For our nature walk today we visited the empty lot next to our suburbia house, which is a place we frequently go for nature study. While I recommend visiting different places for study, I also recommend visiting the same places often too. You might think that we'd tire of walking and studying the same areas; however I've found that just about each day we can find something new, something interesting that we hadn't noticed before. Especially through the changes in seasons there are many new discoveries to be had right in the same area.

This is very beneficial in the area of observation skills. By visiting the same place multiple times you are able to notice more and more things that perhaps you hadn't noticed before. Just like when you watch the same movie more than once you notice something different you hadn't before; except with nature study the scenes never get old because the canvas is always changing. Back in the winter this same field was covered in sparkling ice.

Also, the more experienced we become in our nature study the more details we notice in things. It seems kids are particularly naturally good at this, I'd venture to say even better than adults at noticing the details in God's creation.  They've taught me to look closer and then closer again.

Another way to notice details is using the modern technology of macro photography. There have been so many times that after a nature walk I've uploaded my photos into our computer and looked at a photo and have been in awe of something I'll see that I hadn't noticed when I was taking the photo. Such as in the case of this closeup of a Queen Anne's Lace wildflower that has gone to seed. I never noticed the little thorns all around the tiny seeds. Obviously God's gift to the seed to help it spread by latching itself on to travelers passing by. The kids and I marveled at this photo for several moments talking about how amazing it was.

We also marveled at this photo of an ant hill that I took while we were out there. Somehow macro brings even grains of dirt alive.

Another detail we noticed was that while something may look quite dead such as the above Queen Anne's Lace or this Thistle below, by noticing the seeds it once again becomes just as interesting to us as when it was fully in bloom. We think it's amazing that God gifted this wildflower with the ability to spread by wind! Isn't it beautiful?!

Of course we were obliged to help it along by pulling some of the seeds out and tossing them in the breeze.

If you havn't been much into the details of nature before, start now. The next time you are out on a nature walk alone or with your children, notice something simple, something that maybe perhaps you might not have noticed for it's lack of flare. Then lean in and look closely. What do you see? Then look closer even closer. What do you see now? It just might be the most amazing thing you've ever seen.

This last month has been unusually busy for me. Which I admit while fun things have been happening, I do not like being busy in the slightest. But now, the calendar has cleared up and it's catch up time. Another reason for the lack of blogging is just feeling a general "dullness" which could be as a result of being too busy! Inspiration has been hiding itself from me to get on here and write and post. But I feel it may be returning.

Anyways just wanted to post some photos of things that have been going on around here in our nature times.

Alex continues to spend lots of time in his second home...the creek.

 

 

I've still been keeping up with my love of taking wildflower photos. This has been one of my favorites of a Deptford Pink. 

 

 

Cindy and I are currently writing six new units, one of which is on butterflies, so I've been busy taking lots of butterfly photos, including this one of a gorgeous Monarch. 

 

 

Another one of the six units will be on conifer trees, so a trip to the local arboretum was due to observe and collect cones... 

 

 

 

 

...to do lots of fun experiments with! 

 

 

Such as learning about how conifers spread their seeds by dropping one and watching it twirl around. 

 

 

And then I've been thoroughly enjoying the Queen Anne's Lace which seems bigger and more abundant than I've ever seen it this year. 

 

 

 

 

I've also been enjoying the Robin's Plantain, which also seems to be doing really well this year. It has to be all the rain we've had... 

 

 

 

 

 ...which has also made the woods more green, thick and lush.

 

 

Today, Alex found an awesome find...a beautiful orange bracket fungus! Yes, I know I'm a strange one to get excited about fungus, but it was such a gorgeous "sherbet orange" color, and once you study fungus you find it rather fascinating. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that's about it for now! More structured school will be starting up for us again soon. We pretty much school year round, taking breaks when we need and want. But a more concrete schedule will be resuming shortly. I have changes in mind for my blog as we begin another school year...stay tuned. Perhaps that just what I need to find that inspiration again!

