Some of my blogging friends and I would like to make sure the winter hum-drums don’t have you down for the count!  One of the best ways to perk up the school year during February (the month known for the onset of homeschooling blues) is to get outside.  Yes, you heard right – get outside!  I know it’s cold, but I also know what “going stir crazy” feels like and how {even cold weather} nature walks can rejuvenate the spirit.  Not to mention, there’s a world of nature waiting to be studied during the winter!

To get you started in your nature explorations, I’ve created THREE fun notebooking pages that will guide you on walks from Valentine’s Day through those first sweet signs of spring.  To download them, simply click on the graphics.  (Please forgive the thumbnail images  – they look MUCH better in the download.  I’m not the most techie blogger you’ve ever met and I can never seem to figure out how to successfully create a jpg of docs that include tables.)

Freebie #1:  Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so how about taking a LOVEly Winter Walk where you spend some purposeful time in thankfulness for God’s winter creation?

Freebie #2: Conifers are popular trees to study during the winter since most of them continue to hold on to leaves and cones through the cold months.  Print off one Conifer Observation Sheet per tree you intend to study to make comparisons from tree to tree.

Freebie #3:  Spring will come soon – really it will!  This Early Spring Beauty notebooking page will help you catch the very first signs of spring to let you know that God’s promises to renew never fail.

Remember how I told you my blogging friends and I were on a mission to keep your family from the winter hum-drums?  Well, that means the wonderful ladies below have also created nature notebooking freebies for you!!  

• Maureen Spell from Spell Outloud

• Jimmie from Jimmie’s Collage (and Notebooking Fairy)

• Lauren Hill from Mama’s Learning Corner (and Mama’s Laundry Talk)

• Amanda McCoy from Hearts and Trees

• Barb from Handbook of Nature Study (and Harmony Art Mom)

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Popular winter studies include:

Enjoy winter!

Extol the LORD, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion….He spreads the snow like wooland scatters the frost like ashes.He hurls down his hail like pebbles.Who can withstand his icy blast?He sends his word and melts them;he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.Psalm 147:12, 16-18

Brrrr – it’s cold outside!

Winter is in full swing. This might seem like a silly time to suggest taking a nature walk, but creation doesn’t stop singing just because the temperatures are cold! In fact, winter is an awesome time for viewing things that we might miss other times of the year.

Besides studying the obvious topics of snow, ice and frost, an entire world of nature excitement awaits this season. Bird’s nests, burrows, rocks, animal prints, and the intricacies of a tree or bush are all things that are much easier to observe during winter when leaves have fallen and plants have died. During a winter walk, challenge your children to find at least ten things that would be much harder to see or find during the summer months.

Winter is also the perfect time to observe conifers (evergreens) and compare them to deciduous trees which have lost their leaves. Your child can create comparison charts and drawings, or complete mini-dissections on conifer needles and cones.

Believe it or not, the ideas above only scratch the surface of exciting nature study opportunities during the winter!  If you’re hoping for loads of more ideas for both outdoor and indoor nature (aka science) studies for this season, you might consider one or more of the following NaturExplorers studies: Snow and Ice, Coping with the Cold, Constant Conifers, Animal Signs, Beautiful Birds or Hard as a Rock.  NaturExplorers studies were written with the 1st-8th grader in m ind, but include extensions for high school students, as well as fun ideas for preschoolers.  Since so many customers asked, I recently released a winter study called Nature by the Season written specifically for preschoolers and kindergarteners.

But, why study nature?

So many homeschoolers are interested in the idea of nature study, but never take the time to actually incorporate it into their homeschool.  Many of them feel like nature study is one of the “extras” that’s all too difficult to fit into the schedule of “important” lessons.  Or, worse, some feel like nature study isn’t even worthy of being an “extra”.

From my experiences, nature study has actually opened the doors to many of our “important ” lessons!  Science takes on a fresh perspective as we learn outdoors and becomes invigorating in the naturally hands-on atmosphere.  Nature study covers biology, botany, earth and space sciences in great detail – and more times than you might imagine physical science and chemistry.

