Tag: Family Outdoor Hour Challenge

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Barn Owl Study – Using All About Birds

Barn Owl at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson, Arizona

This week’s challenge was to learn more about our local owls: Owl Study. In past owl studies we focused on the Great Horned Owl, the Western Screech Owl, and the Spotted Owl. This time we decided to learn more about the Barn Owl.

We started off listening to the sounds of the Barn Owl and I have to admit if I ever heard this sound at night I would be terrified. It is such a scary sound and not at all one I want to hear too often. It sounds more like a scream than a bird sound. This owl does not make the typical hooting sound we have come to associate with owls of all kinds.

Here is the link: Barn Owl Sounds.

We read the information on the All About Birds website which includes this interesting information on where you might see a Barn Owl:

“Many people’s first sighting of a Barn Owl is while driving through open country at night—a flash of pale wings in the headlights is usually this species. Barn Owls also often live up to their name, inhabiting barns and other old, abandoned buildings, so keep an eye out for them there. Barn Owls don’t hoot the way most other owls do; you can listen for their harsh screeches at night.”

We finished up with a notebook page for our nature journal. It is all in preparation for the time in the future when we may see or possibly hear this bird. You may want to do your own research on the Barn Owl…it is the most widely distributed owl worldwide (see map at the bottom of this website: Common Barn Owl).

Here is what the Peterson Field Guide says about the Barn Owl:

“A long-legged, knock-kneed, pale, monkey-faced owl. White heart-shaped face and dark eyes, no ear tufts. Distinguished in flight as an owl by the large head and mothlike flight..”

I may just have to put that in my nature journal. 🙂

Have you started your owl study yet? 

OHC Blog Carnival

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Nature Study: Rock Observations for January 2013


To refresh your memory, I am going to try to collect all fifteen rocks discussed in the Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides).This month we spent lots of time out and about looking at rocks, collecting a few new ones, and enjoying our rock adventures. We did not actually complete any of the fifteen rocks from the book. I can see now that I need to be more purposeful if I am going to achieve this goal in the year 2013.

That is the beauty of goals…they keep you focused and on track.

We did however accomplish several rock-related activities.

We added a new rock to our front yard rock spot. We have yet to identify it but that is going on February’s list because I actually think it is some kind of shale or slate which would be one of our fifteen rocks from the book.

We collected a rock from the other side of the river canyon and comparing it to the rocks on our side of the canyon, realized it is different. This I think is going to be the value in labeling our rocks with where we collected them.

Rock Hike to the River @HBNatureStudy

My son, my husband, and I enjoyed a warm mid-winter afternoon sitting on a big rock at the river. I collected a few rocks for a friend as a surprise.

This was a month we spent more time outdoors looking at rocks and talking about rocks and not much was recorded in our nature journals. I already have my rock grid in my nature journal so I just need to sit down with a pen and record this month’s thoughts and discoveries.

I am going to do my best to have one of my official fifteen rocks studied by the end of February.

Next week I will update you on my “using less plastic” goal for 2013…which I did a much better job with this month!

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Our Rock Grid Study – Rocks for Our Collection

Rocks are everywhere! It is hard to know where to start with a study of our local rocks since everywhere we look we have rocks to observe. But, like all nature study, our rock hunt led us to more questions than answers. Using the Rock Grid from the January edition of the Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter, we narrowed our focus to a few of the squares.

  • Find a rock you would like to know more about using a book from the library. 
  • Find three rocks to bring home in your pocket. 

So these were the rocks that came home…a little too big for the pocket but we have long admired them along the hiking trail. It is high time that we slow down and learn a little more about them. My husband thinks the flat ones are some kind of slate. I’m not sure…the black ones maybe but the reddish ones will be fun to research. They are definitely sedimentary rocks and break easily. The top right rock is mostly quartz and very pretty in real life. These are going on the nature table until we find a book to help learn more about them.

Rock Nature Study @handbookofnaturestudy

This is Mr. A’s rock that he wants to know more about. You cannot tell from a photo but I am guessing it is twice as heavy as the same size piece of granite we have on our shelf. It is solid! This rock is found alongside another walking trail we take every week. If you look closely, you will see it is shiny/sparkly around the edges which makes it an interesting rock. Can’t wait to learn more about it…just need to get over to the library and find a good reference book.

Rock List Nature Journal @HBNatureStudy

Here is the start of my rock journal for the year. I listed down the side all the rocks from the Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides) that I have decided to focus on for the year of 2013. Our family is going to be trying to locate, collect, and then study each of the fifteen rocks from the book. I made a chart to record the date we find the rock and the location.

On the other page, I watercolored a background and then I will adhere the Rock Grid Study for easy reference and as a reminder of a few things we can do while outside for our hikes and walks.

