This week we are going back to the basics by encouraging everyone to include some drawing in their nature journals. This challenge from the very first series of challenges is one that your family can complete periodically to keep your pencils and minds sharp, looking for ways to draw something interesting in your nature journal.
Members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have access to this challenge (#3 in the ebook) and its corresponding notebook page in the Getting Started ebook. Make sure to look up the challenge in the ebook, print the notebook page, and then make time to complete the suggested activities soon!
What? The Great Backyard Bird Count When? February 12-15, 2016 Who? Anyone around the world…for the first time ever! How? Count birds in your yard and at your feeders. Report the data to the Great Backyard Bird Count
Our family trip to New Jersey last autumn included a short visit to Morristown National Historical Park. Ever since I visited Mt. Vernon, I have had an interest in learning more about George Washington and Morristown gave me a little bit more information about an interesting person from history. We have all heard the story of Valley Forge but Morristown is where Washington spent the winter of 1779-1780 which ended up being the coldest winter on record (Valley Forge was 77-78).
Not only is Morristown a place of history, it is also a place of natural beauty that has been preserved for our outdoor enjoyment. You can hike on the 26 miles of trails or bike the roads of the park….we enjoyed our short visit and would recommend adding it to your New Jersey itinerary if you have some time.
There are actually three distinct parts to this national historical site. The first stop could be George Washington’s headquarters which are actually in the town of Morristown. We didn’t stop there but headed up on the hill overlooking the town to see Fort Nonsense. There wasn’t much to see there except the signs and a gorgeous view.
It gave us a more complete picture of the purpose of making this the stopping stop for the Continental Army that winter. For our California family, this was just a taste of Revolutionary War history…something we don’t get to experience very often.
The first challenge in visiting the actual winter encampment is to find the place! We were glad we had our navigation going because it is off the beaten path a bit. Gorgeous area of New Jersey! It was a gray Tuesday and when we pulled into the parking lot of the visitor center there were only a few cars. It may have had something to do with the visitor center being closed…what a disappointment! We should have looked it up ahead of time which was a hard lesson. There was a park brochure with a map available in a box outside the door so we weren’t completely in the dark about how to find some interesting things to do.
We followed the paved road in the car up to this area which is called Pennsylvania Line Encampment. There was a nice trail over to where they have recreated some of the log cabins. Can you imagine 2,000 soldiers living here? We didn’t make it over to Jockey Hollow in the park but that is where 10,000 more soldiers stayed during the bitter winter of 79-80! Now the place is a beautifully wooded area with nice trails and paved roads.
Here is a peek at one of the log huts which don’t seem very substantial but we decided that in the winter conditions they would have at least given some shelter from the elements. Tough times! Even though we didn’t have the benefit of an introduction at the visitor center, I think using the brochure and the ample signs gave us a great idea of what this place was all about.
This was a quick visit and we wished we had more time and it had been spring or summer. The trails were very inviting and I know I would have enjoyed getting to know this place better.
More Tips:
Plan to stop at both visitor centers, one in the actual town and one out near Jockey Hollow.
There is no entrance fee for Fort Nonsense or the Jockey Hollow Areas we visited. There is currently a $7 fee for Washington’s Headquarters Museum and Ford Museum.
There is a Junior Ranger program.
You can read more of my national park entries by following these links:
It’s time for another Outdoor Mom’s Journal from me and my world. The past few weeks have been a series of rain storms with a morning of snow thrown in for some variety. El Nino has delivered on its promise of wet weather for California which I am grateful for indeed. The creeks are filling up and the lakes too! Our world is turning green with the grasses of early spring and the sunshine is warm with promise of the spring to come.
As usual, getting outdoors is high on our list of things to do and we took advantage of some opportunities to do just that this past month.
Here are links to my entries for the January Outdoor Hour Challenges:
My husband needed a mental health day a few weeks ago and to be completely honest, I did too. We are blessed to live within a shortish distance from Yosemite National Park and decided this was our destination for this particular day off. Up and out of the door early, we made it to Yosemite by mid-morning and took advantage of being one of the few people in the valley that day. It was sunny but cold which made for pleasant hiking. We took an icy hike from the shuttle bus stop up to Mirror Lake. The trail was slick so we opted to hike on the actual snow that lined the trail instead. What a workout! The reward was a picture perfect visit to a magical place. If you ever get to Yosemite, make sure to take this short hike and look up on your right as you go and you will be rewarded with a look up at Half Dome…a very unique perspective.
