This beautiful Coopers Hawk spent several afternoons on the fenceline. He wasn't at all concerned with our presence. He knew we were there. He turned his head and checked us out every once in awhile. The kids really enjoyed observing him and the way he surveyed his territory. We decided to skip piano practice and study up on hawks while we had this speciman in our midst. The kids wanted to find out all about hawks and were excited to delve into this.

      Then they found out that his favorite food was song birds. My middle child's heart was saddened by this. After our study was completed the kids went out to shovel the driveway. My son came barreling back into the house and gleefully announced that there were feathers all over the driveway. He wanted a bag for a "collection".

      My daughter came in sadly and went to the window. The hawk was gone. She shook her head and said, "Well I guess he got what he wanted! I don't think I like hawks anymore. They're mean!" I would say she's definitely a gatherer. My son came back in with his collection and excitedly said, "Hawks are awesome... look at all these feathers. Mom come out and see. I think there's even some blood. This is so cool." I believe we'd call him a hunter. He asked if tomorrow was Sunday and if he could take his feathers to church to show his friends.

      My oldest daughter thought it was all interesting. She is much more scientifically minded than the rest of us and tried to comfort her sister with the circle of life story. She pointed out that we eat meat and that comes from animals. She also came to me and mentioned her concern over her little brother's excitement about the blood. She confided, "I'm a little worried about him Mom, I don't think that's normal unless you're a serial killer." I assured her that I grew up with brothers and they loved all that kind of stuff and none of them had turned into criminals, yet!  My sister will appreciate my bit of humor! For some reason my brothers don't find me all that funny.

      We have begun a Charlotte Mason Nature Club. We meet once a month at different places each time. I decided to begin with the basics. At our first meeting we discussed what the aim of our club would be. The intentsion is to meet and spend time observing, hiking, and sketching with time for discussion.

      We met at Bendix Woods Nature Center. There were about 30 of us total. We talked about many great resources for nature study. Our main resource will be The Handbook of Nature Study. We discussed the basic needs for hiking and sketching.

     We spent time observing a red squirrel and juncos at the window feeder. It was snowing and very cold that day. Some decided to stay at the nature center because they had younger children. The rest of us headed out into the frozen tundra that is Northern Indiana in January.

     We spotted Sycamore, Sugar Maples and a Hawthorn tree with it's needles, observed several different evergreen trees and compared their cones and branches, and found a dead tree being consumed by termittes. While hiking we observed several Cardinals and Goldfinches. The kids followed rabbit trails and discovered different mosses and fungi. It was a great start for our club.

       Okay, since the birds wouldn't come to us, we decided to go to them. On Friday afternoon, I packed the kids up along with the hiking backpack, our sketch box , binoculars, camera, and of course my son's trusty walking stick. We headed to Bendix Woods County Park. We had never been there and were in the mood for an adventure. We felt confident that the nature center would be teaming with birds...

      We got there and unloaded our gear and winter clothing. We looked out at their feeder and there was a BIRD! A Black-Capped Chickadee and some friends were flying in and out of the feeders. Here one posed for us.

      My children were thrilled (we are very easy to please). The sketch books came out and we went to work. Our guides were before us and we were looking forward to looking up something, anything. We did see a Red-breasted Nuthatch at a distance with the binoculars. My son asked what else he could "ketch".

      All of the sudden, I saw the evergreen bush shaking quite hard. I got the kids attention. We waited, thinking, "Wow is this going to be a big bird." The birds at the feeder all flew away. Then my son said, "Mom, don't be upset, but maybe it's just a cat." We kept watching and then a pink nose peeked through the branches...

        "Oh, he's sooo cute", my 9 year old said. We watched him for over an hour and a half.  Who new an Oppossum would be so entertaining? He was kind of cute.

       The charcoal pencils and oil pastels were flying. They were discussing him and reading out of their guide books and sharing what they were reading.

      They forgot all about the birds. We had a great time together and that's what it is really about, loving and learning.