If you haven’t downloaded the January Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter with the Rock Study Grid yet, you still have time to do so. The link will be in every entry for the month of January if you are a subscriber to the blog. I already have quite a few rock-related entries for the next Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival and I invite you to join us with your entry (link on the sidebar).

Have you collected any rocks yet?

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Watercolor Clouds Nature Journal – Cure for the Winter Blahs


We had plenty of opportunities to observe clouds in the past few days. It has been really cloudy and wet…only a few breaks in the weather where we were able to get outside and breathe some air. I tried to enjoy the rain but it really did just bum me out. I was really glad that this week’s challenge was to pull out some art supplies and make a watercolor entry for the weather in my nature journal.


I collected some water for my watercolor project from the rain gauge. Now that I had my supplies ready I was anxious about actually watercoloring in my journal so I decided to make the painting on a separate sheet of paper and then add the painting to my journal with tape.


I played with my gray watercolor pencil before starting the actual artwork, experimenting with different methods of applying the color to the paper. You should try this if you have a few minutes just to see how different the effects are on your artwork.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, here are the options I used.

  • Left box: Use the pencil to draw the square, then apply water with a brush.
  • Middle box: Dip the tip of the watercolor pencil in water, draw the square.
  • Right box: Use a wet brush on the pencil tip, apply to paper.

All of these squares are made with the same pencil….very different results.

Creating a journal page always cheers me up! Between the journal page and taking advantage of the breaks in the rain to get outside, I was starting to feel not so blah.

One morning we woke to actual sunshine and we decided to take a hike to see our neighborhood waterfall. Kona loves this trail since we can let her off leash. She runs ahead and finds something interesting to sniff, following the scent until she detects another trail to follow. She definitely enjoyed the opportunity to get outside and stretch her legs alongside us on the trail.

We were rewarded for our hiking efforts with the rushing sound of water coming down the hill and over the rocks. We took a few minutes to just enjoy the moment and then we all headed back up the hill, just in time for the rains to return. I realized that without the rain we would have had no waterfall to hike to…..sometimes we need to be reminded of the benefits of all that wet weather.

This will wind down our weather study for the month. Just for fun, I will be keeping our rainfall records as we move through January. We might get a dusting of snow later this week which would be the perfect way to wind up the month.

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Weather Grid Nature Study – New Nature Journal Idea

Our week has been marked by frosty temperatures…which make for beautiful early morning treasures. Now each morning when I go out to check the bird feeders and the bird bath I need to bundle up with gloves and hat…my nose still gets frosty cold.

Using the December Newsletter Weather Grid Study, our family has been trying to notice the weather and its effects on the plants and wildlife. This doesn’t seem much like a formal study but just part of our everyday routine to notice the temperature, the clouds, the forecast.


Reading Angie’s entry for the up-coming blog carnival, I noticed that her son had cut the Weather Study Grid into squares to adhere into his journal. I love this idea! So thanks to Angie’s family I have a cool new way to record the grid study in my nature journal.


It seemed like such a natural way to customize my nature journal page. Once I had the squares cut out, I had the idea to print a few of my weather related images from the month in wallet-sized photos and then add those to my page.


After that, I added a few more of my thoughts about our weather study and voila! This is a perfect nature journal entry for this part of our weather study. Using these simple steps you end up with a journal page that anyone can make!

You can read more about this week’s weather nature study challenge here: Weather Grid and Weather Sounds. Don’t miss the free printable in that entry to record you personal weather words. You can get the weather grid by subscribing to this blog (box on the sidebar) and then in the next entry in your email box (or Google Reader) there will be a download link. The download link will be available until the end of December 2012.

Grab your own GBBC button and makes plans to participate in the bird fun!

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Family Seasons Nature Study Walk – Winter Edition

A week ago, our family took a trip up to the mountains to spend some time together and enjoy the beauty of an alpine lake. I thought this would be the perfect time to take a Seasonal Weather walk as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. The weekend started off with rain, sunshine, and then rainbows. We actually saw a double rainbow a couple of times….amazing!

Boy, did we have weather! The rain turned to snow and dusted the landscape with clean bright snow. The ducks and geese in the lake didn’t seem to mind much. The clouds covered the mountains in the distance but left us with a pocket of sunshine to get out into and explore.
We would watch for the sun to come out, taking advantage of the time to warm up in the bright mountain sunshine and see some more rainbows.
The snow would really fall at times and we enjoyed the beauty of it…we didn’t have to go outside unless we wanted to do so. Mr. A met up with some friends and went snowboarding one of the days we were up at the lake….crazy teenage snowboarders. (Sorry Mr. T that you dislocated your shoulder.)
This was pretty much the pattern for our whole weekend…rainbows and sunshine…snowing in the distance.

One of the days we took a drive around the lake to a spot we like to hike at but the wind was blowing so very hard that just getting out of the car was difficult. This video is just showing how much the large pines were swaying back and forth in the gusts of wind…it also was really super loud just like on the video. Amazing power of the wind! We experienced 50 mph winds (gusts higher than that).

