Great Ideas to Share: Nature Museum and More

It amazes me what great ideas we all come up with together and then are willing to share. Here is a great idea from a reader that she shares on her blog:
The Museum
They have taken the idea of a nature journal and made it into a great visual "museum" for their family. Her son was a reluctant nature study and nature journal student until he read the Boxcar Childrenbook that told about how they made a museum. Ellie's children were inspired to take the idea and apply it to their nature study.

I love this idea and I have already cleared a spot on our school area wall to hang some of our sketches and ideas until they find their way into the nature journals...which for my boys are binders. Thanks for sharing your idea Ellie.

Last week, Melissa shared a fantastic entry on nature study on her blog, In the Sparrow's Nest. She explains in her entry Carving out Time for Nature Walks the many benefits of nature study in each and every family. She challenges us all to make it a priority and to view getting outdoors and observing all the living creatures around us as important as math and reading. I couldn't agree more. Thanks Melissa for sharing your heart with us all in your entry. I encourage all that have not read this entry yet to pop over and take a few minutes to be prodded to do more with nature study.

I am always so inspired when I read the Outdoor Hour Challenge links each week. Each one is a gem to me. I encourage you if you have a few minutes to check out some of the links at the bottom of each Outdoor Hour Challenge. You will not regret it.

Thanks for all the great ideas.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Hummingbird Moth or White-Lined Sphinx Moth

Another gift this morning....a hummingbird moth or a white-lined sphinx moth. (click this link for a better look at what we saw this morning)

I heard this guy in the skylight of the kitchen last night but I couldn't get him to come down so I could see what sort of moth he was. This morning as I was sipping my morning cup of coffee, he buzzed right over to collect some nectar from the vase of flowers on my kitchen table. Can you believe that? We all watched as he hovered around the flowers and then up over the table. This was our first experience with a hummingbird moth and it was fantastic.

He flew up to the ceiling and landed in the corner. Please excuse the really ugly background for this beautiful moth. We re in the middle remodeling our living room and he landed right in the dusty corner where we are sheetrocking....of course.

I pulled out my Handbook of Nature Study and I was surprised to find that there is a complete section on hummingbird and sphinx moths, pages 320-325.

"The have long, rather narrow, strong wings which enable them to fly with extraordinary rapidity. ...Their colors show most harmonious combinations and most exquisite contrasts; the pattern, although often complex, shows perfect refinement.....Most of the sphinx moths have remarkably long tongues, which are sometimes twice the length of the body."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 321

This was a very interesting insect to read about and I will be on the look out now for more of them. I read in the Handbook that they especially like petunias, morning glories, and nasturtiums which are all planted in my new garden from the spring!

Another gift....thank you.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Nature Study as We Go About Our Everyday Life

This week we had some new and interesting things come our way for nature study. We seem to find things. We saw this field of wildflowers along the bike trail in our local area. The field was so pretty in the early morning light and I couldn't resist taking a few photos.


Common Madia


I even got a photo with a bee in it as part of our insect study this week.

My son found this moth in the bathroom and called me in to get a photo of the "pretty moth" on the wall. Cool.

We visited the pond this week and we brought home some water, plants, and some fish. This snail came along for the ride.

This is something else new for me...not sure what it is. The fruit looks sort of like a cherry. Isn't it frustrating when you just don't know what you want to know? I will try to figure it out and come back and edit. This was in the parking lot where I was waiting for the boys.
Edit: Thanks everyone....rose hips! The bush is so big and I didn't realize it was a rose but I am sure that everyone is right....rose hips. Thanks again.


The cutest thing we saw this week was a squirrel eating walnuts from our tree. He had such a long bushy tail and he didn't mind that we watched him as he nibbled. There are plenty of nuts for everyone. My son discovered the squirrel while he was in the backyard working on a project.

