The weather is beautiful and the schedule is light, so we joined some friends to explore their backyard inspired by the One Small Square--Backyard book.

Here are some of the specimens we found in the square and on a nature walk afterwards

The Stokes guide is a wonderful resource. It is small, so it is easily carried; yet despite its conciseness, I have easily found every bird I have seen in our yard. It has them arranged by color, which really simplifies identification.

The bird feeder with the one-way glass is back in our living room window. We have had many of the common visitors we love return again.

Earlier in the season we had a pair of goldfinches:

Yes, I dusted off the Handbook of Nature Study and actually put it to use.  I thought the section on trees would be the easiest place to start, having a deciduous woodland in our back yard.  She describes how to make leaf prints using printer's ink and rubber rollers, neither of which I have.  I do, however, have washable black paint and a sponger roller brush, so I sent the kids into the woods to collect a variety of leaves so we could give it a try.

Note the crystal cake stand as our inking glass (after I cleaned the dust off it.)  I suppose you could use a glass cutting board as well.  First roll the paint onto the glass.  I thinned the paint a little; it actually works better on the thicker side.  I used a defective bottle of Tuxedo Black paint--more like teal green, eh?

Put the leaf/leaves on the inked glass and then roll ink onto the leaves.

Carefully remove the leaves and place them onto a sheet of white paper--we used bright white heavy weight (28) printing paper.  Be careful to have the leaf land without wrinkles so you don't have to adjust it and smear the paint (this was difficult.)

Place another paper on top of the leaves and run a roller once over the leaves.  I used a pizza roller to do this, though a rolling pin would probably by fine, too.

Lift the sheet, remove the leaves, and you have two sets of prints!

After three kids each take their turns, you have lots and lots of prints:

I think I'll have ds#3 find the matching prints.  I will hole-punch them and put them into a nature notebook.  We're off to a great start!

Until this point, I was always under the impression that Charlotte Mason's Nature Study was all about the nature journal.  Go out, draw specimens, find out about it.  It may be, I have to look at her writings more carefully to see.  We have done very little of this because, well, sitting and drawing is not really congruent with my sons' natures.

Browse many of the Charlotte Mason blog carnival articles about Nature Studies any you will see few sketches.  It's all about studying nature in a variety of ways, ways that would certainly spark three active boys' imaginations.

We have been reading a lot of wonderful, inspiring, and informative living books, but I am a hands-on science gal.  It is high time to get the boots on, the Handbook of Nature Studies out, and hit the woods!