It is Spring... right?

Green hour number 5

What a week +. This poor blog has been so neglected! :( It’s terrible... I just did not dedicate time over here like I wanted to and should have.

Although we did not go on a nature walk this week, no not one sadly... we were outside a lot. RyLee and I both cleared out one of the garden beds next to the house last weekend. We replanted my Hydrangea I got for our anniversary last year and planted some pansies we bought at Home Depot.

RyLee planted her/our starts for our vegetable and flower garden and some have already sprouted! That’s exciting! Its been over a week... so it was fun to see something!

Here are a few pictures of RyLee planting:






We bought 2 trays that have enough for 72 starts. It’s more than we need, but thought it would be fun to share too. *Ü*

We woke up to snow yesterday!! argh! Not a lot, but a good dusting, and it snowed again this after noon... its all gone now, but it made us so sad, and yet thankful we started the starts inside and not out!


I love the square foot gardening book! Its been a bible of sorts this week... its been my night time read! lol I’m getting comfortable with this idea and RyLee and I both cant wait to get outside more and play in the dirt!

Now for the challenge... we were to make a list of flowers or our focus area that we might recognize in our yard. Well, at this time, that would be none! lol or at least when we first got the challenge. We now have pansies and also a few marigolds we took home after sunrise service for Easter. *Ü* Also my Hydrangea and the starts... I planted my strawberry bulbs too.

I found a little tree frog in my pot with my old strawberries in it. He was taking shelter I guess. I didn’t get a picture, but did catch him to show RyLee and my husband Dan! *Ü*

Although we have done some fun things outside, we have not "studied this last, last week. *Ü* We are keeping on, but also doing what we can. We are learning and enjoying our time together, so that’s something!

Thanks for stopping by!

Green Hour number 4 update....

We are focusing on gardening for the next 8 weeks +, it will actually be all spring and summer and fall and... *Ü* But what we will do is focus on our yard. We have little, ok no landscaping to speak of. Just a front, back and side lawn. Not bad, but I want to attract animals... specifically birds... I have had a humming bird feeder up all year (last Spring) and a few other feeders and I have yet to see a bird other than a crow or a robin! They are so common... I want black capped chickadees or even a pesky Stellar Jay!*Ü*

Now... to begin this plan of ours to garden, RyLee and I went to a local nursery called Clear Creak Nursery on Wednesday. Just to have a look and get some ideas... plus I wanted to see what RyLees fancy was. *Ü* I’m so sneaky...

The first thing we saw were tulips! They are beautiful and colorful! It was so nice to see color other than grey and green... not bad colors, but its all we have seen for about.....5 months.....




We forgot what these were! I guess I have an attention span of a goldfish... lol I should have written it down. We will look it up later and update when we find out.( or go back and look *Ü*)





Now this was a treat! My grandmother had these outside the door of her house. In the spring every time I would walk thorugh the door, I would smell these beauties just before I entered. They are so sweet smelling... I told Ry these were a must... I have to have them. So we will make sure to get these... They are Hyacinths.



At some point, not this year, we would love an area near a garden to place Koi. We could not get over the size of some of these fish! It was like a salmon run!



RyLee and I both decided... we have to have this! Not just yet... but we want to add this to our yard. Firts we need to learn more about what it needs to grow properly... but we fell in love with the Kumquat!




I also signed up for a few classes over the next 5 months.They are only $10.00 each! RyLee only signed up for 1 and thats ok... I want her to only do what she is interested in.... hopefully my excitment for theother things will rub off, and I can "show" her what I learned...

My first class is called Trees for the home orchard. Its a 2 hour class. We will learn what trees grow best in our county, we will cover polination requirments, pruning and how to avoid insects and disease problems....

Gardening with Ed Hume-vegetable gardening. All the basic how toos....

Creating backyard wildlife. Im looking forward to this one as well.

This was our outing Wedesday.... I plan to take Ry to a couple of "real" gardens in a few weeks... I will make sure we post all about it.

Pre Green hour #4

Here we are! Week 4 and challenge 4! I cant believe we have been doing this for an entire month now! *Ü* We have hardly scratched the surface of what we can learn and explore, but I look forward to this being a long lived habit in our home. Nature walks rule! Even if it is right outside my back door. *Ü*


In this challenge we were asked to read again from our faithful Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock.... this week were to read form pages 10 and 11:

The use of scientific names.

What jumped out at me during this reading was this

" The child should never be required to learn the name ofanything in nature-study work; but the name should be used so often and so naturally in his presence that he will learn it with out being conscious of the process."

This means for me, I will be reading and learning a lot! Good thing I’m interested or we might not learn a thing! *Ü* It also means that the walks and exposure are very important and should also become a natural part of our day. Not daily if I can’t... but routinely a few times a week.

