Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

Yesterday's Outdoor Hour Challenge was to find something in nature to draw. Aidyn snoozed way past normal, and I made 'Neat and Square' chocolate pancakes a la Mike Mulligan so I was sure a nature walk just was not going to happen.

Although I had informed him that it would be a quick walk, taking our time proved inspiring.

We walked around, trying to decide what to sketch. We eventually watched a colony of red ants soldiering around. These guys were HUGE and walked like beasts. Because the goal was to eventually draw them, we observed them quite a bit longer than we ordinarily would.

There were some poor little ants that looked like they showed up to the wrong  family reunion, but we just watched how they all seemed to get along.

After I had finally asked, "So are these red ants what you'd like to draw?" he said, "No, I want to bring something in the house with us."

Nearby, he found a small log, just resting on the ground. Turning it over, he quickly found that the damp part of it was home to a family of pill bugs. Even though Aidyn was startled, he was so excited and watched them scurry, saying, "I wanna draw these!"

On our way home, he asked me what pill bugs eat, where they like to live, if we can have one as a pet, etc. As usual, I had little knowledge of the pill bug but told him we would definitely find out.

As Aidyn drew in his nature journal, I found a pill bug site for kids and shared with Aidyn that:

• pill bugs are the only crustaceans that live entirely on land
• pill bugs eat rotting vegetation
• pill bugs enjoy moist environments

(::GASP:: "We found them under a wet log!)

• pill bugs have 7 pairs of legs
• pill bugs have armor
• pill bugs have antennae
• pill bugs do not spread disease or contaminate food

What has surpised and delighted me about these outdoor hour challenges is that we never know what we'll find or what questions these walks inspire. I also realize how little I know about nature and the holes in my own education. Every day I say at least once, "I don't exactly know, but we can find out!" Nature walks also help with calming and grounding us for the whole day. We both have better attitudes and more patience.

Keep checking back for more Outdoor Hour Challenges, and maybe start your own at The Handbook of Nature Study blog.

To read about our other Outdoor Hour Challenges, visit Our Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #1

Yesterday we had our first emotional roller coaster. I felt it, too. I was tiring of the textbooks and itching for something more fun.

This morning we decided to go on a nature walk to enjoy the quiet of the morning, reconnect with nature, and let the world be our classroom.

I am much inspired by the Handbook of Nature Study Blog and followed their guidelines for an outdoor hour challenge. After reading the first twenty pages of The Handbook of Nature Study (available for free here), I printed a blank nature journal that the Handbook of Nature Study blog offers FOR FREE.

I asked Aidyn to create a challenge, and he chose a "no talking" nature walk. We laid some ground rules (our poor attempt at sign language was acceptable, do this ::waves hands erratically:: if you hear something we should record, nearly poke yourself in the eye if you see something you want to record, and if someone we pass talks to us we may talk to them.)

And we were off.

It took Aidyn exactly five seconds to find something both alive and slimy.

He decided to bring his new friend along.

We jotted down a bunch of stuff we saw and heard, communicating it all in our terrible sign language.

We also found some weird brown seed pod something-or-other that had fallen from a mystery tree. We took it back home for dissection and to try and figure out if we could identify the tree.

The answer is no. We were not able to. But we did learn some thing about leaf types! And we learned and recorded the latin name for snails and that they can live for 20 years!

Using a corkscrew to crack it open.

We returned to the mystery tree to bring back a branch and leaf sample, but we had zero luck.

The tree who remains unidentified.

But we did find an adorable and cuddly cat.

Enjoying nature in the morning created a completely different child than the one I taught yesterday. His attitude was positive, he was engaged in every task, and he seemed more relaxed. Activities that went well include:

• third reading of The Day of Ahmed's Secret while paying extra attention to the art throughout the book.
• watercoloring (Aidyn a kaleidoscope and me a sunset behind Mt. Diablo-- or pyramids, as Aidyn called them)
• sight word/tower building game (We cycle through sight words on flashcards. If he reads it correctly, I stack a block; if he doesn't, he stacks a block. First person whose tower of blocks falls loses. I lost four times.)
• math lesson on number lines and worksheet
• reading of Story of the World on Two Kingdoms become One. He was so disappointed that the Red Crown king lost and that King Narmer became king of Egypt. Aidyn, it was 5,000 years ago. It's cool.
• map coloring of Egypt and bonus points for coloring the Nile River "up" northward, in the direction it flows.
• coloring a small picture of King Narmer for our timeline.
• plowing through the last three chapters of The Magic Treehouse: Mummies in the Morning.
• coloring "stained glass" pictures (Aidyn- King Tut, Me- Cleopatra)

Hunts and Ventriloquists and Zombies, oh my!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Man, yesterday felt like the longest day of the year!

For some reason, Aidyn was up bright and early at 6am (the kid usually snoozes until 9 or 10), sweetly demanding some "cuddles and reading." We got comfy on the couch and read about three chapters of Calling All Creeps.

image from paperbackswap.com

Afterward, we watched an episode of Reading Rainbow, in which they tour a bowling alley, read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, show a bowling ball factory, and interview a domino-enthusiast.

And since it was summer solstice, I figured I had to do something summery.

First, I showed him the position of the earth and sun, using our globe and handy dandy lamp. We even looked at some pictures of an analemma.

image from kbccmeteorology.pbworks.com

Once the neighborhood kids burst through my door, I printed out some Summer Scavenger Hunt Lists that I found through The Handbook of Nature Study blog and had the kids ask their mother if they could join us. We searched for all sorts of summery things: a ladybug, butterfly, bee, something red, something pink, a weed taller than them and listened for a chirping bird, a buzzing bee, and wind rustling the grass.

We found and sniffed wildflowers, pointed out the distant peaks of Mt. Diablo, and happily checked items off our lists.

After the scavenger hunt, they piled back in my home and drew something they saw/found outside. Aidyn drew a "baby pine cone" while his friends drew butterflies.

Then they played a game of memory, watched Beauty and the Beast,  and played indoor tag (Ooo, my favorite!).

Later in the day, Aidyn and I headed over to the library to pick up his Duffy bear, who participated in the Great Stuffed Animal Sleepover at the library. Pictures were posted all around of Duffy and his new stuffed friends having a blast on the bookshelves, at the computers, and lounging in the teen center. After he read six books, it was also time for Aidyn to pick up his halfway prize, which was a book bag, a little stuffed bear, and a coupon for a free sandwich.

THEN, we watched the Steve Chaney and Cornelius Crow Ventriloquist show, and the man was HILARIOUS. Loved it.

image from newarklibrary.com

At this point, it felt like two days had passed by, but Aidyn found enough energy to play outdoors with all the neighborhood kids and put on a play about zombies.

Homeschool Hike--Caswell and the Stanislaus River

Early this afternoon, Aidyn and I took a quick trip to Caswell Memorial State Park to enjoy the sun with a nature hike. Armed with a new sketchpad and colored pencils, we explored the area. We stopped to listen to birds, watched squirrels skit around the tree branches, and inhaled the fresh foresty aroma.

After taking a new trail, we discovered a small beach where we plucked sticks from the ground and tossed them in the river. We talked about currents as we watched the sticks sail down the river. We sunk our fingers in the sand and dipped our hands in the icy water. Planting ourselves on the sand-hill, we doodled in our nature journal. I wrote down the cute observations Aidyn was making and he drew his representation of our view of the Stanislaus River. We also ran our hands down the bumpy trunks of trees and talked about bark, branches, and how trees start out as little seeds.

I'm definitely happy to welcome back warm, comfortable weather!