Osage Orange Tree -Field Trip Discovery

We have been doing field trips this summer to keep things fun and educational for the summer.  We went on a field trip to Mordecai Historic Park .  When the field trip was completed, we stayed to have a picnic lunch together in the park.  While sitting there, my friend noticed this very interesting "fruit" on the tree we were beside.  I had never seen anything like it myself and so we began investigating....

Discovering the Lake "Blob"

I haven't posted in a week or so because I've been out of town.  I was in New York for my brother's baby shower and then off to our local lake for some camping with friends.  I discovered two things this week while being gone; first, I am too old to want to start over with a baby and second, there are interesting things that live in the lake!  Let me explain and paint the scene for you...

Super Easy Bug Pinning!

Disclaimer:  If you are a serious bug person, then you may want to close your eyes quickly...because I'm about to do what will cause you to gasp in horror!  I pinned bugs without the right pins, without the right board, without noting the concordance, date, species etc.  I did do some things right though.  LOL!  I did catch each bug last year and put them in rubbing alcohol to preserve them before I froze them.  :)  However, that's as far as the politically correct bug pinning goes.

Summer Nature Study - The Leaf

Summer is a great time to take early morning walks or bike rides in the cool of the day.  We like to do both!  There is so much about God that can be noted as you walk along and look at His creation.  Our last few times out we decided to look at trees and leaves as we biked/walked and make note of what we observed, even collecting a few to bring back for our nature journal.  The first thing we noted was the huge variety of shapes God made leaves in.  We discussed the creative mind of God and whether we thought it would be possible for us to think up such variety on our own.  It's staggering to think of the vast variety of things God has created!

Elodie Farms Tour!

What better way to spend an early summer day then at a goat farm?  Especially, when it's as friendly, beautiful and educational as Mr. Dave's farm over at Elodie Farms!  Located in Rougemont, NC -about an hour drive from the Raleigh area, this scenic setting is just right for kids.  The mood is laid back and Mr. Dave is full of Southern charm and hospitality.  He welcomes the children and clearly has experience with them as he opens up his farm to these kids for their wide eyed, educational benefit and blessing.

The Wisdom of a Weed

Over the weekend I was continuing our progress with the "kids garden" that we had begun the week or so before.  Sarah had faithfully been watering and keeping record of the sprouting of each plant as the days went by.  It was finally time to begin transplanting them to the garden.  So we set out with shovel in hand to do some weed removal and prepping of our soil before we added our tender plants.  

Planting a Kid's Garden

I love to be outside in nature.  There is so much wisdom about life that lies within a garden that it''s a great time to discuss with kids the life lessons that exist there.  It's not my idea though - it's God's.  Apparently, He loves gardens too.  After all, Adam was placed in a garden and the first job of man was to be a gardener!  Jesus conversed with God in the garden on His final night of freedom and He was buried and resurrected in a garden.  Jesus describes Himself as the True Vine and refers to the Father as the Gardener.  He conveyed to us principles and stories using the analogy of gardens.  The parable of the sower, the vineyard owner, mustard seeds, vines, fruit,  chaff, wheat, fading leaves, mighty oaks, shoots spreading out, watered gardens, cedars, olive trees and I'm sure there are more - those are off the top of my head as I write.  God loves the beauty of nature - He created it and it brings Him glory.  So what better way for our kids to see Him, then through a garden?

Creating an Eye to See Him - Bunny Discovery!

Spring is here!  I think it's official now; as the calendar's first day of spring has passed, the trees have begun to bud, not to mention the dogwood and cherry trees already in full bloom.  We had our first sighting of all things spring on Saturday...baby bunnies!  While cleaning out the garden and getting it ready for planting, four precious baby cotton tail bunnies were found among last year's overgrowth.  They jumped out as the hoeing began and gave this young gentleman helping us, a good startle!

The girls were quick to run over and want to hold them and relocate them to safe territory away from the previous weed garden!  We couldn't find the "momma" rabbit, but reassured the girls, that she would find her babies in their new safe location.

Taking a Panoramic View

This past six days we had the blessing of heading to upstate NY to visit family and friends.  My Father has about 12 acres of land up on a mountainside there.  My daughter enjoyed feeding chickens, waiting for a baby chick to hatch and then holding it, catching frogs in the frog pond, fishing at the "big pond", digging with the backhoe, riding the four wheeler around the woods, cooking marshmallows on the open fire, hiking up rivers and falls and enjoying the beauty of God's creation.  It made me think - this is why I am homeschooling!  This is some of the best education life can offer.  Discussing the life cycle of frogs, the water cycle of ponds, food chain of worms and fish or bugs and chickens, maternal instincts of a hen sitting on her eggs - it's all here!  It's all real hands on learning that is beyond a book and yet books have made it's awareness available to us.  Discussions about the Wind in the Willow come to life.  It's priceless.  It's why I homeschool and I'm very thankful for the privilege to do so.

I love nature and I think it's one of the most obvious revelations that God exists.  I look at all He made and see the intricacy, the various specific functions of each of those creatures to survive and thrive and it screams to me that there is a God and He's personal and has His eye on the details of our lives.  I've taught my children to see God in all that nature offers and to be kind to His creation.

Spring in NC!