Think of nature study as a wonderful science lab – free of charge!  Instead of reading in a boring textbook about the life cycle of a flower, for instance, children actually observe life cycles time and time again.  These real-life experiences are powerful, yet gentle lessons that help children internalize a great wealth of knowledge.

Besides the subject of science, it’s super-easy to integrate art, writing, geography, and even history and math into nature study lessons.  As children paint a tree in a nature journal, write a spontaneous poem about blue jays, sketch a quick map of a trail, or calculate measurements, other subjects seamlessly “happen”.  In fact, one joyful afternoon of nature study has often allowed me to check off several completed subjects in my lesson plan book!  (The NaturExplorers studies give you many creative ideas for integrating several subjects into nature walks.)

As icing on the cake, nature study allows for time spent together as a family, fresh air and exercise.  And, above all for my family, taking time to enjoy God’s creation is a super way to draw us closer to the One who made it!

So, what are you waiting for?  Go take a hike today!

What’s Up at Shining Dawn Books?

NEW!
Homeschooling Gifted and Advanced Learners
My first book with Prufrock Press was released Nov 2011!!  Anyone who hopes to homeschool creatively will find the book full of useful and encouraging information – it’s not just for those who know they have gifted or talented kids!  Check out reviews written by Jimmie of Jimmies Collage and Tricia of The Curriculum Choice.

NEW!
Nature By the Season for Preschool and Kindergarten: Winter
For only $5.95, keep your little ones engaged in winter nature studies that are just their size!  Watch for Nature By the Season: Spring to be released in March!

Winter Nature Studies
Which NaturExplorers studies are best to use during the winter?  More than you might think!  Try:
Animal Signs
Beautiful Birds
Captivating Clouds
Constant Conifers
Coping with the Cold
Delightful Deciduous Trees
Everchanging Erosion
Hard as a Rock
Snow and Ice

Winter Bundle
I’ve bundled three of our most popular winter NaturExplorers studies for only $21.00!

Quarterly Special
The new quarterly NaturExplorers special (from now through March) is Everchanging Erosion.  For only $6.00 you can enjoy learning about erosion – a less likely, but fascinating nature topic good to use any season of the year.

Loving Living Math
Loving Living Math was our top seller in 2011 as many parents were ready to learn how to “do” living math.  It’s already been a great seller this year, too!  If you’ve been on the fence about purchasing it, would it change your mind to know you can get it for 25% off between now and Jan 31st??  Use the code WinterMath upon checkout and pay only $6.71!

Affiliate Program
Shining Dawn Books launched an affiliate program in 2011!  It’s super easy to sign up and begin earning 20% commission on all sales referred by you!

Facebook and Pinterest
Join Shining Dawn Books on Facebook to find out about special offers and take part in occasional giveaways.  And, visit me on Pinterest to see all the wonderful supplementary ideas I’m pinning to go along with the NaturExplorers series, Loving Living Math and more.

Happy New Year and Enjoy Your Winter Nature Studies!

Winter is a great time for finding nature treasures that are hidden other seasons of the year.  Bird’s nests are one example.  Can you see how some sweet little bird found spare bailing twine to add to his cozy home?

Spend some crafty time this winter creating nesting material to attract more birds to your yard this coming spring!  Loosely fill a suet container or recycled mesh bag with various scraps of any or all of the following:

• yarn
• straw
• shredded paper
• cotton balls stretched out a bit
• thin fabric scraps
• twigs

As birds begin nesting this spring, hang your container on a tree branch.  Be sure to take some opportunities to observe the busy birds who visit your nesting material.  If you’re lucky,  next winter you’ll find a bird’s nest that was built using some of your materials!

I’ve pinned a couple of fun nesting material posts over at Pinterest.  Go see!

Enjoy an entire study of birds this winter (and beyond) using NaturExplorers Beautiful Birds!

