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ShawnaB
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| Posted: March 09 2006 at 4:06pm | IP Logged
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Just looking out my window at the 2 feet of heavy, wet, packed snow...and wishing we could go for a walk!!
Would anyone be willing to offer some of their ideas for indoor nature study? Or, nature study outdoors in the winter (assuming we can take a walk without snowshoes)? Any good book recommendations for winter nature study?
We did have a nice teachable recently...after reading and studying about the solar system for a few weeks, the whole family (minus sleeping babies!)was out in the hot tub at nighttime...staying warm in the water and watching the steam rise into the freezing air. We were all admiring how gorgeous and clear the stars are in the winter nite sky...it was a very lovely time of observation!
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Shawna, wife of Jacob, mom to Abraham 8 Amelia 5 and Jillian & Jonathan age 3 years http://www.psalm121family.com
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JennGM
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| Posted: March 09 2006 at 6:39pm | IP Logged
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ShawnaB wrote:
We did have a nice teachable recently...after reading and studying about the solar system for a few weeks, the whole family (minus sleeping babies!)was out in the hot tub at nighttime...staying warm in the water and watching the steam rise into the freezing air. We were all admiring how gorgeous and clear the stars are in the winter nite sky...it was a very lovely time of observation!
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Shawna, what a lovely scene you depict! I'm not usually a big fan of hot tubs, but now you got me wanting one to relax AND star gaze! 
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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lilac hill
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| Posted: March 09 2006 at 7:36pm | IP Logged
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Shawna,
If you can write on your calendar for September, "Order an Amaryllis". Mine is blooming this week. It is a huge deep red tropical flower--beautiful and just the hint of warmer weather we need. Plenty to see in the bloom.
Will order another next year, might want a dwarf--thought I ordered a dwarf this year but it is 2 1/2 feet tall.
I like to get a group order together and order from Fedco in Maine--nice selection, reliable bulbs, and discounts with large orders--they like to encourage cooperative ordering.
Sorry I cannot help for this year but the hottub sounds like a winter treat.
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Viv
Wife to Rick (7/83), Mom to dd#1(6/87), dd#2(1/90), and dd#3(6/94) in central PA.
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Donna
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| Posted: March 10 2006 at 5:25am | IP Logged
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ShawnaB wrote:
| Would anyone be willing to offer some of their ideas for indoor nature study |
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How about hanging a bird feeder outside of one of your windows where it can be seen throughout the day. Then have the children identify and draw each bird they see. You could then play Common Bird Songs and listen to the song of each bird.
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Donna
DH, Keven
Jason, Stevie, Marie, Jackson, Clara, and Aaron
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Moments Like These
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marihalojen
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| Posted: March 10 2006 at 7:59am | IP Logged
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lilac hill wrote:
If you can write on your calendar for September, "Order an Amaryllis". |
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Visit your local garden center or even Wal-Mart and I am sure you can find an amaryllis in a box with the dirt included and a pot and a HUGE bulb for under $5. Buy the full-size (non-dwarf) amaryllis and a yard stick to measure the amazing growth. When we lived in cold country we'd have several lined up in the window with the yard sticks taped behind and we'd chart the growth daily or even twice a day because they grow so quickly! It was one of the highlights of winter.
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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ShawnaB
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| Posted: March 10 2006 at 3:43pm | IP Logged
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Wow...I actually have an amaryliss already started in my kitchen window..up high where the kids can't even see it! How silly that I didn't even think of that. Its just starting to grow, and I'm definitely going to get it down where every one can take a look, and even measure it.
And the bird feeders are a GREAT idea. I'm definitely going to hang some. Thanks for the great (simple!)ideas.
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Shawna, wife of Jacob, mom to Abraham 8 Amelia 5 and Jillian & Jonathan age 3 years http://www.psalm121family.com
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MaryM
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| Posted: March 10 2006 at 10:45pm | IP Logged
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ShawnaB wrote:
| Just looking out my window at the 2 feet of heavy, wet, packed snow...and wishing we could go for a walk!! |
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Yeah - heard you got dumped on in the No. California.
ShawnaB wrote:
| Would anyone be willing to offer some of their ideas for indoor nature study? |
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We just got this book - Bottle Biology. It has lots of activities which fall in this category of indoor nature study. Can't wait to try some. We also have the Teaching Tank which you can use to do similar experiments, but the plastic soda bottle idea is much simpler and just as effective for most it looks like.
ShawnaB wrote:
| Or, nature study outdoors in the winter (assuming we can take a walk without snowshoes)? |
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We have really enjoyed studying about nests in winter. They are really easy to see when there are still no leaves on the trees. Discussion in an earlier thread. Anything related to birds is good as well - just setting out feeders and studying the birds that come is fun. While we were just at my parents this past week we specifically looked for owls in the evenings (saw a few) and dissected owl pellets. I had ordered some pellets but we ended up also finding some on my parents property. It was interesting to compare them. If you aren't into doing the dissections yet with your young ones here is a great virtual dissection page.
ShawnaB wrote:
| Any good book recommendations for winter nature study? |
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Discovering Nature in Winter
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 11 2006 at 5:58am | IP Logged
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I'm thinking these are great ideas as I look out my Michigan window and see slush and mud! What a mess. One thing I have done with my younger kids is get out all our old nature magazines and let them cut out the pictures. (We used to get Ranger Rick, and my sil gave me a huge box of "Zoo News" magazines from when her kids are growing up.) They glue them into a notebook. It is little more than a cut and paste activity but I write the names of the animals in for the ones that can't write. More than anything else, I think this activity has caused my young children to be excited about just how many creatures there are in the world. My 6yo has her notebook divided into mammals, fish, birds, reptiles etc. so this is an exercise in classification as well.
Another thing we like to do this time of year is dream about our garden. We all look at the garden catalogs that come and the kids circle what they think we should plant. This becomes a lesson when I go through with them and talk about what different plants need - not everything will grow in Michigan. Then we talk about where in the garden to plant various things because of how tall they get.
Finally, because we have a river that runs behind our house we get a lot of wildlife. We just like to look out our window and see what we see. Yesterday 3 Merganzer ducks went floating by. We talked about how some ducks, like the merganzers are called divers. It was neat to watch them disappear under the water and come up somewhere else. My 2yo thought it was the funniest thing! Another observation we like to make is by watching the birds at the feeder. We experimented with different types of birdfood to see which birds like what. Everybody thought this was a great experiment. I had never hung suet before this and we ended up getting the most beautiful woodpeckers! Just observing out our window has been the best "yucky weather" nature study!
Becky
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Ideas for indoor nature study?
