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

Just a Word of Thanks: Participation in the Outdoor Hour Challenges

After my post last week on my perception of a lack of participation in the Outdoor Hour Challenges, I received a lot of feedback both in the form of comments and in private email. I now have a better understanding of what is actually going on.

There are lots of families who are participating but not necessarily putting up a link in Mr. Linky.

Reasons for the decline in links in Mr. Linky were explained quite nicely. Many of the participants don't have blogs to link to but they are participating as a family and are still really enjoying the assignments. Some of the participants did not fully understand that it was quite acceptable to post a link to your blog that showed your nature study for the week even if you didn't find the particular insect we are learning about. Some participants really took the summer "off" from blogging and so they didn't link but they are still keeping up the nature study each week. I think those were the main explanations that were shared.

Whew, I feel better now.

I really enjoy putting the challenges together but if you look at just the numbers, which I tend to do since my profession was as an accountant, it seemed as if the participation was waning. If there were really just a few that were still completing the challenges and enjoying the assignments, it seemed silly for me to put as much effort into them as I have been. I realized that sometimes you have to ask the right question and not just look at the statistics. :) I have it straight now and I am happy to keep up the challenges.

So we are off again and I am really looking forward to the coming weeks. Upon reflection, I realized that I actually am a few challenges "behind" and I need to get some entries put together. Look for them later this week.

If you don't have a blog but you are still participating, you can always leave a comment about your nature study. I would love to hear from anyone who wants to share, blog or not. I love the sense of community that comes with sharing and I know that others benefit from seeing how each of us completes the challenges in our own way.

Happy nature study,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

PS Don't forget my give-away for the Summer Kit from Hearts and Trees.....keep those links coming!

Outdoor Hour Challenges-Too Specific?

I am responding to comments and personal email about why families seem to be having trouble accomplishing the most current challenges.

First, I guess I have not made it very clear but the overall focus is on insects, any insect. I have been challenging you to read in the Handbook of Nature Study about specific insects so when the opportunity arises, you will have had some background on particular insects. The Outdoor Hour Challenges were first started to help families learn how to use the Handbook of Nature Study and then take those ideas and apply them to what you have in your local area.

Some participants have not posted in the latest challenges because they are reporting that they don't have crickets at this time of year or it is too late at night to look for moths. I can see how that might make the particular insect in the challenge a difficult subject but the overall focus is on any insect. Even if you don't find an insect you should be still finding 10-15 minutes during the week to have some outside time with your children. It doesn't matter to me what you focus on.....one participant in the moth challenge decided to report on rabbits. I think that is awesome.

Second, the challenges are here for you to read and then do with as you wish. I would rather you spent the time outside and enjoyed your backyard, neighborhood, or local park and not worry about the challenge if they stumble you. Take a few minutes after your outdoor time to discuss things with your children. If they find a focus or an area of interest....fantastic. Do some research. Check the Handbook of Nature Study. Draw something if you feel like it. Whatever you decide to do, big or small, post about it and then link. It is the everyday, hum-drum nature study that we are aiming for. We want nature study to become such a part of your life that it just happens and you are not even scheduling it anymore.

After saying all that, I would love for you all to think about your nature study on a weekly basis. Nature study is the long-term life project that you are building up week by week. Don't give up on the challenges because you think you are not meeting the goal. The goal is always just to get outside and spend time together with your children. If you do that, you accomplished the goal.

Later on, if you find a moth or a butterfly or a cricket, remember the reading from the Handbook of Nature Study. Pull up the challenge and post another link if you make a blog entry about your special find.

We have three more weeks of insects. The subjects will be ladybugs/aphids, honeybees, and then lastly dragonflies/damselflies. I know that a lot of you will not have these particular insects in your local area but you can still read about them in the Handbook of Nature Study and spend a little time talking with your children about them. If you complete the reading and keep your eyes open, you just may find you see one of these insects. If not, you may in the future see one and then you will have already studied a little bit about these interesting insects.