If you can visit Yosemite National Park in the “off season”, you are rewarded with a quiet landscape where you can imagine you have the place all to yourself. I have learned that the power of being outside is a strong antidote to the melancholy that can sweep in with the winter’s cold. My smile tells the whole story.
I can’t resist sharing one last image from our day at Yosemite. This is the view from the Swinging Bridge over the Merced River as you look over the valley and up at Yosemite Falls. It was a day where you could hear the water in the falls from here. Although I have seen this view a hundred times before, I never get tired of it’s beauty. If you look carefully in the image, you will see the ice cone at the bottom of the waterfall. It is fascinating!
Here is another favorite image from the month…my daffodils coming to life. I can hardly wait to see their beautiful yellow blooms in the sunshine.
I have been taking a closer look at lichen this month in anticipation of a lichen focus next month in the newsletter. This twig has such a variety of life on it that could easily be missed if I didn’t slow down and really look at it…aided by the lens of my camera.
Outdoor Mom’s Journal
Whether your family spends a few minutes a week outside or hours at a time, share what is going on in your world.
How Do You Join?
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 week 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….
I added nature journal pages about….
I am reading…
I am dreaming about…
A photo I would like to share…
I will be posting my Outdoor Mom’s Journal entry once a month.
Use this challenge from the archives to take a closer look at a rock you collect this week during your outdoor hour time OR you can use a rock from your collection. Use the printable grid study in this challenge to document your week’s work.
If you are a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, make sure to look up the January 2013 newsletter or the new Rock Big Grid printable for more rock study ideas! Both of these items are found by clicking the “members area” button at the top of the Handbook of Nature Study website.
Here are a couple of weed/seed photos I took over the past few weeks. We were out on a snowy walk and I spotted this beautiful seed pod! In my mind’s eye I see the seeds all sleeping inside cozy, waiting for the right time to spring out and sprout in the springtime sunshine.
We also squeezed in a sunny hike after a big week of rain and the grasses were already starting to turn green but last season’s star thistles were still standing dry, stiff and full of seeds. The birds like these invasive plants because they provide seeds in their diet…at least there is that! I recently had a discussion with a young girl about the difference between a wildflower and a weed. It was interesting to hear how she appreciates the beauty in what many deem to be weeds, things like dandelions, mustard, and wild radish. She has studied herbs a bit and understands the value of many of our so-called weeds. (She is a girl after my own heart.)
Take advantage of your winter season to look for weeds and seeds. The landscape at this time of year has far less competing for your attention and weeds can be spotted even if you have snow or ice.
I am so looking forward to wildflower season this year! We have had a decent amount of rain and it should help make it a splendid show of color in a few weeks.
Please read the following explanation outlining how to get this month’s newsletter.
The newsletter link is not in this email but will come separately. There may be a delay in your receiving the email so please don’t email me until the second day of the month if you haven’t received the link on the first. For some reason, some email providers take longer to receive the newsletter email.
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This month’s newsletter link will be available only during the month of February so be sure to download it before 2/29/16.
February Nature Study Planning Page with field trip ideas, nature photo ideas, and a special 15 minute challenge for parents.
Creek Study printable notebook page which can be used as a nature journal topper as well.
Resources for your Nature Library: I have started to build a nature library store on Amazon that will feature by category my favorite nature study books and resources. Take a look and see if there is anything you would like to put on your wish list for your family’s nature study library: Handbook of Nature Study Nature Library Suggestions on Amazon.com.Note this is my affiliate store to items I personally recommend and have read or seen in person.
Please note that Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level members have access to members only printables each month in addition to the newsletter printables. You will need to log into your account and then go to the “Other Releases” section.
Need help getting started with your nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study? Check out the fresh “Getting Started” page here on the website!
Don’t forget that the last page in the newsletter is a printable nature journal page or you can use it as a nature journal topperby cutting the journal prompt out and adhering it right in your own nature journal. You can see my page above. I decided to use a spatter paint background and then taped the prompt to the top of my page. Now all I have to do is make my observations and record then in a list using a pen.
