Leaf rubbing & nature journaling

It's a beautiful day here in North Carolina. 

It's perfect for leaf rubbing and nature journaling.  

My girls love to discover nature. They select a fallen leaf and rub the paper with oil pastels, then then they look up tree name in our nature books. 

They think each tree has a different scent so they like to rub the leaf in their journal, like a scratch and sniff sticker.

Cotton- field to fiber

Our 4-H Textile group had a wonderful field trip last month. We learned all about cotton and how it goes from the field to the fiber.

We learned that the cotton buds are edible and it takes 1 plant to knit a sweater.

The girls took the cotton from the plant and brushed it until it was fluff.  The fluff was then spun onto a make shift spinning wheel made from a mason jar lid and cabob stick.  Spinning is such an art!

A Birdie Surprise

This birdhouse has been sitting on our table for months and just the other day the girls peaked inside, and got a big surprise!  It looks like we have a nest of Nuthatches.

It's hard to tell, but there are 2 baby birds inside and they look like mini hairless chickens.  We saw the Mom inside the house yesterday, that's how we were able to identify them.

Olive drew this fantastic picture of a Nuthatch.

Here are some other birds that she saw at the bird feeder this week.  I love that my girls will spend hours outside exploring nature.

Forcing Bulbs

We are a little behind in forcing tulip bulbs this year, but it only took four days for the girls to start seeing roots emerge. Olive says it's because she picked the most perfect place in the house to help them grow. The girls are in charge of making sure they have just the right amount of water touching the bulb.

 We purchased rocks and glass marbles from the $1 store and used some narrow glass vases to force the bulbs. Hopefully we'll have lovely tulips in time for Easter.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

We started our day by searching for these nature treasures on our scavenger hunt.

 This free printable has been in my stack of things to do for months, but I can not remember what lovely blog it came from.  Please let me know if this scavenger hunt page came from your site.

The girls started racing to see who could find each item first, but as they got harder to find, they started to work together.  Olive decided to search for the perfect sticks, while Jem searched for two circle rocks. This was a good activity to do and started our day off right.

Rocks and minerals.

My girls are so interested in rocks and gems. Olive knows the birthstones for each family member and knows that Mica is just "fools" gold, even though it looks pretty. The girls had a blast when we went ruby mining over 4th of July weekend in the mountains of NC. Olive enjoys matching her new found collection up with these rock photos. She also thinks quartz is lovely because it looks like a diamond.

Back from vacation!

We had a nice holiday in the mountains of North Carolina. The girls thrive in nature, running in open fields, discovering critters under rocks, spending time with Grandmom, and hiking in the deep, deep woods.

During our hike on the Appalachian Trail we saw many interesting mushrooms in a variety of colors, snails, and wildflowers. We also went ruby mining! The girls received a "salted" bucket that contained special colored gems, while Buzz used a "native" bucket and found a 1 carat ruby (in raw form.)

Olive spent many hours looking at her new rock collection. We also caught 3- 2/1/2 pound rainbow trout from a stocked pond...they were jumping to get out of that place! On the way home we spend time with friends in Atlanta, GA and watched fireworks.

 We were all happy to be home, which I think, is a sign of a good vacation!

The Butterflies Are Here!

The Monarch butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis and they are using their proboscis to drink the sugar water we left for them. The girls like to reach into the butterfly house and feel the butterfly wings flutter on their hand.

Every year we go through the same thing.....Olive gets so sad when it's time to release them into Grammy's garden. "It's almost time for their wings to fly," I tell her. "I know," she replies.

The life cycle of a Monarch butterfly is an amazing thing to see.

Summer Nature Study Schedule

My girls love being outside so I thought I would put together a summer nature study to follow.

June: Birds- name, visual identity, song
         Ocean- plants, shells, mammals, crustaceans

July: Amphibians- life cycle, parts, habitats, identity
         Butterflies- life cycle, watch it grow

August: Rocks- types, visual identity
       
Along with our study each girls will keep a nature journal, nothing fancy, just another way to record what they see by drawing, sketching, and doodling. These take along guides found here at Amazon should help us on our nature journey. I hope you come along too!

Charlotte Mason goals.

Charlotte Mason included in her Original Homeschool Series books some list of goals for 6 year olds. I am posting this because I found it helpful and interesting at the same time.

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", a reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890's.
1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows 7. to describe the boundaries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach 9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, color and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Strawberry Patch

We have been doing our schooling outside these past 2 weeks, really digging into nature. My girls  thrive in the outdoors and always find something new to explore. We visited a local strawberry patch with Olive's Daisy troop and picked 11 pounds! We made some yummy jam, baked oatmeal, and strawberry crisp. It was a super hot day, but a lot of fun.

The Pupa stage....almost ladybugs

Our ladybug eggs have made it through the larvae stage and not it's onto the pupa stage. They look like tiny yellow shrimp and will soon metamorphosis into a ladybug. 

This is a great site for learning about ladybugs, here.
Interesting Facts:

• Because Ladybugs eat lots of aphids and other pest insects, many gardeners and farmers use them for pest control instead of chemicals.
• A Ladybug can lay up to 1000 eggs in its lifetime.
• Not all Ladybugs have spots.
• Ladybugs will clean themselves after a meal.
• Ladybugs come in many colors like pink, yellow, white, orange and black.
• Over 300 types of Ladybugs live in North America.
• Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes bad so predators won’t eat them. 
• Ladybugs hibernate in large groups in cold weather.
• Many countries consider a ladybug to be a sign of good luck.
• Ladybugs are actually beetles, so sometimes are called LadyBeetles.
• The bright colors of Ladybugs warn birds that they don’t taste good.
• The spots on a Ladybug fade as they get older.

The Ladybugs have arrived!

Olive received a ladybug kit from Insect Lore for Christmas. Since the weather is right we ordered our ladybug eggs and they just arrived. In a few weeks we and you will see our eggs change from larva, to pupa, and then into adult ladybugs. We will watch them grow in their ladybug land pictured at the bottom.

Discovery: Yellow Belly Slider

Daddy had a surprise waiting for us when we returned home today.....this adorable baby turtle. He is only about 2 inches long and has little claws on his feet. He was found crossing the street, most likely on his way to one of the lagoons on the golf course. This little guy will get pretty large and we plan to return him to the water this evening.

At first we thought he was a snapping turtle, but after searching the internet we found he is a "yellow-belly slider." You can find them near most wetlands and basking in the sun beside ponds.

	Yellow belly sliders are omnivores.  When young they eat a primarily carnivorous diet but as they age they begin to include plants.

Nature Walk

 How lucky we are to be friends with a local nature tour guide. The girls and I learned about edible plants, alligators, fiddler crabs, and even spotted deer footprints in the marsh at a nearby island.

I was so amazed with all the "life" that lived in the marsh. My girls just love being in nature and exploring their surrounding. It was a great field trip!

Nature Walk

The weather has been lovely this week so we took a walk around our neighborhood and saw lots of interesting things. 1 big alligator that we call Slater the gator, 10 turtles sunning, 6 ibis white birds, and take a guess what that ball of green is in the tree....?

Hint: kiss kiss....

Ok, It's mistletoe- it grows in clumps on trees around here. It's easy to spot in big round green balls in winter when the trees don't have any leaves.