"Rain had come and gone, filling the pond and fattening the fruit, settling the

dust and soaking into the earth. It was time to go on a mushroom hunt."

- The Mushroom Hunt by Simon Frazer

We've had a very rainy, wet spring here which has been like a beacon call for mushrooms to pop up all over the yard and in our landscaping.

 

 

 

 

We've been busy hunting them, dissecting them, sorting them, wrtinng abotut them, trying to identify them :), and making spore prints out of them. Mushrooms may not seem like a prime teaching opporutunity, but think again! They are very cool fungi!

Now that's an interesting title!

"MAYAPPLES" 

I want to send out a big thank you to my blog friends for helping me identify things. I just love knowing the names of things in nature!! If it weren't for you all I might not have found the name Reeves Pheasant or Mayapples. I think the reason I love knowing the names of things so much is the neatness of being able to recognize them and call them by name when I see them in nature. Over the past few years of studying nature more in-depthly I've slowly, and sometimes quickly, built upon my ability to recognize more and more things. I'm also blessed when I find out the name of something to be able to read more about it and learn everything I can.

After discovering what mayapples are and at Holly's suggestion, I looked them up in the Handbook of Nature Study and read all about them to my kids. After that we took a walk out to observe them and draw them for our nature notebooks. At Ms. Comstock's suggestion Hannah fashioned a beautiful little doll from them!

"This is a study of parasols and, therefore of perennial interest to the little girls who use the small ones for their dolls, and with many airs and graces hold the large ones above their own head. And when this diversion palls, they make mandarin dolls of these fascinating plants." - Handbook of Nature Study, page 479

We also learned about and was able to find a Mayapple fruit on one of the plants.

We read that the fruit is edible, but the stalk and other parts of the plant are very poisonous. We decided not to take any chances in trying the fruit! I was also surprised to find out that they are classified as a wildflower; an unusual one to add to our notebook.

Also suggested was to look for the "umbrella case" at the base where the plant was enclosed before it opened up.

Another thing we have discovered the name of the past week is a Nurse Log. Nurse logs are basically fallen pieces of tree trunks that are decaying and "nursing" the woods floor with their nutrients. We found several of these on our walk.

Nurse logs are excellent places to discover other things as well, such as mushrooms, insects and woodpecker holes.

And the newest Reeves Pheasant news is that I spoke with a lovely lady from the Kentucky Department of Wildlife about our new friend and she was a surprised as I was to hear that the fella had taken up residence with our wild turkeys. I have sent her a couple of photos and a few videos. She affirmed that indeed they are not running around in the wild, they are only in captivity here, but as long as he's posing no apparent threat, it's ok to let him be. So far he's ran/flew away at the sound and sight of us. Then she informed me that that the poor thing probably won't survive long due to the hawks; seems they are not very good at getting away from them. I suppose this is one of the reasons attempts to bring them here haven't worked. So, we'll enjoy his visits for now. Here is my video proof of him hanging with the turkeys. It's not the best quality because I had to take it through our window.

We're hanging in here at our household.  Thanksgiving dinner didn't happen this year due to too many sick people in our house.  And from what I hear, lots of people were in that boat this year.  My son is going on 3 days of not keeping anything down he's so sick with a stomach virus.  The Sprite and Gatorade are on constant demand.  And we are all praying that the misery is over soon.

In the meantime, I checked out a couple dozen new books from the library, mostly Christmas, but also some new Nature Study related books, and I found two new gems that I wanted to share with you!

I will be teaching a Nature study class beginning in January to the 4th grade students at our co-op, and I will be using Nature in a Nutshell for Kids, by Jean Potter as our primay resource, however I will now also be using the following two wonderful finds:

Explore Winter: 25 Great Ways to Learn About Winter, By Maxine Anderson

Explore Spring: 25 Great Ways to Learn About Spring, by Maxine Anderson

Both of these books give great HANDS-ON projects, activities, and experiments to teach loads of great things about the science behind winter and spring.  And what I like even more is that all of the activities, etc. are VERY doable, using mostly things you would have laying around your house.

