Tag: Summer Seasonal Observations

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Homeschool Nature Study: Free Notebook Page For The Last Days of Summer

Enjoy a last days of summer homeschool nature study free notebook page. Let’s soak up these last sunny and glorious days, have fun and make memories together as a family.

Backyard Garden Retreat
I am still working in the garden…picking beans and watering.

Many of you have gone back to school already but we need to remember that it is still officially summer until September 23. There is still time to get outside and do a few more summer activities, making some family memories.

I made up a notebook page for you to download to remember to have some fun while the summer weather is still around.

Summer Lake Fun
The boys have convinced us to go to the lake a few more times to wakeboard.

I am not ready to give up on summer yet! My boys are ready to hit the lake a few more times and we are going camping and hiking too.

Last Days of Summer Homeschool Nature Study Free Notebook Page

Homeschool Nature Study members already have this page in your Summer Outdoor Hour Curriculum course. Not yet a member? You can download the notebook page, below and sample the Outdoor Hour Challenges:

Get Your Last Days of Summer Notebook Page!

Subscribe to get your free Last Days of Summer Notebook page.

    We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

    Have fun!

    More Family-Style Summer Homeschool Nature Study

    You might also like these fun ways to enjoy summer homeschool nature study:

    As we also look forward to autumn nature study and all the joys of nature study for your homeschool year.

    For even more homeschool nature study ideas for all seasons, 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!

    Join Homeschool Nature Study Membership Today!

    Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!

    First shared by Barb August 2011 and updated by Tricia August 2022

    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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    Summer Seasonal Nature Study Reminders

    Year Long Nature Study Summer Reminders

    Seasonal Topics – Summer Reminders

    It is that time of year again! Time to plan a few seasonal observations….and get outdoors with your family! I make it easy with the printable notebook pages that go along with these year long nature study ideas. Pick one and get started or take a few minutes to make the summer observations happen before we run out of summer.

    If you have a continuing year-long nature study project, don’t forget to put it on your calendar or you may forget to make your autumn observations.

    Enjoy your summer activities and share your comments or links in this post and I will come over and check it out.

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    Year-Long Study Reminders – Summer Edition

    Year Long Nature Study Summer Reminders

    Seasonal Topics – Summer Reminders

    Here are some ideas from year-long nature study topics we have done in the past:

    You may wish to start a new year-long study this spring using some of the ideas above. If you have a continuing year-long nature study project, don’t forget to put it on your calendar or you may forget to make your autumn observations.

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    First Day of Summer – Nature Study

    First Day of Summer Nature Fun @handbookofnaturestudy

    Summer time brings a more relaxed rhythm to most of our family life. That doesn’t mean we can’t still be including some outdoor nature study time with our children. It can be as simple as taking a walk and asking them to look for three interesting things or to take a picnic lunch outside to eat under your backyard tree. Weaving in some family time outside together is a valuable part of any summer bucket list and it takes just a little effort on our part.

    Here are some fun First Day of Summer nature study ideas for you to keep in mind for next week. Be sure to mark your calendar!

    Summer starts on June 21, 2014!

    1. Camp out in your backyard: Since the first day of summer lands on a Saturday this year, plan a sleep out in your own backyard. Spend some of your evening gazing at stars, listening to insects, or take a flashlight walk.

    2. First Day of Summer Flower Field Trip: Take a trip to your local garden nursery and let you child pick a plant to add to your backyard garden or patio container garden. After you plant your flower, sketch it into your nature journal along with the name of the flower and the date you planted it. You can combine this activity with this Garden Flower Nursery Field Trip ideas and printable.

    3. Twilight at the Zoo: Many zoos have an evening option during this time of year. Check their calendar of events to see if your zoo has a special event for the first day of summer.

    For other first day of summer activities from the archives, see this entry: First Day of Summer 2012.  This entry has several easy ideas along with printable pages for you to use with your family.

    Share you First Day of Summer 2014 activities with the up-coming blog carnival!

     

    Don’t forget that the Great Backyard Campout event will be on 6/28/14 this year. You will find lots of nature study related activities in my entry: Great Backyard Campout-Nature Study Style.

     

     

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    Outdoor Hour Challenge – Summer Tree Fun

    Summer Tree Study @handbookofnaturestudy

    Outdoor Hour Challenge: Summer Tree or a Continuing Year-Long Tree Study

    Use the ideas in this challenge from the archives (Summer Series 2010) to take a look at a tree in the summer season: Summer Tree Observations. 