After that, we will be at a crossroads. I would like to do a late summer study of sunflowers, think about planting flower bulbs that will bloom in the spring, start a fall notebook, and begin a focus area study on trees for the fall season. I am open to ideas if you want to leave a comment.

If you think it is too hard to be led through a focus area, I can go back to giving general nature study topics again. I see the value in having a focus at all times and still leaving yourself open to learn about things from other areas that come into your life. It has made such a difference in our nature study quality in our family.

Please leave a comment or email me if you have any thoughts or questions.

Sincerely,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #23 Moths

This week we will continue our mini-focus on insects with a study of moths. The Handbook of Nature Study has several sections on moths that you can read whether you think you will find those particular kinds in your area or not. I found the information very easy to read and now I can apply the suggestions for observation with just about any kind of moth. We do have Isabella Tiger moths in our area so I will be especially on the lookout for those when we do our observations. We will be going camping soon so it will be a perfect time to watch the moths that come to the lantern.

“Not only are insects numerous when we regard individuals, but the number of species is far greater than that of all other animals taken together. The number of species in a single family is greater in several cases than the number of stars visible in a clear night.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 295

Outdoor Hour Challenge #23 Focus on Insects-Moths

1. In this challenge we will continue our mini-focus on insects. Turn to the table of contents in the Handbook of Nature Study and skim down the list of moths discussed in the book. Read those sections in the Handbook of Nature Study on moths, pages 310 to 329. I personally don’t know much about moths so I am going to read through all the sections and see what I can learn. Here is some general information.

Moths
Wings not attached
Nocturnal (active at night)
Wings flat when resting
Feathered antennae
Fat abdomen
Form a cocoon

Butterflies
Wings hooked together in flight
Diurnal (active in the day)
Wings upright when resting
Straight, plain antennae
Thin Abdomen
Form a chrysalis

2. This challenge will need to be completed in the evenings. Turn on a light outside or take a flashlight outside. Moths are attracted to light so you should have some success if you are patient. Make sure to look on walls and plants near the light for moths.

Try this website for further techniques in attracting moths.
Attracting Moths
http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/uploads/How%20to%20start%20mothing.pdf

If you are unable to complete the challenge this week for moths, please feel free to take your outdoor time at a time that works for you family. Use your time to look for insects and to enjoy the summer air and sunshine.

3. After you have your outdoor time, provide an opportunity for working on a nature journal entry. This might be a good time to discuss the differences between butterflies and moths. If you didn't see any moths, you can record in your nature journal any other kinds of insects that you found during your outdoor time.

4. If you observe more than one kind of moth this week, make sure to start a list of moths in your nature journal. I like to keep a running list in the back of my nature journal. If you observed some other kinds of insects during the week, record those too.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #23 Moths (complete set of insect challenges in one document)


 
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.

Chasing Butterflies -Outdoor Hour Challenge #22

You really need to click to enlarge this photo....look at the eye!

Today we went out to look for butterflies. We were optimistic. We persevered. We were rewarded.

I can't tell you how much it helps to focus on a particular aspect of nature as outlined in the Outdoor Hour Challenges. If you had asked me if there were butterflies in our backyard, I would have said a definite maybe. We see them from time to time fluttering in the garden but they move pretty fast and we don't get to spend a lot of time observing any one particular butterfly.....usually.

Today we sat out and watched and right away I saw a cabbage white skipping across the clover in the grass, not really sitting but flitting from blade to blade and then off he went. Next we saw what I think was a swallowtail of some sort. I am totally guessing and I say swallowtail because that is one type of butterfly we frequently have in our backyard. He was there and then he was gone way too fast. Then, after much sitting and focusing our eyes on the garden, we saw the best subject of the day. It was a fiery skipper. He sat on a bloom of the butterfly bush and we got to look at him closely. I went to get the camera. A few minutes later, he was back again and this time I was able to take the photo at the top of this entry. Fantastic!!!

