Tiny Frogs

Our Handbook of Nature Study Outdoor Hour Challenge this month features

Reptiles & Amphibians

My youngest daughter really loves to film, photograph and discuss her nature finds.

Here are her latest Outdoor Hour Challenge photo finds of small frogs in our fish pond.

These little frogs are teeny, tiny, only the size of a baby pinkie finger nail, and yet they are perfectly formed.

She left all the little frogs in  the pond.  

We remembered some of the misfortunes some tiny frog relatives had when she captured some early spring (last year September) and placed them in bottles …

They all died.

We thought that they may have starved to death and so, after a little research, we placed new frogs with some shredded lettuce leaves in a larger container.  Miss.L even put a few large rocks and stones in the bottle so that the frogs could spend some time out of the water.

Sadly, one rock fell over and squashed some other unfortunate little frogs.

And, worse still, one morning, those brave surviving frogs spied a small opening in the lid and escaped!

About 14 little frogs hopped and jumped through our house, all coming to the front door and some even managed to reach our stoep.  With great care, Miss.L took each carefully to the pond and set them free.  She felt that her attempts at raising these frogs in her aquariums had been a failure.

But, armed with the digital camera, “catching” these frogs was an absolute delight!

Join us for your OHC discoveries in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Carnival.  Submit yours here.

Blessings,

Mushrooms

Our Outdoor Hour Challenge this month features Moss, Lichens and Mushrooms

and this week we’d like to share our study on

As with our moss and lichen nature studies, Miss.L captured her mushroom nature study finds on our camera.

She went off on her own and made me guess where she found the mushrooms!  I could identify the tiny white mushrooms as those that grow on an old tree stump in my veggie garden, and the slender stemmed white mushrooms that grow on the cow manure pile, but I was unsure about the brown mushroom … off to the field guide!

Which reminds me of our family’s first search through the mushroom field guide ~

Our first experience of eating our own wild mushrooms was when our neighbor visited us and brought us a handful of white mushrooms that he picked on his walk through our veld, which were delicious!

I’kowe (Termitomyces umkowaani) also known as Beefsteak Mushrooms

We have several kinds of edible mushrooms that grow on our grazing lands. Some are massive and can reach sizes over 30cm in diameter!

We are “fungi novices” and even though our field guide is very specific, it can be hard to differentiate between the edible and poisonous mushrooms!

After lengthy, detailed comparisons between our SASOL First Field Guide to Mushrooms of Southern Africa photos and physical descriptions, and careful examinations of our huge mushroom, we cut a section off and fried it in some butter and garlic.  We (only my hubby and I) ate a tiny helping.  It was delicious!  We waited for a while and then went to bed. We survived!  The next night we fried up the rest!  It was so large that we froze some.

Mushrooms can look very similar!

Field Mushroom (Agaricus campestris) edible raw or cooked ~ your basic “button mushroom”

Horse Mushroom (Agaricus arvensis)

and the infamous Death Cap mushroom ~

Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) accounts for 90% of all mushroom fatalities worldwide!

I suppose nothing motivates one more to accurately identify a mushroom than when faced with eating a potentially deadly fungi!

This week we did not have to eat any samples, but we did enjoy photographing the variety on our farm.

Join us for your OHC discoveries!

Blessings,

Sharing this post in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Carnival.  Submit yours here.

Lichen

Outdoor Hour Challenge this month features Moss, Lichens and Mushrooms

and this week we’d like to share our study on

Lichens abound on our farm … on rocks, trees, on old branches.

We loved the amazing variety in their colors and shapes.

We found examples of all three types of lichen as described below from Countryside Info ~

Crustose  encrusting lichens	Foliose leafy lichens	Fruticose shrubby lichens

Later, we spotted this moth on our kitchen windowsill and knew immediately that it would be perfectly camouflaged on any lichen on a tree!

When Miss.L photographed the moth she noticed its tongue and quickly filmed it – sucking up the water splashes on the tiles!  What a long proboscis!

Later in the week I suggested that Miss.L capture as many lichen samples that she can find with our digital camera and then prepare a collage – a lichen scavenger hunt!

