Friday, June 27, 2014

Embarking On Our OHC Summer Photo Challenge


Check out The Handbook of Nature Website!

Oh it's been so long since I have posted a Nature Hour post! The truth is that I have been a bad homeschool mommy and been pushing the books and neglecting our usually reserved nature/art/composer time that happens on Fridays - hence my comment on Under An English Sky's FB page yesterday ;)

Anyhoo, when I told my girls that we were going back to our old schedule - 4 days book work and then Friday's for art and nature, they were thrilled - honestly, the whole afternoon had them smiling and being as sweet as pie.

I decided that we would start our nature time off with a bang and announced that we would be following Barb's Summer Photo Challenge. They were THRILLED.


I created a family Pinterest Summer Photo Challenge board and invited them both on as pinners - they loved this idea! So the idea is that we keep our eyes open all summer long for things in nature - on our walks and off - that fit into the Summer Challenge categories. I have printed off barbs Summer Challenge page, cut out the list and stuck it on our refrigerator so that it is a constant reminder.

Follow Shirley Ann's board Our Family Summer Photo Challenge Board 2014 on Pinterest.

Today's lesson started off with a reading from Edith Holden's 'Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady.' We read the entire June entry - there was much discussion, comparing our June to her June so many years ago. We decided that on our nature walk we would look out for some of the wild flowers she mentions in her diary. Armed with our cameras we set off.


We saw so many of the flowers mentioned in the diary, here's our list:

Heath Spotted-Orchid
Meadow Crane's-bill
White and Red Clover
Common Vetch
Yellow Flag Iris
Buttercups
Common Birds-foot-trefoil
Ox-eye Daisy
Marsh Thistle
Spear Thistle
Common Knapweed
Cow Parsley (Queen Anne's Lace)
Dog Roses
and Blackberry flowers (with developing berries already!)


Bird Life Spotted:

Swans
Crested Grebe's with babies on their backs
Loads of duck species with their youngsters
a flock of Long-Tailed Tits
Magpies
Coots - again with little babies


Other interesting finds:

The tiniest of frogs spotted by Miss J-L - she has eyes like a hawk I tell you!


A tree laden with apples - (I'll be back in the autumn little tree!)


The prettiest moths (check out our Summer Challenge Pinterest Board for the name)


So - an awesome nature hour (or two) today. We are looking forward to doing the Bat Study at some point as we do have bats in our area, although I have not seen them yet.


So there we go - first nature post of the summer!

Have a great weekend all...



4 comments:

  1. Wow this is such an inspiring post! I do love the Diary of an Edwardian Country Lady.....my homeschool focus is shifting to my younger children this year and hopefully I will have more time for things like this!!!

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  2. Love your idea to create a Family Summer Photo Board on Pinterest...such a great way to encourage your photographers and share your images. Thank you for sharing your entry with the OHC Blog Carnival. I always enjoy reading about your nature study in the UK.

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  3. very cool! love all of the flower photos.

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  4. very cool! love all of the flower photos.

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