Here is an updated collage of photos from my “wildside”. There were lots of insects this time to observe and the different grasses are so diverse in their growing and the way they make seeds. Some are like velcro and some look almost like wheat. Some are red and some are green or almost yellow.
I am finding this project very satisfying.
Enjoy!
If you are interested, here are the other two posts in this series:
“The teacher may judge as to her own progress in nature study by the length of time she is glad to spend in reading from nature’s book what is therein written. As she progresses, she finds those hours spent in studying nature speed faster, until a day thus spent seems but an hour.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 7
Everyday now we spend more and more time outdoors in various activities. The sunny skies and warmer temperatures have beckoned us outside to be refreshed and inspired. Nothing like soaking up a little sun in between schoolwork and housework.
Mr. A has become my personal gardener in exchange for some pocket money. I gladly have turned over my weeding and pruning duties to him and he is rather good at making the yard look especially nice. Now I can spend my time doing the more enjoyable tasks in the garden, knowing the weeds will not be ankle deep if I ignore them.
Mr. B and I take a “tour of the garden” during our morning break and each time we find something new and interesting. Yesterday we noticed the columbine is blooming, the day before that we took time to notice the strawberry bed and its multitude of little berries, and before that we watched the bees in the lavender. Just a few minutes outdoors, nothing earth shattering but still refreshing nonetheless.
I have been keeping close watch on my “wild side“. I had to negotiate with my hubby again to keep my little strip of wildness on the side of our house. He agreed that it was an interesting experiment and granted my wish.
Here are some photos from yesterday.
1. Wild Side 1, 2. Wild Side 2, 3. Yellow flower in the Wild side, 4. Pink flower in the Wild Side, 5. Flower gone to see in the Wild Side, 6. Blue flower in the Wild Side, 7. Awesome leaves in the Wild Side, 8. Bleeding hearts in the Wild Side
Looking closer, I am finding a huge variety of living things right there on the side of my house.
Tomorrow I will post our cattail entry….waiting on finishing our notebook pages.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #4 Dandelions
Inside Preparation Work:
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study about dandelions on pages 531-535. After reading the suggestions on pages 543 and 535, choose several ideas from the lesson to complete during your Outdoor Hour Time.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week in your own backyard or a near-by park. As you walk along, keep your eyes out for dandelions.
Follow-Up Activities:
Take some time to draw the dandelion in your nature journal or complete the notebook page from the Spring Series ebook. Make sure to record your observations of the dandelion and make a sketch of the leaf and flower. If you would like to see our sample study of a dandelion in our backyard, here is the LINK.
Composite Flowers-Supplement to the Study of a Dandelion
The dandelion is a composite flower and the Handbook of Nature Study has a section to explain just what that means.
“Many plants have their flowers set close together and thus make a mass of color, like the geraniums or the clovers. But there are other plants where there are different kinds of flowers in one head, those at the center doing a certain kind of work for the production of seed, and those around the edges, doing another kind of work. The sunflower, goldenrod, asters, daisies, coneflower, thistle, dandelion, burdock, everlasting, and many other common flowers have their blossoms arranged in this way.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 503
If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one book, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the winter months as well. Please see this entry for more details:
Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation
We have a section of our yard that I like to keep sort of wild just to see what will happen there. It borders our neighbor’s yard and sometimes he gets a little zealous and mows the “weeds” down. He doesn’t see the beauty in dandelions, Queen Anne’s Lace, Spring Beauty, Chickweed, and California Poppies. Well, maybe he enjoys the poppies, but it is nearly impossible to mow without cutting them all down.
I had a chance to get out there and make some close observations, capturing some of the flowers and plants before our neighbor gets back from his vacation and gets antsy to mow.
1. Blackberry vines, 2. Wildflowers Spring Beauty, 3. Wild grasses 1, 4. California Poppy, 5. Close Up Dandelion, 6. Wild grasses 2, 7. Widlflowers yellow, 8. Wildflowers blue, 9. Wild side
If you have a spot in your yard that you can let the “weeds” grow, I highly recommend taking the time to check out what you have right there in your own yard.
Amazing stuff.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Before all our rain and snow, we had the opportunity to visit one of our favorite spots on the river.
We chose the Long Valley Trail this time which is a little less than two miles down to the river. It is a long sloping walk so it is very enjoyable even on a chilly, hazy day.
The first thing we noticed was that their were many brown cattails along the trail where there is a little creek running. Of course we had to stop and take a look.
You see right where the water runs because the cattails are growing along the edges of the creek.
