Mom's Nature Journal - May

A Photo I Would Like To Share

One of my favorite daily pleasures is watching the birds in my backyard.  I've learned with my children about many different birds over the past few years.  This year we've noticed a few migrating birds who don't officially belong here:  Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks and Goldfinches.

 After a mess of discarded seeds last year, I decided to keep it simple this year and feed only black oil sunflower seeds.  To my surprise, we had just as many birds visit us this winter as last, and even into the spring.  What's more, the flowers! 

Who? Me?

I never fancied myself a Nature Girl.  More often than not, I consider myself Nature ignorant.  But a funny thing happened while I was studying Nature with my children ... I learned to learn about it. 

How do I know that?  While visiting a friend up North last month, I asked her if her front yard tree was a Maple tree. She didn't have any idea.  The next day at the mini-golf course I found what I thought was a Hemlock tree*.  Still feeling Nature-ignorant, I asked her if she thought it was a Hemlock, too.  Not only did she not know, but she asked ME how I know SO MUCH about trees!  Me! 
My answer was nature study.  
What I have learned is how to observe nature; how to notice it; how to look for it.  I'm not an expert.  That is not even one of my goals.  As long as I keep observing, noticing, looking, and learning, I will be a Nature Girl.  And with that, my kids will observe, notice, look at, learn about, and love their natural world, too!
I cannot finish this post without giving some credit, some big credit, to Barb at The Handbook of Nature Study blog for her wonderful Outdoor Hour Challenges (OHC) which helped me find the Nature path in the first place.  After trying, and hating, the nature drawing path, and after looking at the introduction to the mammoth Handbook of Nature Study itself, I might have given up on "teaching" nature studies to my kids.  The OHC showed me a gentler, less daunting way to teach and learn about the world around us. 

Now, we need to get off our blogs and look outside! 
*We read My Side of the Mountain in the winter and learned about all kinds of northern nature.  The Hemlock was one of them.


What I thought was a weed in our flower bed,
looks like a tree sapling.  We're excited to watch
it grow up!

Hemlock on the Mini-Green

A Giant Dandelion we found during our
Outdoor Hour Dandelion Study

A mysterious sac

 

The Great Potato Experiment

Some time ago, I saw a video about the familiar potato-growing experiment.  The family which made it proposed that organic potatoes are healthier and will grow better based on their experiments with organic and non-organic potatoes.  I was so intrigued that I had to try this with my kids.  We had tried this experiment in the past, but nothing happened - no roots, no leaves, no thing.  

Organic potato roots were very full!

First, I found out that our grocery store does not even sell organic potatoes.  We found them at the local natural food store.  I must say, the organic sweet potatoes are redder than the non-organic ones, but they are also smaller.  
Second, this experiment takes a LONG time; months even.  In fact, I was about to throw out the potatoes after two months when I noticed that one of them had some roots just starting to peek through.  
Third, though we hypothesized, based on the video we saw, that the organic potato would thrive over the non-organic one, the first one to sprout roots and later leaves was the Non-Organic one!  Really.  Talk about a hypothesis buster.  (I was going to say a myth buster, but I don't think our hypothesis was really a myth; more of a presumption.)    

 This is more or less what the two potatoes looked like after 3 months.  The one on the left, with barely a leaf bud but plenty of roots in the water, is the organic one. 

 Here it is a little closer.  See how the leaves are just starting to grow?

 This potato grew like crazy once it started to grow at all. 

Plenty of roots, too.  

What does this all mean?  Did the non-organic potato thrive because the pesticides made it more resilient?  Did the organic one fail to thrive because  I put it in a green container instead of a clear one?  I do not know, but it was fun to compare them. I feel bad that we had to throw them out in the end, especially because the organic one cost about twice as much as the other one.  

Signs of Spring

    There is something about knowing that it is officially Spring that refreshes my spirit.  Though March can be very temperamental in weather, I want us to get outside as much as possible before the Southern summer sneaks up on us.  So, with the Handbook of Nature Study's Spring notebook pages, clipboards, and colored pencils in hand, out to the neighborhood park we went. 

      I love that each of my children noticed different things today, even if one of them refused to get out of the car because Spring brings out the bees.  

     After we made our observations, I noticed something else about Spring: Pollen!  Ah-choo! 

     Tomorrow we'll check on our 10 day old container garden.  This is always a highlight of our Springs! 

Our November Neighborhood

If March blows in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, then November in the South (this year at least), came in like a lamb and blew out like a lion.  We had both temperature spikes into the 80s as well as dips below freezing!  Our backyard birds disappeared with the early cold snaps, but somehow the ladybugs managed a mid-month raid. 