The lesson of this blog entry. Pick your focus and be patient. I am ready and anxious to take some more time to go out with the boys and wait for butterflies.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #22 Butterflies

“If children are terrified of bugs, it’s usually because they caught the fear of adults around them.”
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 58

Spending time outdoors at this time of the year usually brings us into contact with a butterfly or two. I know for our family we just about every day see some sort of butterfly in the garden. Little white ones, little bluish-gray ones, and big Tiger swallowtails frequent the many flowers and bushes we have blooming in our yard.

Let's take this week to start looking for butterflies to learn about and talk about in our nature journals. If you have never learned about the life-cycle of a butterfly, check your local library for a good book on the topic. The Handbook of Nature Study describes the cycle with words but it is much more interesting to have a picture book that illustrates the most interesting of life-cycles.


Another way to study butterflies is to purchase a kit to hatch your own. This is the perfect way to observe each of the stages of life that the butterfly goes through.


Outdoor Hour Challenge #22
Focus on Insects-Butterflies

1. This challenge starts the beginning of our mini-focus on insects. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study the introduction to insects, pages 294-300. The Black Swallowtail and the Monarch Butterflies are specifically covered in the Handbook of Nature Study. You can read over those sections before your outdoor time in case you encounter those particular butterflies and to give you ideas for observing any sort of butterfly that you may have in your local area.

2. Use your 10-15 minutes of outdoor time to look for insects and in particular butterflies. Spotting butterflies might need to be done as you go about your daily activities and then taking the opportunity to do your observations at that time. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see a butterfly this week but look at this as an ongoing challenge as the summer progresses.

Here is a link to an article on how to attract and catch/release butterflies.
How to Catch Butterflies
http://www.ehow.com/how_2070424_catch-butterflies.html

3. After you have your outdoor time, provide an opportunity for working on a nature journal entry. You might consider drawing a butterfly and labeling its parts as a way of narration of the points you have discussed this week. If you found a different kind of insect, you can make a nature journal entry for that one as well.

4. If you observe more than one kind of butterfly this week, make sure to start a list of butterflies in your nature journal. I like to keep a running list in the back of my nature journal. Keep adding to your list of other insects as well.



5. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then share the link with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.

 
You may be interested in more insect challenges listed here on the Handbook of Nature Study:
#23 Moths
#24 Crickets
#25 Housefly
#26 Ladybirds/Aphids
#27 Bees
#28 Dragonflies/Damselflies
Monarch Butterflies

Winter Wednesday - Winter Insect Study
Ants (Spring)
Mosquito
Moths and Fireflies
Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Katydids
Leaf-Miners and Leaf-Rollers

Contest Winner: Outdoor Hour Magnet

Last week I posted a contest for those that left comments on the Outdoor Hour Challenge Update post. I had quite a few entries....thank you to all who participated.

The winner of the Outdoor Hour magnet is.....

Princess Momma

Congratulations! You can email me your mailing address and I will send the magnet to you!
harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

If you would like to get your own magnet, here is the link to Amanda's CafePress page where you will find all kinds of great Outdoor Hour products to help with your nature study and just for fun.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #21 Notebook Challenge

Outdoor Hour Challenge #21
Keeping a Nature Journal

“As soon as a child is old enough, he should keep his own nature notebook for his enjoyment. Every day’s walk will give something interesting to add--three squirrels playing in a tree, a blue jay flying across a field, a caterpillar crawling up a bush, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider suddenly dropping from a thread to the ground, where he found ivy and how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, and how ivy manages to climb.”
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 54

Outdoor Time: 
Use your 10-15 minutes of outdoor time to casually observe whatever comes your way. Many families are finding that if they are diligent about keeping their eyes alert to things around them, interesting subjects come up while going about their everyday life. Try to view your whole week as outdoor time and if you are out running errands, keep alert to anything you can observe as you walk along. Children can over time start to see more and more details and as their skills and senses are trained, your outdoor time will become more of a way of life.

