But Not the Reptiles and Amphibians…

Because the weather is still hit and miss around here, our expectations were low about completing this month’s Outdoor Hour challenges about reptiles and amphibians over at the Handbook of Nature Study blog. It actually snowed again on April 24th!

Pansies and snow…does this seem right?

With a growing case of cabin fever, we pulled up our boots straps and got going anyway after the snow cleared and the sun came out in all its glory. We couldn’t stray far, of course, with little Sweet Pea taking a nap, but God always amazes us with the creation in our backyard! Here is our nature study version of Sandra Boynton’s book, But Not the Hippopotamus, on our hunt for reptiles and amphibians:

We took a look at all the parts of the dandelions popping up in the grass. Our conversation strayed as far as, “If we get really hungry, we can eat the leaves just like they did on the Oregon trail, Mom.  It’s like salad!”  But not the reptiles…

A nutria, a large herbivorous, semi-aquatic rodent native to South America that has been introduced to North America for its fur but is now considered an invasive pest, (that’s a mouthful!) has built a nest near the big cottonwood tree. But not the amphibians…

The creek that was bone dry for the last couple of years actually had running water in it. All three were looking for the tiny spring peepers we have found here before. But not the reptiles…

Ginkgo found some earthworms and Elm tried his hand at building a rock dam. But not the amphibians…

We captured a photo of a robin perched on a fence, and Daffodil peeked in on the baby sparrows in our birdhouse. But not the reptiles…

A beautiful mullein plant was spotted near the creek and is perfect for a pretend campfire in the kids brush fort! But not the amphibians…

With exclamations of, “This is the best nature study ever,” from Elm, Ginkgo shouted, “But, yes, the reptile!”

Look real close and you can see its tail, a foreleg, and an opposite hind leg. It’s a skink, we think:)

Winter or spring?

Well with our newborn it has been harder to get the inside chores done not to mention outdoor nature study:) But ohhhh the life lessons that have been cherished and learned. A newborn is nature study in and of itself! It has truly been awesome to watch the older siblings respond and be an intregal part of this “season” of our lives.

With that said, our study of moss, lichen and mushrooms has also been severely hindered by the two large snowstorms we have had late in the winter here. It is strange to see snow everywhere still in late March.

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Here is what we have done inside:

We have read in the Handbook of Nature Study about moss, mushrooms and lichens.  In our journals we included labeled diagrams of fungi. This spring and summer we are all set to go looking for these interesting plants.  Yes, plants that are not green!  They don’t make their own food so there is no chlorophyll. We learned that instead some fungi steal their food from other plants and some live off dead plant materials like fallen trees which gives them their colors.

We have also been reading about different types of weathering and erosion: streams, landslides, avalanches, mudslides, and creep. One experiment we tried was how soil was affected by gravity by elevating a pan of dirt until it began to slide. Then we started over and shook the pan while changing the slope which simulated an earthquake. Lastly we poured water down the slope to see how it would speed up the erosion process. Besides who can resist playing in the mud even in winter…or is it spring now?

Weather, Rocks, Birds and Blessings

The Schoolhouse on the Prairie has been tuned out for awhile and if you read on you will know why… We have been doing some nature study when we can, though. Here is what we have been learning from the Handbook of Nature Study over the last three months.

In December, we studied the weather.  The weather charts helped us chart some some cold days and cloudy days and windy days and warmish days.  The directions of the wind and cloud formation have been fascinating to study as we can tell what kind of weather we will have. I loved the “cutting the grid apart” idea so we used those in our journals. We will continue to study the weather throughout the winter!

 

The last week of January, we had some wild weather: Monday was 74′; Tuesday we had thunder, lightning and rain; Wednesday morning we woke up with an inch of snow; and Thursday’s high was 23′ with a very cold wind chill. We like our four seasons even if they come all in one week:)

It is now February 21, and we have some real snow (about 8 inches I think).  Our winter is complete and our study of weather has been successful!

 In January we learned about Rocks and Minerals.  We made rock facts for our bulletin board as a way of a Charlotte Mason style exam.

Snowy Owl showed off her rock collection to the friends who were homeschooling with us this fall. She even tried her hand at painting a ladybug rock and Peregrine Falcon made a rock into a porcupine.

