Spring Nature Study and Easter Celebration

When I finally grabbed the photos off my camera I realized how much we’d done the last two weeks!  Easter celebrations and a whole lot of nature study filled our time.

Moss Nature Study

We were on the lookout for moss during several walks in the woods.  One day it was finally warm enough that everything wasn’t frozen solid so I could break off some pieces of rotting trees for moss samples.  I had been anxious to bring some home to put on the nature table like Barb did in her Moss Up Close post.

We read about moss in our Smithsonian Natural History book and then watched the animated video of moss life cycle from Barb’s 2008 Moss Nature Study post.  The terminology and specifics in the video was too advanced for a 7 and 10 year old, but the animation gave them an overall idea of spores and their release from the capsules.

Feeling one of our moss samples reminded me of the feeling of a very familiar material–the soft side of velcro!

We examined our moss with magnifying lenses and a stereo microscope.  Happily one of our samples had stalks and capsules!    We also are fortunate to have a box of old slides from a high school–one of which was the cross section of a moss capsule.  Everyone completed Barb’s free printable moss observation page.

Bracket Fungus Nature Study

On another beautiful early spring day we headed to the woods on a bracket fungus hunt.  After imagining the moss to be fairy forests my daughter decided that the bracket fungi were like fairy stadiums.

I shared with the kids the story from the Handbook of Nature Study of how a little spore enters through a break in the tree and grows deep into the tree, and how the bracket we see is really just like the flower–the real part of the plant is hidden in the poor tree, which is doomed to an early death.  We were able to bring a few bracket fungi home to inspect.  The magnifying lenses revealed the millions of tiny tubes opening onto the underside.

More nature journal pages!  My daughter just loves it when I join in on nature journaling.  I love seeing the differences in what interests each of us about our nature study subjects.

Mallard Nature Study

Our third nature study subject found us: Mallard ducks in our backyard!  It’s very unusual, for though there is a marshy area in our neighborhood it does not border our property.  The only other year we’ve seen a Mallard in our yard was several years ago during a very wet spring.  We saw them three different days this week and an impromptu mallard study ensued.

I found bits and pieces of information in books we had.  National Geographic Kids had some more details.  Though Cornell’s site is my go-to reference for backyard birds it was the last place I checked for Mallard information.  Duh.  The All About Birds Mallard page was a wonderful resource with videos, audio clips and extensive information.  The video of the adult duck “dabbling” for food (they don’t dive, just tip their heads in with hind end in the air) and the mating ritual (their heads bob in unison like a silly dance) had my kids in stitches.

Other happenings of the last two weeks:

1 & 2: We tried a new egg dying technique this year after reading Rechenka’s Eggs.  It was a modified version of Pysanky from our book Everything You Never Learned About Birds.  It involved using the head of a pin to apply melted wax, and adding layers of dye and wax.  Quite labor intensive, but very fun.

3: A beautiful Messiah play has become a yearly tradition that grounds us all in the midst of bunnies and candy eggs.

4: Another yearly tradition: a visit to a maple syrup producer for Maine Maple Sunday.

5: A science program called Garden Batteries had us powering lights and calculators with produce.  This was very fun and I see more experiments in our future.

One last note:  I must again express my gratitude for our homeschooling lifestyle.  At a library event a few public schooled boys made some completely inappropriate comments to MY little girl.  I was able to use the opportunity to have some frank discussions with my daughter.  Oh, how glad I am to be present with her and have the relationship with her where she’ll tell me things.  How glad I am that her education can take priority in her days, not the sad state of socialization in most schools.

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!