We had a lot of incidental nature study this week. I love that when it happens.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #27 Bees

“During many years naturalists have been studying the habits and adaptations of the honeybees, and, as yet, the story of their wonderful ways is not half told. Although we know fairly well what the bees do, yet we have no inkling of the processes which lead to a perfect government and management of the bee community; and even the beginner may discover things never known before about these fascinating little workers.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 391

We have lots of honeybees and bumblebees in our area of California. I love to watch them on my lavender plants and on my other garden flowers. I love to sit and let them buzz up right next to me so I can see them clearly. I have had a sting or two in my life but usually because I stepped on a bee in the grass with bare feet.

“The structure of honeycomb has been for ages admired by mathematicians, who have measured the angles of the cells and demonstrated the accurate manner in which the rhomb-shaped cell changes at its base to a three-faced pyramid; and have proved that, considering the material of construction, honeycomb exemplifies the strongest and most economic structure possible for the storing of liquid contents.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 395

I am fascinated with the geometry of the honeycomb and read with interest the section in the Handbook on honeycombs starting on page 395. Maybe it has something to do with my love for eating honey.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #27
Focus on Insects-Bees
(You may also like to look at the Yellow Jacket and Mud Dauber Challenge.)

1. This week read about bees in the Handbook of Nature Study, pages 384-400. There are sections on leaf-cutter bees, carpenter bees, bumblebees, and honeybees in the Handbook of Nature Study. You may not have every kind of bee in your location but I found the information very interesting and maybe someday I will have the opportunity to observe all the different kinds of bees discussed in the book. Remember our focus right now is on insects so if you don’t find a bee to observe, you can always look for other insects to study.

2. Your 15-20 minutes of outdoor time this week can be spent looking for insects. Make your goal just to get outside in your own backyard and find something to observe with your child. If during that time you find an insect, take as long as you can to describe what it looks like, what it is doing, and then try to come up with some questions to answer later with your Handbook of Nature Study or a field guide. If you find a bee to observe during your nature time or at another time during the week, use the opportunity to relate some facts from your reading in the Handbook of Nature Study.



3. Give the opportunity for a nature journal entry. It might be hard to draw a bee from your outdoor time but it would be a great idea to find a photo of a bee online or use the diagram on page 391 to make an entry about bees in your journal. Another idea is to use a notebooking page and fill it in with your thoughts and observations from your Outdoor Hour time.

4. If you are keeping a running list of insects you have observed during this focus period, add the insect’s name to the list.

 
Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences. You can link up by clicking the carnival button or you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.

Crane Flat Meadow: Yosemite National Park

Just another example of a simple nature journal for you to see. This is one with doodling...sometimes you just need to doodle in your nature journal and see what happens.



Remember to have fun when you journal. You can make it as simple or as fancy as you wish. No wrong answers.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

Charlotte Mason homeschoolers,

Would you please pop over to my other blog to complete a poll about the upcoming edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival? I am trying to pick a theme.

Harmony Art Mom
The poll is on the top left sidebar.

Thanks for your help.

Did you read the latest edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival Back to School Planning Bash yet? It has been an amazing success!

Back to School Planning Bash

Enjoy,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Crazy for Ladybugs: Outdoor Hour Challenge #26

We love ladybugs in our garden. It is as simple as that. They always make me smile when I see them crawling around in the grass or on the rose bushes. Maybe it is the nostalgia of childhood memories that flood in when I see ladybugs....you know, singing *that* song. :)

Here is a link to an entry that I wrote a few months ago on finding a ladybug larva and a ladybug in my garden. This is an example of how taking the time to focus on something different in your own yard leads to a lot of really great information and then satisfaction.
Ladybug Entry

Anyway, we recently observed a different kind of ladybug. I did take photos but now they are missing...hmmmm, it might actually have something to do with the number of photos I take each week. I have a hard time keeping them organized. :)

Anyway, here are some thoughts from the Handbook of Nature Study that I enjoyed:
From the Handbook of Nature Study, page 366:

"The ladybird is a beetle. Its young are very different from the adult in appearance, and feed upon plant lice."

"These little beetles are very common in autumn and may be brought to the schoolroom and passed around in vials for the children to observe. Their larvae may be found on almost any plant infested with plant lice. Plant and all may be brought into the school room and the actions of the larvae noted by the pupils during recess."

