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June Nature Study Activities for Summer Fun

These June nature study activities are a perfect way to kick off summer learning in your homeschool.

All quotes are from Charlotte Mason (modern English), volume 3

“One afternoon a week, the students in our ‘Practicing School’ [taught by the student teachers at Charlotte Mason’s teacher’s college] go for a ‘nature walk’ with their teacher. They notice things by themselves, and the teacher tells them the name or gives other information only if they ask for it.”

“The teachers are careful not to turn these nature walks into an opportunity to give science lessons, because they want the children’s attention to be focused on their own observations.”

“They’re allowed to notice things with very little direction from the teacher. By doing this, children accumulate a good collection of ‘common knowledge.’ ”

– Charlotte Mason

Nature Study In Your Homeschool

How to Use the Outdoor Hour Challenges for Your Homeschool Family Nature Study – Here are some things to consider for your homeschool family nature study. Every family is different so use these tips to get started with simple and joyful Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Homeschool Nature Study in Your Own Backyard – There is such freedom in homeschool nature study in your own backyard and in learning what is closest to home! In your own backyard, your children will learn to observe, to write about their experiences, to draw their treasures, to be patient, to imagine, and to explore. You don’t need a special textbook or kit to get started.

5 Getting Started in Nature Study Tips – What a delight nature study learning is and what joys you will discover outside your back door. We will help you with simple encouragement along the way.

June Nature Study Activities

Cicada Nature Study – This cicada homeschool nature study will be a lesson in learning to listen and distinguish the sound of the cicada. In the past we’ve listened in the evenings for other insects like the cricket. Now we’re going to learn about the cicada by listening and observing like investigators during the daylight.

Day Hikes Near Home – I realized over time that we didn’t need to travel far to find places to go on short notice or even for a half day’s hike. I loved being able to roll out of bed, decide to go on a hike, and be out the door in a short period of time. So, how did I overcome the dilemma of finding places to hike near our home?

Study Nature as You Travel This Summer – If you are planning a trip to a natural area to enjoy the outdoors, you may want to include nature study for your summer travel plans. Implement some of the ideas below to enhance your outdoor time.

FUN Summer Nature Study Photo Challenge! Enjoy a fun summer nature study photo challenge plus first day of summer ideas! I don’t know about you but I’m so very ready for the summer season! The most noticeable change is the amount of daylight. The sun is up early and it lingers in the evenings.

Beautiful Lupine Wildflower Nature Study – Enjoy a beautiful lupine wildflower nature study for your homeschool! Don’t miss the free lupine resource download and the free event!

Creating a Nature Journal Supply Kit for Your Homeschool – Here are some tips for creating a nature journal supply kit for your homeschool. It is simple, inexpensive and is easy to do!

More Nature Study Resources for Summer Fun

Keeping a Nature Journal ReviewKeeping a Nature Journal is a great homeschool nature study resource and contains a wealth of ideas that you can pick and choose to use as inspiration. This book is a tool like so many other tools we use in our family’s nature study.

Using the Public Library to Enhance Your Nature Study – You don’t need to spend lots of money building a library of nature literature. Using the public library as a source of books is easy and fun.

June Nature Study Activities in Membership

For even more homeschool nature study ideas, join us in Homeschool Nature Study membership! You’ll receive new ideas each and every week that require little or no prep – all bringing the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool!

Enjoy all of these and more in homeschool nature study membership:

  • Summer Senses
  • Mosquitoes
  • Summer Tree Observations
  • Summer Weather Observations
  • Bats
  • First Day of Summer Notebook Page
  • Fun Summer Photo Challenge
  • Monarch Butterfly Study
Nasturtiums! We went to our local garden store to search for them, and then worked in our nature journals at a nearby park. @amy.law

Have you subscribed to our Homeschool Nature Study YouTube channel?

  • Turtle and Pondweed Study
  • Mouse Study
  • Yellow Jacket and Mud Dauber
  • Owl
  • Mountain Laurel
  • Sunflower and other garden flowers
  • Raccoons and Skunks
  • Spectacular Night Sky Nature Study Ideas! (with a free printable)
  • and much more!

Plus a New June Outdoor Mom Post and a June Nature Craft!

These fun Outdoor Mom and Nature Craft activities are for our annual Homeschool Nature Study members! We invite you to join the family summer fun!