Our season-confused Purple Hearts

So, the HNS Outdoor Hour Challenge to observe and sketch what November looks like to us was a good fit, especially since we took it on one of the warmer days.  We set up our chairs in the front yard and observed the field across the street.  E also made note of our own Purple Heart plants which dropped at the first temperature dip but had a few perks with the surprise heat.

You know what I realized as I looked over their pages?  These nature studies have given me some nice mementos of how my kids write and think. 

Z is right.  It is "a nice place to live near."

I'm glad we took the time to do this when we did.  Today the lion is roaring and his breath is freezing!   We'll do our observing through the window panes today.
As a family, we want to try to attract some of the winter birds to our yard.  It is so lonely out there with our summer friends gone.  If you have any suggestions, please pass them on. 

See?  Pitiful.

In the Spirit

A poem here; some history there; and a paperback or two.  The  weather is cooler, and the weekend is here!  Let's celebrate!

I love home-school bloggers.  I have been getting ideas from them for seven years.  Over the weekend, I was reading one  which mentioned a poetry program she loved.  Poetry!  Yes.  I want to add poetry to our days, too.  However, I cannot justify buying a program right now.  So, a-searching I went.  Thanks for the inspiration, Jamie. 
Free poetry plans are not abundant, but I found some ideas.  We already had the Random House Book of Poetry for Children to start, and I found a poetry unit using that book at Homeschool Share. 
The kids both enjoyed reading poems together.  And they didn't groan when I asked them to try to write their own poem using repetition.  Here is one:

More good news:  About two weeks ago, I needed to find a new spelling plan for Z(9).  He had gotten bored with dictation and wanted "real" spelling homework and tests.  His sister is using the Phonetic Zoo which is working out great, but it's her thing.  She needs her own things.  And again, I'm not buying a spelling program.  It's not that complicated. Right?  I found a free spelling course at Splashes From the River for grades 6-8, and I love it!  The words are well-organized with simple, not silly, activities to work on as you practice the words.  It's perfect for us for now.

Fun finds:  I needed some books for our Bible study and for our Science study that I didn't want to buy. I found TWO on paperback swap and one through Inter-Library Loan! 

The grand finale:  On Friday, we took some time for a truly history-based field trip.  Now, it's not Ancient History which we are studying, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience that we had to see.  
It's called the Spirit of Freedom.  It's a plane used after World War II to lift supplies into West Berlin between 1948 and 1949.  The plane has been made into a traveling museum of the Berlin Airlift, and this weekend it is in Montgomery, Alabama!  I learned a lot about this "battle" which preceded the Cold War I grew up in.  We met two women who grew up in Berlin during that time as well as Colonel Gale Halvorsen, the "Candy Bomber."  What kind, generous people they all were.  I am blessed for the experience.  If the Spirit ever comes your way, don't hesitate to visit it.   

This 1940's radio was playing while we toured the plane.

The cockpit. 

The German "girl" who remembers the supplies the Allies delivered, The Candy Bomber (Col. Halvorsen), and us.

A Mid-Week Diversion

Tuesday night, I decided that we needed a little break from our routine.  Tensions had been getting a little high and spirits were falling.  What should we do?

Callaway Gardens came to mind. It's a large park in Pine Mountain, Georgia filled with gardens, a couple of lakes, trails, a butterfly pavilion, and other things.  We had never been there, even though it was only about a 90 minute's drive from home.  There is usually a cost to get in (which might have led me somewhere else on Wednesday), but in honor of September 11th, admission was free!  With that, I knew we had to go there.  

Mind you, just because we were taking off for fun, the tensions did not completely melt away.  We had bickering, grumpiness, and disappointments which started before we even left the driveway.  That's life.  I cut our adventure short to make it home in time for our regular afternoon sports, which decision I now regret.  A day off should be a day OFF!  I'll have to give myself a second chance some day soon.
We saw some beautiful sights and had a memorable day in the midst of it all.  Before we left, we all agreed we'd have to come back to see and do more at this new place - especially when they have their Christmas lights display!  

Z is trying to feed the turtles in the water before the fish steal the food.

September is Blue Morpho month at the Day Butterfly Center

These butterflies hardly stopped fluttering, but this one actually landed on Z's shorts for a minute. 

At the Birds of Prey show, the birds flew back and forth right over our heads!  It was the coolest birds show we've ever seen. This hawk had been injured while catching road prey.

Check out this handsome Black Vulture.

I'd love to know what the rest of you do when your "class" needs a break, so feel free to leave a comment.  Then, if you want to see highlights from other home-schooling families, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up from Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers here.