Follow-Up: 
After you have your outdoor time, provide an opportunity for working on a nature journal entry. My son was around three years of age when he started making “entries” into his journal. He would draw and I would label for him. You can help your child think of something to draw after discussing the day’s activities. Here is a link to the Outdoor Hour Flickr group with examples of nature journals done by participants.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/naturejournal1/
You can join the group if you would like to participate in contributing to the nature journal archives.

Just a Note About the Outdoor Hour Challenge and a Contest

Just about every day now I get an email from someone who wants to just get started with the Outdoor Hour Challenges but they don't know where to start. There are several strategies for starting but I think the most important thing to remember is that one of the purposes in starting the challenges in the first place was to help parents learn to do a simple nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

So my best suggestion for newcomers is to make sure to complete the first five challenges and then join us in challenge #20 with the year long tree study. This is my suggestion for newcomers as well as those that have gotten behind in the challenges.

The first five challenges contain such important information from the Handbook of Nature Study that I don't think you should miss reading it. Those challenges set the stage for all further nature study and will give you a great overview of how to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

If you have sort of stumbled along the way and need to get started again with the challenges, pick a challenge you can excited about. Take 15-20 minutes for nature study in your own backyard. Keep it simple and let your child enjoy the time outdoors. If the challenge is completed or if you just have a great adventure outdoors, either way you are successful.

We have slowed down a bit in the last few weeks in our family. Outdoor time has been severely limited because of the extreme heat and the air quality. But, we get out early for just a few minutes as much as possible. This week's Outdoor Hour Challenge is one you will not want to miss reading. I will have it posted tomorrow morning.

Leave me a comment on this blog entry and I will enter your name into a random drawing for a Outdoor Hour Challenge refrigerator magnet. These are a great way to remind yourself to get out and spend a few minutes each week with your children in the outdoors. I will draw a name next Thursday evening and announce the winner on Friday, July 18th.

Please feel free to email me anytime if you have any questions about the Outdoor Hour Challenges. harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Participants...Check This Out!

My daughter, in all her creativity, has come up with a terrific idea. She has designed some products to go along with the Outdoor Hour Challenges. These are not necessary to participate but they are really fun additions to your nature study.

I love the tote bag and purchased one for myself. It now holds my sketch book and supplies and I will put in a field guide or two for our next hike. I also am planning on using it for my library tote bag just because it is so cute. It is fairly good size so I can see it being used quite a bit in our family.

Pop over to her blog to see what she is offering. This is totally her venture and so if you have any questions or comments, please leave her a comment or send her an email.

Outdoor Hour CafePress

Amanda's email:
amandachristina@yahoo.com


Here is the magnet. I think it would be a great way to remind ourselves to complete our Outdoor Hour Challenges. I stuck mine right on the front of my refrigerator.

There are a few new items in the works but her blog entry has all the details.

Great job Amanda!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #20 Our Summer Tree Study

We have had hot smoky weather for the past two weeks with all the fires burning in our area. It is very unusual for the wildfires to start so early but my husband says that the fuel in the forests is so dry that it doesn't take much to get it going. We had several dry lightning storms and two weeks ago we had extremely high winds. All these factors together make for extreme fire danger.

We have been enjoying our outdoor time both in the garden and out on hikes in our local area. First of all though, here is my son's summer tree study.His tree doesn't look that much different from our last study. There are lots of green leaves which my son thinks are darker than they were in the spring but it is hard to tell. Here is a close up of the leaves.


This time he measured around the trunk and found it to be 28 inches in circumference.
This is what he noticed had changed the most about the tree. It had these sprouts coming up from the bottom of the trunk. We usually snap these off as they sprout but my son wants to leave them just to see how they grow.


A few days ago we went on a hike at Lake Tahoe which is about an hour from our house. Here are some photos from that hike.

Ignore the crooked horizon line and enjoy the beautiful cloud and the water :)

The lupine was in full bloom.....and it is my favorite color.


Zillions of pinecones on the forest floor should provide lots of food for the critters.


