A Bit of Housekeeping

Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog invited me to contribute to this month's e-newsletter.  The focus is Nature Journals, which you know is one of my very favorite topics. :)  If you haven't downloaded it yet, go take a look!

Speaking of nature study, I've had several email requests for my Calendar of Firsts template recently, so I uploaded it to share here.  Feel free to download Our Nature Calendar for use in your own homes--especially if you're on the West Coast, since I included images that are familiar to us locals.

A few friends have asked me to share more about how we handle memory work, so I'll be getting to that soon, including an update on how our Evernote organizational plan is working.  (Hint: we still love it!)  Toward that end, though, I finally put up a Memory Work Index, inspired by Brandy (whose own index I have referred to for ideas several times!).  It's a running log of the memory work we have been doing as a family for the past three years.  You can find it along my top menu.  Feel free to reference our list and see if there are a few you might add to your own family rotation.

I'm still reading through The Living Page, but after that, I'm hoping to dive in to Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 and blog through it very slowly over the course of the year.  By the way, you can find my Read-Alongs on the right sidebar now (scroll down to the bottom).  Last year, I read through Charlotte Mason's Volume 1 and When Children Love to Learn.

Another frequent search recently: here's what my children and I used to prepare for their First Holy Communion last year.  (I have also been sharing snippets of one of my favorite religious books for children, Mother Mary Loyola's First Communion, in my Wednesdays with Words posts as we read through it this year.  Preparing for Holy Communion needn't end with the first time--it's a lifelong process.)

Any other suggestions?  I'm directing some of my nesting energy toward tidying up around here!  (Can you believe I have only eight weeks left?!)  So let me know in the comments or via email if there's anything else you'd like to see.  

Nature Study Outing :: Sunny Day at the Lake

I hesitate to say this in the face of the terrible weather people are enduring all over the country...but wow, we have had such gorgeous sunny weather for January!  We are trying to enjoy it while it lasts--and it's really hard NOT to enjoy days like these.

At our outing last week, we were surprised upon arriving at the lake (one of our regular spots) to see how very low the water level was.  This isn't a lake in any real sense--it's a man-made recreational lake that has its level controlled by the flow of a nearby creek.  Still, we have never seen it quite this low before.

the water usually reaches up to the middle of those reeds

In the large areas usually covered by lake water, we found lots of tiny clam shells, old roots and driftwood, and mud--lots of mud!  Most of it was dry, but there were still some quite mucky areas, and of course, the kids found those straight away. ;)  They also found that the rocky walls that usually slow the flow of the creek water into the lake area are perfect for climbing.

And the big sighting of the day: a Green Heron!  My girls flew to me to share their discovery--they had never seen a green heron before, but they had seen enough field guides to identify at first sight.  I checked online when we got home, and sure enough, green herons are less common than egrets and blue herons here, but they do frequent this lake.  The kids were very happy to add it to their nature journals, as well as a sampling of the two-toned shells and the ever-present geese, coots, and mallards.  Will they ever tire of drawing our local waterbirds?  It seems not. :)

Before leaving, we made sure to stop by "our trees" to take a look.  

Both are completely bare now but for a few clumps of red berries on the branch tips.  The children are looking forward to seeing their spring changes when they come.  

And come they will--we noticed when we got home that the daffodil shoots are peeking out in our yard already!

According to our Calendar of Firsts, they have arrived only a week earlier than last year, so I'd say they're just about right on time!  Last year they were blooming by mid-February, so we're looking forward to sunny blooms a month from now...in what will likely be our rainiest season of the year by far.

Nature Journals - Starting Fresh, Looking Back

We're starting a new school year here today (AO Year 2 - more on that another day!), so I have new nature journals ready for my two oldest.  Before putting away their old ones, I thought I would do a little update on what they have been documenting lately.  

Our nature study group has still been meeting casually through the summer, though it has been a bit sporadic with vacations, illness, and all the usual summer goings-on.  That doesn't mean we haven't been fitting in lots of nature study as a family, though!  Lately, a lot of that time has been spent in our own yard and in local parks, and my kids and I have been faithfully working on our journals and Calendar of Firsts.  Here's a peek at the last few entries in my children's nature journals:

My daughter has really been working on drawing our local birds, trying to get the shape of the body, angle of the head, and coloring just right.

And here is her listing of our current backyard flowers:

Similarly, my son decided one afternoon to catalog all the bugs he found in a day and try to identify them.

An ongoing collection of acorn drawings my daughter added to all fall/winter:

As you can see, a lot of their work lately has been in the form of almanac pages of sorts.  They are entirely their own idea and creation, and I think the impulse is fascinating.  I do it too, but with words, usually making sure I have an exhaustive list of every species I've noticed on a given outing.  But they more often do it with pictures, which is the kind of project that overwhelms me but doesn't intimidate them at all.

And just to show how much progress they have made this past year, I put a few of their entries from the beginning and end of their year-long journals side by side.  And the subject is one of their very favorites--mallard ducks!

