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*