Grampa came to visit so we had the privilege of having a veteran science teacher help build a volcano.

The only thing we regret about the rock study is not knowing more and not being able to identify more!

In February, we dusted off our bird books and got the binoculars out again to study Birds.  If you look closely, there is a cooper’s hawk sitting in the eastern red cedar trees in the picture below. It sat there for a couple of hours one afternoon.  

The bird friends on the window sill have joined us for many a school day!

Most certainly, our favorite blessing that happened this winter was our newborn baby girl arrived to join us in our adventures. What a “Joy”ful day it was for all of us here on the prairie!

Enjoying Fall

It’s hard to believe November is here and gone already!  Wait, where did September and October go? Usually our September is filled with all things Monarch butterflies. Sadly, not this year. Although we went out looking three or four times, we caught and tagged only three females for Monarch Watch.  Either we weren’t out there when they were or it was just a bum year.  We didn’t even get any caterpillars on our butterfly bushes where normally we have so many that they eat the bushes down to nothing. We had big plans of bringing some inside, seeing them form a chrysalis, tagging them and then letting them go.  The only highlight for us was taking some young friends out for their first Monarch hunt.

I wasn’t even going to write about it because it was so depressing for us, but then I got to thinking that this is what nature study is all about!  We are blessed to observe the seasons, life cycles, and changes of creation every day be they good or not as good. That’s real science.

We have had the privilege of having our good friends join us for school for the past few weeks while their mom and house becomes accustomed to twin newborns!  It has been wonderful to learn together. Although we have not been going on very many nature adventures this year compared to years past, we have enjoyed catching a little bit of nature time each week. Trees were the focus of our October nature study lessons. We have been measuring trees, naming trees, reading about trees, and enjoying the beautiful colors in our back yard.  We even tried a variation on leaf rubbing by placing our leaves on top of the paper and then coloring around them to see the negative space left behind

As we become more familiar with birds through nature study, we have come to love them more and more.  We found a line of Audubon plush toy birds that make sounds like the actual birds. They  have become wonderful friends! Feeling crafty one day, we decided to make these adorable owls out of toilet paper tubes and cupcake liners! The idea came from Family Fun magazine.

Finally, acrostic, shape, and haiku poems about trees were the culmination of our focus on trees!

Various trees fruit in the fall.
Every tree has leaves.
Red is a bright color in the fall.
Maples make sap which turns into syrup.
On pancakes and waffles we use syrup.
Nice big trees are good for shade, forts and food.
Trees are made by God.

Broadleaf trees have big leaves. They lose their leaves in the fall. Let’s play in the leaves.
(around the maple leaf shape)

Trees are colorful
Beautiful leaves are awesome
Leaves fall gently down

Trees are beautiful.
Broadleaf trees lose their good leaves.
Conifers give cones.

Trees are colorful
Climbing trees is so much fun
So thankful for trees

Summer Photos That Tell a Tale

Although we don’t have many summer nature study entries, we do have a story to tell. We didn’t follow many of the challenges on The Handbook of Nature Study this summer, but we did manage to take the Summer Photo Challenge (albeit we had to substitute some of the subjects:). In the challenge we had to take pictures of the following: insects, trees, dirt/sand/shells, animals, birds, pond, weather, gardens, rocks, and flowers. We had to go all the way to the east coast and back to secure our photos, but I think you will enjoy the journey!

Our first stop brought us flowers at Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby.

We found beautiful trees in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

For our weather picture, the temperature was 113′ heat index at Jamestown Settlement in Virginia on June 29! A huge wind and thunderstorm blew through the area later that night and took out the power in much of Maryland and Washington D.C., which of course was going to be our next stop!  Oh well…that is what memories are made of. They don’t look hot do they?

With the power out, we found some ways to keep cool and take in some nature lessons while we were at it on Kent Island, Maryland.

Our bird photo contains an osprey on her nest in the Chesapeake Bay.

The kids, their dad and some friends jumped in to the Chesapeake to cool off.  They finally had to get back in to the boat after some had been stung by a jellyfish. (Sadly, no picture of the jellyfish.)

Blue crabs were the subject of our dirt/sand/shells photo.  We put out lines from the dock and waited for them to take the bait.  You can only keep the male crabs that are five inches across. We also learned the male and female crabs can be told apart by the markings on their undersides.  The female is on the right.

