Opening The Window To The World

Our family loves being out in nature. Whether it's a day hiking in the canyon or a 4 day weekend camping in a tent in the forest, our family is perfectly fine being away from Facebook and the Playstation and instead immersing ourselves in the great outdoors.  Spending time in the outdoors is a great way to get exercise, enjoy a change of scenery, spend quality time with your family and truly reflect on the magnificence of God's handiwork.  

However, it's not always feasible to take the classroom out to nature, especially during the week. How can you still incorporate nature study into your everyday classroom routine without having to make a trip to a national forest?  

Open The Window

Garrett Observing Out The Window

Fortunately, regardless to where you life, nature is as close as your window.   Students are able to observe so much just from taking about a minute to look out the window each day.  As part of our morning work, Ashleigh and Garrett keep a page where they document the weather outside such as if it's sunny (we live in the desert so it's almost always sunny), cloudy, windy or rainy (very rarely).  If there are clouds in the sky, they can quickly make a sketch of the type of clouds they are able to observe.

 Through these observations, students are able to learn weather patterns and to recognize various cloud formations.  These are great ways to introduce topics such as meteorology. .  All of these types of observations can be quickly jotted down at the beginning of the class day and add roughly 2 minutes worth of time.  From these pages, monthly averages of temperatures and rainfall can be made or graphed to show trending patterns.


Other things can that be observed from that same window each morning is seasonal patterns.  These are observations that are made over longer periods of time instead of through daily observations.  For example, if there is a tree in prominent view from the window, students can make their observations every few weeks as to changes they are able to observe. If starting observations at the beginning of a school year, students might note that the tree is in full foliage in August, that the leaves begin to turn to autumn colors in October and begin to fall in November. By December the tree might be completely bare and then begin to have new growth in March. 

Two months ago, we were able to observe that two of the three trees in our front yard were complete bare of leaves.  The third three, a pine tree,  did not have any pine cones on it.  Over the course of the last few weeks, the children have been able to observe the budding and growth of new foliage on the two trees and the progress of the growth of new pine cones growing on the evergreen.    These types of observations are easy to make and to record in a small notebook or journal every few weeks to keep a log to changes occurring.

The View from my Window Today  compared to a few weeks ago. 

My family is very fortunate to live in an community with lots of wildlife and having critters such as

Birds at the Feeder and New Growth on the Trees

rabbits, squirrels, bobcats, coyotes and hawks in our yard is nothing new.  While you might not have these types of animals visiting your yard,  a few simple additions added to your property and in view of your window will invite visitors for your children to observe.   We have a couple of seed feeders as well as a few hummingbird feeders in view of our front window.   These feeders draw a huge array of various birds which feed and perch within just a few feet from the window where the kids are able to observe them.

Another tip is to always have your camera read.  By keeping a digital camera handy, children can take photographs of the changes they observe or a quick snapshot of a new bird visitor to the feed so that they can have a reference to compare to in their bird field guide.  We also bring our camera with us for any actual nature walks or hikes that we go on so that we can live by the motto " Take nothing by pictures.  Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time."

Even behind the glass, children can learn so much just from using their eyes to observe nature around them.  By incorporating a few of these simple steps, you can easily add a very quick nature lesson to your school day without adding a bulk of work to their course load.

This post is part of the 5 Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents sponsored by the Schoolhouse Review Crew..  Click the banner below and discover all the wonderful tips other members of the crew have to offer :)    Here's a few suggestions to help get you started.

Annette @ A Net In Time
Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Cassandra @ A Glimpse of Normal
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm
Crystal @ Crystal Starr
DaLynn @ Biblical Womanhood
Danielle @ Sensible Whimsy

P is for Pocket Gopher

For the last two days, I wondered what to write for this post.. I mean, P can stand for many things but none of them seemed right.  Last night, my P kinda fell into my lap, or at least in my  headlight high beams.