My three favorite boys in the universe standing on the bridge overlooking Taylor Creek. No salmon this time but in a few months this place will be teeming with spawning Kokanee salmon.


The end of the hike winds around in this meadow through a grove of aspens. Just beautiful.

Another great week outdoors in our home territory.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge-Catch Up Week

There will be no new challenge this week for the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Use this week to catch up on past challenges or just have a relaxed nature walk and discussion.

I will return next week with an extra special challenge that you are going to love. :)

Have a great week! Leave me a comment with a link if you have a blog entry for this week. I would love to see what you are up to for nature study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #20 Summer Tree Study

“Besides appreciating the world, observing nature develops other mental powers-ability to focus, to tell things apart, to patiently seek answers. These things are useful in every facet of life.”
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 61

With each new season we learn more about the natural world and the wonderful cycles we find in it. The seasons are a way to measure time and to learn to understand the subtle changes we find in the plants and animals that live close to home. (Gen. 1:14) We started a year-long tree study nine challenges ago and it should be a good time to make our next seasonal observation.

“And what about those six trees that the children were watching since winter? Now children will see that they also flower, although those flowers may be as green as the leaves. …This is old news to grown-ups, but a good teacher will present all knowledge as new and exciting by imagining himself in the place of the child and being amazed with him.”
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 53

Your tree should have leaves for this season's observation and if you were not able to identify your tree before, this should help you do so at this time. If you are just starting your year-long tree study, consult the Handbook of Nature Study’s table of contents for trees and see if you can find a tree that you have close by your home. Turn to the corresponding section and it will give you lots of ideas for learning about your tree. You are not limited to the trees covered in the Handbook of Nature Study but if you choose a tree not listed, you will need to find your information either at your local library or on the internet.


Outdoor Challenge #20 Seasonal Tree Observation-Summer

1. We started a tree study project way back in challenge #11 and make our first observations of our tree. If you would like to review this section in the Handbook of Nature Study, you will find it on pages 622-626. This week the challenge includes making the next seasonal observation of your tree. If your first observation was in spring, you are now into summer and your tree should look a little different. If you are just joining the challenges, pick a tree from your yard, your street, or a near-by park to observe over the course of the next year. Check in the Handbook of Nature Study to see if your tree is listed there and then do the reading about that particular tree. There should be some suggestions for observations that you can follow. You can use the prepared seasonal tree study page to record your observations.

2. Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to study the tree you are going to observe over the next year. You can take photos of your tree to put in your nature journal or you can sketch the tree in your journal. If you need help with tree sketching you can use this resource.
Clare Walkers Leslie's Guide to Sketching Trees

3. If you have additional time this week, you could complete another small square activity from Challenge #9.

4. After your outdoor time, complete your Seasonal Tree Study notebook page sheet or record your tree observations in your nature journal. Take a few minutes to talk about your time outdoors to see if there is anything that your child wants to learn more about. Follow up any interest shown.

Mini-Challenge #20 Year-Long Tree Study
This challenge can be done with or without the Seasonal Tree Study notebook page. If you have limited time or are trying to combine challenges, pick your tree and make a few short observations. Spend the balance of your time reading about your tree so that during the next season you can review what you have already learned and compare your observations from season to season.

 
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.



You can purchase all of the first ten challenges in a convenient ebook along with custom notebook pages.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #19 Seeds and Germination

“Leigh Hunt said to imagine what if we had never seen flowers, and they were sent to us as a reward for our goodness. Imagine how carefully we’d watch the growth of the stem and every unfolding of each leaf in wonder. And then imagine our astonishment when a bud appeared, and began to unfold in all its delicate, colorful beauty. Well, we have been seeing flowers for years-but our children haven’t.”
Charlotte Mason volume 1, page 53

Before we finish up our eight week study of garden flowers, I wanted to do a little experiment that every child should do at least once their lifetime. Germinating seeds and watching the progress is something that will fascinate some children, not all but some. I encourage you to give it a try along with finishing up your garden flower journal entries with your lists of flowers observed, drawings of some garden flowers, and emptying out your flower press and putting them into your journal.