From page 365:

"From our standpoint the ladybird is of great value, for during the larval as well as adult stages, all species except one feed upon those insects which we are glad to be rid of."

"The ladybird is a clever little creature, even if it does look like a pill, and if you disturb it, it will fold up its legs and drop as if dead, playing possum in a most deceptive manner."

Here is one of our nature journals.

I don't usually have to go far during the summer to find a ladybug or some aphids. The boys will point out that I have a ladybug in my hair or there will be one hiding among the weeds on the edges of the garden box. They just seem to go hand in hand with summer gardening.

Want an update on my garden? Here you go! All the photos in this entry are from this week in my garden.

Fading Coneflowers


Green beans growing up the poles in my garden box


My first nasturtium....we must plant more of these next year.


My morning glories are glorious.


Our butterfly bush in blooming...two different colors. Click to see them.

The days are getting shorter again and I can feel autumn nipping at my heels. It won't be long now...sigh.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge Notebooking Pages and a New Ebook Soon

Since the very beginning of the Outdoor Hour Challenges, Tina from Jetihoja Academy has been creating notebooking pages to go along with each week's assignments. I have appreciated all her effort in producing a way for families to easily follow up their nature study time with a page for their nature journal.

Tina has enjoyed creating the notebook pages for the weekly challenges so much that she has decided to revamp the original topic specific versions and make them even better. These will be available in a new upcoming Outdoor Hour ebook. (See below for additional information on the ebook.)

As she switches directions, she will be removing all the currently available notebooking pages from the Save File website on Friday, August 22nd. If you use her notebooking pages along with the challenges, you will find in their place, newly designed generic style notebooking pages for your use starting on August 22nd.

Our hope is that you will find this streamlined offering much more convenient for your family. You can print multiple copies of the three beautifully redesigned notebooking pages to use for any challenge. Along with the nature journal pages you will also have available a blank page to use as a running list of items you have observed in any particular focus area. Lastly, there will be a notebooking page to record any items you add to your nature collection.

If you wish to have the currently available notebooking pages, please make sure to download them by Friday, August 22nd. The five new notebooking pages will be made available for download sometime on Friday, August 22nd.

I think the newly designed free notebooking pages are a great asset to the homeschooling community and I want to thank Tina for offering them to everyone as a free download.

If you have any questions about the notebooking page switch on August 22nd, you can email me at harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

Now for the announcement!

Outdoor Hour Challenge Ebook
As part of a new partnership, Tina, my daughter Amanda, and I are in the process of writing an ebook that will include the original first ten Outdoor Hour Challenges. The new ebook will have the original challenges, tips for using the Handbook of Nature Study from my blog, examples from my family on how we accomplished each challenge, a brand new set of notebooking pages for each challenge, and some suggestions for additional activities and resources for the first ten challenges. Many families have suggested that I combine the challenges into one document for ease of use and after much thought, I agree that it would help more families if they had a convenient resource at their fingertips.

I will keep you posted as the project proceeds but we anticipate publishing it on Lulu.com in the near future. If there is much demand after releasing the first ten challenges as an ebook, we will proceed with publishing the next group of challenges and notebooking pages, probably by focus area.

To be clear, the challenges will all still be on my blog but the ebook will be available for a small fee as a convenience to families that wish to have everything all in one place. I will still be adding new challenges each week to my blog and you are welcome to use the free notebooking pages that Tina is offering.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Houseflies Around our House: Outdoor Challenge #25

Since posting my challenge on houseflies, I have been on the lookout for a subject of our study. My opportunity came the other day as I was making dinner and I noticed that there was a lone fly buzzing around. He was so annoying as he tried to land on my hamburger patties and my freshly cut garden tomato and some onion. I went to get my fly swatter and then as I was poised to swat him a good one, I stopped to remember and reflect on all that I learned this week by reading in the Handbook of Nature Study.

Houseflies as a topic of a challenge. What was I thinking? Someone called me a nature nerd the other day and I think it has stuck with me.....anyone else a nature nerd?