Being that I live in the desert, rain not a normal occurrence for us, especially in winter but this El Nino has changed things up and California has been getting lots of the much needed rain.  Last night, it was not only rainy but cold, at 8:30 it was 47* and still falling when my husband and I decided to head over to the shoppette (which is like a gas station) on base to grab something to snack on.  While driving home, we saw what we can only describe as "something" in the middle of the road, soaked to the bone, half frozen and barely moving.    All we could tell was that it was a rodent of some variety with huge digging claws on it's front feet but honestly, that was about it  As it's fur was so wet we couldn't see it's eyes and originally assumed it was a mole of some sort. 

Unfortunately, we didn't have any work gloves or towels in the car but we did locate a Storm Trooper Halloween costume left in the back when we went to see Star Wars so we used that to carefully scoop the critter up and wrap him up securely.  It didn't move other than it's nose smelling and twitching.  We knew that with it in the condition that it was in,  it was as good as dead as either a coyote or a bobcat would quickly make a dinner out of it and leaving it in the road would result in a squished rodent.

Once in the house, we informed the kids that the critter was wild, we didn't know what it was but that we were going to bring it in the house temporarily to allow it to warm up.  We set the ground rules that the kids were not to touch it as it had some VERY large teeth and we placed the miserable creature in a small glass terrarium that we had.  As the costume had absorbed some of the wetness, we could now see that the creature had eyes, eliminating our original mole idea and we had no clue what it was.

A search on Google for "Mojave Desert Rodents" led us to a creature called a Botta's Pocket Gopher.  I had never heard of a pocket gopher before.  Honestly, my only real introductions to gophers was the whistling one on Winnie the Pooh.     Our wet visitor had been identified.  We allowed it to rest and we all went to sleep.

This morning, our rescue looks much better and is back to, what I assume, is his old self.  

Dried and warm, he's much more active and is moving around as one would expect a gopher to do..  He did a great job during the night of completely destroying the foam backing of the terrarium to make himself an area to dig around and burrow into.     Unfortunately, it's only 51 degrees outside right now and I really hate to let him go with it being so cold but I know he's ready to be on his way promptly..  Charles is about to release him in the field across from our house (no gophers in our yard, thank you).   

The really cool thing about this experience is that the kids and I have been talking about Rodents these last few weeks in school and we will be actually discussing pocket gophers in the next two weeks.  So the kids have gotten to actually observe a real life pocket gopher in a safe way.  

I also think it's a great lesson for them in regards to taking care of nature.  They have seen that we rescued this animal as a way to help it but that it is not a pet. It was a temporary visitor to our home and it goes back to the wild now that it can safely be released.    Hopefully, it will also help them develop a respect and a feeling of empathy for creatures, especially when we see so many videos today of people abusing animals.   ( I should mention that this gopher wasn't the only thing we rescued - my husband also helped out a few toads frozen on the road as well.. haha)

This blog post is being linked up with the "Blogging Through the Alphabet" linkup hosted by Through the Calm and Through the Storm and  Adventures with Jude .   

Be sure to check out both of their blogs and link yours up as well :)

The Vasquez Rocks

Tiburcio Vasquez

With Monday being President's Day and Dad was off since it was a government holiday, we decided to take the class out of the classroom and head out to Agua Dulce to visit the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park. Located on 932 acres, the park is located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains and contain many gorgeous rock formations that were formed from Volcanic and earthquake activity as well as from erosion.  The park is named for Tiburcio Vasquez, a California bandito who evaded capture from the law by hiding among the rocks from 1873 to 1874.


 Living in Southern California, the park is less than an hour away so we felt that it would be a great day trip for the kids before the weather started getting too hot.     So we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out early in the morning for a fun filled day of hiking and rock climbing.

If these rocks look familiar, it's most likely because you have seen them time and time again on TV and in movies.  Star Trekkies will instantly recognize them as the sight where Captain Kirk fought with Gorn.  Other TV shows that filmed at the rocks have been A-Team, The Outer Limits, F-Troop, and Murder She Wrote.  As for the big screen, they were also in the recent Sci-fi movie John Carter, The Flintstones, and Dante's Peak among others.

