The Outdoor Hour

I've been watching a blog devoted to The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock and now that I have my own copy, I've decided we'll join in each week. Funny I only learned recently of the book from another local homeschooler I met briefly while speaking to a group of MOPS ladies about homeschooling and since then it has been all over the place. Click the button above and you'll get a chance to see what each week's challenge is along with a lot of other cool Handbook information and observations.

Today we collected a few leaves and drew them in our journals. I did one too! We talked about the parts of the leaf and what they do. We took some time to sit quietly and think of what we heard, saw, and smelled. All this while J2 was playing at his water table and at one point had turned on the hose... after we ate lunch we went downstairs to color the pictures and make a list of birds we'd seen or heard.

Nature journals come and go at our house, but the kids are excited to do these challenges and it provides some structure for our summer days. I don't understand when summer vacation became so dreadful?!!

I-6 collected a lilac leaf and a box elder leaf.

R8 added a tulip poplar tree leaf to her collection.

E9 did a nice job with the labeling later on.