I’m so excited to release the first of four seasonal studies for preschoolers and kindergarteners!  In Nature by the Season: Winter, enjoy over 40 nature study activities designed specifically to engage little ones.  Perfectly suitable for little hands, active bodies and bright minds, each nature study includes indoor follow-up ideas to keep the excitement and learning going strong.

Visit Shining Dawn Books to learn more and view a sample.  Facebook friends are enjoying a code to purchase the e-book for only $4.95!

What is this??  A bowl of wonderful, living pond water!

Even though you can’t see anything living with the naked eye, there’s a world of life waiting to see under a microscope!

Mahayla has been studying about the Kingdoms Monera and Protista in her biology.  And, as you know, Caleb has been studying all sorts of plants, including pond plants.  We were amazed at all the life we found in that small bowl of pond water!  If you have a microscope, create a few slides with “fresh” pond water and see for yourself!

When studying pond water, you might also enjoy the other activities suggested in the NaturExplorers study, Peaceful Ponds!

I told you I’ve been slacking on my posts!  Four botany study posts in four days doesn’t mean we’ve been studying botany in such depth every day.  In fact, each topic took us at least a week to cover.  Today’s post is about one of the lessons spent learning about fungi.

Besides science and photography, this lesson was stretched to include writing and computer skills, too.  I posted last week about the notebooking page he created.

Of course, with boys, a nature walk never ends up being entirely about the topic at hand.  They always find exciting extras…

What nature studies have been keeping you busy this autumn?

A few days later, this is what we found in the same tree cavity! It was so full of hickory nuts that I asked my children if they had stuffed the hole.  Everyone said no, which means there was A LOT of work done by some small creature in two or three day’s time!

Just yesterday, this HUGE flock of birds landed in the hay field just outside our house.  It actually “got dark” as they were flying over the house!

Now is the perfect time for observing animals who are preparing for winter!  Find all sorts of lesson ideas in Coping with the Cold!

Gymnosperms are plants with “naked seeds” that aren’t housed inside a fruit.  Conifers (cone-bearing plants) are an example of a gymnosperm.

During this lesson, we had collected various twigs and cones from trees at our local cemetery.  We don’t have very many conifers at all on our farm, but the cemetery has several varieties.  We tried to only to collect specimens that had already fallen off the trees or seems to be part of a dying branch.

We compared the leaves of different trees. How were they alike/different? How were they attached to the twig?

We identified the parts and observed their characteristic and functions.

We pulled apart cones as an informal dissection. We were looking for seeds inside the cones, but all ours had already dropped their seeds.

Cones close in cold, wet weather to protect the seeds. We placed open cones in cold water and watched as they completely closed after a few hours.

Conversely, cones open in warm, dry weather. We set cones that were tightly closed in a 250 degree oven for an hour or so and watched as they opened completely.

While this wasn't part of the same lesson, our weekly art lesson used conifer samples as models for some practice with pastels.

If you’d like to find all sorts of detailed lesson ideas for studying conifers, check out the NaturExplorers study, Constant Conifers!

One super-interesting nature walk activity was finding the tap root (main root that grows straight down), lateral roots (large roots that grow outward or laterally) and fibrous roots (fine roots that grow downward from the lateral roots) of trees.  We took a walk near a creek where we were likely to see root systems due to erosion.  Our findings were way cool!

Exposed roots were everywhere making it easy for us to make plenty of observations.

As we walked the dry parts of the creek bed, we were able to find shelves of erosion showing grass and wildflower roots from above, too!

(The Everchanging Erosion NaturExplorers study would be great for this topic, too.  I’m just sayin’.  )

After plenty of experiences along with lots of living science literature, I gave Caleb a “test” of sorts.  He had to complete the file folder report below to prove his knowledge of trees.  (The file folder template came from Easy File Folder Reports, Grades 3-6.)  As a review before the “test”, I had him read a wonderful little book called A Tree is Growing by Arthur Dorros.

And I can’t forget the ever-so-interested preschooler who loves to be part of our botany lessons.  He gathered some leaves on our walk and created some simple, but pretty, leaf prints when we returned home.