The weather was beautiful and the the temperatures were only in the mid 70's, perfect for exploring.  We explored front part of the park, close to where we parked for the first hour, where we studied various plants such as cactus and juniper (we also found some wild dill), lichen, and mosses.  We also found a few larger caves that we were safely able to explore and climb through.

 This particular cave was rather "kid friendly" with a pretty wide opening that opened to a vault with a ceiling of about 5 foot high.  It had a climb of about 20 foot once inside that led to a wide opening with shelf where we could take a break and look around for a bit.

Here's looking up to the Upper Opening .. The climb wasn't as bad as this picture makes it look.

At the mouth of the upper opening. 

 Dad found a nice lil shelf to lay on and take a siesta. 

Throughout the park, there were lots of crevices and slopes that the kids could safely climb, however, we did decide that we will be investing in hiking books for everyone.

After about an hour of climbing, we decided it was time to take a break and to eat some lunch.  After a wonderful picnic lunch of sandwiches, apple slices with peanut butter and trail mix, string cheese and lots of fluids, we were ready to explore some more..

We decided to check out this particular rock, one of the highest in the park.  This rock is easily 150 foot up, maybe more.  (Not the guy standing by the RV at the bottom of the picture)..

We got about halfway up and it got a little too steep for Ashleigh and Garrett (and Mom too because it was hard to safely climb with the camera) so we perched where we were at while Dad and Alyssa climbed to the top.  When they returned, they said that it was better that the kids hadn't made the climb as it was extremely windy at the top and it would have been unsafe for the kids.

After that climb, we decided to stay at ground level for a bit and check out some of the trails. We found this really neat area where we could really see the striations of the various layers of the stone as well as possible sleeping sites of the Tataviam American Indians.

While the kids were pretty loud while on our hike, we did manage to see a few birds and lizards who were enjoying the beautiful weather.  This lil guy was enjoying sunning himself on one of the rocks and was very nice to stick around while we took photographs of him.

There were so many really neat rock formations that we found (and we only explored a very small percentage of the park).

Looking at lizards under the bush.

After a few hours of hiking and climbing, we headed over to the Visitors Center/Gift Shop area for the park.  There we got to see a Red Tailed Hawk who was enjoying her dinner and then inside we found some displays of various snakes and arachnids located in the park. (Luckily we didn't find any of those).

Yes, This guy is very much alive.

So is this guy, much to the heebie geebies of mom.. lol 

The Gift Shop proved to be one an unexpected highlight of our trip.   Staffed by volunteers who enjoy helping educate the public, especially children, we met a wonderful older woman who spent a great bit of time showing the kids various displays and items that pertained to the spiders in the park.. The spider in the picture above had molted three times already and so the kids were able to look at (and even touch) the skins that had been shed.  They were also shown the borrow of a Trapdoor Spider where they were able to feel the silk lining inside, examine the silk hinge of the door and see how the trapdoor actually worked.  

We had such a wonderful time climbing and hiking and cannot wait to go back again.  We also found out that the Visitor center does various displays and presentations about wildlife throughout the week and will have to make plans to maybe attend a few of those during the summer.

It was an amazing field trip and I'm sure the kids will never forget it :)


This post is part of the the Homeschool Review Crew's Field Trip Inspiration Round up. For other great field trip ideas from around the country, be sure to click the image below :)

Our Introduction to Charlotte Mason

This week, we decided to try something new..   We decided to totally throw out almost all of our scheduling and planning and rewrite the entire thing.  And rather than doing a traditional style educational style, we figured we would try the Charlotte Mason method of learning.

