Wake Up Call

This morning around 5:00 am, our family was greeted with an interesting wake up call. Although we were unable to see our early morning visitor, there was no mistaking what it was.

(Image from Wikipedia-Licensed under the GFDL by the author)

Andrew Jackson State Park

Friday we took our nature studies to Andrew Jackson State Park. As we walked the trails we examined all the various types of wildlife there was offered before us. There was so much to see we hardly could focus on one thing.

There were wildflowers of all shapes, sizes and colors. We're finding trying to identify these beauties takes a whole lot of research. We are still struggling to name them but that doesn't deter us from appreciating their beauty.

 Helenium-Sneezeweed

The trees have begun to dress for the upcoming autumn and greeted us with the comforts of their shade, providing welcome shelter from the heat and humidity of the day.

There is a persimmon tree in the courtyard of the museum and after checking with the ranger to be sure it was ok, my fifteen year old son took a taste of the fruit. He discovered the astringency of the fruit and after trying to wash out his mouth for a while made the decision that he will probably never eat that again.

We also stumbled upon some animal wildlife and animal tracks along our trek.

You will need to look closely to see these critters using their camouflage skills.

Toad

This slug was right above where the toad was.

We also observed a woodpecker but it was too far up the tree to get a clear picture. We really enjoyed the entire trip and are looking forward to many more just like it.

The Outdoor Hour-Challenge 3-4

The past two days we worked on the Outdoor Hour challenges 3 and 4. Challenge number 3 was definitely a challenge for my daughter and I. We both struggle with artistic ability. We see what we want to draw and so want to get it from our minds to the paper but are never satisfied with our results. But we keep trying. Maybe after more time and daily practice and concentration we will create the detailed drawings that our minds perceive. My sons and husband are much more gifted artistically. In contrast though, I think my daughter and I paint better with our words. That’s ok though, because as we have learned, our nature journals are for us. It’s not like we are Lewis and Clark.

For Challenge 4 we were to find a focus area. We are basically skipping this because once we get through the first 10 Challenges we are going to do the Autumn series that Barb-Harmny Art Mom is currently posting. We have been concentrating on the flowers and the insects so I guess our mini-focus are those. Today we just practiced observation, journaling, and using guides and internet guides to try and figure out some of the things we have found interesting over the past week.

These are some of the things see found yesterday and were pleasantly surprised that we actually were able to track down some specific (and highly interesting) information about a couple of things.

Still working on figuring this one out. It looks like a dandelion so we have been searching for dandelion look-a-likes.

Western Daisy-You can't really tell from this picture but this daisy is actually has very light purple petals.

Obviously pinecones, but we are trying to determine which tree it came from because we have several species growing in our front yard.

This flower really excited me because I really had no idea what it was. We searched the internet for about an hour trying to narrow it down.

It's called a partridge pea or may be better know as a sensitive plant. It's so cool. When you touch it's leaves they slowly fold and close. We played around with them today and it was really exciting for all of us.

This is the sketch of this flower in my journal.

Tomorrow I'll share a bit about the critters we found. I am thinking of starting a new blog just for our nature studies. This whole week has been so much calmer and successful and these nature walks are the only thing different we have done. It really has me amazed.

The Outdoor Hour-Challenge 2

We are so enjoying our nature walks. It’s funny how putting a focus and direction on something that we have been doing for ages adds so much fun. Today we did the Outdoor Hour Challenge #2: Using Your Words. We were to go outside and listen to nature then come in and write a few words relating to what we heard, saw, and felt.  It was suggested that we could begin keeping a nature journal. We didn’t get to that part of the challenge today but plan on it at a later time. We have everything we need for that, but we really are enjoying taking pictures and discussing the things that we have seen and heard. We are trying to look up the things that we have seen to get specific names and information but that is definitely proving to be a time consuming process. I really need some better field guides, specifically ones that include things from our region, to make this less frustrating. Maybe I’ll find something at the next library booksale. But because I feel that it is more important to appreciate God’s creations and their beauty and function than what their scientific name is (which we probably would not be able to pronounce anyways) we are not dwelling on it when we can’t seem to find what we are looking for. So for the time being we are using our words to just describe what we have seen and heard so that when we do run across the scientific information we will have our own word pictures in our minds. These are a couple of the cool things from today.

Tenodera Mantis (we think this is the correct species)

We think this is a Western yellow jacket but its markings are not like the ones we have been seeing in the books or on line.

This is a cropped close-up of a front view. Check out the yellow "snout". Really cool.

We also had the opportunity to watch this really big (and to us, really ugly) spider spin a web. We were able to watch the spinnerets at work. That was really neat. Frightened by our presence we were amazed at how quickly it climbed back up the silk it had just spun. Super interesting.

On another nature note, unknown to me, my son had set a cage trap in the back woods baited with an apple, some crackers and peanut butter and cat food. This morning he found a racoon in there. Made me mad as a hornet. He has been told not to set the trap. He has already caught a possum and a squirrel in the past. He says he just wants to see the animals up close. I'm sure you know the shpeel I gave him. We carefully released the racoon and were very lucky it went on its merry way. Boys! (Not that I agree with what he did, it was interesting to see a wild one that close.) He has been forbidden to do it ever again and will be returning the trap. (it is one of those that the animal can go in, but can't get back out, not one that harms the animal except to agitate it)

It has been such an inspiring couple of days I can hardly wait until tomorrow. And all this comes from 15 minutes in our front yard.

The Outdoor Hour-Challenge 1

I have wanted to include nature studies in our day to day homeschool activities for ages now. We tried last year but it got lost in all the other “to dos” that we had. So we are attempting it again, only this year we are using the wonderful activities that The Handbook of Nature blog offers. I have been following it for a year or so now and have seen all the lovely posts others have done which has inspired me. She really lays it out and helps us to focus on the gentle art of nature study.  Today we did Challenge 1 and we’re very blessed to see all kinds of things to look up. Each of us has decided to take our own pictures of the things that interested us. (I recently learned that my camcorder takes better close up pictures than my digital.)These are a few the pictures I took and will be looking up over the next few days.

Fire ant hill

Eastern box turtle

Dandelion?

American Holly

Some kind of grass growing out of the stump of this old cedar.

Dogwood (this one I do know because it blooms in the spring.)

So, as you can see I have a lot to look up. The kids are planning on posting their finds on their own blogs. Tomorrow Challenge 2. We may not post all of them because we are just doing the suggest first 10 Challenges over the next 2 weeks then jumping right in with her current studies, Autumn Series. I am really looking forward to this. Makes me feel like a kid again and the real kids are just as excited as I am.