here are the additional “living books” we added in to fit the interests and learning styles of our children.
Field guides for all subjects are an absolute MUST: Trees, Wildflowers, Birds, Mammals, Insects, Mushrooms. Taking the information from a text and then going outside to observe your subjects brings the study to a new level. If you take the time to use a field guide, now you have real knowledge about the real world.
Living Books for High School Chemistry
These books can all be used for narration exercises. My boys kept a written summary of each of the books on notebook pages.
Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History: This one you might want to preview. I didn’t like it as much as some people do, but my boys enjoyed reading it and narrating back to me at our weekly discussions.
The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things.: This is much more than a lab idea book. There’s a narrative chapter and then a demonstration of the concept that uses fairly easy to find materials. Great supplement to any chemistry course you are completing.
Living Books for Human Anatomy
Human anatomy is a fascinating look at our own bodies. Dry textbooks can provide information in an organized way but a good living book will give the student something to think about and to observe in their own body. We have used the following books as the complement to our text.
The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body: My son loves the artwork and the text narrative in this book. Like all David Macaulay books, it is full of interesting facts that are shared in an enjoyable way. My son copied some of the illustrations into his anatomy notebook with colored pencils….all inspired by this book.
I Am Joe’s Body (A Berkley/Reader’s Digest book): This simple book is a quick read but gives lots of ideas and things to think about. It’s worth finding used and having for your high school age student.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: This was one I wasn’t sure about until we received it and read through the first few chapters. I found it interesting and supportive of our Christian point of view.
Exploring the History of Medicine: More like a text than any of the other books, but we devoured the stories in this book. We skipped the questions and used the table of contents as a jumping off spot for further research and narration.
Mr. Fisher says, ‘There are real books, and there are textbooks.’ The day is soon coming when everyone will realize that textbooks have no educational value. We hardly ever use textbooks in our Parents Union Schools. Whenever possible, we use books that spark the imagination and have a touch of originality. These are the differences between a real book and a text book.
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Series, Volume 6
Additional Links to Science Related Blog Entries I’ve Written:
Making Apologia Texts Work in Our Family: My real life experience with Apologia science texts shows how we adapt to fit our learning styles and tastes using some alternative methods.
I’ve long been a fan of the Story of Science series by Joy Hakim. We used these science books alongside our history lessons. I love the layout of these books and the information is presented in a chronological order. I’m including them in this post because my teenage sons thoroughly enjoyed reading these books because of the narrative style and the obvious love for science that the author shares. You could very easily include these in your living books list for science, perhaps covering a chapter or two a week. This would make these books span a few years’ time.
Story of Science Series – link to see more about these books, including sample chapters to download and read.
There are ways to draw in living books to every topic if you search hard enough. Our study of chemistry, physics, marine biology, and human anatomy have all been enhanced by selected living books offered every week for narration of some sort. Some of the books we stumbled upon, some were recommended by blog readers and friends, and some we already had on our shelves; we just needed to get them down off the shelf and read them one at a time.
I encourage you to consider including living books alongside any science text you offer to your students. You will not regret your decision!
