A Net in Time

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10 Ways to Engage in Summer Nature Study

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Did you know that summer is upon us?   I KNOW!  How did that happen so fast, seems I was just getting my garden in and now it’s almost July.  Means that soon I’ll have a 15 year old living in my house!  Thinking of my boy brings me back to his childhood and all the walks we did in our local bush.   I thought it might be fun to recall some of our explorations (if I can find the pictures) and talk about 10 ways to engage in summer nature study.

The Fun of having a pond

What exactly is nature study?   It’s viewing the world around you and taking time to make note of it.  It’s seeing ants and watching them work, watching a bumblebee bumble in the backyard, or finding clover in your front lawn. Nature study is simply the art of paying attention to the living things that surround you.  It can happen indoors or out, at home or in the community and often when you go on vacation.  It might even be something that you make!

We have a pond in our backyard that has gone through a couple of changes.  The first year we had it, we were inundated with tadpoles.  It was so cool listening to the calls of the toads, and one night the lad and I went out late and discovered mating toads.   This of course, resulted in lots of tadpoles.  For a fun quip from my lad see my original post. 

Tadpoles, boys hands,

As my son’s love affair with insects continued, we learned to build an insect trapping kit.    This lovely device is called a Pooter.  We used it for a long time and it was actually quite easy to make. You can make different sized one depending on the size of the insects you want to catch. 

bug catcher

How Nature Study Happens

Nature Study mostly looked like taking advantage of where we were.  If we went camping up north we took our time examining the wildlife around the numerous small ponds.  If we went for a walk in the bush we’d examine the mosses, fungi, ferns, birds, spiders and insects that we came across.  Our weekly trips to the local park let us watch the baby Canada geese mature.  Regardless of where you live, nature study is possible.

It might look different to you.  Where you live you might have pigeons and ospreys surrounding you, or you might have lizards and roadrunner in your backyard.  For all I know, you might have manatees swimming in the local waterways.  Take advantage of the world around you and take your time to learn about what you see.  You never know what might inspire you… You might design your own toad area!

Bend down and touch the moss and fungi.  Imagine if you will, the wonder in your child’s eyes when he discovers that some fungi puff up and release their spores if they are lightly brushed. Take your phone and grab a picture so you can remember and look up more information when you get home. 

toad

10 Ways To Engage in Summer Nature Study

  1. Go into your backyard/park/local green space.  Put a hula hoop around yourself and now take the time to examine everything inside that hoola hoop, count the spiders, types of plants, ants and other insects, see if you can find any arthropods, tiny invertebrates, feathers etc.  
  2. Weekly take walks in a bush, park, any green space, go to the beach, and just look… wildlife is everywhere.  At the beach check the dunes for insects and spiders, watch the water birds, scour the shore for interesting rocks or shells.  In the park, you’ll find birds, tracks of nocturnal critters, small rodents and maybe some reptiles too! 
  3. Make an art project from collected items.  For inspiration, you might find Crafty Ideas from Nature handy. 
  4. Drawings while out in nature.  One of the most enjoyable art pieces we’ve ever done has been going out into nature and drawing what we see.  Moss on a log, a tiny spider in a web, a pine cone hanging from a tree, just sitting there and drawing while listening to the birds around us.   Hugely successful and generated so much conversation. 
  5. Scavenger hunts.  Looking for words about nature such as Wild Words, or objects to find, or specific plants.   Have fun with it, it is great for all ages!

Five More ways

  1. Follow Inspiration from nature books, cards, or any study you are doing.  Such as if studying owls, going on an owl prowl held by your local park/nature authority.
  2. Go out at night, to an area you are familiar with, and just sit quietly.  Do you see anything different than you would during the day?
  3. Set up a bird feeder and note the birds that come through.  Are there any that are just passing by and are thankful for a quick meal, or do you have any permanent residents?
  4. Get a pocket microscope so you can do close up examinations right on the spot, allowing you to release small critters right where you find them, or lets you examine a leaf or flower without damaging the plant.  So quick and easy!
  5. Keep a nature journal.  Just a way to document what you see and watch changes occur throughout the seasons.   Write in it, draw in it, and attach a bag to keep items in.
June TOS

Cannonball

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raincoast FTC

Ah, the joy of looking forward to summer, swimming, camping, and spending time with family and friends.  It’s a time to boost skills, explore new places, and learn more about yourself.  Cannonball takes the goal of one young person and helps us look forward to all that summer has to offer.  This is my review on behalf of Raincoast books. 