It was hard to even stand up in the blasts of wind….we ended up taking a short hike over to Fallen Leaf Lake where the waves were high enough you could have surfed. This lake is usually calm, flat, and crystal blue but on this day it looked more like the gray ocean. Mr. D bundled up against the wind…it really was that cold!

While we were up enjoying the lakes of the Sierra, back at home the rain gauge was getting filled up. We had to dump it since it was overflowing at 8 inches! There was flooding and our basement sump pump didn’t work once the power went off….wet floors and furniture. The phones were out for a week and so was our DSL. The weather really gave us something to talk about this past week…more than I anticipated.

There is still time for you to take your weather walk and share your experiences with all of us at the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Make sure to send in your blog entries for the up-coming OHC Blog Carnival (due date 12/30/12).

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Looking For Signs of a Squirrel – Our Rodent Nature Study

Squirrel nature study happens quite frequently at our house. We tend to have squirrels that are not shy about making themselves at home in our birdfeeders and in our trees, especially the walnut tree. I knew we had a squirrel challenge to complete this month so I have been waiting for one to come along to observe. Wouldn’t you know it? We could hear them chattering up in the tree a few times over the past few weeks but we have not actually seen our resident squirrels.

Our Outdoor Time
Kona and I completed this squirrel challenge on our own today…it was a drizzly, gray day. Kona is the squirrel hunter in our family and she will chase them along the fence line and watch them from the base of the tree. She loves a good squirrel chase. Today though there was no squirrel around.

We made use of our time by trying to find some signs of squirrels. We found quite a few walnut shells which are dead giveaway. We looked up in the tree but we couldn’t see any squirrels up there. We made our way around to the side of the house and the birdfeeder where the squirrels sometimes sit and munch on seeds. No squirrels today.

We then went around the side of the house and we saw some tracks in the mud. I think they are cat tracks.

One last tree to check out…nope, no squirrels today.

Well, we didn’t see a squirrel to observe but we ended up really enjoying our time outside. I gathered a colorful leaf bouquet, watched a flock of finches in the feeder (post to come), and we got some fresh air before it really started to rain. Successful….yes!

I did pull out the field guide and look up squirrels and read through the pages. Mr. B and I will be keeping our eyes out for squirrels as the month goes by and once the leaves are all down for the season I know we will be able to see more clearly when we hear the squirrels chattering.


Don’t forget you can study any rodent this month and there is a free printable notebook page for you to use with your Handbook
of Nature Study.Rodents included in the Handbook of Nature Study are the muskrat, house mouse, woodchuck, red squirrel, and the chipmunk.

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Mammal Grid Study – Stimulates Our Nature Study


We have fallen into a nice rhythm with the grid study printable from the monthly newsletter. For November and the mammal grid, we decided to print and place it into our nature journal as a reminder of things we could be on the lookout for as we go about our outdoor time during the month.

I had prepared a page to record my observations using the ideas from my Watercolor Block Nature Journal entry.  I didn’t want to use another page so I made the grid a “flap” by taping one edge into the journal so you can lift it up and still see what is underneath.

Of course you can just adhere the grid onto a page if you want to and not worry about making a flap.


I pulled our mammal resources off the shelf- field guide to California mammals, field guide to the Sierra Nevada, and my track finder reference. Sometimes just gathering a few resources will spark a new interest in a nature study area you have covered before. This was the case for our family this month. We paged through the field guide, looking at the illustrations and discussing which animals we have seen and which animals we hoped to see in the future.


I added a short list of “hope to see” mammals in my nature journal. We realized that if we were ever going to actually see these animals in the wild we would need to do some more research about where they live, what their tracks look like, and then what their identifying features are.

Of course, none of the mammals on our list is in the Handbook of Nature Study so we are gleaning from books we have on our shelves and from the internet. I wrote our plan for preparation in my nature journal…good reminders since we will be spending a few days up in the mountains later this season and it would be the perfect time to do some observations. There may even be some snow to look for tracks!

arctic fox notebook page
Example of the free mammal notebook page available here on my blog.

I printed a few of the mammal notebook pages from my Freebies page and I have them all ready to go when we have a chance to observe any of the mammals from our list. I think we will use the field guide to fill in most of the factual parts of the page but them leave the observation part blank.

I think we are off to a great start on our focus on mammals for the month!

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Autumn Season: Cottonwood Tree


Tree study brings such a greater understanding of the cycles of life in our own backyards as we watch the changes, growth, and means of reproducing in each tree we focus on. We learn more about the animals and other creatures that live in the tree, on the tree, and use the tree for shelter or food. It gives us a way to measure time and to anticipate the coming changes.