Here’s her Picasa-created collage ~

Join us for your OHC discoveries!

Blessings,

Sharing this post in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Carnival.  Submit yours here.

Moss

Outdoor Hour Challenge this month features Moss, Lichens and Mushrooms

and this week we’d like to share our study on

We have become nature detectives once again!

I think that our greatest tool is a digital camera.  Miss.L10 is armed and alert and scampers off to find moss, lichen and mushrooms. She already knows of one spot – her favorite place with a soft carpet of moss.  We stop in the shade and I photograph her feet on the wonderful, cool, velvety, green moss. But Miss.L is off to show me her amazing moss discovery – some moss is tucked in a rock, all dusty, browny-grey, seemingly dead.

But she knows a special trick that I must photograph ~ if she pours water on this moss, it will instantly transform into lush green! And so, I watch and record the instant recovery – in seconds the moss has revived!

A small piece of moss is loose.  She takes it home so that we can examine it closely under our magnifying glass.

No roots?

How does it turn instantly green?

Once again, we do not have the answers and so we search our Handbook of Nature Study and the internet.

• Moss and fern notes
• Planting a moss lawn

The moss is so pretty.  After seeing such lovely moss on Pinterest, we decide to put our moss in some bottles and display them on our nature shelf for the month. A dainty garden of moss and lichens arranged in some glass bottles.

The next day Miss.L notices steam inside the bottles.

Steam?

“Where did the steam come from?” Miss.L10 asks me.  And, amazingly, she remembers,  ”… transformation? …no, … transpiration!”

Yes!

• DIY: Bottle Terrarium
• Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – activity pdf
• Hydrological Cycle – activity pdf

Delightful nature discoveries!

Join us for your OHC discoveries!

Blessings,

Sharing this post in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Carnival.  Submit yours here.

Marjolein Bastin ~ Nature Artist

Every now and then I find something really inspirational on Pinterest!

I discovered Marjolein Bastin!

Marjolein Bastin’s Autumn in Holland

Quoting JoAnne Carter’s “Marjolein Bastin’s” Pinterest board:

Marjolein Bastin is a Dutch-noted nature artist, writer, children’s author and illustrator. She is the creator of the character “Vera the mouse”. A Hallmark designer discovered Marjolein’s artwork while on a trip to Holland in the early 1990s. Today, stationery, greeting cards, home décor items, and gifts in Hallmark’s Nature’s Sketchbook by Marjolein Bastin line are among the company’s best-selling offerings.

JoAnne Carter’s “Marjolein Bastin’s” Pinterest board

I love her detailed and finely sketched paintings of garden and nature scenes.

My younger children loved her cute animals, especially Vera, the mouse, and these raccoons ~

So pop over to her website and enjoy the exquisite beauty of her nature art and add her to your “Famous Contemporary Artist of the Month”.

Blessings,

Swallows

Outdoor Hour Challenge this month features

Birds

This past week we looked at the swallows flying over our farm dam.  They flitted down,  quickly skimming over the surface of the water and scooping up tiny insects, and then flying up to join the flock. 

I tried to watch just one swallow. He must have made at least 5 catches before I lost him in the flock.  They fly in seeming random circles, up, around and then down to the water.  Such simple freedom!

I suggested that Miss.L and I find the swallow’s nests.  But we were disappointed.

Several nests were old and broken.

We could see the grass and feather lining inside this broken nest.  There was not one active swallow nest under any eave or in any shed or storeroom.

We wondered why.

They must be nesting somewhere … but where?

We found evidence of new starts on nests under an eave, but for some reason, the swallows left to try somewhere else.

Our nearest neighbor is over 700m away. Perhaps they are nesting there?

Our bird nature walk has turned us into detectives.

Who knows what we’ll find.

Back home we researched the swallows on Google and we enjoyed Anna Botsford Comstock’s description in The Handbook of Nature Study of the different swallows ~

“The barn swallow has a distinctively tailor-made appearance; its red-brown vest and iridescent blue coat, with deeply forked “coat tails” give it an elegance of style which no other bird, not even the chic cedar waxwing, can emulate.” (page 111)

Lovely!

Blessings,

I will share this post with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Carnival.

