Nature Study ~ Enjoying the Last Days of Summer in the Garden

The last Outdoor Hour Challenge from Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog for August was all about enjoying these last warm days in the garden.  Barb loaded us up with ideas for spending a little extra time outdoors.  It was wonderful because not only were the ideas easy to do, but they had us all noticing little details and soaking up the garden with all our senses.

My favorite activity was probably sitting quietly in the garden for five minutes.  That’s an unusual activity for a family with young kids!  I set us up on a blanket in the shade with our nature study clipboards and we recorded what we heard and saw.

We also brought a couple flowers inside and the kids drew them for their nature journal…and like Barb suggested they drew them BIG.  I love having the kids draw things they see–it really slows them down and they notice details.

We did all the activities on the August Grid over the course of the week.  The weather was beautiful, and we soaked it up.  It’s good for those of us in Maine to try and store up as many summer memories as we can:  our seasons are already preparing to change.  You can feel the difference in the air at night, and many of my garden flowers are rapidly declining.  It’s all good because fall is my absolute favorite season:  crisp air, picking apples and pumpkins, jumping in piles of leaves!  I’m not going to think right now about January, February, March…winter is long here but I’m enjoying the rest of summer right now.  Barb posted another grid from her archives–it’s loaded with ideas and we want to accomplish them all!

I’ll be submitting this to Barb’s Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.