Outdoor Hour Challenge #41 Flowerless Plants

The weather has been cold and windy all week. That is until today. We have beautiful weather today and we were all anxious to get outdoors. Early in the week we read the above book and talked about plants that never bloom. In the past we have spent lots of time studying mushrooms and attempting to identify them. I love mushrooms and the boys know it, so anytime they find one they run to tell me about it. Therefore, the book was helpful to get them thinking about other plants that never bloom. So, today I sent them outside to see if they could find a plant that never bloomed and bring it to me.

They were excited and ran out the door as quick as they could. It wasn't too long before they were ringing the doorbell and the above picture is what I saw when I opened the door.

They had found some moss growing next to the house and around some shrubs out front. Above is a close-up of their specimen.

Next, they took me out to show me where they found it and in the process we also found the following moss. I think it is called miniature pine, but I could be mistaken. We will have to look it up.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Outdoor Hour Challenge #40 Weather #2

This morning we had just a few clouds that we labeled cirrostratus. Although there were only a few clouds in the sky they were unusual clouds.

It looked like when you take an eraser and rub it in a straight line across a blue background, which is what we did to get the same effect on our notebook page.

Then we checked our outdoor weather station to find the temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation.

We copied all this information onto the great notebooking page that Barb provided for us. This challenge was specifically a seasonal challenge. Therefore we will be repeating the same exercises each season to compare the differences in the weather. We are already looking forward to the winter challenge and plan to record our findings on a snow day.

This is a rain gauge that the boys just had to have. They reasoned that they could read it from the inside of the house on a rainy day.

Catching Butterflies In November

Last week we had one very windy day. The boys loved it because it blew up a big pile of leaves, which is always fun.

But the big adventure was catching butterflies. November is not a time of year that I normally think of as prime time for catching butterflies, but the boys caught at least 14. We already knew the names of many of them, but a few we had to look up. The boys drew two of them in their nature journals.

Black Swallowtail

The Dog Face Butterfly, so named because you can see an outline of a poodle near the top of his wings.

Hearts and Trees Fall Kit

Here the boys are working hard on their tissue paper collage.

The boys loved doing this art project that was included in the Hearts and Trees Fall Kit. We traced leaves, that we had collected, onto our paper with a permanent black pen. Then we pasted on little pieces of a special tissue paper that bleeds. This was an easy project that turned out very beautiful.

Here is the final product!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #39 Weather

This week there has not been a cloud in the sky! Nevertheless, we have completed weather observations three times this week. We have had beautiful clear skies, with temperatures in the low 70's. It has been a great week to be outdoors.

My oldest son has been very glad to be doing a weather challenge. He has rain gauges of various sizes, thermometers, barometers, and wind gauges that he keeps an eye on. He has learned the cloud names and is working on a photographic book of clouds.

As much as we have studied the weather in the past we found the chapter in, The Handbook of Nature Study, on water forms to be wonderful. We loved the way she used the picture of the invisible cap and the "magic" word cold that causes the invisible hat to come off. Her explainations of condensation and evaporation were very visual and we had fun retelling it.

Here is an example of cumulus clouds we made using Amanda's watercolor technique #6 .

Instead of dropping the alcohol onto the paper, we used our cotton swab to shape clouds.

Our Thankful Tree

Here is our Thankful Tree. It has been fun adding new leaves each day. It is right by our dining table so we are able to read the leaves and talk about other things we want to add each time we eat. This was very simple to make and such a great way to practice daily gratitude.

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“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Outdoor Hour Challenge #17- Leaf Parts

This week in our Nature study we focused on leaf parts. Although we did not look at garden flowers we utilized the Outdoor Hour Challenge #17 to study the parts of a leaf. It worked out well that we had participated in Home Depot's Kids Workshop, earlier this month, where the boys each made a leaf press.

The boys really liked watching Barb's tutorial of how to draw a leaf. After viewing the tutorial they were eager to try it out for themselves.