As I said, I've also checked out armloads of Christmas books and am going through them one by one and am also finding a few great gems in there too.  I have plans to begin featuring those here at my blog through December.  And I'm currently putting together a study on SNOW that I want to begin with the kids after Christmas.  I'm really excited at the way the study is shaping up, and I'll be sharing that here on my blog in the future too.

So I have simply wonderful plans for our Christmas school and beyond, that is if we can get off this "sick boat"!!!  In the meantime, I think I'll go watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with the kids for the fifth time.

For me, there simply isn't a prettier time of year to view a full moon than the falltime, the air is so clear.  One day recently, my oldest daughter and I awoke very early before twilight and headed outside in the crisp fall air for a walk under the full moonlight wash.  It was a beautiful time to talk with my daughter about life in general and to discuss the "light which governs the night", the beautiful moon.

"God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night." - Genesis 1:16

In the distance we could see very slight hints of the sun beginning to rise, but the full moon was plenty enough to light our way.  Through the illuminated night air, we could see bats flitting to and fro; they must have been in a hurry to finish their night's feast.  We played a poetry game, I first started a line of poetry about our walk....On the horizon I see a light, but the moon still shines oh so bright...she then answered me...Deep purples, blues and twinkling stars give beauty with all their might...and so we continued as long as we could!

We also listened and named all the night sounds we could hear: the lonely toad, the twittering bat, the stirring breeze in the leaves, etc.  We named the feelings we felt:  the cool wet air, the warmth of our sweaters, the reverence for God as we viewed the amazing full moon.  And of course reviewed why it was that the moon only "appeared" to be full sometimes.  Phases of the Moon

There is a VERY sweet picture book in which we have enjoyed reading for several years.  We re-visited it later this day, which was the first time my younger daughter had heard it.

Kitten's First Full Moon, by Kevin Henkes

And there is a beautiful work of Art that we plan on doing a picture/Artist study of later this week.  Can you see the two figures in the twilight?

Twillight, by Caspar David Friedrich

Did I say we were finished studying wildflowers?  That was before we took our lovely walk in the woods....

On Friday, for our Nature time, we decided to be outside a bit longer than usual and venture back into the woods a bit.  The woods behind us is currently owned by a developer (they promise us they will be leaving LOTS of woods) and we figure they won't mind us spending some occassional nature study time there.  And what a delightful walk we had.

First, we noticed  how dry the creekbed was.  We've been missing out on rain lately.

Then, we walked up a bit further into the beautiful woods.  This time of year seems to be a great time to do this since some of the underbrush is dying back, and it was a pretty easy walk.

We found a bird's feather.

There were lots of old rotting, fallen trees, and a tree that was severely damaged, seemed by lightning maybe.

And, this humongous old dead tree!

We found a very uniquely colored toad, such a neat reddish/orange color, I've never seen one like that.  He reminded us of our toad that we recently kept as a pet and just set him free last week.

Then, you never know when you might find a hitchhiker on your arm, such as this cute snail!

Gabby loved playing on the logs.

And so did sister.  I love this photo, the sun was shinning so radiantly through the trees.

The wooded air is so fresh and good for the soul, makes the rest of your day go so much better.

Oh, and three (3) new stunningly beautiful wildflowers were discovered upon our journey!  Seems our Lord and Creator says were not finished finding them yet!  All three of them are different shades of purples.

Mistflower

Great Blue Lobelia

Hoary Tick-Trefoil, Sticktights

Excellent book for studying deciduous forests:

A Walk in a Deciduous Forest,

by Rebecca Johnson

Below are notes from a nature workshop that my friend Cindy and I taught at the CHEK conference this past July.  I thought this might be helpful in aiding those who are trying to include regular nature walk and study time into their home schools.

