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!

The Measure of a Heart uses candy hearts to practice measuring perimeter and area.  After finishing the worksheet, use your candy hearts to measure the perimeter and area of other things around the house.

(In case you need to know…Perimeter is the measurement around an object and area is the measurement of an object’s surface.  To measure the perimeter of the hearts on the worksheet, place candy hearts around the edges of the hearts – the dark lines – and count how many it takes to go all the way around.  To measure the area, see how many candy hearts will fit inside the hearts on the worksheet.)

The Candy Pattern worksheet (which didn’t transfer to a jpg well and is MUCH nicer in the PDF download) allows your child to make various patterns using candy hearts.

(In case you need to know…each of the letters on the worksheet (A, B, C) represent a different colored candy heart.  So, for instance, an ABA pattern, where A represents pink and B represents green would look like: pink, green, pink, pink, green, pink, pink, green, pink.  Your child gets to decide which colors represent each letter of the pattern.)

You can find several other fun math related V-Day ideas at Googol Learning.

I’ve been pinning fun ideas on my Valentine’s Pinterest board, too!

For those of you interested in learning how to add more living math into your homeschool, consider Loving Living Math.

An art lesson that promotes mathematical thinking – oh joy.  With the main focus being on the art concept of positive and negative space, throwing symmetry into the mix gave a nice extra punch to the lesson.

Positive space is the area on a piece of art which the subject occupies, while negative space is the area around the subject.  You can see in this symmetrical example that the positive space is the pink on the left, but changes to yellow on the right.

The method is quite simple.

1. Find two contrasting colors of the same sized paper.

2. Fold both papers in half to establish the line of symmetry.

3. Set one paper aside.

4. Cut the 2nd piece of paper in half on the fold you just made.  Discard one of the halves.

5. Draw 1/2 of a shape.  (Like you would do if you were making paper hearts and planned to open the paper up once the heart was cut out.  Except, in this case, you’ve already discarded the other half.)

6. Cut out your shape, keeping all pieces.

7. Place the positive space pieces on one side of the line of symmetry on the 2nd sheet of paper.  Place the negative space pieces on the other side.  Situate all the pieces so that they meet the line of symmetry perfectly and match up with one another.

8. Glue.

This lesson was inspired by Dick Blick and is one of the many integrated math and art lessons I’ve pinned on my Living Math Pinterest Page!

(Sorry, not the best photo, but I wanted you to see the possibilities.)

On Fridays, I attempt to plan a simple object lesson to go along with Bible study.  Since we have been studying knights of the Middle Ages lately, I thought a lesson on the Armor of God made a nice tie-in.

The lesson is quick, but powerful.

Materials:

• two oranges
• a glass bowl large enough for two oranges to be completely submerged
• water
• Bible

Read Ephesians 6:10-17

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Talk about what each piece of armor stands for and how it helps us stand against the devil.

Ask your children to pretend to put on each piece of armor as you discuss how that particular piece might help them throughout their day.

Place both oranges in the bowl with their “armor” on.  (In other words, keep the skin on both oranges.)  Talk about how the oranges are floating, or “standing firm” in the water.

Little by little, begin peeling away some of the “armor” (skin) of one of the oranges.  You might peel off a chunk and say something like, “Uh oh, this orange forgot to put on his belt of truth.  When someone says something ugly about him today, he might believe it.  If he believes that lie, instead of the truth that he’s wonderfully made, he might not stand as firm in the water.”  Place the orange back in the water and notice that, although it doesn’t sink completely, it begins dipping further in the water than the orange still wearing all its armor.

Continue on this way, peeling back a little at a time, talking about a new piece of armor the orange forgot to put on, talking about how that might affect his day, and then placing the orange in the water to see it sink more and more each time.

By the time you remove all of the armor, the orange will completely sink.  It is not able to “stand” at all.

Challenge your children to think purposefully each day about putting on each piece of armor.  Maybe you could even pretend to put on each piece together every morning.  When I purposefully try to put on my own armor, I know I’m able to stand more firmly against the devil’s wily schemes.  I bet kids can, too!

