Nature Journaling

We had two Killdeer eggs hatch in our yard this morning. The kids have been waiting patiently for the baby birds to appear, and after going down to the nest for their morning inspection, I heard squeals of delight as they raced back up the hill to tell me the news.

My phone was picked up by Kinley so she could snap a few pictures to document the occasion. She wanted to send them to Daddy so he didn't miss out on the excitement.

We talked about how crazy the adult Killdeer are (if you aren't familiar you should look them up), how they make their nests in the rocks and their signature appearance. The kids were excited to find the bird listed in our bird travel guide.

We busted out our nature journals (even I have one) and sketched our findings. This wasn't a planned assignment, and some might say it isn't even "school" but I say otherwise. The kids were present and led the way in observation, research and presenting their information. They worked their motor skills, practiced their handwriting and spelling. And although simple, its perfect for a five and seven year old...especially all on a Saturday before nine in the morning.

We've also had a snake hanging out in our flower bed this week. There has been lots of time spent on researching snakes, in our books and online, and by discussing them with their Gigi. They each did a journal entry of the snake as well in one of our nature books. Kinley added her observations in writing since I require more from her than I do Harper.

Harper decided to sculpt a snake out of modeling clay and here they are displaying a huge snake skin they found this morning at the pond.

So I guess you have picked up, if you have read this far, that we are homeschooling again. And while non of this looks like school, it is intentional learning. In these activities we incorporated science, art, reading, writing and FUN!

We are already four weeks into our school year and have adopted a year round schedule. I pieced together our own curriculum instead of doing a boxed curriculum again, and this has brought so much ease into my planning and productivity. I'd be happy to go into more details on all of that in future posts if anyone is interested.