The CM method is something that any homeschool mom has heard of but doesn't have any real clue what it is (unless they are already doing it.. lol)..  Basically, you ditch the textbooks and the worksheets and all the boring stuff and you instead read books that have actual educational value to read to your kids (called "living books").  This education method was first developed by Charlotte Mason, a British educator in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Let me tell you, I wish I would have tried this sooner..   I'm seriously kicking myself in the butt for not looking more into this method two years ago, especially when I had the website bookmarked.    

The kids have really taken to this new style and I honestly feel like they learned more this week then they had in previous months. We've studied poetry, folk songs, a worship song, and our Bible.  We've done math, history, English, science and even copy work without any balking and tears.. It has been a REALLY great learning week.

Here are just a few of the week's highlights.. We did much much more than this through the week.   

Our Comparison of Bird Eggs

First, we began reading the book Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White whom also wrote Charlotte Web.  We're currently reading a chapter a day and the kids are really enjoying the story and I am seriously impressed with the amount of educational tidbits the book presents. This had led to some really awesome discussions and questions regards not only swans but eagles as well,  We've incorporated math lessons in with the book as we've measured out the 6 foot width of a Trumpeter Swan's nest and the slightly smaller 5 foot Bald Eagle's nest. We also learned that a Trumpeter Swan's egg measures roughly 5 inches long and so we then Googled the length and width of various bird eggs which we then drew, cut out and compared to each other.   

All this talking about eggs and nests of course resulted in us looking up information in regards to Swan nests and then Eagle nests (as the Cob mentions Eagle nests).. This created a platform for us to start watching a couple of cameras on the internet and we watched a few eaglets hatch and a pair of bald eagles who are currently making their nest.  We're going to really enjoy watching both of these cameras daily and watching as the eaglets grow and watching the other pair start their family.  The kids ask to see both sets of eagles several times a day.

Screenshot from the Eagle Cam we are watching..

The kids are starting to listen to musical pieces by Franz Schubert, starting with the "Trout Quintet", We will probably concentrate on each piece of music for two weeks at a time.  We're also reading the book  Franz Schubert: The Story of the Boy who Wrote Beautiful Songs and while the kids are not finding it to be the most interesting of books, they have been learning a bit about Schubert's life. 

While next week we're going to probably jump into the lessons in regards to the artwork of Jacques Louis David, this week we tested the waters with one of Michalangelo's most famous pieces - "The Creation of Adam" and we discussed what a fresco is and we talked about the Sistine Chapel. We also discussed the various theories as to who the character God has his arm around is (ultimately the children decided it was Eve).  

On Wednesday, we had three turkey vultures who decided to roost in the the trees in our front yard.. The kids thought this was absolutely awesome and enjoyed going out and actually observing them, especially when one of them showed off his massive wingspan.. WOW!!

Showing off his impressive wingspan

Turkey Vultures in a Pine Tree

Both kids successfully memorized their memory verse for this week.. Since we were starting at the beginning, we went with Genesis 1:1 "In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth".   I was very proud of both of them.

Today, as their "treat" for doing so well (we would have done it anyway, but don't tell them that), we did a nature walk..   Alyssa's school was having a science fair (which in my opinion was highly disappointing and not at all what I was expecting for a science fair) so we got Dad to drop us off on his way to work.. Afterwards, we walked home which had us walking through various undeveloped areas.. We had a blast check out various trees, plants and such..  The highlight was finding a cute lil carpenter bee checking out a cut down tree..

I have no doubt that Nature Hikes will quickly become the highlight of our school week.. 

Sycamore Balls

Our Desert Study Grounds

Ravens Flying Overhead

Really neat cloud formations that I'll make the kids work on identifying next week

Our Sideway Trees (because of our really strong winds)

Recently Cut Pine Tree - so we got to check out the Sap and the tree's bark and core

Guess what they will be having to identify next week ;)

Pine Trees with the Sun

Ashleigh studying the pine needles so she can draw them in her Nature Journal

A grove of fir trees in the middle of the desert

All Smiles on his Nature Hike

Carpenter Bee that we studied for a few minutes.