By my daughter:

Last year (left) and last month (right)

And by my son:

Last year (left) and last month (right)

Of course, More important than drawing progress is progress in their knowledge and their powers of observation.  But it's fun to see their drawing skills develop as well!

It is such a wonder to me as a parent to watch my children grow and learn with so little hands-on work from me.  I provide the time outdoors, the free time in, the quality books, the sense of order and wonder, the materials--and their minds and bodies do the rest.  And now we're all looking forward to empty notebooks full of possibilities for this new year!

Almost-Summer Sights at Home

Unfortunately, I'm down with a cold and we're missing our nature study group for the second week in a row.  Thankfully, I'm the only one sick at our house, so my kids have happily spent hours outdoors every day this week.  I even got out the water table today, which kept my toddler busy for at least an hour.  And my older two have been experimenting with what sinks and what floats all morning, so I'm crossing science off the list!

In lieu of our usual outing report, and as a follow-up to the spring sights around the garden I shared last month, here's a quick trip around our yard the week before summer actually hits:

The big star of the yard right now is our pink hibiscus tree, which burst into bloom last week.  I look forward to its season every year--it is so bright and colorful and makes that corner of the yard so pleasant.  And it's a bee magnet!

And I found the lobelia below in our front bed of alyssum and pink primroses last month.  I thought this was a wildflower at first, as I didn't plant it and it has never been there before.  But some friends identified it for me.  These flowers are so tiny (you can't tell from the photo, but they are only a half-inch across, if that!), and there were only two of them last month.  This month there are a couple more, and my children spotted one little blossom in a patch of dirt out back this morning, so I suppose they're migrating!  

Our purple hebe is still fuzzy and full.

The bees just love our white bower vine (Pandorea jasminoides alba). 

They go from bloom to bloom, shimmying their way up the trumpet of the flower until they all but disappear from sight.  They emerge twenty or so seconds later, lazily buzz over to the next bloom, and disappear deep inside its funnel, just like the last.

See?  There he is, up scooping out a snack.

And in the front: alyssum, primroses, manazanita, and society garlic, and then the blue agapanthus, also known as African Lily or Lily-of-the-Nile.  

These are everywhere in California, including our front yard.  We have a big cluster of them just outside our front windows, and we love to watch the hummingbirds visit, which they do often!  According to our Calendar of Firsts, the first buds popped up in mid-April and opened a couple weeks later.  And they have been bright and tall since then.

And my daughter noticed this morning: at the very tips of the crepe myrtles we have along our side yards are the first blossoms of the year!

Other happenings: we harvested our pluot tree last week and got loads and loads of fruit.  And if I'm feeling up to it, I'm hoping to put in a bit of a garden this weekend: just some herbs and annuals, and maybe a couple tomato plants, which we grew successfully in pots last year.

So, what's happening in your yard this week?  Hopefully it's blue skies and sunshine where you are as well!

Spring Sights at Home

Now that we have our Calendar of Firsts ready and awaiting new entries, I find that the children and I are even more attuned to the new sights around our own yard each week--each day even!  And spring is a wonderful time to be watching, as it seems like there is so much happening.  A few of our entries from the last couple weeks:

 Pink evening primroses (Oenothera speciosa) -- these pop up in our front yard bed of Alyssum every spring.  They appeared in the next neighborhood a week before ours.  My daughter has been wondering why: "Maybe it's a little warmer there? Or more windy?"  I'm not sure, but I do know that we probably wouldn't have noticed if we hadn't been keeping our nature calendar! ;)

I just found out that the bushes on our side yard are popularly called Mexican Orange Blossom (Choisya ternata).  They first bloomed about a month or two ago and are starting to dry out now.  They are repeat bloomers, though, so I think we'll have flowers all summer.

I think this is a purple variety of Hebe.  It doesn't look as nice once the flowers all dry out, but at this time of year, its subtle color and fuzzy blooms are very sweet--and a favorite place for the bees. 

A hidden periwinkle by the back fence (Vinca major)--first blooming this week.

 Another new sight this week: the White African Irises (Dietes iridioides) are back!

Oh, and this lovely plant has an equally lovely name: Pink Breath of Heaven.  So much nicer than Coleonema pulchellum, no?  :)   And another reason it's my daughters' favorite: it's currently a ladybug magnet!

This little lady is now happily at home in the rock-house my boys made for her and her friends this morning...we'll see if they decide to get comfortable or be on their way. ;)  As for the bush, this one is in bloom and has been since Holy Week, but the one on the other side of the yard has no blooms at all.  Very curious.

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings around the yard!

Calender of Firsts - The After!

