This week's Nature Study was to "Challenge yourself to take another 10-15 minute "excursion" outdoors in your own yard again this week. Before setting out on your walk, sit with your children and explain to them that when you remain quiet during your nature time, you are more likely to hear interesting things..."
We spent about 15 minutes sitting in the backyard near the tree house, just listening to what we could hear. Well okay, I spent it sitting. The kids explored the 'jungle' section of the garden, but they were fairly quiet and we did keep stopping to see if we could hear anything.
Miss5's comment was "but I want to go for a walk - there is not as much nature in our garden as there is outside the gate!" But her mean ol' Mum had had a terrible night's sleep and was really only capable of wandering out to the garden and sitting on the chopping block. We'll go for a walk next week maybe!
Once back inside (and after lunch) we sat and had a think about what we had seen, heard and felt while outside (as suggested in the study).
One word for things you heard
bells, birds, chickens
Two words for things you saw
blue sky, grey sky, brown leaves
Three words for things you felt
rough brown bark, splintery smooth wood (the saw horse), soft green grass.
Nature journal
We are keeping a family nature journal this year, with Miss5 perhaps keeping her own volume next year. I did the writing and drew some outlines and Miss5 happily coloured in things that we'd seen and heard, adding in her own little pictures as needed.
I'm enjoying this series!
3 comments:
We have had many adventures right in our own yard...even though at first it may seen fairly dull. It does get easier and the more you become of changes, the more interested they will become.
You might want to skip over to picking a seasonal tree and start keeping track of it as the year goes by. You could try challenge #36 if you felt up to it.
Thanks for sharing your adventure.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Looks like you're having fun with Barb's challenges. I've got to hop over there and get back into doing them again. It seems that when life gets busy, nature study is the first thing I let slide. Probably not the best choice for me to make b/c the kids love it, although my oldest didn't like it at first. :)
Thanks for dropping by my blog. I also had looked at buying a weather station but they can be pricey. It really was fun to make our own.
Blessings!
Thanks for the suggestion, Barb, i think we'll do just that!
Hi Shannon, yes we are enjoying the Nature studies - it's one of the few 'schooly' things we do and so it has some novelty value for us :) I like having the direction of knowing what to do next, too!
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