One of the things that I love about North Carolina is the spring!  Wisteria begins to bloom all over the place along with Azalea's.  They're both so beautiful.  Sarah thinks the Wisteria looks like the giant grapes that the Bible talks about they spy's finding.  We found a bunch of the Wisteria vines growing wild along the wooded area near our home.  We took time to smell the fragrant blooms and we even found a few inch worms hanging from them as we walked along.  

Rediscovering the joys of all God's creation!  Another great thing about the spring that I love is our resuming the bug searches as we walk!  During the colder months when we were able to  walk on nice days, there was not a reputable bug to find!  So boring compared to the plentiful bug spotting we enjoy all Spring Summer and Fall.  

Nature studies and specifically, catching and preserving bugs to later pin is a fun past time we enjoy.  I will do a post later on how we go about catching, preserving and pinning them!  :)

Week 22 - Weather Field Trip - Making it Real

We took a field trip to our local NBC news station.  We were guided through our tour by the local weatherman.  The kids learned how the weather is broadcast and what goes into forecasting it.  One great tie-in to our CC Community was when the weatherman said that he had to stay within his allotted time of 3 MINUTES - presentations anyone???  The kids had a blast standing in front of the green screen and learning the art of presenting the weather.  We got to watch a live news broadcast and meet the various staff at the local station.  Perfect for our coming week on weather.

Nature: Creating an Eye to see Him

Leigh's idea of "knowing God and making Him known" resonates with me and I try to carry that thought with me and put it into action each day as I spend time with my kids.  Nothing sings of God's existence and makes Him more tangibly known here on Earth than the creation around us and it's beauty and complexity.  I began doing a Nature Journal with my daughter last year to try to incorporate this wonder and awe of God.  I wanted to begin to train her eye to "look for God" and see Him in everything around her.

Once I set my mind on doing this, it's amazing how much I began to see around me that sings of God.  Most of our "nature study" is done while walking or riding bikes in the morning before school or when some opportunity pops up in the day.  We keep our eyes open and stop if we see a bug on the ground, a worm, a snake, hear an unfamiliar birds call, see a bird we hadn't noticed before or whatever God has for us that morning.  It can be as simple and silly sometimes as noticing a tree that is bent and asking Sarah "why do you think that tree is bent towards the ground?" and us coming up with possible reasons.  Sarah concluded at the end of one conversation about a bent tree that "it must be bowing down to God Mom!" - I think she gets it!  I love that reasoning that she's developed now.  She sees everything in creation as "bowing down to God" which the Scriptures tell us is true...

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:12)

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord." (Psalm 96:11-13)

"Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away." (Psalm 148:1-6)

"Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds." (Psalm 148:7-10)

"Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind." (Job 12:7-10)

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." (Psalm 19:1-4; cf. Psalm 97:6)

"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

So now we look for God everywhere.  We usually snap a picture of what we find, print it on my computer, cut it out and paste it to her book.  She dictates to me what she wants to say about it and I write it for her.  We like to do this together because it helps us also work on grammar, spelling and writing skills simultaneously and naturally with our Nature Study.  To help you come up with your own Nature Study - here is a look at how some of our adventures above in the example of our journal,  occurred:

The picture of her holding the stoneberries:  We were riding bikes and noticed the pretty red berries of spring along the side of the path.  We stopped, we picked some and then once we returned home we googled them to see what they possibly were.  We matched the pictures to find the right image and then we read about them together.  We washed them and tasted them to see what they tasted like.  We talked about why God made them and who He made them to feed and their purpose.

The picture of the Smoky Mountains:  While staying with a good friend who owns a house on a Mountain top in the Smoky's we got up one morning looked out our window and snapped this picture.  The "smoke" was the topic of discussion and how it occurs and why and how the Mountain chain got it's name.  We talked about the scripture verses in Exodus regarding Moses and how he went up to the top of Mount Sinai and how it was described as above the clouds and how that may have looked similar.

¹⁶ On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain^[b]trembled violently. ¹⁹ As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.^[c]

The picture of a slug and it's babies:  One night a care giver for my special needs son was leaving after a big rain and it was probably about 8:30pm.  As she walked outside she saw these giant slugs and came back and told me to get the kids!  (Even the people who work in my home are now doing this and seeing God's creation!) So we went outside with our camera and looked at them, touched them and then came inside and googled information about them and put it in our Journal.  We discussed the purpose of God making slugs and what their "job" in nature was that He created them to do.

The picture of the girls with an ant hill:  While having a friend over to play outside, they noticed an ant hill.  They came running inside to tell me they saw this giant ant hill (now Sarah has even her friends doing this!).  I grabbed my camera and went outside.  We looked at the ant hill and discussed how they thought the ants made it, what might be inside of it and how the ants would respond if anything disturbed it.  I then told them to step back and I gently stepped on the ant hill enough to disturb it so they could see what happened next.  We watched in awe as the warrior ants went to the permitter to defend against whatever was disturbing their hill and then the worker ants began to carry their white eggs to safer locations within the ant hill.  We took pictures and discussed it looking it up inside the house on google to learn more and talked about what job they serve in God's creation.

So as you can see - it can be planned or unplanned as long as you begin thinking about how to make it a lesson in seeing God's creation and learning more about it and Him when any opportunity arises.

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