On another note, we also saw these insects crawling all over the garden box. I have no idea what they were but there were literally hundreds of them climbing up the green bean vines and the sunflowers. If you are interested, click the photos to enlarge them....beware, they get really big when you click.


We also enjoyed another insect in the yard this week, the Red Skimmer dragonfly. I never did get a photo of these beautiful dragonflies but I did draw him in my nature journal. He really is this reddish-orange with beautiful wings. This one is much more colorful than the Black Saddlebag dragonfly that I saw last week. Unlike the Black Saddlebag, this Red Skimmer does not sit still for even a second.

Now if you are tired of looking at my insects, feast your eyes on this photo of my red delicious tomato, fresh from the garden on my lettuce salad. With rewards like this, gardening is a great hobby to pursue. Hopefully the beautiful photo of the salad will erase any unpleasantness of the fly and black bug photos from your mind. :)

Enjoy,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Great Local Nature Resources....Look Up Your Zip Code

I received a FANTASTIC link in an email from the Kids Gardening News. (sign up for their free email newsletter...it always has great info)

Here is a little blurb-make sure to click the link below to get information about pollinators in your specific region of the United States:

Pollinators are essential to life

Nearly 80% of our world's crop plants require pollination. Birds, bees, butterflies, but also beetles, mosquitoes, and even bats transfer pollen between seed plants. This function is vital for plant reproduction.

Here is the link:
Pollinator Guide: Ecoregional Planting Guide

Look up your zip code to see if you have a guide available for your region. These are beautiful PDF files that you can download with loads of information about your particular region. I see these guides as valuable resources for local geography, science, natural history, and community involvement. What a GEM!

After I typed in my zip code it told me what region I live in:
Sierran Steppe-Mixed Forest-Coniferous Forest-Alpine Meadow Province

My region's guide is not available yet but I took a peek at some of the others. What a fabulous resource tailored to your particular region of the United States.

This is perfect for our focus on insects.

Take a look,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Hearts and Trees Summer Kit Give-Away

Time for announcing who gets the Hearts and Trees Summer Kit.

and the randomly drawn winner is.......

The Bergenholtz Family!

I have admired their family's spirit when it comes to nature study. I am always anxious to read their blog entries when they are on Mr. Linky.

You might check out their whole blog....she has lots of great projects for art and science as well as having great examples of nature journals.

Thanks for all your participation in the Outdoor Hour Challenges. Make sure to email me your address so I can send you the Summer Kit right away!!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #26 Ladybugs and Aphids

This week we will be taking time to read about and look for two different insects that seem to go hand in hand. I know in our garden if I see a ladybug, I will many times, if I look carefully, see some aphids too. Aphids are pretty small but if you get out your hand lens you may find you can see these insects in your flower garden. Look under the leaves.

“Aphids seem to be born to serve as food for other creatures-they are simply little machines for making sap into honeydew, which they produce from the alimentary canal for the delectation of ants; they are, in fact, merely little animated drops of sap on legs.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 352

Wow, that pretty much spells it out. I know that I have read somewhere that ants actually “farm” the aphids and “milk” them for food.

Here are some aphids that I photographed way back last fall. These are rose leaves from my yard and they were really eating them up.


Here are the same aphids above along with an ant so you can compare the size.


These aphids I photographed last February on the back of a blackberry leaf. I didn't eve realize they were there until I zoomed in on them when I got home. I was actually taking a photo of the thorns on the back of the leaf.



Ladybugs are always a welcome sight in our garden and I have learned over the years how beneficial they are.

“The ladybird is a beetle. Its young are very different from the adult in appearance, and feed upon plant lice.”

Have fun this week and remember your overall focus is on insects so if you don’t see any ladybugs and aphids, post your blog entry about what insects you did discover. I look at these challenges as a way to make a community of families who are interested in nature. We all learn from each other. Believe it or not, I feel as if I learn just as much from all your posts as I do from doing the research to come up with the challenges.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #26
Focus on Insects-Ladybugs and Aphids

1. This week read about ladybugs and aphids in the Handbook of Nature Study, pages 364-366 and pages 351-354. Remember our focus right now is on insects so if you don’t find either of these insects to observe, you can always look for other insects to study. If you do your reading, you will be prepared when you next come across these insects.