Nature Crafts for Kids: Boat

Victoria shares this really fun nature craft! “Summer is nearly upon us but the odd rain shower still hangs around, so now is the best time to make these little nature boats. Float them on a puddle after a summer rainfall, send them drifting across a pond or sailing down stream. these little nature boats will bring copious amounts of joy to a summers day.”

How to Make a Dandelion Crown: Nature Crafts for Kids

How to Make a Dandelion Crown Nature Craft

We are weeks away from Summer and the hedgerows and fields are glowing with dandelions, so now is the time to make dandelion crowns. One of the best uses for dandelions (there are MANY) is to create bright golden crowns to adorn our heads.

June Homeschool Outdoor Mom activities! So this summer I want to encourage you to take lots of walks. Eat lots of picnics outdoors. Take your shoes off and paddle in cool streams with your children and lie down in flower-filled meadows looking up at the blue skies and finding shapes in the clouds. Take time to plan a long, slow, purposeful summer with your families.

The Outdoor Homeschool Mom in June

This June, be encouraged by Shirley with all of her lovely Outdoor Mom prompts! Shirley shares, “So this summer I want to encourage you to take lots of walks. Eat lots of picnics outdoors. Take your shoes off and paddle in cool streams with your children. Lie down in flower-filled meadows looking up at the blue skies and find shapes in the clouds. Take time to plan a long, slow, purposeful summer with your families.”

Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!

These June nature study activities are a perfect way to kick off summer learning in your homeschool.

Tricia and her family fell in love with the Handbook of Nature Study and the accompanying Outdoor Hour Challenges early in their homeschooling. The simplicity and ease of the weekly outdoor hour challenges brought joy to their homeschool and opened their eyes to the world right out their own back door! She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at You ARE an ARTiST and Your Best Homeschool plus her favorite curricula at The Curriculum Choice.

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Beautiful Easter Nature Studies For Kids

With signs of spring upon us, enjoy these beautiful Easter nature studies for kids. A fun and hands-on way to celebrate the resurrection story.

With signs of spring upon us, enjoy these beautiful Easter nature studies for kids. A fun and hands-on way to celebrate the resurrection story.
Photo by Amy Law

Beautiful Easter Nature Studies For Kids

Why not spend these weeks leading up to Easter with some joyful activities which point to The Savior?

With signs of spring upon us, enjoy these beautiful Easter nature studies for kids. A fun and hands-on way to celebrate the resurrection story.
Lenten Countdown Calendar by Nature Illustrator, Victoria Vels

Lovely Lent Countdown Printable

Begin with a lovely reminder of the Lenten season. Countdown to Resurrection morning with this member printable calendar complete with nature prompts by our Nature Illustrator and Crafts Editor, Victoria Vels.

With signs of spring upon us, enjoy these beautiful Easter nature studies for kids. A fun and hands-on way to celebrate the resurrection story.
Photo by Amy Law

Easter Lily Nature Study for Your Outdoor Hour Challenge

Outdoor Hour hostess, Shirley Vels, shares, “during the Easter season, churches and homes are adorned with gorgeous, fragrant Easter lilies. But why? Why have these flowers become synonymous with Easter?”

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

Luke 12: 27

Also grow a mini egg shell garden and learn about seed germination! Make an edible Easter lily dessert and make paper lilies too. All available now in your Spring Course in Homeschool Nature Study membership.

Make a Resurrection Terrarium - Homeschool Nature Study Nature Crafts

Easter Craft – Make a Resurrection Garden

Just some simple supplies but plenty of discussion can happen while making it. Victoria is leading our members in creating your very own Resurrection Garden for her continuing Nature Crafts series.

Easter Lily Art Lesson

What a beautiful symbol of the Easter season – the lily! Enjoy this art lesson from our sister site, You ARE an ARTiST, included in the Easter Lily Nature Study in membership.

Julie shares, “Easter seems to come up suddenly. Maybe it’s because Easter weekend moves around the calendar, or maybe because it is preceded by Lent which is more solemn.

I decided I wanted to spend as much time anticipating the Resurrection with my children as we did the Incarnation. Both are beautiful events in our faith. Both bring a sense of wonder and awe. The Resurrection is special because it shows “God with us,” and God victorious for us!” Draw Your Way Through the Resurrection Story

Begin with a lovely reminder of the Lenten season. Countdown to Resurrection morning with this member printable calendar complete with nature prompts by our Nature Illustrator and Crafts Editor, Victoria Vels.

