The Outdoor Hour: Getting Started Challenge 1

Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study has been collecting dust on my bookshelf for several years now.  I purchased it on the recommendation of a friend shortly after we began homeschooling, images of the fun the boys and I would have observing and studying local birds, plants, and mammals developing in my head.  I spent several weeks when the book first arrived perusing the pages, but never quite got around to planning our first nature study adventure.  Instead, I became bogged down in the amount of information available within this 3 inch thick book, and in trying to plan the perfect first nature study adventure, and so I pushed my nature study plans aside.

Some time later, I happened across a wonderful Handbook of Nature Study blog.  I perused the blog, read Barb’s entries of her family’s experience using The Handbook of Nature Study, and planned our first nature study walk.  On a beautiful spring day, we headed outdoors  where the boys made it quite clear they’d rather fight with sticks and run than sit and watch ants or identify leaves.  I was quickly frustrated by their lack of interest in my plans, so once again, I placed our Handbook of Nature Study back on the shelf and pushed my nature study plans aside.

After some soul searching and curriculum reviewing this winter, however, I recognized the need for more outdoor time, more hands-on learning, and more fun in our home school. I pulled the Handbook of Nature Study off the shelf once again, purchased Barb’s Outdoor Hour Challenges Getting Started e-book (on the recommendation of a friend – the same one who recommended The Handbook of Nature Study all those years ago), and mentioned my desire to start regular nature study times to a local homeschooling friend, thinking that perhaps our nature study would be more likely to happen if we did it with another family.  She agreed.  That was a month ago.

A few days before our first scheduled nature study day, Connor started throwing up, effectively thwarting our  nature study plans for that week.  We decided to wait to start our nature study on our next scheduled date:  two weeks from that first unsuccessful attempt, March 9 – yesterday.  But yesterday, we woke to coastal flood warnings and an unrelenting downpour.   With the growing excitement about our nature study day, we decided another two weeks was just too long to wait, and so we rescheduled for today!  Fortunately, today everyone was healthy, and while the skies were overcast and the air was damp, there was no rain in the forecast.  

We met our friends the P’s at a wonderful local park.  The ground was muddy, the stream was moving quickly, the lake had overflowed its sides, and the treasures to be found were many!  Using the Outdoor Hour’s Getting Started Challenge 1 as a guide, we encouraged the boys to listen, look, and feel.  We figured we’d encourage them to look and study for 10-15 minutes, we’d discuss our findings, and then we’d allow the boys to play on the playground equipment they had made a b-line for the moment we arrived at the park.

Following the boys’ lead, we braved the slippery banks of the stream and walked down to the fast moving water.

 The boys tossed stones and sticks into the water, listening for the loudest plunk and racing sticks down the stream.  Although this was not what either of the moms had in mind when we talked about conducting nature study, we let them play for a few minutes.  One by one, they started to find treasures while they played: sweet gum balls, clam shells, and rocks of many colors.  They listened for birds, and heard a cardinal and a trio of Canadian Geese.  Mrs. P spotted a few marvelous footprints in the mud.  

 We directed the boys’ attention to the trash in the tree roots and damage to the reeds and grasses, signs that the stream had in fact recently been three or more feet higher than it was even now.

Wanting to move the boys away from the fast moving water,  we found our way to the other side of the stream to explore the wooded banks which turned out to be a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the stream.  Here we found signs of beaver activity: tree stumps whittled to a sharp point, wood shavings, and notches gnawed from felled logs; an interesting seed pod/egg sack which we’ll be trying to identify this week; some berries, leaves, and acorns; and a really fun log that Ryan and Connor just couldn’t resist using to cross the stream.

Next, we moved on to the lake.  The water had swollen past the banks of the lake.  The boys used a long piece of bamboo to measure the depth of the lake and to fish leaves, trash, and debris from the lake.

An hour-and-a-half later, we had explored the stream, the lake, and the woods.  The boys had collected hand-fulls of treasures, tossed rocks,  explored the woods, crawled across logs, fished for debris at the bottom of the lake, jumped in puddles, and enjoyed a morning of nature study.

Before heading home, we asked each boy to share one or two of his treasures.  Each boy, from youngest to oldest, took a turn telling about his favorite finds.

Ryan’s treasures:

Connor’s treasures:

We came up with several items to try to learn more about in the next week:  the egg sack, (which we now know is a praying mantis egg case), the clam shell (possibly from an Asian clam), and the orange berries (identified as being from an American Mountain Ash) topped that list.  We also identified some things we’d like to revisit at this particular park later in the spring:  the stream when the waters recede, the cattails at the lake as they grow, and the sweet gum trees when they bud and grow leaves.

We never did make it over to the playground equipment, neither of the boys even asked.  Now that’s what I call a successful first day of nature study!