Rocks & Stones Experience

We enjoyed our month of Rock Outdoor Hour Challenges and my own Stones and Rocks discipleship week.

Although we have been outdoors most days, and have quite an impressive new rock and stone collection on our table, we have not approached our time scientifically.  I enjoy my child’s natural delight and detailed observations, but we did not research, compare, investigate, analyze, or even note our findings.

It was more a simple pleasure.  

And Charlotte Mason would approve.  She encourages us to give our children regular opportunities to get in touch with God’s creation and to allow these experiences to form a source of delight that will last throughout their lifetime.

So, with this as my long-term approach, I am confident that a scientific approach may develop in time.

(May I encourage young moms not to do what I did when I started homeschool? In my early days with my eldest child, I over-emphasized our nature study sessions and made it too intense, too heavy.  I was very ‘results’ orientated.  This approach stunted my child’s natural delight and she eventually pulled out of our outdoor hour times.)

Right now, our nature study is planned as a natural nature experience!

How have you enjoyed your nature study times?  What works for your children?  Have you any tips for new moms? Please share in the comments.

Blessings,

This post was submitted to the Outdoor Hour Challenge carnival.

Discipleship with Stones & Rocks

I love combining subjects and themes!

Our Nature Study and Outdoor Hour Challenge (OHC) theme for this month is

ROCKS

It works wonderfully with a Bible Study!

Here’s your free week’s discipleship with stones and rocks ~ Discipleship with Rocks and Stone

Each day presents a simple practical outdoor activity, provides prompts for personal reflection, includes some relevant scriptures and suggests an application.

Inspired by “Leef met hart & siel“ (A South African Christian Magazine) November 2012.

Enjoy!

Blessings,

Journal Mammals

We live on a farm, so it was easy to study a whole range of mammals for our weekly Outdoor Hour Challenge…

horses, sheep, lambs, cats, dogs, mice, and a heavily pregnant cow!

I encouraged the kids to sketch and/or paint the animals of their choice, and took our “What to Draw and How to Draw“  sketch notes by E.G. Lutz along, but when her pictures did not turn out as she wanted, Miss.L10 became discouraged .

I gave her the camera and asked her to take several photos of the animals.

She could simply print out the photos she liked and write her observations, or use the photos to make more realistic sketches.

I enjoyed sketching and painting several of our farm animals ~

I subtly read selections from Anna Botsford Comstock’s “Handbook of Nature Study” and we discussed the cow in quite a lot of detail.  We loved the description of “illuminated with gentle eyes”  because we all think our cow’s eyes are mesmerizing!

Despite our genuine hands-on work with our gorgeous Jersey milk cows, Anna’s scientific information about milk production was really interesting and her detailed descriptions of the different cow breeds made us examine our Milly with new eyes.  Her bony hips and slightly concave spine and dainty legs are characteristic of her breed.  We smiled at the description of her “fly brush” tail as we have all had a swipe across the head at some time while milking!

I hope to read a little more about horses and sheep as we spend more time this week completing our mammal studies.

What have you enjoyed in this month’s OHC?

Blessings,

Mammal’s Fur

We have really enjoyed our Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ mammals studies this month!

Our first week we studied animal fur and without a second thought, my daughter insisted we “study” our cats’ fur!

Our cats didn’t object!  They purred with contentment as we stroked and felt their fur.  Using words, we talked about texture, length, colors, the way the fur lay, how the cats cleaned their fur and what differences we noticed between the short-haired and the long-haired cats.

We then wrote in our nature journals.

I was slightly shocked to discover that Miss.L10 had taken some “samples” to paste into her nature journal!  She assured me that I wouldn’t even notice where she had snipped some fur off!  Her journal entries where not ‘scientific’.  I noticed how descriptive and emotive her words were.  I think this is good. It is lovely to related to observations with all our senses. (I also noticed how poor her spelling is …we’ll add some of these words to our thematic list)

My journal entry was more objective and comparative, my word “Fur” separating the different cat’s fur.

We love the Outdoor Hour Challenges each week. Apart from the weekly challenges, the nature grid gives us plenty of ideas to follow-up as well.

Have you joined in?

Blessings,