More Spring and Easter Activities for Your Homeschool

Here are even more spring and Easter activities for your homeschool:

Easter and Spring Nature Studies in Homeschool Nature Study Membership

Join us for even more homeschool nature studies this spring! With a new nature study each week plus a nature study calendar with daily prompts, you will have joyful learning leading all the way to summer!

With signs of spring upon us, enjoy these beautiful Easter nature studies for kids. A fun and hands-on way to celebrate the resurrection story.

Tricia and her family fell in love with the Handbook of Nature Study and the accompanying Outdoor Hour Challenges early in their homeschooling. The simplicity and ease of the weekly outdoor hour challenges brought joy to their homeschool and opened their eyes to the world right out their own back door! She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at You ARE an ARTiST and Your Best Homeschool plus her favorite curricula at The Curriculum Choice.

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Turkey Homeschool Nature Study Activities for November

“The gobbler is the most vainglorious bird known to us; when he struts to show his flock of admiring hens how beautiful he is, he lowers his wings and spreads the stiff primary quills until their tips scrape the ground, lifting meanwhile into a semi-circular fan his beautiful tail feathers, he protrudes his chest, and raises the iridescent plumage of his neck like a ruff to make a background against which he throws back his red, white, and blue decorated head.”

Handbook of Nature Study
This turkey homeschool nature study includes fun activities and a free printable - everything you need for fall learning.

Fun Turkey Homeschool Nature Study Ideas

Wild turkeys are a funny bunch of birds. Homeschool Nature Study founder Barb McCoy says, “we lived in California, many times we saw turkeys in the woods and sometimes trotting down the back roads. They make a funny sound as they move through the trees and poke around on the ground for tidbits to eat.  Then, if you get lucky, you’ll see the male turkey strutting his stuff and displaying his beautiful tail feathers!

This turkey homeschool nature study includes fun activities and a free printable - everything you need for fall learning.

Homeschool Bird Study – Turkeys

If you have a wild turkey or even a domestic turkey to observe, you’ll enjoy the suggestions in the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study.  Another suggestion is to watch the videos in the original challenge to get a taste of what turkeys are all about and then read the Handbook of Nature Study lesson and finish with a nature journal page with your children.”

The full turkey homeschool nature study and a turkey notebooking page is included in membership – along with all the fun, fall favorite topics and a member calendar filled with daily nature study prompts!

November Homeschool Nature Study Activities

November Homeschool Nature Study Activities

Before the whole month of November slips away, let’s make time to observe what nature is doing at this time of year. Start off by completing the reading of pages 1 and 2 in the Handbook of Nature Study as a refresher.

Take a few minutes to think about how keeping a regular nature study period each week has benefited your family. Ask your children what they have learned so far this autumn season about the birds, insects, and plants in your neighborhood.

November Homeschool Nature Study Outdoor Hour Challenges

Members can browse the November Outdoor Hour Challenges! Pine cone science, a year long brook study and more

leaf prints homeschool nature study craft

Victoria says, “As autumn gets into full swing, what better way to mark the change of seasons than with these super simple leaf prints. We are heading into that period of autumn where the leaves are on the cusp of igniting into rich shades of red and orange. Here in the UK, we usually have about a week of vibrancy before one strong wind comes along and blows all the colour to the ground. So it is best to capture its beauty while we can.”

Let this give you encouragement to keep participating in the Outdoor Hour Challenge as the weather turns colder and wetter.

Follow up your Outdoor Hour Challenge turkey time with a Turkey Walk with Chalk in Turkey Art Activities.

Free Your November World Printable Journal Page

your November World homeschool nature study

Use the ideas in this challenge to get outside and find something of interest to note about your November World. Complete the notebook page in the Autumn Course included in membership or create a page in your own blank journal.

Get Your November World Notebook Page!

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    More Fall Homeschool Nature Study and Homeschool Ideas

    Here are even more ideas for your November homeschool:

    November is such a month of change and transition…don’t miss getting outside to view it for yourselves! Be sure to share your outdoor time on social media and tag @outdoorhourchallenge on Instagram or Outdoor Hour Challenges too!

    This turkey homeschool nature study includes fun activities and a free printable - everything you need for fall learning.

    Tricia and her family fell in love with the Handbook of Nature Study and the accompanying Outdoor Hour Challenges early in their homeschooling. The simplicity and ease of the weekly outdoor hour challenges brought joy to their homeschool and opened their eyes to the world right out their own back door! She shares the art and heart of homeschooling at You ARE an ARTiST and Your Best Homeschool plus her favorite curricula at The Curriculum Choice.