Handbook of Nature Study

Handbook of Nature Study – Wildflowers To Love

May 20, 2018 By Barb McCoy 2 Comments

Our Nature Book Club group is excited to share this month’s WILDFLOWER theme! It’s such a perfect time of year to focus on wildflowers with our children since so many times we see colorful blooms during our outdoor time.

Learning the names of wildflowers is a life-long activity that brings such joy. Children love learning the common names of flowers and I found that once my kids knew a name of a flower, they respected it more for its special uses for all living creatures.

If you own the Handbook of Nature Study, grab it off your shelf and turn to the table of contents. Look for the section for wildflowers. (Note there are affiliate links in this post)

You will find a lot of the common flowers that many North American families have access to during the spring and summer months. Take a highlighter and mark the flowers you know you can study this summer. If you are unfamiliar with a particular wildflower, look it up online and note the leaf, the flower, and the seed for future reference. Here’s a link to one of my favorite wildflower websites for you to use: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

I always encourage families to learn one flower at a time! If you continue to learn about flowers each summer, over time you’ll have quite a few familiar flower friends to look forward to seeing as they bloom year after year.

I’ve written Outdoor Hour Challenges for every wildflower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study. You can find them under the “Garden” tab on my website.

Here is a link: Handbook of Nature Study Wildflower List. (Note you will need to scroll down to the wildflower and weed section.)

Take a Wildflower Nature Walk

Use the Handbook of Nature Study’s lessons for each flower you study this summer. There are Outdoor Hour Challenges for every wildflower in the book that will supplement your learning with online resources and links and even sometimes a printable activity.

If you’re a member of the Ultimate Naturalist Library, you have access to the ebooks that contain all of the wildflower nature study ideas. Although these aren’t necessary and you can work from the Outdoor Hour Challenges online, some families find having the ebooks with custom notebooking pages to be a huge benefit in making learning and nature study follow-up much easier.

Wildflower Activity: Making and Using a Flower Press

Our family enjoyed pressing wildflowers for our nature journal pages. I created a short tutorial video showing how to make a simple flower press using cardboard, paper, and rubber bands. Show your children and have the supplies available for them to make their very own flower press.

YouTube link: How to Make a Flower Press

I’ve created two ebooks with additional wildflowers not included in the Handbook of Nature Study.

I’m going to make them available here in this entry for you to purchase separately as a special offer just until the end of May.

Here are the specifics for Set #1:

This 46 page digital ebook has 5 challenges and supplemental activities that will help you learn about a few of my favorite early spring wildflowers.
There are custom notebooking pages for each of the five wildflowers featured. In addition, there’s a general notebook page for recording information for each of the plant families introduced in this ebook. There’s also a page for use with any spring flower study and a page for a flower dissection follow-up.
Full color photos of every wildflower included in the ebook.
Five coloring pages.
There’s enough material in this ebook to provide 5 weeks of wildflower study or more depending on how long you take to complete each challenge.
One of the resources in this ebook is a chart that coordinates each study with the Botany in a Day book.
Sample: Print an ebook sample here: OHC Wildflower Nature Study Set 1 Sample

Here are the specific flowers included in this ebook:

Wild Mustard and Wild Radish (mustard family)
Shooting Star (primrose family)
Lupine (pea family)
Purple Chinese House (figwort family)
Yarrow (composite family)
$4.95 – use Paypal button below

This 43 page digital ebook has 5 challenges and supplemental activities that will help you learn about some common wildflowers.
There are custom notebooking pages for each of the five wildflowers featured. In addition, there’s a general notebook page for recording information for each of the plant families introduced in this ebook. There’s also a page for use with any summer flower study.
I’ve included two wildflower related activities from the archives: Wildflower Photo Hunt and the Wildflower Big Grid Study.
Four coloring pages.
There’s enough material in this ebook to provide 5 weeks of wildflower study or more depending on how long you take to complete each challenge.
One of the resources in this ebook is a chart that coordinates each study with the Botany in a Day book.
Sample: Print an ebook sample here: OHC Wildflower Nature Study Set 2 Sample