About half-way to the river, there is an old homestead with some lovely old oaks. The tree swallows were swarming in the tops of the trees and we enjoyed stopping to watch them and listen for a few minutes. I love the silhouettes of the winter oaks.
The greens and reds on this rock caught my attention and I loved the composition of the various mosses, lichens, and plants growing together on the rock. Very pretty.
Once we reached the river, the kids and our dog were all off and running. Some climbed rocks, some skipped rocks on the water, the dog went swimming for sticks and I spent some time enjoying the reflections and ripples in this little eddy off the main part of the river.
How do these trees grow so large out of the middle of a huge rock? Perseverance.
Eventually we all sat at the river’s edge and watched the water flow by on its way down the mountain. This is the American River where gold was discovered in 1848. We all joke about someday finding a gold nugget along the edge but for now we are content to marvel at all the different types of rock found all together in one spot.
One last photo to share of our day. Winter weeds can be quite lovely if you really take a look at them. I found these growing on the edge of the water and with the nice backdrop, it makes for a nice photo.
Well, there are a few of our experiences from last weekend. What started out as a chilly, dreary day turned out to be quite refreshing. We headed home hungry so I was glad I had planned a big spaghetti dinner.
If you are looking for some winter nature study ideas, you may want to check out the entry I wrote last year giving some simple ideas for winter nature study…most indoors.
Mullein-Handbook of Nature Study page 537-539
“This felt on the mullein is beautiful when looked at through the microscope; it consists of a fretwork of little, white, sharp spikes…..I soon discovered another means by which the mullein resists drought, when I tried to dig up the plant with a stick; I followed its taproot down far enough to understand that it was a subsoiler and reached below most other plants for moisture and food.”
HNS, page 537
This is the first time I have left the mullein in the flower bed. I am curious to see just how large it will get and I am anxious for the boys to study the flower stalk once it starts to blossom.
I think I am beginning to see the value of learning about a plant *before* it blooms so we will be vigilantly watching its progress. We read through the information in the Handbook of Nature Study. We had already experienced the long tap root when we were pulling it out of the pathway a few days ago. I would say that the root was about two feet long and at the top it looked like the shape of a carrot. The plants we left in the bed are growing like crazy!
That was our flower this week, now you can pick your flower and see if you can be prepared for your next flower study. 🙂 We have three more flowers we want to study before we finish with Wednesday Flower Study day. You can join us any time you want to, with any flower you want to. You do not need to study the same flower we are if you don’t want to.
This week we studied the dandelion. This cheerful flower/weed is found all over our yard and our neighbor has a whole crop of dandelions for us to study.
Here are some interesting facts we found out about the dandelion.
*In the sunflower family-No wonder I think they are happy little flowers.
*Grows from 2″ to 20″ tall.
*It has a hollow stalk.
*Common name comes from “dent de lion” which is French for “lion’s tooth”, referring to the teeth on the leaves.
*The flowers open and close.
You must read the introductory pages to the dandelion study starting on page 531 of the Handbook of Nature Study. Anna Botsford Comstock writes in such a narrative style that you will enjoy reading the information and I am sure you will remember much of it to share with your children.
“Professor Baily once said that dandelions in his lawn were a great trouble to him until he learned to love them, and then the sight of them gave him keenest pleasure.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 531
I couldn’t agree more. I always hate it when my neighbors use the weed eater to remove the thousands of dandelions from their property. I would much rather look at the cheerful yellow flowers than a bare piece of ground.
The Handbook of Nature Study has a great list of activities in the lesson for the dandelion.
Here are a few that we complete:
3. Sketch or describe a dandelion leaf.
4. Take a blossom not yet open. Note the bracts that cover the unopened flower head.
7. Note what hour the dandelions on the lawn close and at what hour they open on pleasant days.
We were able to work on all three of these ideas in our study today.
Here are the bracts covering the petals before the bloom opens.
Really short dandelion that practically is blooming flat on the ground…interesting how some are tall and some are not.
You can really see the “lion’s teeth” in this photo. 🙂
Another garden flower/weed is now recorded in our nature journals.
I think next week we will work on the tulips in our yard that are just starting to really bloom.
If you would like to join us, see the instructions in this entry: Wednesday Flower Study.
Our Winter Wednesday – Winter Weed Study
We really enjoyed our Discover Nature in Winter reading in the chapter about winter weeds. It is a totally new topic of nature study for us. I feel like we are just getting our feet wet this year and as the years go by, we will be able to observe more subjects. I gathered a few of our photos from recent walks here at the beginning of the entry.