    This challenge helps you use all of your senses to really get to know a tree in your yard or neighborhood.

    Special Activity: Tree Projects

    Four+Seasons+Tree+Project+button.jpg

    Four Seasons Photo Project – Use the ideas and printables in this challenge to start or continue your Four Seasons Photo Project.

    A Year Long Tree Study – This post includes lots of tree study ideas for each season.

    Getting Started Suggestion:

    If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #5. Take the opportunity this week/month to start a running list of trees in your local area. Keep a list in your nature journal or use the notebooking page in the ebook to get started with this long-term project (in the back of the ebook). 

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    OHC Blog Carnival

    You are welcome to submit any of you blog Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Entries for the current month are due on 6/29/14.

    Please note this entry includes Amazon affiliate links.

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    Outdoor Hour Challenge – Seasonal Weather: Photo and Picnic


    Outdoor Hour Challenge:
    This week spend your outdoor time enjoying the daily weather. Keep track of your weather for a week, recording the temperature, rainfall, etc. You can use any of the free printables on my Freebies Page. Look there for the seasonal weather pages and the weather chart.

    You can also use any of the Seasonal Weather Challenges from the past that are appropriate for your time of the year:

    Printable Notebook Page: 
    During your seasonal weather observations, take a photo of something that shows your current weather conditions. Better yet, let your children take the images and then print them out for a personalized nature journal entry. This can be done in each season and recorded in your nature journal’s seasonal section.

    Printable Notebook Page:My Seasonal Weather.

    Getting Started Suggestion:
    If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #10.  I realize that this is a cold time of year (or hot for you Southern Hemisphere folks)  for many of you but there are ways to make a “picnic” happen even if you just drive in the car, park under a tree, and enjoy some sandwiches and hot cocoa. Get creative! If you have a picnic, make sure to take a photo to include in your nature journal. I will challenge myself to taking a picnic in the next few weeks with my family and I will post our experiences here on the blog. 

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    Outdoor Hour Challenge – Weather Walk and Free Printables


    Outdoor Hour Challenge:
    This week’s challenge kicks off our weather study for the month. Keep your outdoor time very casual and open-ended by just taking a short walk together, noting your weather conditions. You can combine this week’s challenge with a seasonal tree study (printables available)or you can find something for your winter nature table. You will find nature table ideas in the December 2012 newsletter.

    The most important aspect of  this week’s challenge is to get outside! Fifteen minutes is not too long for anyone…no matter the conditions. Dress appropriately, have a positive attitude, and watch the magic happen.

    Printable Notebook Page
    The Four Seasons-In My World: This week the Outdoor Hour Challenge extra activity is another printable for you to use as part of your weather study. Use this page to record the exact dates of each of your seasons, depending on which hemisphere you live in. Discuss with your children how each of the seasons is a little different and have them draw a scene from their favorite season for their nature journal.

     

    Bonus Printable Notebook Pages
    December World Notebook Page
    Winter Nature Walk from Hearts and Trees

    Getting Started Suggestion:
    If you already own the Getting Started ebook, turn to Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. Use the ideas there for an open-ended time outdoors this week following your child’s lead. Casually mention the weather and you can discuss the seasons after you come back indoors. Complete the accompanying notebook page if your child has interest.

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    Monsoon Moisture – Our Summer Weather Study

    Monsoon moisture July 2012
    I captured this image of the clouds at sunset last night coming in off the lake. Gorgeous!

    Summer in our part of Northern California is HOT and DRY!

    But, occasionally we get the weather phenomenon called “monsoon moisture” which really means that the storms come from the Gulf of California and are tropical in nature, reaching up into the mountains of Northern California with moisture and thunderstorms. (That is my very non-technical explanation of monsoon moisture.) We are going to be using this topic as the advanced study portion of the Summer Weather Challenge.

    Mr B with rock tufa at Mono Lake
    Monsoon Moisture in the eastern Sierra Nevada at Mono Lake 2006

    When this happens, we see quite an interesting buffet of weather activity:
    1. Scattered afternoon thunderstorms
    2. Down pours of rain
    3. Gusty high winds
    4. Beautiful clouds (especially at sunset)
    5. Increased fire danger because of the chance of dry lightning (no rain)

    After an monsoon weather event, the air is sticky with warm moist air. The plants and trees are refreshed, the dry leaves swept away, and the air just smells so nice and fresh.