Are you including regular, consistent nature study in your home school?  Here are some of the reasons I wasn’t:

• not enough time after regular studies
• I’m not sure I see the value to the children’s long-term education
• I can’t check off one of those little boxes on the grade appropriate checklists when we do it
• It’s too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, too humid, I’m out of shape, I might sweat, I might be cold

If some of you are where I used to be, you’ll really relate with some of those reasons.  After you read an average Nature study article you may say that you’d love to do Nature Study, if there were time, but just how do you make time?  I read article after article and books that all recommended Nature study because kids need to be outdoors, it’s good for them and Nature Study is really fun.  I knew that, but just how was I going to get my children’s educational checklists done and then have time to go and do that!  So, perhaps if your like I was, Nature Study rarely happened.  I viewed Nature Study as being more supplemental to our regular education, and not required.

I’d like to challenge you today, to try to view Nature Study in a different way.  Can you possibly see it as being just as important as Math?  Language Arts?  How about MORE important?  Because guess what, today I certainly do!  Nature Study is now a pivotal launching point for many of our other studies.  

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.  Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? – Job 12:7-9

If seeking Him, we will find Him in His Creation.  His fingerprints are all over it!  If we walk into nature with this new vision and ask God to open our eyes, we and our children will find Him and grow from it.  What we gain from getting out into nature is simply priceless!

What are some of the benefits our family is gaining from Nature Study?

• we grow closer in relationship and knowledge of our Creator -  I can’t help but to feel reverence and awe of God as I closely observe things in Nature.  And I’ve been able to notice many symbolisms in Nature to teach us about our lives.
• develop a closer relationship with my children  - Seeing my children’s face light up in excitement as we discover something new and sitting with them to observe, spending time with them just having fun, it’s all wonderful.
• ignites a desire and need to know more about all Creation - Again, my children and I can’t help but to want to know more and discover more as we spend more and more time with His Creation
• cultivates a natural curiosity and love of learning - Because we find it so neat and exciting this drives our natural curiosity to know more which in turn makes learning fun
• provides fresh air and expends energy in children which benefits everyone - We always feel rejuvenated after a Nature Walk or Hunt or just spending time having fun out there
• can be used to teach other subjects - I was overjoyed to find how easy it was to incorporate other subjects using our experiences in Nature. 
• helps to gain focus and attention ability - my highly distractible day-dreaming daughter, and  overly-hyperactive and unfocused son suddenly have gained the ability to focus and pay attention better and not just in Nature Study but in regular studies as well.
• improves discrimination and comparison skills - as we are identifying wildflowers or anything else in Nature it is necessary to be able to notice details and be able to compare things to figure out what it is.
• improves memorization abilities - I am in awe at how much my children are able to memorize in Nature such as the names of things and where we found them, and it helps with other subjects too
• guaranteed to experience and learn more than you could imagine because God is amongst it!  -We can count on this fact because it is His Creation and because He tells us in His Word that we can learn from it, WE WILL LEARN FROM IT!

So, how do I start including more Nature Study time into our home school?

• start small and fall in love first (spend a few minutes a day just observing, go out with no other objective except to enjoy what you find) then gradually increase the amount of time you are outdoors, I have a feeling this will come naturally, possibly incorporate journaling and other small objectives - maybe take photos and observe them on your computer with your kids
• prioritize it, don’t treat it as supplemental, look at is as even more important than Math, carve out the time and honor it the same way you would your other subjects
• find specific inspiration (start focusing on something you or your children are interested in such as wildflowers, birds, etc.)
• make it personal, find out names of things by using identification books and websites, you will care so much more when, like a friend, you can call it by name
• incorporate ways to use nature for other subjects (L.A. – write about a nature walk, or something they found outside, use new terms for vocabulary/spelling, Art and Music – draw/paint in a nature journal while listening to inspirational music, etc.)  You will be surprised how easily it can satisfy other subjects, just be open to seeing the opportunities and they will come.
• Mom, get excited!  Be interested! Don’t be afraid to get a little hot or chilly or wet or dirty, I promise you if you let go and be joyful you will enjoy yourself! AND your children WILL follow.  My children have laughed for hours at me for some of the crazy things I do.  Evidently they’ve never seen another Mom pet an earthworm or talk sweet to a little toad, or take off her shoes and squish in the mud!