I read in one of Barbs recent posts (Fitting it all in)that Barb and her children go for walks daily, but only once a month do the actual Nature Study and it becomes a day long event. This is more along the lines of how I envisioned our study... although I had never thought about only doing one long day of Nature study.... Reading Barbs post just reconfirmed my desires I guess.... and I’m so grateful we have someone to help us and guide us on this new journey.... It is a journey!

Ok... Now for pages 13-15 The Field Notebook

I am enjoying this large book! For years I have had it and been so intimidated by it.... I felt lost every time I opened it! I even bought a very old copy when I found one at a thrift store... and on my shelf it sat..... I’m grateful for the guidance and small bits to chew on...

" b) The making of drawings to illustrate what is observed should be encouraged. A graphic drawing is far better than a long description of a natural object.

c) The notebook should not be regarded as a part of the work in English. The spelling, language and writing of the notes should all be exempt from criticism.

d) As occasion offers, outlines for observing certain plants or animals may be placed in the notebook previous to the field excursion so as to give definite points for the work."

Again... things I need to hear and ideas I want to glean from!The challenge this week was to pick a focus area for our study. We looked online at Ambleside and decided our focus would be garden flowers and garden vegetables (not weeds unless it suits our fancy). So for the next 6- 8 weeks this will be our focus.

I’m very excited. We built our home almost 2 years ago, and we have little landscaping or flowers, we also do not have a garden. So this Spring we will be working on this.... gardening!I went to Barnes and Noble and splurged a bit! At Barbs recommendations.... I wanted to look at 2 books, the first one is called

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

and The Graden Primer by Barbara Damrosch.

The 2 are really for me, but after reading over a bazillion books today I think RyLee will enjoy the square foot gardening book too. We also bought a field guide to wild flowers just because.... but still need a good book for garden flowers... know of any good ones to suggest?? We are in Washington State. I am still on the look out...


We went for a walk today... down our road and back.... it was about 1 mile total. I didnt bring the camera, we did bring the dog! That in itself was an adventure... We are going to a nursery on Thursday to pick out a few plants and we will be planting some seadlings tomorrow for our garden.... We will post on that too and as they change.


To visit more great green hour challenge posts please visit barbs site at The Heart of Harmony.

Green Hour #3! No really...

Well, finally hu!? Green Hour number 3 finally being posted! Im not sure why, but blogging this challenge has been my biggest challenge yet! *Ü* Better late than never I always say. Im sure you have all been around the green hour by now! lol But for more blogs from our green hour tour, please visit Barb over at Harmony fine arts

We went back to Clear Creek Trail and walked the center part of the trail. It was a lot longer than we thought.... uh hem... it took about 3 hours heheh but that also included a stop at Costco for hot dogs.*Ü*

This week,(last week) I was to read over pages 16 The correlation of nature study with language work and page 17 The correlation of nature study and drawing. I liked what is quoted below, along with all of page 16.... but specifically....

"Nature study should be so much a part of the child’s thought and interest that it will naturally form a thought core for other subjects quite unconsciously on his part. In fact, there is one safe rule for correlation in this case- it is legitimate and excellent training as long as the pupil does not discover that he is correlating."

It goes on, but I liked this part. *Ü* I like that it mentions training. I find I will need this training too. *Ü* If I make it a chore, how can I enjoy the process. If its all about reaserch, how can they enjoy it? If its all about the journal how can I keep them excited to write and draw in it? It is a balance.......

This is something to be done consistently and gently. We will learn many things, not just what was observed, but what we think can be expressed as we write and what we saw can be drawn and what was precious can be kept. Its what will make our journals so special. My hope for my girls is this will be a long lasting experience and that we can find peace and relaxation from it. This is my desire for our nature study.....

I’m finding that the fun during the walk, the discussions right after and looking over any goods brought back is where the excitements at!


RyLees notebook/Journal. This week she made her entry more like a scrap book.

We think the 2 trees represented here are the Red Alder and the Western Red cedar tree. The "leaves" indicate as much, but the alder we are not certain. Although Alders are all over our County... I am uncertain if its a red alder. Ry was able to get the male and female catkins for it though! No matter what type of alder! *Ü*




One of the most exciting aspects of the journey was not Costco, but a cute little frog Holly caught. Tina mentioned that the ends of its feet were not suction cups but actually what made him able to "stick" was a sticky secretion or something like that. Last night RyLee was flipping through one of the books we rented at the library and decided she thinks the frog is a Pacific Tree Frog. She read about it in a little book called Take along guide frogs, toads and turtles. By Diane L Burns. Its a small little book and under grade level for her, but it looked cute so I got it. On the side we are going to look into frogs more this week. They are just so cute and she is interested....

One of the reasons it took me so long to blog was I was dreading the pictures. Between Christian and myself I think we took almost 400! Im not going to push things off anymore because of that.... Im just going to post a few of our favorites and hope not to duplicate what Tina posted....

We reviewed the Pussy Willow Click the link, you will see some fantastic photos and close ups!.





