Category: Nature

Nature Scavenger Hunt Free Printable 0

Nature Scavenger Hunt Free Download

Are you looking for free Nature Scavenger Hunt printables? We have several fun options!  Every spring, as the weather gets nicer and nicer we spend more and more time outdoors. We’ve been doing this scavenger hunt for years. I know we’re not alone because this printable has gotten well over 50,000 downloads since I first made it years ago!! We found a lot of cool critters that very first year we did...

Yesterday’s Beautiful Snowfall 1

Yesterday’s Beautiful Snowfall

I took the camera out to captures some snow scenes out in our yard and the woods behind our house.  It was peaceful and very pretty! Better to focus on that than tomorrow’s surgery, right?! These photos must tickle my friends who are having 80, 90 and 100 degree temperatures right now, right?!  

Digging Out From the Snow! 2

Digging Out From the Snow!

Like so much of the east coast, we spent a lot of time today digging out from the huge snowfall. ED is the youngest and often the hardest worker! She was out there shoveling (and playing) for hours. Boomer said, “No way I’m going down those stairs.” So, we created a potty spot for her, shoveling a path into the back yard from the garage. It’s snowing again right now...

Ice Storm Holly 0

Beautiful Ice Storm

The ice storm that hit our area was incredibly beautiful. Our house is nestled down in the woods and the trees were so pretty. The kids and I spent a lot of time outside taking pictures: DD took this picture: The evergreens looked pretty too: The holly bushes looked so striking with their bright red berries!! We had to include this last picture because it looked so crazy that the...

Nocturnal-Diurnal Animals 4

Nocturnal – Diurnal Animals (Free 3-Part Montessori Cards)

This week ED and I read two books together: What Makes Day and Night  (affiliate link) and Totally Amazing Night Animals. (affiliate links.)  She really enjoyed both of them and we added in some activities to go with these books.   After we read through What Makes Day and Night (affiliate link), we spent a lot of time in the dark bathroom! First I held the flashlight and shined it at her as she...

Massive Hornets Nest, Before-After Room Shot and other Summer Stuff 0

Massive Hornets Nest, Before-After Room Shot and other Summer Stuff

I remember reading once that you are never supposed to write about not blogging. “Boring!” someone said.  I still feel the need to apologize or explain the infrequent posts, though! We’re still in summer mode and while  I think I’ve more-or-less hammered out our fall semester and have been busy browsing and purchasing books, scoping out cool science experiments and activities, making some worksheets and games for our units, I’ve felt...

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My Skin Cancer Scare

Here in the U.S. we hear about the importance of staying out of the sun during peak hours and using sun screen.  Over in Australia, there was a HUGE campaign to get people to protect themselves from the sun.  “Slip, Slop, Slap” was an advertisement we saw ALL the time on TV. Slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, slap on a hat.  The kids in our small town...

What we did with 20 lbs of Blueberries!! 0

What we did with 20 lbs of Blueberries!!

It was dreadfully hot, but after dropping LD off at his day camp the girls and I headed off to a u-pick farm. In just an hour and a half we picked 4 huge containers of blueberries!! I love that this farm doesn’t spray their berries. What did we do with 20 pounds of blueberries? Well, we made 9 jars (3 batches) of blueberry jam… It’s easy to do you just...

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Be a Weekend Paleontologist – Fossil Collecting Trips

A few years ago, I heard about a fossil collecting trip that another homeschooling family had gone on (I came across it on a blog somewhere). It sounded so terrific, I tucked in the back of my mind and kept an eye on the trips offered by Cathy at Fossil and Nature Trips. She organizes fossil collecting trips up and down the east coast.  I had my eye on one...

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Baby Birdies Have Hatched! (Eastern Phoebe)

Yesterday, I shared the robin lapbook the girls made. It was absolutely fabulous timing because they learned about the robin’s life cycle (eggs, chicks, juvenile, adults…) and a few days later we discovered a bird’s nest under our deck. We’ve been able to watch this beautiful story unfold… The Nest: The Mama Bird: 4 eggs (we have a step ladder about 3 feet away… I used a zoom on my...

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Lapbooks for Preschool on Up – A Project Kids Can Be Proud Of!

It has been a while since we’ve done any lapbooks.  I saw this free robin lapbook over at Dynamic 2 Moms and asked the girls if they would be interested in doing one on robins. ED and DD both said, “Yes!”  So, I printed everything out and the girls set to work. If you’ve never heard of a lapbook, it is a cute way to display small folded mini-books, flaps, pop-up...

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Isn’t This a Crazy Spring? The Kids Love It!

  What a wild week weather-wise, wasn’t it? (And how’s that for some alliteration!)  The kids go out to play pretty much every day… and the weather this past week went from this…  to this… critter hunting just a few days later! We spent a long time looking at the creatures the kids found.  The small critter in the middle had all these hairs sticking out of its side that...

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An Amazing Nature Center (Nashville, TN)

While we were on our road trip we had the opportunity to visit an amazing Nature Center in Nashville, TN with my Sis and her (homeschooling) kids.  It had everything from taxidermy animals to look at, nature drawers to explore, microscopes, bird watching and identification, creative play with puppets, puzzles, costumes, blocks and more.  I wish we had a place like this near us!!   There was a full size...

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3 Things I Need From School Break

After a busy semester, there are three things I need: a complete break from our school schedule and routine time for self-reflection time to plan We’re currently on stage 1!! We definitely need time to revitalize and become re-inspired by our studies. I’ve been fortunate to have some good quality time by myself without kids while my in-laws were here to babysit. I spent lots of time at the library...