Our New Nature Studies

While planning the 2012-2013 school year we have decided to do Magic School. In the middle of researching for lesson plans I discovered Owl Scouts. Owl Scouts is along the lines of boy/girl scouts only it is something the awesome moms from Hogwarts Summer Corespondance came up with. So as of now our nature studies will be considered our Owl Scouts activities.

They will earn little patches and all that stuff. So scouts without the actual joining of scouts, which is just fine by me! So for any nature stuff you can find that on the Homeschool Hogwarts Style Blog.

We once again started our tree study!

This is our sycamore tree that greets us at the gate. I don't know why but I will have to say it is the favorite tree in the yard! I had the kids go out one day and do a drawing of the tree. I told them to look at the colors and the leaves falling and think about how the tree is changing for the season. The next day they went out and drew a leaf. Again being told to look at the colors and the details. I think my kids are not all ready for that kind of drawing because the idea of what I thought they would do and what they did was wayyyy different. Then I decided that it won't be fun for them if I push so I am just following their lead on this one and letting it be fun!!

A very pretty leaf Skyler brought in. She always brings me nature for inside she says!

Skeletons from an owl pellet!

This fit so well with our science this week on bones. It was a way to throw in some nature study in a sense. They were pretty thrilled with it! These came from Amazon there are three different ones. damian did the starling bird, Fox the mole and Skyler the vole. She loves anything mouse like! I am sure they would be way grosser to do the ones you find outside. My kids did search our barn though of course!!

 I will say there was no way my kids or me for that matter had the patience to put te skeletons together though. I am kinda glad I couldn't imagine that! They did have fun with them and liked picking out different bones comparing them to our skeletons.

After they were done I put the bones in muffin cups and bagged them to hang in our nature area!! The kids thought it cool to have skeletons hanging on their wall.

Hunting For Fall

The children and I decided to hunt for Fall by doing a Fall scavenger hunt at the park. Right off the bat we could see the first most well known sign of course LEAVES!!! Leaves everywhere and different colored at that!

While it has been cold in the mornings the afternoons have still been warm. I love this time not too hot not too cold. It is perfect outside weather. My kids and I all hate heat so in summer we are in alot lol. We were hunting for moss covered sticks, pinecones, fallen seeds and nuts anything that signals Fall has come.


I absolutely love the picture of the three of them in the river! They were so sweet crossing putting Skyler Bay in the middle in case she needed help. They can be be so sweet at times.

We also saw squirrels gathering nuts but they were not exactly posing for the camera today. We found plenty of holes and burrows and thought about all the different animals that could be living there. Of course according to Skyler the homes were all for rabbits. We tried really hard to find an abandoned nest but for some reason we just couldn't, which is pretty weird as we always find one this time of year.




They really liked all the pieces of branches that were covered in moss as well as the bracken mushrooms. My kids have a thing for bracken mushrooms. They call them steps for the animals to climb.

Well we gathered up all the goodies we found and made a We Found Fall Centerpiece for our dining room table, Skyler was in awe of the teeny tiny pinecone we found. Last year it was all about who could find the biggest this year it was all about tiny. I am sure as the season goes on they will add to this. They love finding treasures outside and displaying them. For more pics of our fun walk you can go here.

Some nature added in our week (week 3 of school)

I would like to say up front this is not my picture! I found it on google images. My son brought a little guy just like this and put him in the butterfly habitat well, our day went on and that evening when we were going to take a picture and let him go he had already decided to turn into a cocoon!! I searched him and found he is a Agraulis vanillae. You can find more about him here.  I will say the cocoon looks very odd but just like the information pictures so that must be a normal thing.

They are finally butterflies!!

Sadly not a great picture! These guys were just not cooperating well. They kept flapping those wings so everything is a huge blur. They are monarchs in case you didn't know. They were really friendly even letting the kids pick them up and everything but they just would not be still enough for a clear picture. As always the kids loved doing it and the next day they all flew to freedom. As soon as they were let go Fox and Skyler Bay both said, "mom when can we do it again"? They really love this!!

We are raising caterpillats!

For my daughters birthday a wonderful homeschool mom sent her a butterfly habitat and a few days ago our caterpillars arrived! As you can see they were allready pretty big when they got here.

Today they have already spun into their cocoons. So we had to transfer them to the habitat. We have done this several times before and my kids still love it! They are just amazed that they spin and come out something totally different.

They have been put in their little habitat and the kids will start counting down until they see butterflies!