Clear.  Concise.  Full of practical ideas.  Easy to implement.  Very motivating!  Those are phrases that perfectly describe Notebooking Success by my blogging friend, Jimmie.

I’m not new to notebooking.  My children have used this method of narration and writing for years in our homeschool .  But, after reading Jimmie’s e-book, I felt a renewed passion for this excellent method of teaching and learning – and this old dog even learned a few new tricks!

Jimmie’s writing style is so smooth and succinct that you’ll find yourself easily reading all the way through the book in less than 30 minutes.  More importantly, at the end of the 30 minutes, you’ll have all the tools you need to get started (or refreshed) with notebooking right away.

Why incorporate notebooking into your homeschool?  Jimmie answers that.  How is notebooking with a 1^st grader different than a 6^th grader or 10^th grader?  Jimmie answers that.  Doesn’t notebooking get boring for children?  Jimmie answers that.  She covers everything you need to know about notebooking from start to finish, including plenty of grade-specific ideas to get you and your children rolling.

As explained in the book, notebooking works well with just about any type of homeschooler – even those who use a strictly textbook curriculum.  I have often mentioned notebooking to friends who are looking for a “better” way to help their children retain information or for children who need extra motivation for writing.  Now, I’ll be sure to point those people toward Notebooking Success!

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!

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s frustrated in the check-out lines.  WooHoo!!  A nationwide petition has been started to either clean up or cover up Cosmopolitan!  When I signed the petition this morning, over 18,000 people had already added their names!  Will you??

Let’s see what a difference our voices can make!!

Sign the petition here

Viking Voyage is a simple game that reinforces mapping as your children discover Viking trade routes.  We just happened to be studing Vikings this week as part of our Medieval studies!

This mapping activity doubles as a crayon resist art lesson, too!  Again, we just happened to be studying the differences between knights and samurai this week, making a little mapping activity of Japan the perfect tie-in!

Eli (K4) wanted me to read The Milk Makers to him today.  I remembered downloading this game on rumination and pulled the bigger kids in on the book (turned lesson), too.

You REALLY need to see if anything on Ellen’s site floats your fancy!

Remember the candy classification post from a couple months ago?  My logic classes at co-op did a similar activity with 15-bean soup mix.

Before jumping into the activity, we talked about plant and animal classification.  I showed them a pictorial example of how animals are classified and then further classified until each animal is eventually in it’s own category.

Each student was given a small pile of beans – approximately 50-60 beans with at least one of every variety in the pile.  (I allowed my middle school group to work in teams of two or three students.)

I challenged them to create a classification system for their beans, making sure each bean ended up in its own category in the end.  They were asked to use any characteristics they wished to separate the beans, with only two rules:

• use creative characteristics (not simply colors)
• don’t break every bean down into its own group in the first step

With each new separation based on a new characteristic, they were expected to note it on a chart so that, in the end, they could tell me the full “taxonomy” of each bean.

Ex: Bean -> small -> round -> flat -> green -> split pea

Each classification chart was unique because each student (or group of students) began with different characteristics of separation.  So, when one person first separated the beans into large and small groups, another student might have used the categories of dark and light or oval and round.

I used this opportunity to discuss how Carolus Linnaeus “invented” the modern classification system of plants and animals in the 1700′s, but scientists even today don’t always agree about exact placements in the taxonomy.

We decided to create a “scientists roundtable”.  Everyone went around the table and told the first characteristic they chose to separate the beans.  If four out of five people (or groups) all used the characteristic of shape, we voted to make that the “official” first level of characterization.  If two people used one characteristic and three people used another, each person had to “argue” their case for using that characteristic and then we all voted as to the “official” characterization.  We continued through each level of the taxonomy in this manner until we came up with an “official scientist certified bean taxonomy”.

The kids all loved this activity!  Besides science and logic, it was a great lesson in chart making, debate and cooperation!

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!