Of course, the week we had scheduled to observe and learn more about starlings…they have vanished from the neighborhood! They were constant visitors during the autumn months right outside my office window in the pistache trees that line the side of our house. I could hear them out there as they ate the bright red fruits from the tree. But even though the opportunity had passed see them in person, I have plenty of photos from my archives to use as the basis for our study.
I decided to try to determine where they go once they leave our neighborhood. I did some online research and found that most starlings stay right here in the continental U.S. during all seasons. But, I have been watching and they are definitely gone from our area. I think it has something to do with the food supply…which I note later below.
Journal Idea: Coloring Page from Cornell’s Bird Coloring Book (page 28). I cut the blackline drawing out and used colored pencils to attempt to show the speckles but wasn’t successful. It is really hard to get it right. Anyway, I decided to use the drawing anyway and focus on the recording good information on the page instead. This is actually quite an interesting bird.
Here are two sort of blurry images of starlings I have in my archives. This one from November 2014 shows the speckled look to the bird during autumn and winter. The starlings seem to be around our house only as long as there are those fruits on the pistache tree. Now that the fruits are gone, so are the starlings. We will look forward to their appearance again when the season is right.
This is an image of a starling from 2011 in February. I also have a really bad video of this bird from that day (it was just too far away for a good one). There were two of them along with some robins in the trees across from our house. They were eating something off the tree….not sure what. Anyway, this photo shows the iridescent color of the starling at certain times of year. So pretty!
Have you had a chance to look for some birds this month? Don’t forget that the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 12-15, 2016! Mark you calendars!
I want to share about a fabulous giveaway and opportunity for a free notebooking page sampler from NotebookingPages.com.
I just didn’t want you to miss it! I am a proud sponsor of NotebookingPages.com and my Getting Started ebookis one of the prizes the Grand Prize winner will receive. If you don’t already own my Getting Started ebook yet, why not pop over and enter to win her Homeschool Giveaway?
PLUS starting tomorrow there will be a Mid-Winter Membership Sale with $25 off a lifetime membership. Please note I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and highly recommend their products for all homeschooling families.
Entries about notebooking for your nature journal you may want to read:
Back in October our family was able to visit the state of New Jersey and what a surprise New Jersey was to us! It was so much more rural than expected and we fit in a visit to a very interesting place, Paterson Great Falls National Historic Site. It may not have been as majestic as other national parks or sites but it was by far one of the most interesting ways to look back in time to see how the natural feature of the town’s waterfall influenced history and industry in New Jersey. Paterson was the first planned industrial city in the U.S., established back in 1792.
It was a raining afternoon with showers but we were still able to get out and explore the small park. We started on one side of the Pasaic River where you can look over and see the falls. There were a few people there braving the rain but we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
We crossed over the street and found the very small visitor center that the national park service had set up. The only thing of note is that they have guided tours available or you can opt for a self guided tour of the area as you learn about the industrial history of the area.
Our son was interested in visiting the Paterson Museum which is just one block from the national park visitor center. This was a great decision! This place has so many interesting things and we took time to look at just about everything, including a sampling of the locomotives that had been built here in the past. This engine is actually one that helped to build the Panama Canal back in the day.
Of course, my son the pilot was interested in learning all about the history of Wright Aeronautics in Paterson. Amazing things to look at and learn about! The museum also catalogs the history of other Paterson manufacturers like Colt Revolvers as well the local silk industry.
Back outside we walked back down the street and then over the river to the closest viewing spot for actual waterfall which is in Mary Ellen Kramer Park. I can imagine this place after a hard rain or in the springtime being a magical place with lots of water. During our visit, the falls were not that impressive but still a nice surprise during our brief trip through New Jersey.
You can tell from the photo that the waterfall is really right in the middle of the town. I got the idea that this park is going to be vamping up its offerings so take a look at their website before you visit for any new features of the park that may strike your fancy. I was wishing I had more time to walk the town and take some “artsy” kinds of photos of the old brick buildings. I can always find something of interest wherever I go.
I am learning a great deal about the difference between a national park and a historic site. Historic sites can be interesting and beautiful but they don’t have the WOW factor of awesome vistas or natural phenomenon. For our family, we enjoy both experiences. I love to learn about most anything so visiting Paterson Great Falls made a memorable afternoon with my husband and son.
Tips
There are no entrance fees for the historic site or museum.
From the Archives!
(one of my Nature Book Project selections) – see pages 59-66. This is my affiliate link. I also used the 