Please Note: The next two challenges (numbers 20 and 21) are basic nature study challenges and then we are onto a quick focus study of insects for the summer starting in challenge number 22.

I will be posting the photo of the week over the weekend....I'm waiting to hear back from the participant for permission to post the photo. :)


Outdoor Hour Challenge #19 Seed Germination

1. This week take a few minutes to go over the mechanics of seed germination. On pages 458-459 of the Handbook of Nature Study you will find a short explanation of how a seed really just holds a little plant struggling to get out.

Try this activity in addition to your Outdoor Hour time this week:
The Germinator
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/germinator.html

2. Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time in your garden, yard, or a near-by park. Look to see if you can find any seeds. Remember that cones and acorns are seeds and that beans are actually seed pods. You can also look in any fruits that you eat this week for seeds like an apple, orange, grapes, or strawberries. Nuts are actually seeds too so if you eat almonds or walnuts or anything similar you can talk about seeds.

3. Add any new garden flowers to your list in your nature journal.

4. You can encourage your child to sketch some seeds in their nature journals. Or they can draw the progress of their seed germination experiment for their journals if they wish. Record your flower seeds’ growth (from challenge 12) and/or record your sunflower’s growth (challenge #16) for the week.

5. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Outdoor Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky.



This challenge is part of my Garden Flowers ebook. This ebook has ten garden related challenges that will walk you through a study of garden flowers using the Handbook of Nature Study. In addition to the challenges already written, there will be more photos, nature journal examples, book lists, and totally new notebook pages designed to go with each of the Garden Flower Challenges.
Follow the link below to view the ebook! Over 50 pages for $6.95

Please note: Mr. Linky is for linking to your Outdoor Hour Challenge blog post only. Please do not link to your blog in general because then when others want to read your challenge post, they have to dig around in your blog to find it.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Garden Update and Outdoor Hour #18 Pollen

This week has been a very busy week outdoors. We are busy tending the garden which mostly means watering and weeding.

I don't mind watering but weeding is endless and frustrating. I have been getting up early to get outdoors before the heat but the job never seems to end. :) My son has lots of herbs in his garden as usual and he loves to trim a little to add to each meal. He has oregano, basil, chives, cilantro, and dill growing. Herbs are so easy for a beginning gardener and they stick around from year to year so you don't need to replant them.

All of our climbers are waking up and the bean poles are getting entangled with green bean vines.

The morning glories are starting to climb up too and I think I am going to have to add some string to my poles soon. The grapes are growing like crazy on the trellis and I can just imagine all the sweet little grapes we will be eating in a month or so. I plant eating grapes and not wine grapes so we can enjoy the fruits as we spend time in the yard. We have one vine that grows next to the pool deck and I love to take a swim and then enjoy a few grapes.

The garden is really growing now that the afternoon temperatures are hitting up in the 90's.

We have baby zucchini.

Here is our first tomato of the year.

I even have okra sprouting up for the first time. I love okra and a few batches over the summer will make me happy.

The sunflowers are starting to look like sunflowers and thanks to the birds and the birdfeeders, I have volunteer sunflowers that planted themselves in the oddest places in the yard. I am letting them go for now and we shall see what happens.

Now for our pollen assignment. We looked carefully for some insects on our garden plants and we were not disappointed. We saw an earwig, some ants, a grasshopper, and we heard lots of bees thanks to the lavender that is blooming like crazy.

Here is a blossom on our trumpet vine that the hummingbirds love but in this particular bloom you will see ants if you look carefully. If I were an ant, I would love to crawl into a trumpet vine blossom. :)

These are something new in the garden and I can't remember quite what they are but aren't they pretty? They are so buttery yellow and the pollen is easy to spot.