While drawing their leaves we talked about each leaf part and practiced using the proper names.

We were all very satisfied with the end results. Thanks Barb!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun With Feathers

A Day At The Nature Reserve

These are some pictures from a day at the Nature Reserve or as our little one keeps saying, "the Nature Journal." We love spending time here, but I must say it is not as easy hiking the trails when you are almost 8 months pregnant.

Wordless Wednesday

Watch Party

Well, it has finally arrived...Election Day. It seems like we have been hearing about the election for years now. The boys have been thoroughly caught up in it all. They have watched the debates, made political cartoons, and questioned family members over who they were voting for. Since early in the race they have been spotting yard signs and reporting on what they have seen. They went with us to the voting place and watched as we voted. It has been a great learning experience.

So, for their enjoyment I decided to have a little watch party for them tonight. We have decorated the house with red and blue signs, flags, and we even ordered some campaign buttons which we received in the mail yesterday. They made copies of the buttons for some of their stuffed animals. This morning as soon as they finished their lessons we went and bought Eagle Webkinz and a blue star balloon for the celebration.

Tonight we are planning to have hotdogs and hamburgers followed by an election night cake. Then we are headed to the courthouse to hear the results of the local elections. After that we will come home and see how the presidential election is coming along.

Happy Reformation Day!

It was 491 years ago today that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. Little did he know what would ensue after he did this. The reformation spread throughout Europe in a matter of years and had a profound impact on not only the Church, but the culture as well.

How we celebrate:

Today we celebrated by retelling the story of Martin Luther while eating homemade German pretzels and drinking Root beer. We talked about salvation by grace through faith. I had planned for the boys to do a coloring sheet of Martin Luther, but by the time we finished our eating and talking, I decided to keep those for another day.

Tomorrow we will travel to our former church to celebrate with friends, A Day of Reformation. This day will include all sorts of booths and children's activities pertaining to the time period and the reformers. This will be followed by worship and a lecture on William Tyndale. The event will conclude for the evening with another lecture on Martin Luther.

I will try and post some pictures after the event.

Wordless Wednesday

Autumn Tree Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge #36

For our tree study we are looking at two trees. First a white oak which is close to home, actually right outside our kitchen window. We have at least one squirrel that frequents its branches, but we have not noticed a nest. We are also looking at a Cottonwood that is on some land that belongs to family. It is not too far away and we are curious to find out whether it is a male or female. So we drove out to take a look at it today. The interesting thing about this Cottonwood is that there is a group of three growing right up together and they are the only ones on the entire property, which is about 80 acres. So we had a talk today about how did these trees get here? I don't have a picture of the Cottonwoods because my camera batteries decided to die.

The following pictures are of trees we have known before our move.

Although, we attempted our Autumn Tree Study today, I think what I realized is that Autumn has not quite arrived where we live. A few trees have started to change their colors, but for the most part everything is still the same. As I looked through some old pictures (like the one above), I realized that the colors don't really come until mid to late November for us. So, I think we are going to redo todays work in about a month. I forget that all those beautiful pictures I see are from much further north.

Just look at the roots on this Pecan tree! It is really amazing and the boys love climbing inside the hollow trunk. This is one of our favorite trees. It is around 200 years old and the inside is hollow, yet the tree is still living. It is located in the Botanic Gardens where we used to live. We really miss all the beautiful trees from the city.
Here is a close up of the inside of the tree where you can see just how big it is. There is room for the whole family.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Very First Pet

I am sure we will have more picture to post, but for now here is a quick snap of the new pet. He is really cute and has a long navy blue tail. Needless to say the boys are thorougly pleased. They named him "Feathers" after much thought and deliberation.

Water Color Friday

We try to do a watercolor every Friday and these are the ones from this past Friday. We used a tutorial found at Hearts and Trees. The technique included sprinkling table salt onto your wet paint which gave a nice texture, especially for our sandy beach.