The one thing that the boys noticed about the winter weeds that we observed is that during this season it is not the flower we are looking at but rather the seeds.
We discussed how the seeds were important at this time of year as food for many of the animals that inhabit the area. We also talked about how the rain and the snow knock the weeds over and as they lay on the ground, they are dispersing their seeds in that way as well.
I hope that we remember to look at these particular plants in the summer to compare the differences. It would make a great nature journal entry.
These last photos are from yesterday’s family hike. We took a couple of hours to hike along the American River which was just roaring! It was the first time that all six of us were out on the trail together in a very long time.I told my husband as we hiked along that it was great to have us all spending time in the fresh air and I relished the conversations and relationships that the kids have with one another.
Here are a few of the weeds we saw as we hiked along.
It was such a great afternoon and as always, with any trip to the river, there was eventually rock skipping….so many lovely rocks to choose from.
How about a wildflower photo from the day?
I love a good purple wildflower photo. 🙂
One last treat from the day…..
A beaver dam!
I am so glad that I organized the Winter Wednesday activities. It has given our family a new perspective on the winter season and another reason to get outside and enjoy the day together.
Winter Wednesday
Week 6 Winter Weeds
1. Read chapter six in Discover Nature in Winter
. For wildflower lovers, this is a fantastic and interesting chapter. As your read through the pages, highlight or mark in the margins the plants that you are already aware of that have grown in your area. Queen Anne’s Lace, goldenrod, yarrow, mustard, mullein, and many more are illustrated in this chapter. It might be fun to use the illustrations as the basis for some nature journal entries as well. There is also a whole glossary of botanical terms that are explained and illustrated on pages 106-108.
2. Our family is going to use the chapter illustrations as well as the section, “Clues to Identification”, to find some winter weeds in our area. We have already gathered a few winter weeds to display in a vase on our nature table.
“ From October to April, the dried flower stalks, withered leaves, and seedpods give some clues as to the plants’ identity. “
For families wanting to participate that do not have the Discover Winter in Nature book, I will list a few simple nature study ideas that you can try with your family.
1. Collect a variety of seeds from weeds in your local area and sketch them in your nature journal.
2. Gather a few varieties of weeds and display them in a vase.
Have a great Winter Wednesday….or Thursday or Friday or whatever day.
“A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 512
This week as I was watering the garden and flower beds, I spent some time thinking about weeds. The boys and I discussed the definition of a weed and how our yard is filled with plants that we call weeds that others might actually cultivate in their gardens. The unidentified weed above is growing alongside a few things I planted and it has proven to be healthier and more prolific than anything I intended to grow.
The definition of a weed and a plant in my yard come dangerously close. If the plant has some redeeming value like a pretty leaf or a pretty flower or a colorful berry, I sometimes leave it in the ground.
The unidentified plant from above looks like it is covered in beads to me and it is hard to really call it a weed but since it is growing in my flower bed where I didn’t plant it….it is a weed although I left it again this week and didn’t pull it out.
This beauty of a weed actually is growing in the gravel along my walkway. It is so green when most of my yard is turning brown already. It has a delicate white flower with a little yellow trumpet center. The leaves are a pretty shape. I left it in the ground too.
This weed is found all over my yard. It has the softest velvet leaves. I hate to pull it out…so I don’t. It is actually easier to pull it up when it is larger so leaving it in the ground really is a timesaver in the long run.
This blackberry vine is creeping under the fence from our neighbor’s yard. We have a constant battle with blackberry vines. I do have two places that I let them grow in the corners of the front yard so I can harvest a couple dessert’s worth of berries each summer. My husband whacks the vines as soon as he sees them. My husband considers this a “weed”.
This little tiny red berry is on a creeping plant under my crepe myrtle. I have spent a lot of time pulling it up but decided it can just stay. It is no longer considered a weed but a ground cover. (See the tiny mimosa trees also growing among the rocks? More on mimosas below.)
Right now, the plant shown above is my biggest “weed” in the garden and lawn. Tiny little mimosa trees are growing *everywhere*. We cut down a huge mimosa tree earlier this year but the seeds from the leftover seed pods are sprouting by the hundreds, if not thousands. I was making progress pulling them up by making it a goal to weed out fifty seedlings a day but I grew tired of the chore and now they are everywhere again. I need to get back to working on them a little every day. My point is that some people might consider a mimosa a great tree in their yard and actually encourage its growth but for our family the mimosas have to go and so they are considered a “weed”.
For more information on the weeds and seeds challenge, here is a link.