As I promised earlier this week, I have some "after" shots of our Calendar of Firsts to share.  Now, in thinking and reading about the topic, I came up with quite a few different options for organizing entries:

:: By date - Each date is given a line or column, and you can chart each "first" under the appropriate date.  Entries made in different years can be designated by pen color, or the year can be noted.
:: By sight - Each expected sight could be given a space: "First Daffodil," "First Blossoms," "First Red Leaf on the Maple," etc.  (This would be a particularly good option if one was focusing on firsts only in one's own yard.)
:: By month - Each month is given a spread of one or several pages, where notes can be made as needed.  Divisions might be made for each week of the month (Week 1 of August, Week 2 of August, etc.), or for each year (August 2013, August 2014, etc.), or it could be left blank to fill in as desired.
:: By year - A spread of pages for each year: 2013, 2014, 2015, etc.  Divisions could be made for each month or each week of the year, forming a kind of grid, or sightings could be kept as a running column, or it could all be more free-form.

I think all of these configurations could be useful depending on your goals--hence the perfectionist paralysis. ;)  In the end, though, I went with monthly spreads, and I decided to privilege flexibility over clarity, I suppose, in making my calendar basically full of blank pages.  I like blank pages--I like the possibility of changing my format year to year without having to start a new calendar.  

So for this first part of April, for example, I have a few specific dates noted: 

April 8 - first purple blooms on the boxwood hebe

April 9 - inch-round fruits on the plum tree

But I also have some more general season observations of things seen around the yard/neighborhood during my run last Saturday morning: 

In bloom around town - day lilies, hyacinths, wisteria  

Wildflowers - wild radish, mustard, winter vetch, poppies, dandelions, sorrel

I think this combination of dates and lists will be the most useful to us.  It suppose it makes this notebook less a Calendar of Firsts and more just a nature calendar in general...but I do hope to spot lots of firsts to note!  And I have to admit that being obligated to note just "firsts" makes me nervous--what if I miss something? :)  I also plan to keep it somewhat organized, working from the left so that there are implied columns for each year.  But not actually drawing the columns allows me more or less room to write, as needed.  I can also sandwich extra blank pages between the month-title page and month-image page in years ahead.

The format itself was simple: large-type month on the left-hand side and a seasonally-appropriate image on the right.  I printed all of it on cardstock for durability and popped them into the binder I had originally purposed for our memory work (which found a new home on Evernote).  It now lives on the shelf with our nature journals, ready to pull out as needed.

And speaking of Evernote, yes, I did contemplate just making a Calendar of Firsts in Evernote--you know I'm a devotee!  But in the end, I wanted my children to be able to page through it and add entries, and they aren't allowed on the computer yet, so hard-copy seemed the way to go for this project.

I also decided to combine this project with another little something I've been meaning to start more formally: some life lists.  

So at the back of the Calendar of Firsts, I printed out some blank forms for us to keep track with: birds, animals, insects, trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and so on.  I know birding life lists are common, but I have also found myself noting in the back of my nature journal (more scrawled lists!) various wildflowers I have spotted, trees I have identified locally, and so on.  So now these notes will have a more formal home--and hopefully will be in a more useful format.  Again, favoring flexibility, I decided to print these one-sided, leaving the back side of each page for further notes about species, descriptions of our sightings, sketches, or whatever else we may find useful to add. (Actually, I'm still trying to figure out what categories will make the most sense for us.  Right now, I have Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Birds, Mammals, Invertebrates, Water Creatures, Reptiles, Rocks and Shells, Other Sightings, and In the Garden, which I'm planning to use for cut flower varieties and whatnot.  Shells probably would have made more sense in the Water Creatures section, but we don't usually find the creatures--just their shells--and we keep our shell collection with our rocks.  And should I make a separate page for "Moss, Lichen, and Fungi"?  Haven't decided yet.  So I may reorganize some of the lesser categories.  But this is good enough.)

Oh, and I have written about the horticultural map of our yard we have been working on--it's here too!  This binder seemed like the perfect place to keep a formal record of this project.  I drew a blank map of our front and back yard, photocopied them onto cardstock, and put them at the back of the binder to fill in by hand as I go along.  I'm happy to say that I have almost finished labeling all the plants on our property!  That's not saying much, I suppose--we have quite a small lot. ;)  But when we moved here, I didn't recognize hardly any of the plants, and this project has never been a top priority, so it's nice to see my slow-and-steady progress actually get me across the finish line!  Having it here, accessible to the children, makes it a field guide of sorts for them as they start to put names to the "faces" in our yard.  I'm hoping they become good friends. :)

I'm planning to use that blank pages opposite each map to make notes--when each plants bloom, other common names, gardening notes, and so on.

So now that this is up and running, I'll busy myself with populating the life lists with what we have seen already and with thinking more about the best way to categorize these sights.  If you have comments or suggestions, please do share.  As I said, the format I'm using allows me to reorganize and rethink the ways I'm keeping track of information, so I'm always open to suggestions.

Happy Hunting for Firsts!

** Edited to add - I've had quite a few email requests for my template, so I uploaded it to share.  Feel free to download Our Nature Calendar for use in your own homes--especially if you're on the West Coast, since I included images that are familiar to us locals.