Here are the specific flowers included in this ebook:

Henbit ( Mint Family)
Cow Parsnip (Parsley Family)
Columbine (Buttercup Family)
Chicory (Aster Family)
Cocklebur (Aster Family
$4.95- use Paypal button below

You can purchase both ebooks together for a special discounted price! $8.95

Please note these will be sent to you manually. Once I receive your payment, I will send the ebook download links to you in an email. This is a special arrangement for just these ebooks and only until the end of May. Act fast or you may miss this rare opportunity to purchase a single ebook here on the Handbook of Nature Study.

OFFER ENDS MAY 31, 2018

Wildflower Ebooks

Make sure to subscribe to my blog to follow along with those wildflower related nature study activities.

Note: This post is part of a monthly series of posts I’m writing as part of a fantastic group of nature loving women who I’m linking up with on the 20^th of each month. There’s a topic of the month and we’ll all share a book and activity that goes along with that theme. You can use the links at the bottom of this post to see all of our books/activities. Use the linky tool below to share your own wildflower related links this month too!

Past Month’s Themes:

Link Up Guidelines

Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature posts.

An InLinkz Link-up

See all the great posts from The Nature Book Club’s co-hosts in May:

Miss Rumphius Mixed Media Art from Emily at Table Life Blog

Wildflower Walk and Pressing Flowers from Barbara at Handbook of Nature Study

Wildflowers Nature Study from Jenny at Faith and Good Works

Oregon Nature Study Quiz: Wildflower Edition from Eva at Eva Varga

Wildflower Fairy Poetry & Art Activity from Melanie at Wind in a Letterbox

Flower Fairy Peg Dolls from Cassidy at Freshly Planted

Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms Online Book Club from Dachelle at Hide the Chocolate

Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook from Tina at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Fingerprint Painting on Canvas Activity from Katrina at Rule This Roost

DIY Flower Press from Thaleia at Something 2 Offer

Dandelion Life Cycle Learning Activities from Karyn at Teach Beside Me

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Frog Nature Study

May 18, 2018 By Barb McCoy Leave a Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Spring Frog Nature Study

From the Archives and from the Summer Nature Study ebook

This is a classic nature study that most children really enjoy. It will involve finding a local place to look for tadpoles, frogs, and/or toads. This can be a pond, stream, or lake; so take a few minutes and brainstorm where you could visit to observe these interesting creatures up close.

Use the link in the archive post above to read all about how to raise tadpoles.

We’re looking forward to some evenings outside listening for frogs and toads. It’s a relaxing time of day to be outdoors. Make sure to look up at the sky too!

Use the links in the archive post above to listen to the sounds of different frogs so your children will know what to listen for!

Join us for this exciting series of nature study topics as we work through the Summer Nature Study – Using Your Senses ebook. Don’t worry that it isn’t summer yet; the ebook title says summer but the nature study ideas inside can be used whenever you have an occasion to.

This ebook is found in the Ultimate level membership for you to download and use with your family. If you would like to gain access to this ebook, you can purchase a membership now and have instant access.

Use the discount code BIRDLOVER5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership.

Marine Biology -Nature Study with Links

May 16, 2018 By Barb McCoy Leave a Comment

Oceans, Ocean Life, Tide Pools, and Aquariums = Great Marine Biology Unit Study

Looking for some help in starting a study of marine biology with your children? Wanting to learn more about tide pools? Looking for help with lesson plans? Not sure what to do or where to get started?

I’m going to pull together the resources and materials that I found planning our study of marine biology. My boys used these ideas in high school but much of the information is absolutely appropriate for younger students. I invite you to read more about how families can learn about marine life together.

With a little effort, you can make a study of marine biology a fun and exciting family activity.