Although we didn’t catch enough for dinner, we did have a crab feast:)

The Pond picture we substituted with the Hudson River between New York City, NY and Hoboken, NJ.  We watched the Fourth of July fireworks explode over it!

Our rock pictures are taken at Seminary Ridge on the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania.

We didn’t take many animal pictures, but we captured this still life when we stopped at a friend’s dairy farm in York, Pennsylvania.

Our arrival home brought us a small yet wonderful harvest of goodness from our garden and pots.

Last but not least we are enjoying the bumblebees buzzing around the obedient plant. drinking in the last tastes of summer.

It has been the hottest and driest summer that I can remember in my 16 years of living here.  The corn is all but gone, the flowers have struggled to survive, the soil is deeply cracked and the trees are showing signs of stress.  A few cool nights and a sweet rain have brought hope, and the early sightings of Monarch butterflies have promised that relief might be near.  I love that about His creation; there is always a new season!

May Musings

Well, we didn’t complete a single Outdoor Hour Challenge this month.  We only managed to get a picture of one lonely snail, but we did spend a lot of time outdoors and that is the treasure in itself!

Here is a look at some of our adventures:

Birdhouse update: Both houses have successfully hatched another brood of sparrows who have already flown the nest! We have now officially made our first backyard bird list:

• house sparrow
• goldfinch
• cardinal
• bluebird
• robin

The mulberry tree in the neighbor’s yard was very fruitful this year.  We made 3 batches of jam!

We enjoyed fresh lettuce and kale from the garden while it lasted!  The early summer heat on the prairie has turned it bitter too quickly this year, but it sure looks pretty still.

The silver pot is an experiment.  It has potatoes growing in it. The small, white flowers indicate that the fruit is setting which is a good sign.

Aphids attacked my stella de oro daylillies so we transplanted ladybugs and treated the wolf spiders with respect after we learned that they were our best allies against the invasion.  We eventually lost the battle and had to cut them down to save the rest of the flowers:( Soooo sad.  I didn’t take a picture of this!

Last but not least, the one thing on the outdoor challenges that we came across: Suzy or Sammy Snail.  We couldn’t decide on the name

All About Birds

Birds, birds, birds, all about birds! If you were at our house this week these are some phrases and questions you might have heard:

• Shhh! Come listen in the bird house!  The babies are chirping because they are hungry. Did you see their mouths open wide?
• Do you think it is a house sparrow or a chipping sparrow? No,  it is a house wren.  Are you sure? Let’s go get the bird cards and the bird book.
• Go get the binoculars, please.  One of the birds has a darker black area under its throat. I want to see!
• Look, Mom, our bird is drinking out of the little bird bath we put out in the flower bed!
• I can’t tell which bird it is!  Are they getting big enough to fly out on their own soon?
• Those have to be the fledglings! They are flying low, from bush to bush. Those are definitely house sparrows!
• Let’s build another bird house! And so we did…

You see we don’t know much about birds here, but it sure has been exciting.  This is the second year we have had birds nest in the house the oldest son built with his dad.  The bird bath is new this year and is already being used! Thanks for the idea, Hodgepodge family. Within an hour of putting up the new bird house, new tenants arrived! We think the parents took the new, updated apartment and let the kids have the old place:) Bird watching has added a great deal of fun to our backyard!

Because we were on a bird kick, we decided to finally get to those chickadee pastel drawings.  The kids loved it so much we pasteled for hours:)

With so much bird fun happening in our own back yard, we finally got to this week’s challenge: Robins. After reading page 57-62 in the Handbook of Nature Study, we listened to Chapter 5 in the Burgess Bird Book for Children about Welcome Robin. With our background work complete, we went out on the patio to watch for robins. Not only did we see one robin, but a pair of robins! Since then, we have had the pleasure of watching Mr. and Mrs. Robin looking for worms in our grass every day and hearing their sweet, cheery song now that we know it belongs to them.  We haven’t found their nest yet, but we think it is in the cedar tree across the yard. Here are some journal pages to enjoy:

All this birding, reminded me that a robin had made a nest under our deck in the old house a few years back, and we had some pictures of the stages somewhere. It was pretty amazing to see those pictures make a connection again!