Learning one tree at a time is an easy way to ease into nature study if you haven’t done so yet. Let your child pick a tree in your yard or neighborhood. Even if you live in a big city you can find a tree that you walk past on a regular basis, perhaps at the library, post office, or grocery store. You can make it a casual study or more in-depth and even just finding out the name of a tree can be enough to get you started.

Here are the trees we have done a formal study of since starting this project:
Oak Tree 2007-2008
Sweet Gum 2008-2009
Tulip Tree 2010-2011
Birch Tree 2011-2012

Now we are continuing our study of the Cottonwood tree that we started back in July 2012: For the Love of Trees.  We do not have a cottonwood in our yard but there are a few around town that we have noticed. We picked a particular tree back in July and we decided to revisit it now that the season has changed.

Autumn 2012 – Cottonwood


Our cottonwood has just begun to change color and drop its leaves. I drive past this tree every week or so and I think it will be fun for us to watch and see when it looses all its leaves as the season marches on.


Here are a few of the leaves and their color. As a sidenote, now that I know what a cottonwood tree looks like and the shape of the leaves, I am seeing more and more of them as we go about our travels in our area. I can also tell by the way the leaves blow and shimmer on the trees.


We didn’t see any birds or other animals in our tree. There wasn’t any “cotton” around this time to observe. I did collect a few leaves to press and a few to add to our nature table which is getting quite crowded. I think I need to sort through and see if I can take off a few things.


Now we will be anxious to complete our study for the winter season and see what changes there are in our cottonwood. You are always welcome to join in with a year-long tree study of your own: See this entry for some ideas on how to get started: For the Love of Trees or this Four Seasons Tree Photo Project.

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I am submitting this entry to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and if you have any entries you would like to submit, you can send them to this email address: charlottemasonblogs@gmail.com. The official blog carnival site is not working so you will need to send them directly to this email.

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Poetry in Your Nature Journal – Autumn Trees and Weeds

“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
“Come over the meadows with me, and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold;
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold”
-from Songs of Autumn

I love Google Books…you can find so many wonderful books that are in the public domain to use in your homeschooling and nature study. I have had one ebook downloaded and on my desktop just waiting to use with our nature journals…and to share with you.

Nature in Verse by Mary Lovejoy is a whole year’s worth of poetry organized by seasons. Whether you read these aloud or use them as copy work in your nature journals, this downloadable ebook is a gem.

Another one you may like to download is Nature Study in Elementary Schools: Myths, Stories, and Poems.

Poetry is another way to use the words you find as you spend your time outdoors. Not everyone likes to take a stab at poetry but if it is your interest or you are a linguistic learner (or your child is a linguistic learner), it is fun to listen to poetry and to play with words. See last week’s challenge for more ideas on using poetry in your nature journal.

We attempted to write some poems for our nature journal but it just didn’t happen this week. We did have fun manipulating words and it was sort of a silly time for the two of us…I cherish those times with my son just as much as any poem we could have written.

Just the act of slowing down and gathering words, giving our children more words to describe their outdoor experiences, and then taking time to share word pictures is a gift they will carry with them into their adulthood.

“The habit of storing mental images can’t be overrated. It can comfort us and refresh us. Even in our busiest times, we can stop and take a mini-vacation in our own piece of nature to be refreshed and gladdened by ‘the silence and calm of things that can’t speak or feel.’…..anyone who tries hard to really see can have it, and parents can train their children to do this.”
Charlotte Mason, volume 1 page 50

Sometimes I just like to record words that come to mind and after they are written in my nature journal they end up sounding like poetry…free form style. Some people collect items for a nature table and some of us like to collect images and words to remember an experience.

This week we found some thistles during a walk with the Kona dog. They always look so pretty but I know that if I touch them they are rather dry, hard, and the thorns will give a good poke. We took some photos and then I drew some autumn thistles in my nature journal along with some words. My words record the experience of seeing some goldfinches hanging upside down to glean some seeds from the thistles. How do they do that without getting stuck by the thorns? They seemed very happy and content as they enjoyed the thistle seed meal.


So whether you actually write a poem or just play with words in your journal, I encourage you to give it a try. Start with a simple sketch and then perhaps a word or two to express your feelings about the subject. Remember that a journal is a personal expression for you and your child….no need for perfection.

“As soon as a child is old enough, he should keep his own nature notebook for his enjoyment. Every day’s walk will give something interesting to add–three squirrels playing in a tree, a blue jay flying across a field, a caterpillar crawling up a bush, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider suddenly dropping from a thread to the ground, where he found ivy and how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, and how ivy manages to climb.” Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 54

Please visit and share with us at the CM blog carnival! We'd love to have you!
I am submitting this entry to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and if you have any entries you would like to submit, you can send them to this email address: charlottemasonblogs@gmail.com. The official blog carnival site is not working so you will need to send them directly to this email.