2. Your 15-20 minutes of outdoor time this week can be spent looking for insects. I know it is still very hot for most of us but if you get out early, even before breakfast, you might be able to enjoy the morning air and a few insects too.

3. Give the opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you need ideas for alternative nature journal activities, please see challenge 2 and challenge 3. You might want to draw the ladybug life cycle or show how ants benefit from aphids by providing them with food. Encourage your child to draw something that interested them from your nature time. When my children were young, I considered a drawing, a date, and a label as a successful nature journal. There are free Insect Study notebook pages in the Ant Study.

Make sure to pull out the Handbook of Nature Study to see if any insects you find are listed and you can read more about it there. If you are keeping a running list of insects you have observed during this focus period, add the insect’s name to the list.


 
Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences. You can link up by clicking the carnival button or you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.

Crickets Inside and Outside the House: Challenge #24

We have lots of experience with crickets. Our fire-bellied toads eat crickets everyday. The boys have a cricket habitat that they keep the crickets in until they are rationed out as food for the toads to snatch up.

We had to buy really big crickets a few weeks ago and they made such a racket in the house. We normally buy little crickets and they are too young to chirp. The boys could not sleep with the large crickets chirping in their room. There must have been fifty crickets in the habitat. They solved the problem by turning on the light and that made the crickets stop. Interesting.

If you are looking at the photos of the habitat and you see orange cubes, those are cricket food that provides moisture and food for them. Most of the crickets spend their time in the black tubes in the dark. You can remove a tube and shake out a few crickets into the toad habitat very easily. It works very well.

I have included a sketch of one of the crickets that my son made for his nature notebook.

After reading Angi's entry, I feel like we cheated in completing this entry by purchasing our crickets. Angi's boys look like they had a great time searching for crickets at night. We may have to try that soon.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Special Outdoor Hour Challenge Give-Away

Don't Forget Tomorrow's Deadline of 8 AM! Read below for the details!



The participation in the Outdoor Hour Challenge has really dropped in the last week, or at least the number of links entered into Mr. Linky has significantly dropped off. I want to encourage all to share in some sort of nature study this week so here is my offer.

For every post entered into Mr. Linky this week, you will entered into the give-away for one of my daughter's Hearts and Trees Summer Kits.


These are fantastic kits and included in this package is a nature journal and lapbook designed by ME! There is also a nature scavenger hunt activity as well as a sewing project, a pressed flower project, and a whole artist study for Monet. They are really great tools in helping your family in their nature study and learning more about how art and nature are connected. Click the link above for more details on the kits. They are designed for kids ages 6-12 and the sewing project might need adult help.

For each entry into Mr. Linky that links to an actual blog entry describing how you accomplished your nature study this week, I will put your name down for the give-away. I will cut off the entries at 8 AM on Friday, August 15th. You can complete any challenge that you want to and I will count it towards the give-away tally. If you are just starting out, start with number one. If you started but haven't participated for awhile, start with any challenge you are interested in. If you have been keeping up with us all along, try the last few weeks for your challenges.

I will decide on a winner and announce them next Friday, August 15th.

Please leave me a comment if you add a link and it makes it easier for me to keep up. Email me if you have any questions. If you are interested in purchasing a Summer Kit, click over to my daughter's blog and read more about it there. She has a few left in stock and she would love to answer any questions you might have about the kits.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to take a few minutes of nature time.

Pass the word about the give-away!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

So Beautiful It Makes Me Cry: Dragonfly Morning

"It is while we, ourselves, are dreaming in the sun by the margin of some pond, that these swift children of the air seem but a natural part of the dream. Yet if we waken to note them more closely, we find many things very real to interest us."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 404

I don't know if you have ever had this experience but it has happened to me a few times that I can remember: Something that you see in our natural world is so beautiful that it makes you cry. It could be a sunset, an autumn tree in full color, or in this most recent case, a dragonfly.