This is what happens when you leave a bag of walnuts on your back deck overnight. Some critter came and decided to have a nut-fest and leave behind all the shells. We are not sure but we think it may have been a raccoon. I am not exaggerating when I say that they ate half a grocery sack full of walnuts in one night. Oh well, I wasn't in the mood to crack nuts anyway. :)

That is just a glimpse into our week this week. We had an afternoon hike at the San Francisco Bay last Thursday but I didn't get that many photos. We were at a wildlife refuge right on the bay and it was a fantastic place to explore. We will be going back with our binoculars and field guides again soon.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #18 Looking for Pollen

“Flowers have neither legs like some animals, nor have they wings like butterflies, therefore they cannot go after pollen; in seeking food and drink from flowers, insects carry pollen from one flower to another.” Handbook of Nature Study page 457

As the weather warms up in most areas of the world, spending time looking at and studying flowers is an enjoyable pass-time. Flowers should be beginning to bloom in a colorful rainbow in your own gardens, your neighborhood, or at a near-by park. Take advantage of the warmer weather and extend your Outdoor Hour time to possibly two 15 minute periods each week. We are spending a little time each day in our garden tending our seedlings and enjoying the sunshine.

As explained in yesterday's post, I am including a "mini-challenge" adaptation at the end of this entry. This mini-challenge is a way to shorten your outdoor time if your weather is getting too warm to be outside for long periods of time.

Side lesson: If you or your child is allergic to pollen and suffers from seasonal allergies, you might want to take a few minutes to explain how humans are sometimes adversely affected by pollen in the air.
Here is a link that I found interesting that you could share with your children:
Allergic Rhinitis


Outdoor Hour Challenge #18 Looking for Pollen

1. Read pages 457-458 of the Handbook of Nature Study-Flower and Insect Partners. This section gives us two good lessons to be taught to even the youngest nature student. There is also an illustration that can help you explain about pollen and its role in the plant’s life-cycle. Simple and easy. You can easily adapt the illustration to your local area. Review the diagram on page 456 that shows where on the flower you will find the pollen so you can remind your children as they look for insects on the flower.

2. This week during your 10-15 minutes of nature study, take time to see if you can challenge your child to find an insect on a garden flower. This could be a bee, an ant, a butterfly, or a moth in most areas of the world. Share what you learned about pollen and insects in the reading of the Handbook of Nature Study using words and illustrations that your child will understand. If you can capture a bee in a clear jar, this would give you a way to observe the insect and possibly see some pollen on his body and legs. This would be best done with a magnifying glass or you could try to capture the bee with a digital photo and then enlarge it on your computer. I use the “macro” setting on my digital camera and take lots of photos in order to get a good clear one of bees. Continue to use the correct names for flower parts and for leaf parts in your discussions with your children.

3. Add any new garden flowers to your list in your nature journal.

4. This week you can draw an insect on a flower in your nature journal or draw a flower and show where the pollen is found. Record your flower seeds growth and/or record your sunflowers growth for the week.

5. Add leaves or additional flowers to your press. Pressed flowers can be put into your nature journal.

6. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Outdoor Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky.



This challenge is part of my Garden Flowers ebook. This ebook has ten garden related challenges that will walk you through a study of garden flowers using the Handbook of Nature Study. In addition to the challenges already written, there will be more photos, nature journal examples, book lists, and totally new notebook pages designed to go with each of the Garden Flower Challenges.
Follow the link below to view the ebook! Over 50 pages for $6.95

Please note: Mr. Linky is for linking to your Outdoor Hour Challenge blog post only. Please do not link to your blog in general because then when others want to read your challenge post, they have to dig around in your blog to find it.

Nature Study When It Is Hot Outside

I live where it gets really hot outside in the summer. We have had just a taste of the heat so far this year but it has been enough to remind me just how hot it can be in the sun in the afternoon.

I want to encourage those that have emailed me lately telling me that it is too hot to participate in the Outdoor Hour Challenges right now in their part of the world. I sat and thought about how we can accomplish the Outdoor Hour even when the temperatures and humidity get up to the point where staying outdoors is unpleasant and potentially dangerous.