    Reflecting windows and blue sky Bodie
    Monsoon Moisture – Bodie State Park,  Eastern Sierra Nevada 2006. We got very wet in the rainstorm that came shortly after taking this photo!

    We had such an even last night which will give us an account to share as part of the Summer Weather Challenge in the More Nature Study series. It was really hot at bedtime so we decided to sleep out on the back deck under the stars. It started off fairly innocently with a few wisps of clouds slowly moving across the sky blocking out the stars. Then the wind started to gust and the first flashes of lightning came quickly one after the other. The rumble of the thunder was in the distance. No problem my husband said…he thought it was just going to be a dry lightning event where there is no rain associated with the storm.

    Boy, was he wrong!

    By 11 PM the lightning, thunder, wind, and rain hit with full force. The wind chimes were ringing constantly and we decided we better give up the idea of sleeping outside. This kind of weather is fairly normal for our area in the summer and we have a couple of these storms usually in July or August. What turned this into an unusual event was the length of the storm. We still were having lightning, thunder, wind, and rain until at least 4 AM. It was a restless night for all of us as we kept getting up to peer out the windows and doors at the awesome display of power in this storm.

    July bouquet
    The garden still had plenty of beautiful flowers for a bouquet this morning.

    The power went out for a short time but all in all there was little other inconvenience from the storm. Today the sun rose and warmed the air and made us all feel welcome. The windows were opened and the fans turned on to drive away the humidity a bit.

    Right on time for our Summer Weather Challenge!

    Here are a few of our other summer weather entries:
    Summer Weather 2011 – Can You Say HOT?
    Summer Weather Sunrise/Sunset Observations 2010

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    First Day of Summer 2012 – Get Outdoors Ideas

    Join us for a First Day of Summer activity!

    New Idea for 2012: First Day of Summer Photo Walk – take a camera outdoors and find some special First Day of Summer subjects, take a photo, print a few out, safely tuck them into your nature journal. You can combine this with the Summer Photo Challenge if you want and post your photo on the Pinterest board.

    First Day of Summer notebook page

    First Day of Summer notebook page – done after a nature walk, preferably under a shade tree with some fresh lemonade in hand.

    Summer Nature Walk – Using Your Senses – take this one along with you on a nature walk, try to get outside early! Thanks Hearts and Trees!

    Additional Links:
    National Geographic: Find out why summer starts today and why it’s the longest day of the year-but not necessarily the hottest.

     

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    Summer Weather Observations 2011 – Can You Say HOT?

    As part of the July Newsletter Summer Weather Challenge, we looked back to the Summer Series Weather Observation Challenge from last year.

    Roses Summer
    Our roses love the heat and this is our Disneyland Rose…sweet fragrance.

    July weather is always hot but this year we have had alternating weeks of HOT and then cooling off to the 80’s. It makes for a nice mix of summer weather. The garden likes the heat but once the temperatures heat up we need to water our garden everyday. We don’t get much in the way of rain in the months of July and August and our heat does not bring any humidity with it.

    Mullein Summer
    The mullein this year is really TALL.

    The nights are cool so we can expect to have cool breezes sometime in the night that are our natural air conditioning. We do most of our cooking outdoors this time of year, either on the grill or our outdoor oven. This keeps the kitchen cooler and we don’t have to run the a/c.

    Front Yard Butterfly Bush and Yarrow Summer
    The yarrow, lavender, and butterfly bushes are full of bees.

    We decided to complete these two activities from last year’s challenge:

    • 1. Use some of your outdoor time to take temperature readings on your thermometer at sunrise (or early morning), noon, and then again at sunset. Record these temperatures, making comparisons. You can also use your outdoor time to use the suggested observations using your senses as noted in the box above.
    • 2. Get up early and watch the sunrise. Note the place where the sunrises by observing something on the horizon such as a tree, a building, a mountain, or something else that can serve as a landmark for the sunrise. Do the same thing at sundown, finding a landmark to note.

    Here are our statistics.
    6 AM 59 degrees and 76% humidity
    Noon 74 degrees and 52% humidity
    4 PM 83 degrees and 32% humidity

    Sunrise at 5:53 AM and Sunset at 8:25 PM

    Don’t forget to make your own Summer Weather Observations and submit your entry to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.