I know. You all think that I have lots my marbles over that one but I am going to post some photos that will only give you a hint of how beautiful this dragonfly is in real life.

Here's the story. I have been putting together an Outdoor Hour Challenge about dragonflies over the last few weeks. I have had my camera at the ready many times because I have several kinds of dragonflies in my backyard and I hoped to get a photo for the blog entry. Will those dragonflies sit still for just one photo? Not usually.

This morning I was up and out on the back deck early, around 6 AM. I was just out of the shower and I usually go out and come my hair as I survey the morning's happenings outside. It is my routine. Well, as I was standing there looking out over the yard, I tried to focus on something that was on a beach towel on the deck railing. I knew it was an insect but without my glasses on it looked like a blur. I went into the house and grabbed my glasses and camera.

I couldn't really get a good photo at first because it was still pretty dark out. Then he flew away and I was so sad to see him go. But, he landed on my lemon tree and he has been there ever since. This gave me lots of time to take a good photo of him. I think that this was a gift to me this morning and now I will share my gift with you.

Black saddlebag dragonfly

See the coloration on the wings that look like "saddlebags"?

You have to click the photo to make it larger so you can see the colors of the wing in this photo. It was like lace with all its fine detail. I actually was able to measure his wing span, 4 inches!

His head is so big and I know he was looking at me too. Click this one for a better view of him up close....you may never get this close to a dragonfly so here is your chance. :)

Look at the pattern and colors in the wing...iridescent in one light and spun from gold in another. It looks just like stained glass.

I know my original intention was to share a photo with you when I posted the challenge but this was so special that it gets its own post. The beauty in creation is such a testament to our Creator. Only He could think to spin this dragonfly's wings out of gold, to make his coloration so distinct, and to give his face a dash of brilliant blue. I am amazed at the beauty and it truly did make me cry.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
PS There is a big section in the Handbook of Nature Study on dragonflies if you would like to read more this week. I will be giving an assignment in Outdoor Hour Challenge #28 to read about dragonflies and damselflies.

Our Nature Notebooks: Challenge #21

This is from my oldest son's nature journal. This was just about the time we started using journals in our family...

We have been plugging away, page by page, for years. I have a whole row of nature journals lined up on the shelf in our school area. It gives us a lot of pleasure to pull them down and to page through them and relive some of the memories.

I thought I would just share some pages that are favorites that I don't think I have shared before. I will add them onto the bottom of this post so you see some "older" nature journal pages and some of the variety of ideas the boys have had over the years.

We are all trying to reach thirty pages by the end of the year.

Here are our tallies so far:
Mom=11
Amanda=1
Middle Son=0
Youngest Son=2
(We just started our school term a few weeks ago and the boys have been super-dee-duper busy with high school stuff. It looks like I need to schedule in some nature study time each week.)

If you are working on your notebook challenge, please post and link in Mr. Linky on Challenge #21 and let us know how it is going for your family.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Here is the first page in my oldest son's nature journal. It isn't anything fancy but it was a start. He would have been twelve years old when he drew this.

I thought it was interesting that he spelled "orange" correctly but not "shirt". I never corrected their spelling in their notebooks.

Here is an example of how my son drew what was important to him at the time. He wrote, "cat on top of the ruff of dads shope". Priceless.

This is an example of how sometimes they would just make a list of things they saw during our nature time. I have no idea what the orange boxes are for. I am sure there was a reason. Love the spellings of the words.

I made up little "scavenger hunt" cards (you can see it taped to the side of the journal) to help us with our nature study when we seemed to be going through a slump. They would try to find something from each category and draw it in their journal. You can find similar ideas on my daughter's blog. You will need to scroll down on her sidebar to her "Free Downloads" section and click on either Summer Nature Walk Worksheet or Fall Nature Walk Worksheet.

This is from my oldest son's journal. I don't often share his stuff but I thought I would today. He has a great sense of humor and it comes out in his nature journal. He also likes fine tip colored markers instead of colored pencils.

Just another from his journal....check out that date!

I know everyone always likes to see examples from our journals so this post is for your pleasure.