My boys have had an interest in the ocean since they were very little. Not only were they curious about the typical things like sharks and dolphins, but they also wanted to know more about the things that are often hidden from sight deep under the ocean’s surface. As a homeschooling family, we were able to create opportunities to follow their interests, to feed the curiosity that they had about ocean life. In high school, we made a more formal study of marine biology. All of their previous experiences with ocean creatures in real life were connected together as we worked through this curriculum. They had memories of so many of the topics from personal and up close observations. There could have been no better way to learn these things. I am a huge fan of interest driven learning for life.

Marine Biology – General Plan

Our family used a textbook as the spine for our marine biology study. In addition, we used some more specific resources that fit the learning styles of our children including a scientific coloring book, field guides, and an additional activity book.

The books and resources we used are listed below. Please note these are Amazon affiliate links to products I have used, owned, and loved.

We used Exploring Creation with Marine Biology as our basic textbook this year with our high school age boys. This text is a perfect fit for our family and we enjoyed the topics, the information, and the sequence of learning. Each week we learned something new and interesting that we could draw from on our field trips.

Note: If your children are younger, you could use Apologia’s Exploring Creation: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.

As a supplement we used the Marine Biology Coloring Book for our notebooks. I have one visual spatial learner who learned so much from using this coloring book. It’s so much more than just a coloring book and has high school level information that supplements the text above. I highly recommend using it alongside any marine biology text you choose.

Tide pooling is a great family activity and can be incorporated into field trips and vacations!

With a little preparation, exploring tide pools can be a great hook for additional study. Once we observed something in its natural setting, our boys were eager to identify it and learn more.

Listed below are some of our many family tide pooling adventures.

Low Tide Oregon Coast – Our Tide Pool Experiences and Images

We had a week with lots of opportunity for tide pooling. Here are some of the creatures and plants we observed.

Oregon Coast Tide Pools – Extra Low Tide

We were able to explore the Oregon coast tide pools again this summer. New creatures were found!

Snail Study at the Oregon Coast

We had a terrific time during the negative tide looking at snails and more!

Cabrillo National Monument

Our day visiting the tide pools in Southern California.

Southern Oregon Beaches

Lots of ideas for beachcombing and nature journaling in this blog entry. In addition you may wish to start a seashell collection.

Additional Marine Biology Resources

I kept these resources on our nature shelf during our study of marine biology. They were used often as we created nature journal pages after our beach and tide pool experiences.

Golden Guide Seashore Life

Seaside Naturalist

Seashore – Northern and Central California

101 Questions About the Seashore

Aquariums We Visited

Oregon Coast Aquarium

We visited this museum just a few weeks ago and it was fantastic! The aquarium displays are gorgeous…a mixture of art and natural beauty. I printed out the field trip packet and we all completed the pages as we visited the aquarium.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

This is the premier aquarium on the California coast. We love the setting and the layout of this aquarium. The “backstage” programs are well worth the effort of planning ahead.

I love when we can combine our personal interests into our homeschooling plans. Our family thoroughly enjoyed our year focusing on marine biology because we made it fit our learning styles. It gave us a legitimate excuse to take trips to the ocean, combining school subjects and pleasure. Sometimes it felt like we were having too much fun to call it “school” but that is the freedom that homeschooling gives us.

Take advantage of the opportunity, especially in high school, to feed your child’s passions. We never regretted our decision to include a formal study of marine biology into our sons’ teen years.

You never know where your study will take you!

Then we introduced the boys to snorkeling while on a trip to Hawaii. This added a new dimension to their personal experience with fish of the coral reef. It was exciting for them to swim with the fishes!

Read about it here: Hawaiian Fish in My Nature Journal.

If you have any resources you have used in your study of marine biology, feel free to leave me a comment sharing the titles or ideas.

You may be interested in clicking over to my page that I have created on my Harmony Fine Arts blog that lists all of our high school plans and resources, both by grade and topic.

Homeschool Plans

In addition, you can use the Outdoor Hour Challenges that may apply to your marine biology study.

Sand and Soil Nature Study

Salt Nature Study

Plus Archived Newsletters (All members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have access to the archived newsletters.)

June 2012 – Ocean Beach Newsletter