Cannonball by Sacha Cotter

What I am Reviewing

Take a multi-generational family, add summer heat and a swimming pool.  Then over the course of 40 pages, children aged 4-8 will be amused as one child learns to soar.  Full colour images by Josh Morgan bring the words of Sacha Cotter to life. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky is the publisher of this delightful picture book entitled Cannonball. 

The Details for Cannonball

Every page is filled with detailed, full colour images. Pages like this are so great when reading with young children.  They can use them to help tell the story, and there’s always so much to see and talk about.  From the blues of the water, to the significance of war paint, and to the birds flying in the sky.  What can you see in this page’s pictures?  Let’s talk!  I love that kind of thing with youngsters.  

Cannonball sample page

The story in and of itself is quite simple, but in simplicity there is the beauty of family love. The joy of a gramma’s confidence.  And the pleasure of discovering something new within.  It’s good you know?

Should you Get it?

Cannonball by Cotter

The only name used is that of Nan, which makes her stand out as a person of significance.  What does that tell you about her relationship with this grandchild of hers? 

So go on, get this book.  Enjoy a simple read and revel in the joy of good family connections.  🙂 

Worth

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I saw the word prompt from Miss Kate last night, and as I did the bunny chores this morning I considered it.  Worth, such a loaded word for many. This makes it an excellent word prompt don’t you think?  

worth

How do you measure worth?
Coin?
Social status?
Power?
Connectiveness?
People following you?
Positions held?
Social media?
Attention from those that be?

Worth can be measured
in countless ways.
As many stars are in the sky
Can worth be measured.

And yet
Worth is meaningless.

It is so easily discounted
Unless it matters to
The one you speak with.

Yet God tells us this
are we not worth more
than the sparrows?
than the flowers of the field?

So why do we concern
ourselves
with our worth?

What does it matter?
If in the eyes of some you are
baggage?

Does your wife love you?
Does she wear her
Pride for you full well?

Does your husband
Mind you full well?
Caring for your opinion
and how others see his beloved?

Do your children rejoice
(yes I know)
That you are their mom?
Glad that they are yours
and no others?

Do you go about your
business
with honour and integrity.
Giving to God what is his due?

Then consider this
You are worth more
than sparrows or flowers
And God cares for them too.

Imagine how much more worth
You hold
to HIM.

And concern yourself not
with
Worth.

worth more than flowers

Matthew 6:28

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

Luke 12:7

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

When things go wrong

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What to do when things go wrong …  because things WILL go wrong.   You will buy the wrong curriculum, your children will make errors in judgement, a subject will prove too difficult to master (at least in the format used), and/or you will make your own mistakes.  Sometimes life intervenes with sickness in the household, or COVID will threaten the doors, or….  

You get the picture… sometimes the unforeseen threatens all our plans, and the question before us is this: What will you do when things go wrong?

what todo when things go wrong

Something has gone wrong

We don’t always see it at first, but eventually it will become evident that something is not right.  This wrongness may be in your student’s world or in your own.  Infrequently events outside the home will set events into motion that grind education to a halt. 

We’ve seen this recently with COVID affecting the world.  Even though, as homeschoolers, our lives haven’t necessarily been affected much, the affects on others trickles down into the home.  The lack of activities and outside interests stifled plays a role in our outlook on life.  This can and will play a disruption in the educational lives of our children. 

Our students might make errors in judgement with how they manage their time and need to face the consequences.

We might order the wrong materials, or thing that something “will do” because we want it to, but it doesn’t work well for this particular student.

Or you could find yourself out of a job and that disrupts the balance in your household upsetting how everything runs. 

LIFE HAPPENS.  It does’  We cannot plan for everything or have everything worked out perfectly. 

What to do?

What do we do when things go wrong?   

  1. Talk.  Seriously, just sit down and talk. Offer grace to your student if they’ve made an error in judgement and then move forward.  If you have made an error… admit it, move forward. 
  2. Figure out what to do. Don’t wallow in the error, use it as a change to learn something new and then move forward with a plan that you have worked out together. 
  3. Stop school if you have to.  Sometimes it’s necessary even if it’s only for a week, or even if it’s for longer.  As homeschoolers we have the option to school as we need to, not as we HAVE to, so use our freedom wisely. 
  4. Remember education happens, even if we aren’t using books. Life skills, learning to cope with stress, the importance of helping family, hands-on learning, and more. Just change how learning happens. 
  5. Change your perspective.  Often that’s all we need to do.  See the problem as an opportunity for conversation and change. 

Blogger List

blog hop giveaway

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

  • Amazon
  • Rainbow Resource
  • Hobby Lobby
  • Christian Books

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

Establishing Trust

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You know what really makes independent learning work?  Trust.  A trust from the student that their teaching parent will do their part to make them a success.  Then trust from the teaching parent that their student will do their work to the best of their ability.  Without that two-fold trust, independent learning simply won’t work.  So how do you go about establishing trust?

Establishing trust

What is Trust?

Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone.

Trusting someone means that you think they are reliable and that you have confidence in them. When you trust someone you feel safe with them.

How do you establish trust?

Trust is something that comes with time and experience.  Sometimes your intuition will have you trusting someone immediately, but overall, trust takes time to develop. 

Since we live in a fallen world, where people do things they aught not to, trust isn’t the easiest topic to converse on.  People who are in positions of authority who should be able to be trusted, sometimes they can’t be.  Families aren’t always what they should be, parents do things they aught not, kids do bonehead things, and I cannot address every situation in this post.  I will work based on my experience only!  🙂 

Teaching Parent

It starts when you first meet.  Kids in my classroom, children of friends, and son of my own.  Trust starts to build from your first meeting. 

  1. Do you do what you say you will?  Can your words be trusted?
  2. Do you act like you say you will?  Do your actions show truth?

Once you have that baseline established, trust is furthered by your

  • Competence
  • Reliability
  • Integrity
  • Communication

Questions to ask yourself

In your home, do your children trust that you will do all you can to help them?  Whether that is pointing them in the right direction to get the answers and help they need, or by providing them with the answer yourself. Have you established yourself as reliable source of aid?

Do you take the time to learn how to communicate with each other?  This is something that is continuing to change in my household as my son matures. He LOVES precision in words..they matter a lot to him.  Having to deal with a mom who is not so precise in her language sometimes creates barriers (both from his end and my own). 

Integrity comes by saying and doing what you say you will. It shows in how you do your work. I made a promise to my lad that I will never deliberately lie to him.  What I say is so.  This doesn’t take into account the occasional misunderstanding, but since he knows I don’t ever intend to lie to him, it’s good.  He knows me well enough there and it becomes a matter of clarification not wrong-doing.  Can your children say the same of you?

Competency comes through in the accuracy of your help. Can you render the assistance needed?  Can you organize their stuff, order their supplies, keep them on task, and do the myriad of supportive tasks to get them through their schooling?  My son has learned that when it comes to estimating the time it takes to do something… I am horrible!  🙂 So he always doubles the time of what I think something will take (I learned this two weeks ago).  🙂   But he’s also learned that I do have my areas where I shine and takes full advantage of it.  

establishing trust

Independent Learner

Your student has the same expectations placed upon him/her.   They need to show competency in doing their work, reliability in completing it, integrity in holding to what he/she says/does, and have the ability to communicate with you clearly when there is a problem.

Some of these skills needed to be encouraged and/or strengthened, or perhaps outright taught.  Youth don’t just pick up these skills, they learn them through being taught what’s a correct response.  

Teaching them when they are little to have a system of organization (even if it doesn’t match yours), allowing them to make decisions about when to do what in their school day, and finding a way to finish what you started.  Accept them for who they are, but encourage them to do it well.   

Trust Takes Time

So for my son who has a thing for insects, he raises ants and has learned to create habitats for them, with the end goal being to sell them (the ants as a colony) at some point.  I have used my love of mice (and his love for his snake) to teach him how to sell mice as a precursor to him selling his ants when they are ready.

Over this past year, we’ve discussed changing the price we charge and have worked out things like commission if I sell his mice for him, and which mice we keep back.  This year he’ll be responsible for taking pictures of the mice and posting decent ads for them.  Now.. mice don’t move as fast as ants do, but it takes patience to get a good picture of a mouse. All these incremental steps give him the confidence he needs for when he assumes control of this business.  Running your own business means balancing a lot of skills. 

Just as I’m slowly allocating more responsibility to my lad for his mice, is how you increase their abilities to be trustworthy with their school work. 

Establishing trust takes time. Give them time to cement the skills you’ve taught them, add new expectations, and before you know it, they’ll be running the show.  🙂 

blog hop giveaway

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

  • Amazon
  • Rainbow Resource
  • Hobby Lobby
  • Christian Books

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

Rebecca Locklear, a crew review

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DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS PRODUCT THROUGH THE HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. I WAS NOT REQUIRED TO WRITE A POSITIVE REVIEW NOR WAS I COMPENSATED IN ANY OTHER WAY.

Men on the high seas, risk life and limb in service to others.  I give you
Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities.  Rebecca Locklear has put together a lovely unit study, geared for upper elementary to highschool, filled with a ton of activities so you can immerse your students into the lives and work of these brave men.  You can find more of her amazing unit studies at Rebecca Locklear.

Rebecca Locklear Review

How Did We Use It?

My son was interested in this review, but found himself really busy.  In talking with him I asked if it would be helpful if I read to him select portions and included him in any art projects, cooking lessons etc.   A huge breath of relief flooded his face.  

Ergo I’ve made decisions about what he learns, focusing on aspects that will enhance his studies of WW2.  He’s in the middle of understanding naval battles and how people survived harsh treatment (Japanese POW camps).  Understanding the fortitude of these early service men and how they survived by sticking together has been an important aspect of his learning. 

Story from Locklear review
The lad and dad laughed out loud at this one.

In a way, it was kinda funny.  I was excited to see recipes as part of this unit study which comes as a PDF book.  I like cooking and trying new foods.  Reading one of the recipes out loud to my hubby I received the response “oh, that doesn’t sound good at all!”.   I made it anyways and seeing the look of surprise on his face (and on the face of the lad) was priceless.  “This is good, you’re going to make it again right?”  It gave us a great opportunity to talk about how the men would take turns cooking, and how they used what they had at hand.   In fact, this meal has been added into our repertoire!  🙂   So easy AND tasty!

fish hash locklear review

I caught a couple of dastardly squirrels in my backyard this spring, and when we read about the strong use of wildlife as part of their diet, the lad quipped “Squirrel stew I suppose eh mom? They would have enjoyed it with some potatoes!”  Not quite my thing, but perhaps….

About the Author

Rebecca Locklear

Rebecca Locklear is the author of Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities.   She has taught multiple levels as a teacher, and uses that experience to create history unit studies for teachers of any sort to use. 

Why did Rebecca Locklear put this study together?   She tells us the following in the opening pages:

What do you get?

120 pages of information, crafts, recipes, activities and more so you can immerse yourself into the lives of the men of the U.S. Life Saving Service. 

The book contains:

  • Introduction for Teachers
  • Introductory Workshop
  • Workshops (4 Units)
    • life at the station house
    • working together at the station
    • the culture of character
    • relevance today
  • Expanding the Life-Saving Vision through the Arts
  • Research Areas Relating to the U.S. Life-Saving Service
  • Appendix 1 & 2
  • Glossary
  • Sources
  • Acknowledgements

Questions pepper the pages.  You’ll find them mixed into the text, or following a section.  I love how they are mixed in, making them an easy part of reading through the materials. 

Pictures fill the pages.   Sometimes full pages, other times wrapped in amongst the text.  All are placed appropriately and add to the text.  Most were in black and white, some few in full colour. 

images from US life saving service

Variety in Activities

Most of the activities were geared toward classroom work with groups of children, as opposed to individual work by single students.   Some would be able to be adapted easily, and others are simply group activities.   You’ll find pictures, discussion questions, games, recipes, skits, music, stories, art and critical thinking activities.

Some could be adapted quite easily.  I think my son would have enjoyed this one if I could have convinced him to give it a whirl.  🙂   14 year olds who are sick of Covid-19 shut-in and wanting to spend time with friends…. they aren’t always so easy to convince.  🙂  “Just read mom, I like when you read to me and just ask questions.  I can do that and still do this too!”

I  really appreciated that a few of the activities were meant for individual work.   

The sheer volume of information present in such a good variety of ways makes me want to take this into my co-op group!  It meets the needs of every learner that I can think of.   Hands-on, interactive, research, tactile, and discussion.  AND if you are into following rabbit trails… learn to make knots, explore cooking with wild game, play tricks on each other, tell stories to pass the time, ship profiles, flags, survival skills, etc.

One of the biggest things I appreciated about this unit study was that the human element was emphasized.  Character qualities, work ethic, strength of will and bravery. All these aspects were pointed out numerous times in various ways to help us understand what it really took to be part of this service.  

Should You Get it?

While we struggled with the group aspect of many of the activities (kinda difficult to do a group with just one student) my son enjoyed listening to the history of the U.S. Life Saving Service. Such fascinating information.  

The materials are presented in a user-friendly manner and are easy to listen to and remember details of.  He could be playing Minecraft or his other game with his friends, listen and even answer questions.  He mentioned he would like to read some of the lessons himself and asked I send the file to his laptop.   That’s got to tell you something eh?

I freely admit, he didn’t have a lot of interest in doing any of the activities, but he did enjoy listening and learning and isn’t that what really matters?   Should you get it?  YES… it’s such an interesting part of history and gives a good basis for the rescue services we have today. 

Ms Locklear does an excellent job of meeting her purpose.  You will find
Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities to be a fun and useful addition to your historical studies.

Read Other Reviews

63 Members of the crew reviewed Rebecca Locklear’s materials.   After you read various reviews, remember to visit her site to sign up for her emails. 

Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities

The Mayflower at Cape Cod – Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today

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Building Confidence

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Where to put this post in the series was a bit of a challenge for me.  I think since building confidence is an on-going part in schooling.  Can you do grade four… it’s so different than grade 3 and then making the jump to grade 7 and then high school.  Different expectations at each grade level and the jumps in difficulty in certain years.  Building confidence though, when you stop and think about it, is something that we as adults need to do throughout our working/parenting/volunteering years isn’t it?  So it’s no small wonder it’s a continual work in progress for our children/students as well is it?

building confidence, child on bike

Building Confidence

A lot of confidence-building depends on each individual person doesn’t it?  Some children seem to be born confident, others need to work their way into it.  You’ll find children that once they gain confidence in one thing quickly translate that into other areas of their life.  Yet there are others who seem to need to learn it for everything along the way.   We need to temper our expectations to the individual at hand.

I had to learn this.  I have a lad who is fairly confident and translates his confidence in one field easily to another.  But as a co-op teacher, I met children who were quite timid and encouraging them to step out in confidence was harder than I anticipated.  A quiet uncertainty seemed to permeate their being.  With such children, I found that moving slowly with my expectations generally helped them, yet one mom told me “be bold with that one, she’ll surprise you if you are!”  (Moms often know best don’t they?)

Stages in building confidence

These are not necessarily in order, and can be applied at various stages.  They will ebb and flow as life and circumstances change.

  1. Have expectations that can be met.     
  2. Join in their play and let them be in charge.
  3. Remind them, when facing a challenge, they might not know how to do it YET, but give it time, they’ll get it figured.
  4. As they mature, let them take the lead.  Let them learn how to handle disappointment, and how it feels to succeed.
  5. Accept your child for who they are.  Encourage them along their path, push them to be better, but don’t try to make them someone they are not.   
  6. Let them problem-solve on their own. 
  7. Encourage them to be people of faith.
  8. Let them follow where their curiousity leads them.
  9. Let them own their own mistakes, then figure out how to “fix” it. 
  10. Offer assistance when they need it, but often not until they ask for it. 
singer, yellow shirt. text building confidence

Confidence will help your student gain needed independence in their learning. A confident individual has faith in their own abilities, which is what your independent learner needs. The confidence will teach them when to ask for help, when they can figure it out on their own, and when they just need to let a problem rest a spell. 

How do you go about increasing the confidence in your children?