Posted by Cindy on September 21, 2009
Have you ever noticed that God made seeds with adaptations that give them the best opportunity to make it to fertile land and grow into new plants? Hooks, wings, feather, rolling shells, floating bodies and yummy fruit whose seed will be pooped out are several examples. We took time last week during our nature walk to observe seed adaptations using the notebooking page found in the NaturExplorer Fruit and Nut study.
Here’s just a sampling of the seeds we found. This time of year is wonderful for finding fruits, nuts and seeds!
Okay, not a seed, fruit or nut, but I couldn’t resist this picture! This friendly little Fritillary spent several minutes fluttering between this Queen Anne’s Lace and a stalk of Yellow Ironweed.
Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2009
Here are the wildflower nature study resources that were in my August sidebar. In September, we’re movin’ on to a nature study about fruits and nuts – which you can find in the sidebar now.
Posted by Cindy on August 28, 2009
I admit that wildflowers are quite possibly my favorite of all nature studies. I’m always in awe of God’s creativeness, beauty and majesty through such delicate little things like wildflowers. I’m also amazed at how each season presents me with new flowers that I’ve never noticed before – each with awesome characteristics that are different from any other flower.
A field of wildflowers can move me, while a single wildflower observed closely makes me marvel at the constant, yet diverse design that makes a flower a flower. And to think that wildflowers are “planted by God” reminds me that He cares about me enough to bring me flowers!
I have posted at Shining Dawn Books about this week’s identification walk. I hope you’ll take a minute to hop over there and read An Abundance of Wildflowers as it’s somewhat of a continuation of this post.
Last week, we took a very up-close and personal look at wildflowers through comparisons and dissection. There was no long nature walk involved – only long enough to collect several flower samples to bring back inside. Since the yard wasn’t off limits for picking, the kiddos brought in a couple of flowers that aren’t considered wild. No matter, it made for a great opportunity to discuss the difference between the two!
The first activity was to compare two completely different flowers for similarities and differences. This is another of the notebooking pages that comes with the Wonderful Wildflowers NaturExplorers unit.
The second activity was flower dissection to identify all the parts of a flower.
We own a very old dissection kit that made the dissection not only easy, but exciting for the kids.
We were able to see the ovules (eggs) in the ovary on this hollyhock (not a wildflower).
Eli always gets in on the action!
The third activity was drawing the cross-section of a flower and labeling all the parts.
And the final activity was to complete a watercolor still-life of wildflowers. We have been studying Cezanne, who painted several still-life works, so this tied art and nature study together quite well. And to get composer study in the mix, we listened to a CD of Chopin (our composer of the month.)
“Wildflowers in the Rain”
Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2009
This month’s nature study is focusing on wildflowers. Our farm is just abundant with wildflowers this time of year! During last week’s study, we placed a blanket among a field full of wildflowers to read books and praise the Lord for His magnificent beauty.
Afterward, I sent the kids off on a scavenger hunt. They had a ball running around the field trying to check off each and every item.
Mahayla on the wildflower scavenger hunt.
Caleb checking off his scavenger hunt list.
Eli scavenging wildflowers to hit with a stick.
After the scavenger hunt, each of the big kids had to go in search of one flower that was new to them to bring back to the blanket. They had to identify it and write down various characteristics and information on a notebooking page.
Filling out a notebooking page for the flower of their choice.
Caleb's flower = Heal-All
Mahayla's flower = Evening Primrose
As usual, we had such a lovely time basking in God’s creation! You can find the notebooking pages we used (and more), plus TONS of wildflower activity ideas in the NaturExplorers unit Wonderful Wildflowers.
Posted by Cindy on April 17, 2008
Yesterday was a b-u-s-y day! Between a 15-month checkup with shots (ouch!) for little one and his first haircut, we really put Eli through the ringer. I’d been waiting until we got the new camera before taking him for his first haircut and this picture shows just how badly he needed it. 
You’ll see the haircut started out without a care in the world. Eli had a sucker (and no idea what was coming.) I’ve spared your the worst of it, but needless to say, the sucker didn’t distract him from the strange man tugging at his head. The last picture shows him escaping to the other side of the shop when it was all over.
The barber used a vacuum attached to his shears and I didn’t get a little tuft of hair to save! I didn’t even think about it until I came home, when I almost broke out in tears!!
Later in the afternoon, our Keepers At Home group visited a local greenhouse for a tour and a class in flower arranging. It really put us all in the mood to start planting!
All this fun doesn’t even include the THIRD trip we took into town for ball practice. So much for trying to save gas now that we’re paying $3.45 a gallon!
