You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2011.
Glitter: Connie Prince – A New Beginning
Photo Treatment: Inspired By Dominic Designs – Easy Blends Vol 1
Fonts: Miss Tina Fonts – MTF-Base Leafy and MTF-Mikayla Print
Everything else – Connie Prince – No Place Like Home
Journaling:
For this year’s tree study, we are going to keep our eyes on the lovely paper birch (Betula papyrifera) that grows in the front yard near the front creek. This was a cold, windy, snowy day, with overcast skies. The bark of the trunk was white and papery, while the branchs’ bark was a reddish-brown. Alex found a branch high up in the tree that still had a portion of the tree’s fruit. We noticed the buds were already appearing .
Just in case you didn’t know, Barb over at the Handbook of Nature Study has some truly, truly inspirational challenges to get you started in nature study. She uses as her “spine” the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. You may be like me, having the book already on your shelf, because it is pretty much a homeschool stand-by, yet having no idea what to really do with it. I am so happy that I found these challenges, as they’ve really made nature study a “pick up and go” activity and I am finally using this book.
Connie Prince Designs: Being a Mom and No Place Like Home
Miss Tina Fonts: MTF-Base Leafy and MTF-Mikayla Print
Journaling:
Thankfully, we have an abun dance of cattails growing near the back pond, which makes for an easy study. We visited the patch 12/9/10 and discovered several new things about cattails. It was a cold, lighly snowy day. We found our cattails were narrow leaved and, of course, growing near a water source. We surmised that the usual mode of spreading the seeds is through the water. We also learned that the flower spike of the cattail looks nearly the same in “full bloom” as it does when it is first growing. We found that the flower does float. The stalk near the base of the plant is very rigid, while very flexible further up. The leaves had vertical, parallel veins. We’re enjoying our bundle-up outdoor sessions!