      The kids went and got the rangers to show off their discovery. They came in with cameras and told us we were very lucky.  The rangers seemed very happy to have someone using the facility. I think we were very blessed. God surely knew we needed encouragement in our nature studies.

       The rangers brought them some good information sheets on Opossum and the learning continued. They wanted to call everyone of their friends and tell them about their discoveries. I love the enthusiasm they have.

       It wasn't what I had planned, it was better!  What started out as a bird study turned into a marsupial study and that is okay! Lesson for me: be flexible.

      My kids learned about nocturnal animals, that Opossum are the only marsupials in North America, and nature is unpredictable. Not bad for a bird study!

-Trisha

       Here are my 12 year old's shots of the lunar eclipse. It was freezing cold outside, but she dilligently stayed out the whole time. Our neighbors came out and joined us for a time and we even shared hot cocoa together.

      We were thankful to get these shots. There were a lot of clouds in the sky that night. The best part was seeing the salmon pink color of the moon during the total eclipse. Those pictures didn't turn out. I know NASA has some great shots of it though.

      It was time well spent. We enjoyed it and the kids played in the snow in between staring up into space. We will have to add these to our astronomy notebooks.

-Trisha

       I admit it, in the past I had an idealized vision of what our nature study experiences should be. I expected that we would hike to a picturesque spot, layout our blanket and supplies, and enjoy a beautiful afternoon full of peace and smiles.

      Sometimes we've come close. We had a great experience with our pond study. My kids loved it. I loved it until the snake swam between my legs! Our midnight coyote hike was also fun! We've really enjoyed most of our trail hikes.

      Recently, we have had success combining letterboxing with our nature study. My kids love playing detective and searching out those hidden boxes. It  always provides an adventure. I think that it has allowed us to see some beautiful scenes we probably would have missed otherwise. If you haven't tried letterboxing, I reccommend it. Here is a link: http://www.letterboxing.org/  It's free and uses other skills like orienteering.

      Our birding experiences in the spring and summer have been really good too. So good in fact, that it inspired me to plan a winter bird study. I researched, read books, got a new guide, bought a new feeder, good seed, and then got the kids all excited to start our study. Here is how it went:

Day 1- no birds-snow-windy

Day 2- no birds-snow-windy

Day 3- no birds- windy- frigid

Day 4- no birds-snow-windy

Day 5- no birds- freezing rain

      Three little faces staring out the picture window, hoping to see some bird, any bird. Fast forward to day 16 and still no birds. I told them that the snow won't last forever. This will be a good test of our diligence (trying to see the silver lining).

      My daughter just returned from getting her snack and informed me that it was snowing, again! Ugh!!

-Trisha

      I thought I would mention that on Wednesday, Feb. 20th, there will be a lunar eclipse. It is expected to start at 8:43 pm and will finish at 12:09 am.  The total eclipse will be at 10:26 pm. There will not be another chance to see a lunar eclipse until Dec. 21, 2010.

      I thought it might be fun to surprise the kids with a late night. We did Apologia's Astronomy last year and I thought we could add this to our notebooking pages. This may turn into some project ideas, hmmm.

      Here is the website that I used to find out about the lunar eclipse. They also have a great section for children.   http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

      We are going to try to take pictures with my daughter's new camera. I hope they turn out and then I will  just have to learn how to post pictures. You ladies with your colorful websites and beautiful pictures impress me. I spent at least 2 hours trying to figure the categories thing out on the right side. My brother-in-law ended up doing it for me. We have a symbiotic relationship... I feed him and he fixes whatever I did wrong on the computer. Technology is not my strength. My daughter had to show me how to turn my new cell phone off!

      I am bummed that we left our telescope up at the lake. We can link it to the tv and then tape whatever we are viewing. I wonder if I can talk my husband into going up this weekend while I am gone.  Two hours in the car with three kids to retrieve the telescope that I told him not to bring home because it would be way to cold to use, oops. Hey, honey...

-Trisha