Welcome to my 10 Days Series on the topic of nature study! Each of the ten days brings you a creative nature walk idea and a fun follow-up activity to spark your enthusiasm for nature study today! (This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) Why study nature? The…
Welcome to my 10 Days Series on the topic of nature study! Each of the ten days brings you a creative nature walk idea and a fun follow-up activity to spark your enthusiasm for nature study today! Why study nature? The answer is more serious than you might think. Bird Study This post contains affiliate…
Considering God’s Creation has been the spine curriculum for our 6th grade human body study. As always, I added a few things here and there to amp things up a notch. So, besides the {wonderful} notebooking pages that come with Considering God’s Creation, we did the activities and worksheets below, too. Sadly, I don’t have…
During our human body unit, we spent quite some time studying cells – their functions and parts. This discussion naturally led to a study of DNA and genetics. What fun! (This post contains affiliate links.) Cells Understanding the basic formation of a cell began by using the model of an egg. (Our worksheet came from…
One of the best ways to perk up the school year during the winter 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…
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. Nature Study…
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…
I {heart} Pinterest! Seriously. It may very well be the greatest invention on the planet. Okay, the greatest recent invention. Through Pinterest, I found (and archived) some fun leafy art lessons to go along with our botany studies this autumn. While we didn’t get to all the wonderful ideas – this autumn – we found…
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. After some activities from…
We came across this little scene in our yard the other day – some sweet little animal is busily preparing for winter! 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…
Caleb (and Eli) and I have been so loving our study of botany! This post highlights one of our activities as we learned about gymnosperms, particularly conifers. 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…
In continuing our middle school botany study, we’ve been studying trees. A lot. Most of the activities we’ve done have come from the Delightful Deciduous Trees NaturExplorers study. 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…