What I realized on this walk... is that I need to pay closer attention to what I take pictures of, taking fewer pictures and taking only samples of what will interest us. RyLee was overwhelmed by her selections so we narrowed them down, but even then we forgot what the tree and or bush etc looked like. I look forward to the more concentrated study this week. I need the structure. *Ü*

Green Hour #2

We met up with another family for a great trail adventure. We went to Clear Creek Trail This is the very area I grew up in.

On this outing, we began our journey at marker 4(see map)near the water front. This brought back wonderful memories for me from when I was in Kindergarten and 1st grade. My school was about 4 blocks up from the waterfront and we were able to take beach walks a lot back then! It was such a small town, and small school.... I have fond memories of it....in fact... I couldnt stop talking baout it! *Ü*

The kids had a ball! From climbing up on drift wood, to lifting rocks and combing the beach for any goodie we could find. Here are some pictures we took. I tired to use different ones form Tinas, so it would be new for ya!



The 2 things the kids focused on happened to be what I made a big deal out of. Oops*Ü* I couldn’t help it....I love Limpets and Pussy Willows. Remember I couldn’t be quiet about those childhood memories?? *Ü*

RyLee chose not to draw in her journal this time, although she did draw, just not for her journal. Christian and I did.

Christian and RyLee are using Sketch books for their first journal. I am using an actual journal I bought at the beginning of the year, when I intended to begin our nature study. (blushing)


We have decided to keep our journals a lot like Lewis and Clark did. *Ü* Keeping samples, drawings and journaling inside. We will probably throw a few pictures in now and again. We will keep our assignments in them as we accomplish them, or dont. *Ü* What sparked the idea was a journal entry from a 14 year old boy in the HNS (page 14) then after discussing it, my husband mentioned Lewis and Clark and the traveling trunk we used for our study then. Most men had journals... especially Lewis and Clark. They have, I think some of the most famous Nature Journals ever! *Ü*

What I would like to see us add to our journals for each entry would be a lot like Lewis and Clarks journals and the page I linked above. Some of it would be what number outing it was, the date and who we went with. I would like it if we could write a sentence or 2 or 3 about the outing. I really want to try and keep it simple although I want a lot! Our notebooks are our notebooks and we will draw and write as we please. I will try not to interfere. *Ü* I really want to encourage ownership. Christian really liked my notebook so I hope it can secretly encourage her to do the same. *Ü* we shall see.

As far as the assignment goes, we were instructed to use words to describe.... So this is what we have to share. *Ü*




Christian:
One word to describe something she heard: Swishing
Two words for something she saw: small waves
Three words for something she felt: Soothing, gentle wind

RyLee:
One word to describe something she heard: woosh
Two words for something she saw: Big tree
Three words for something she felt: Little white flowers

Mom:
One word to describe something I heard:Lapping
Two words for something I saw:hiding limpets
Three words for something I felt:Tiny, fuzzy Pussy Willow (Im saying Pussy Willow is one word *Ü*)

I chose not to read over the assignment before we went for our journey. It worked out fine. *Ü* My hope was to not make the trip like school, but just for the joy of it with friends. I can see that reading the assignment before and or waiting till after can work, but knowing a little before hand what I should have encourage would have been helpful. Luckily Tina knew. *Ü* although I still didn’t really instruct my kids....it made for good conversation later. *Ü*

Here is a great link with a simple information about the American Pussy Willow

I enjoyed reading this little bit of information. I was surprised to learn that Willows contain salicin. What is that you ask? Well, salicin is closly related to asprin... and you will find it in all Willow barks... Salicin is used by Native Americans as a pain killer.... who knew?

Here is one for limpets

Well this was our journey... and we are sticking to it! See you next week!

PS. Here is where I found the traveling trunk.

Green Hour Challenge #1

The Koinonia Academy green hour challenge actually started with just RyLee. She went hiking with some friends on Saturday. She didnt take many pictures, ok actually she took 3! Here are the 2 that we can show.

The Olympics Mountains and a view of the Hood Canal.

MT. Rainier

They went hiking about 5 minutes or so from our house called Green Mountain trail head. I have yet to walk it. This will be another outing for another green hour challenge.

Yesterday, RyLee and I went for a walk in the late afternoon. We only went around our property and down our drive way.

Here are the pictures RyLee took

Rhododendron from the Greek: rhodos, "rose", and dendron, "tree"(Washington State flower and flowerless at the moment)

Bear claw marked territory near our driveway RyLee wanted to share this *Ü*

A few I took

Ms Ry

As far as we can tell, this is called Bracket Fungi. We are still trying to decide what one though.

Bear mark

We are not sure. Still looking.... I love the colors though.

Our Lunar Eclipse

So this was our first green challenge. Next week we will hit Clear Creek trail. This is about 25 minute drive from our home, but its a great trail!

Visit more Green Hour Posts here at the Green Hour Challenge