Here's what we do in our family.

We try to get outside early in the day when there is still a little shade. We take a few minutes first thing to take a walk around the garden to pull a few weeds, make sure the watering system is working, harvest any goodies that are ripe, and enjoy the progress of the garden. This gives us an opportunity to watch birds, look for worms, see butterflies, look at spider's webs, watch ants, pick up some acorns, feel the cool breeze, look at signs of nocturnal visitors, and so many other everyday sorts of nature study.

Other than working in the garden, we many times take a short walk just around the perimeter of our property just looking for anything interesting. Ten or fifteen minutes is usually all that takes. Do we sometimes get hot? Yes we do but then we come inside and get something to drink and take a little time looking up anything we found interesting online or in a book while it is fresh in our minds. It might be a feather we found or an interesting rock. It could be a new flower blooming or a spider we don't know the name of. Here is a quote from a newer participant in the Outdoor Hour and what she wrote on her blog.

"I have noticed in our studies that if we wait, nature will come to us." Paula, from Wakefield Academy.

I love that and it is so true. It is the little things that come your way during your everyday business and travels that enrich your nature study. It really isn't about the big field trips or the nature study classes, it is the day to day, ho-hum stuff that is fascinating. The house fly that you look at with the hand lens, the ants crawling on your front step, the bird gathering twigs for a nest outside your window, the things we so many times fail to notice.

I think in the heat of summer you just need to plan and have a focus for your nature study. Currently in the Outdoor Hour Challenges we are focusing on garden flowers. Each challenge can literally be completed by taking a ten to fifteen minute period of time outside. You do not need to travel to a nature study area or spend a half-day or a whole day outside. For instance, challenge #17 was to look at leaves. My son and I went out and found about ten different leaves to look at and we were only outside about five minutes. We brought the leaves inside and we looked at them and then he drew them in his nature journal in the comfort of the cool indoors. You really only needed to find one leaf and bring it in to look at....tops outdoor time would be five minutes and that is still doable in hot weather.

I find that if I involve water in some aspect of our outdoor time the children and I enjoy it more. Watering the grass or watering with a watering can can provide just the touch of coolness to our time even if the temperatures are soaring. How about a squirt bottle to cool off with as you take a few minutes in your yard or neighborhood exploring?

The promise of a cool snack at the end of a short period outside is always a great way to keep spirits up as you have your outdoor time. We keep popsicles and Go-Gurts in the freezer for a refreshing snack in the shade after we have made our observations.

The other aspect of nature study is that we are really training our children to see the differences in their world in each season. So many children today are raised in houses heated and cooled to a comfortable temperature year round. Our cars and the grocery stores are temperature controlled as well. Our kids need to feel the hot air of summer and the cold air of winter. It is part of growing up and experiencing our world and developing their senses.

I think that until we recognize that our children need outdoor time in nature close to their own homes, we do not make it a priority or think that it is worth while. Richard Louv in his book, Last Child in The Woods has a chapter titled "A Life of Senses: Nature vs. the Know-It-All State of Mind". He makes some excellent points. Here is just one quote.

"Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and, therefore,
for learning and creativity."

Change to the Outdoor Hour Challenges: Please read if you participate in the challenges or are thinking about getting started!

So here is what I am going to do from now on with the Outdoor Hour Challenges. I will continue to give you the main challenge as before but in addition I will also suggest a way to pare down the challenge to a mini-challenge for those that are trying to "catch up" and for those that are going to need to keep their outdoor time to a minimum because of weather conditions. It will not be a different challenge but rather a suggestion on how to complete the activity in a shorter period of time. Some of you have already figured out how to do this but for those that are just starting out with nature study maybe this will encourage you to give it a try.

Sound good? Do you think this will help those that are hesitant to have nature study in the summer? I hope everyone that has a willingness to try will now not use the heat (or cold) as a reason to procrastinate nature study and participating in the Outdoor Hour Challenges any longer.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom