By Charmaine Wistad

Would you like to include a little bit of fun “school” during the summer months? Summer is the perfect time to start your children (and yourself!) on a nature notebook.  In the summer, your family will probably  spend a good amount of time outdoors – so why not take advantage of it and use the time to observe and draw nature.

Drawing notebooks can be readily found at just about any discount or variety store (including many large grocery stores). They come in various sizes, but I found that a 6” X 9” spiral bound sketch diary works best.

Start your nature notebook project by taking a little time to decorate the cover. Cut a piece of white paper the size of the cover. Have the kids cut out pictures from magazines of their favorite animals, plants, flowers, tress etc. and glue them on to the paper. Leave room at the top to label the book with permanent marker or a computer print out i.e. “Anne’s Nature Notebook”. Once the paper is decorated to the child’s liking, glue it to the book cover then cover both front and back with clear contact paper.  This will help keep the book in better condition when you get it outdoors and into some “natural” situations.

What to put in the nature notebook? Start by taking a little walk around the yard. Ask the child to simply look for something they find unusual or interesting. Then, date the first page and ask them to draw it in their notebook. You can use carbon pencils, colored pencils or both.  Later, as everyone becomes more comfortable with the notebooks, you can look up the item in a field guide and perhaps label the parts or write a little bit about it.

Be sure to take your nature notebooks with you when you:

• Go to the Zoo
• Visit a city or county park
• Go hiking
• On vacation

Visit Home-School.com for more ideas on nature notebooks.

Nature notebooks are a fun and easy way to encourage close observation of  the beauty that surrounds us everyday.  As your children add to their notebooks over the years, they will be creating a keepsake of not only what they’ve observed but of many good times together as a family.

Charmaine Wistad has successfully homeschooled her own two children from pre-school through high school.  Now she is turning her attention toward helping other homeschool moms. Through personal coaching, Charmaine helps homeschooling moms thrive… not just survive! Visit her website to try a complimentary no-obligation telephone coaching session.

If you live in a hurricane-prone area, this activity has real relevance for you.  Use it to practice before plotting some real hurricanes.

If you live inland, out of the path of hurricanes, this activity will lend impact to the weather news you hear about and overlook.

Either way, this plotting exercise is good practice for the scientific skill of recording!

Purpose

To practice locating coordinates on a map and to learn to predict the path of a storm.

Materials

• hurricane plotting map (download one here)
• pencil
• compass
• coordinates

Procedure

1. On your map, make a small mark for each coordinate set from 1 -4 (below) showing the location of a storm named Kelly.
2. Connect the marks with a dotted line showing the motion of the storm.
3. Draw small arrowheads showing the direction of motion of the storm.
4. In another color, predict with a dotted line where you think the storm will go.
5. Look at the coordinates 5-10 to see if your prediction is correct.
6. Finish plotting the coordinates 5 – 10, connect the marks, and draw the arrowheads showing direction.  You have completed your plot of Hurricane Kelly.
7. Using a compass, draw a circle centered on coordinate 5.  The circle should be scaled to 100 miles in radius according to your map.  This circle shows the area which is affected by the hurricane directly.  Of course, the area of rains and slight winds will extend beyond this circle.
8. To show the affected area of the hurricane at landfall, use coordinate 7 as the center of the circle.  All of the coastlines within this circle will undergo flooding.  Outlying areas will experience heavy rains and less flooding conditions.
9. At the center of the circle, draw another, smaller circle of 25 miles diameter.  This smaller circle represents the eye of the storm at landfall.

Questions

1. Where would you expect there to be the greatest flooding?  Highest tides?
2. What is the direction of the wind at landfall?  Does this ever change?
3. Where was the hurricane when it became a tropical storm? (This occurs when the wind speed hits 39 miles per hour)  An official hurricane?  (74 miles per hour).
4. What happened to the hurricane after it reached land?

	Time and Date	North latitude	West longitude	Wind spd
1.	Tuesday, Aug. 8	15°	72°	36 mph
2.	Wednesday, Aug. 9, 8am	14°	75°	40 mph
3.	Wednesday, Aug. 9, 6pm	16°	77°	52 mph
4.	Thursday, Aug. 10, 8 am	18°	81°	65 mph
5.	Thursday, Aug. 10, 6 pm	23°	87°	76 mph
6.	Friday, Aug. 11, 8 am	27°	88°	93 mph
7.	Friday, Aug. 11, 6 pm	29°	92°	112 mph
8.	Saturday, Aug. 12, 8 am	30°	94°	107 mph
9.	Saturday, Aug. 12, 6 pm	32°	94°	85 mph
9.	Sunday, Aug. 13, 8 am	38°	95°	35 mph

Now you are ready to plot some real hurricanes! Once again, you can download a hurricane plotting chart here.

Credit: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center.

Hurricane season began on June 1st and runs until November 30th.  People who live near the Gulf of Mexico or along the Eastern Seaboard are very aware of the destructive nature of hurricanes.

Many people in the past lost their lives because they had no warning of the coming storm.  The Great Galveston Storm is one such storm in which thousands of people perished.

Today, because of satellite warning systems and rapid communication, we know almost as soon as a hurricane is born that it may be coming our way.  The U.S. Air Force sends specially equipped hurricane hunter planes out into the storm to measure it and bring back better information about its speed and winds.

One of my early memories is about sitting around the kitchen table with Dad and several siblings as the wind howled in the background.   My father was explaining how a hurricane was shaped using a tea cup with a spoon in it.  As he moved the handle of the spoon around in a circle, I could visualize the winds of Hurricane Audrey right outside our windows.  The center of the storm, the ‘eye’, was represented by the spoon bowl within the cup.   When the eye of the hurricane came through, we went outside and looked at all the downed trees, broken limbs, and rubble.  When the winds began again, they were going in the opposite direction as before in exactly the way predicted by the spoon in the cup.

A good activity for those homeschoolers living around the coastlines is to interview someone who has gone through a large storm.  There are many tales of storms and they are all interesting.

Tornadoes and hurricanes teach us that God is ultimately in control.  They also show us the strength of natural forces.  We can get complacent with winds and sea because they are usually so calm and safe, but when these forces are unleashed, nothing we can do can control them.  They can be a small picture of the forces unleashed during the flood of Noah when no small area was involved but the entire Earth.

Praise God for His control of the weather!

He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
He brings the clouds to punish people,
or to water his earth and show his love.  –Job  37:11-13

Hurricane Safety

1.  Before the storm, look out for branches or trees which are ready to fall.  If they present a hazard to the house, trim them away.

2.  Before the storm, check to see that you have fresh water, batteries, canned or dry food, candles, medicines, first aid equipment, etc.  Remember that you may lose electricity for a time.

3.  Before the storm, cover your windows or tape the plate glass in a large X across the window.  While this will not prevent your windows from breaking if they are going to, it may help contain the glass shards…

4.  Before the storm, check outside to secure any loose objects which could be damaged or be a hazard in the wind.

5.  Before the storm, check your property and possessions for safety from high water levels.  Ask yourself whether the property will be in a safe place if the water floods.  Remember past floods to determine possible high water levels.  Appliances in the garage, for example, may have to be raised to a higher level to make sure they stay out of the water.

6.  During the storm, stay inside in a protected place.

7.  After the storm, remember that the water supply may be contaminated, so you may have to use purification procedures.

8.  After the storm, remember that the snakes and other hazardous animals will also be out and in the water.  Wading in the water is not safe.

9.  Don’t interfere with emergency vehicles.  It is best to stay in your place of safety until the waters recede.  Don’t get out on the roads out of curiosity.

10.  Check with your neighbors to see if anyone needs help.

Note:  You can see that these procedures are for people in the path of the storm and who live on the coastlines.  People further away from the storm’s center will have things to do, too, but not all of these things will apply.  For example, flooding is much greater near the shore than 100 miles inland.

Do you have hurricane experience or stories to share?  Leave a comment and tell us your story!

Ready to take a quick spin around our garden?  I’ve posted about building the garden and planting it and the challenges associated with growing ANYTHING along Colorado’s Front Range.  This month I’m posting about our harvest!

Our garden is completely walled for wind and rabbits.  Unfortunately the birds are left as the sole garden predators, and they are decimating our strawberries.  The good news is, the strawberries are growing like crazy.  The bad news is, all the ripening ones have bites out of them.  My chicken wire cover does have some gaps and as I get some time I will get the gaps closed off.  I’m amazed at the tenacity of the birds, low-crawling under the low hanging chicken wire.  Strawberries are a BIG hit with them. 

The persistence of the birds with the strawberries makes me wonder how our raspberries will fare when they eventually start to produce.  I haven’t even looked it up to see if these healthy bushes will produce this year or next, but when they do, we will have to cover them.

The tomato plants went from hanging in there to growing like mad.  I have not measured them as I intended to do as a science project with the kids, but next year, we will definitely be measuring and charting the growth.

Most of the tomato plants are now bearing, and they’re all still green.  Again, I have no idea when these guys will turn ripe, so every day is a surprise to go see what is happening in the garden.  Are they red yet?  no?  maybe tomorrow..

Bell peppers are doing great, little tiny fruit is showing on the plants.

Tomatillo peppers, likewise.

Zucchini squash are growing huge, which I am very interested in.  My favorite vegetable is going to be in abundance very soon!

Look at these little guys in there!

Little jalapeno plants planted at the end of May have started slow after some initial cold weather, but they appear to be doing great now.  I actually have two tiny seedlings that survived the post-Mothers’ Day cold rain deluge.  They are clinging to life and may not bear at all through frost, tough to say.  I’m not betting on it.

And my cilantro bed.  Lovely to look at.  The birds like it too, since I have been planting more seeds every four weeks since the beginning of May.  Hopefully they’ll miss some of the seeds so I can have a continuous supply of cilantro all summer.

Here is our first harvest.  Fresh cilantro for tacos.  Yum!

My kids have been learning along with me out in the garden.  They know that plants need sun, water, room to grow, protection from pests and the elements, and good soil.  They know which of our garden is fruit and which is vegetable.  They know the parts of the plants.  They know that birds like to eat seeds and berries.  Lots of good science to learn out in the garden!

For more great garden photos and stories, check out the rest of the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge linkup below!

And if you have any bird deterrence hints, please leave a comment and share them with me!

This past year we have been using Alpha Omega’s Horizons preschool in our homeschool.  For Kindergarten in the fall, we have selected Memoria Press’ Kindergarten classical curriculum.

Memoria Press’ curriculum appealed to me with its introductions of amazing art and music throughout the school weeks.  There is focus on Bible teaching using the Golden Books Children Bible which I remember from childhood.  Copybooks emphasize phonics lessons with seatwork and copying of Scripture as the kids advance in their handwriting.  There is a recitation period to start each school day, where the kids get to formally recite what they have learned.

Memoria Press starts the kids on Latin around the 1-3 grades and I, at least, am looking forward to that, having been taught Latin when I was homeschooled! The dividends on that are paid in vocabulary and in general language learning.

I am a big fan of the classical approach to learning.  I should add that we intentionally went looking for a curriculum with structured lesson plans so my husband and I can hand off school throughout the week depending on our schedules.

For my visual learner, I knew we needed something with manipulatives and visual emphasis of math lessons.  I didn’t see that in the Rod and Staff math that comes with the Memoria Press curriculum, so we wanted to substitute something else in its place.  I saw Right Start Mathematics and instantly liked the fact that the concepts were not watered down from the very beginning.  We do the same thing with our science instruction at Homeschool Science Press, so it seemed like a natural carryover.  Right Start Math uses tools such as a Math Balance, abacus, clock games, and manipulatives.  Having already introduced some basic math and counting this past year with the Horizons curriculum, Right Start recommended we begin with Level B.

There is no dedicated science book with the Memoria Press Kindergarten curriculum, so as science is covered, we will supplement with pages from My First Science Notebook by Homeschool Science Press.  This will help us learn science as we encounter it in the real world, but still drive home the skills of science: observation, measuring, drawing, and recording.  I expect to continue this approach for this next year at least and then we’ll be looking for a dedicated textbook.  I might use vintage science books, who knows?  My most important goal with science for now is to make sure they are asking questions, guessing the answer, and observing outcomes.

What are you using in your homeschool this fall?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Photo courtesy of Cheerios Underfoot

I recently provided three blog readers the opportunity to receive a copy of Hands-On Science: Particles in Motion.  They agreed to review the book and have written some excellent information for you!

Hands-On Science is a K-6 experiment and activity book.  It provides discussion and thought-provoking questions along with practical application.  The experiments can be completed with an entire homeschool, that is to say, a wide range of ages, at differing levels of difficulty simultaneously.  The best part is, you probably already own every item required to complete the experiments!

But I’ll let you read what these ladies have to say about it.

Here are the Reviews!

• Joyce @ Education Jump-Off
• Lisa @ Cheerios Underfoot
• Erin @ Chicken Babies

If you’re looking to grab a copy of this book for 20% off, be sure to head over to the Homeschool Science Press Facebook page, (like us), and find the discount code!  If you are already a Facebook Liker, head to the special offers tab.

In the spring months, across the United States, storms are violent and unleash rain, hail, lightning, and high winds.  Occasionally, especially in the central plains of North America, tornadoes form from the storms.  Although many tornadoes are spawned in the spring on the plains, they can occur almost anywhere where the conditions are right for their formation.

The safety tips listed here have been used successfully to save the lives of people trapped in the path of a tornado.  Practice them with your children so that in case of emergency, they will know exactly what to do even if you are not there.

If your community has a tornado warning horn, make sure that the children know what it means and what to do when they hear it.

Many homeschoolers are radio amateurs operating ham radio stations.  They can become tornado spotters by attending a class on the topic.  The class is very informative, has great videos of severe weather, and gives the hams concrete directions so that they can help others during a tornado watch.  Many children have attended this class.  By the way, learning to be a radio operator is an excellent way to do physics, especially since the student does not have to learn Morse code to pass the examination.

Tornado Safety

1. When in your house, get away from windows and go to a central location in the house.  In a basement, under the stairs, or in a bathroom is best.
2. Take with you a heavy blanket or a mattress to wrap up in or get under if you have time.
3. Get down against a wall or under a desk with your arms over your head.
4. When in a trailer, leave it and seek other, more secure shelter.
5. Outside in your car, never try to outrun the tornado.
6. Leave the car and seek shelter under a culvert or overpass.  When under an overpass, get up close under the upper level.
7. If caught outside without protection, lie down in a ditch or low place with your arms over your head.

Homeschool Enrichment magazine recently published an article by Jennifer from Middle-Aged Mama.  It listed some online military homeschool resources.  What a great idea!  Military homeschoolers, especially those overseas, are often in a whole different ballgame when it comes to homeschooling away from friends and family.  Frequent moves mean uprooting and learning new laws in each state, and getting re-organized each time to continue pursuing excellence in homeschooling!

Here are some of the resources listed by the article, and a few more as well:

The Military Homeschooler

The Homeschool Diner: Military Homeschoolers (this is a wonderful website for all sorts of curriculum and resources, not just for military, if you haven’t stopped by)

DoDDS Guidelines for Homeschool Overseas

Wives in Bloom: The Online Magazine for Christian Military Moms

HSLDA’s page on Military Homeschooling Overseas

The Home Front- “Serving military homeschooling families as they serve throughout the world.”

Eclectic Homeschool Organization’s page on Military Resources

Simple Homeschool’s wonderful post on Homeschooling and Moving

Got any other great resources to share?  Leave a comment!  And thanks for serving our country to all the military families out there!

Identification Guides:

North American Wildlife This book includes color pictures of all the common trees, shrubs, and animals of North America.  Concise information about habitats, eating habits, and growth are included.

The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees Western Region by Elbert Little.  (and you can also get the Eastern Region, as applicable)  Full colored pictures of the bark and the leaves of the trees of North America.

Peterson First Guide To Trees. Field guide for the beginning naturalist, with full color illustrations!

Plant Families-  How to Know Them. H. E. Jaques compiled this taxonomy key.  This pictured-key has almost all known members of the plant kingdom.

Trees:

Trees for American Gardens:  The Definitive Guide to Identification & Cultivation by Donald Wyman.  This is a tree book for the gardener who wants to know about the trees he has and about new trees he can get.  Many details about native trees as well as those cultivated, but not occurring in natural settings.

4-H Forestry Project: Forests of Fun. According to their website, “Forests of Fun provides a wealth of information and serves as the 4-H Forestry connection to the larger forestry community. You can find advanced activities, career information and an introduction to forestry organizations nationwide.”

Habitat Studies:

The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Eastern United States. Janine Benyus wrote this book and the companion book: The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Western United States. The line drawings within the books are great and there are lots of facts about the habitats we live in, including the trees.  She includes information on the habitats in all four seasons.

Plants in General:

Experimenting with Plants. Joel Beller wrote this wonderful book on plants with lots of hands on activities for the inquistitve experimenter.

Specific Information about your area:  Can get posters, lists and pictures of native living species, and publications.

• Nature Centers
• Museums
• Agricultural Experiment Stations
• Parks; City, State, National, and World Parks

Have any other great resources you’d like to share? Leave a comment and let us know!

It has been 2 1/2 weeks since our first garden plants went into their new home in our garden, and sadly, many of them have perished since these photos were taken.  The seedlings my boys and I lovingly planted and watered and hardened off went into the ground the second week of May.

The next three days it rained, the wind blew, hail fell, and the plants, unprotected by various garden coverings with which it would have been wise to cover them, croaked.

Apparently my tough love approach to gardening wherein the hardiest plants should have weathered the elements and lived on stronger to produce lots of wonderful vegetables and fruit for my family… is just not a wise approach.

On days 4 through 11 I watched the weather-beaten plants for signs of life as it continued to rain with very little sun, hitting the 40′s at night.

On day 12 I bought new plants from the local farmers market, abandoning my “introduce a few new varieties at a time and see how they do” approach, and coming home with tomatillo, red and yellow bell peppers, an indeterminate tomato hybrid, a roma tomato, zucchini seeds, and cilantro seeds.

So far, these plants, well irrigated and planted further along in the season, are doing fine.  As we roll into Memorial Day weekend, I have moved on to plant bed perennials elsewhere in our yard, and am (mostly) confident that something we have planted will grow and thrive.  I take a few lessons learned already into next growing season:

1. Don’t start seedlings again without letting them grow thicker and hardier first, which means either building a greenhouse or rigging some sort of UV lighting stuff in the basement, plus bigger pots, and who knows what else.  I may not start seeds again soon.
2. Wait until maybe Memorial Day to plant anything out there.
3. Follow local tomato planting guidelines, including walls-0′-water and planting horizontally so only leaves are exposed.

Here are some photos, some of commemorative nature..

First, our strawberry plants, which my youngest has claimed as his own, and which are already producing fruit, having weathered the elements with style, and which we are pleased to learn will come back next season.

Cilantro, looking rather peaked.  New seeds were sown right next to these now dead plants.  They are supposed to be hardy early season growers here.  Not these ones, though.

This is a raspberry bush from a national hardware store.  Having seen what is at the farmers’ market labeled raspberries, I’m sorry we even planted these sticks, and am watching them without much hope for success.  I saved my receipt.

The northwest corner of the garden, filled with jalapenos and zucchini, right before watering them in.  Too bad none of them made it.

Poor little guys, and they looked so healthy, too.

These are purchased tomato plants, and some of them are mysteriously bearing yellow leaves now, which google says means lack of nitrogen or not enough sun or water.   We’ve had very little sun, lots of rain, and they went into compost-rich soil.  Watching and waiting on that one.  Not sure, but they are hanging in there and I see little tomatoes on one..

Poor little gone jalapeno.

..and roma tomato.  Were I to do it again, this would have gone in horizontally without so much stem exposed to whip around in the wind.  They still got quite a bit of the crazy wind despite the completely walled garden.

Through the garden gate, with irrigation system and graduated fenceline.  Left side is windward.

Be sure to check out the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge linkup for lots of gardening progress with curriculum to match.

And please, by all means, if you know what is causing my tomato plants to turn yellow- leave a comment and let me know!