In the beginning...

I really enjoyed our small group last night. One of the guys in our group, Andrew Bolger, is leading the study right now. We are just beginning the process of looking at the Bible as a whole, as a story. Last week was Before the beginning, and last night was discussion about In the beginning. Part of our discussion focused on, or rather around, the word "good", and when it was used. It was quite interesting that "good" was not used on the second day. We talked about good's opposites... bad and evil. We concluded that good was not the opposite of evil in this case, so it could be good, as in beneficial. We then went on to talk about who was it beneficial for, and it seemed to point to man.

The way that our discussion carried us was to talk about how have we not appreciated these beneficial things, and in some cases, even harmed these "good" things. Some of the people, including myself, started thinking about all the ways we do not take care of creation, and the "list" started in my head; the list of the things I needed to change... and that is just law. So, then I asked the LORD, what??...
I immediately thought of nature study, and the thought came to me that we should take time to look at, observe, and enjoy those "good" things. That is what nature study is, and then the overflow (as opposed to law) is that we begin to want to take care of these beautiful things. The mind focused on the negative, on the law, will still be in bondage, but we want freedom, so we should focus on the good; in this case his creation that He called "good".

The other awesome thing is that nature study should point us to God; looking at his awesome creation should bring just that... Awe...

Robin, Cardinal, and House Finch !!

We have plenty of robins, cardinals, and house finches, so this should be a pretty easy study (in the sense of being able to do what Barbara presented). In fact, we just observed 2 robins for about 20 minutes. We focused on the beak, making use of our Peterson Field Guide (Eastern Birds). On an aside, we have enjoyed learning how to use this field guide. We have quite a few bird field guides, but have not used this one. To follow that rabbit trail further, we have a great first type field guide called Common Birds of Birmingham, which has 61 bird species found in most backyards of Alabama and it has large phenomenal photographs, and my twin 3 year olds love to pore over it! Also, a friend of ours from church edited the DK Kids' Field Guides Birds of North America, so we use that one a good bit, too. My husband uses the Audobon Field Guide because he is the most familiar with it.
OK, back to the study... we had just finished noticing so many things about the robin, and enjoyed Josh's visual description of the run with an occassional hop, all bent over, movement of the robin. We all saw the yellow beak, and the boys agreed that it was shape-wise between the #1 and #3 bill shapes on pg. 24 of our Peterson guide. They decided, after much deliberation, that it was a shorter version of #3. Josh also noticed the ring around the eye.
We drew pics of the bill in our nature journals, and while we were looking out the window to show a sibling who had just woken up, lo and behold, a female and male cardinal flew up and a house finch right next to it!! Wow- talk about the LORD's timing :)
They had just a minute to notice the bills, and decided that the cardinals was a fatter #2. The male's beak was a brighter red than the orangy-red of the female. Then, for the fleeting moment that the finch was there, they noticed that it had a #2 sparrow like bill. (and, by the way, 2 house sparrows joined the party, so lots of good comparisons!)
The boys also compared the movements of all 4 birds, no-5- because we saw a dove too!
The robin ran leaned over, with an occasional hop, the cardinal hopped, the finch hopped, the sparrow hopped, and the dove walked (strutted is more like it).
All in all, it was a great study, with a few great surprises!

Nature Walk along mountain brook parkway

We are taking a break from school this week, but we were not able to do a nature walk last week, so we got up early on Tuesday morning and headed to a new trail close to us. It runs along the Mountain Brook parkway and we had been to a picnic along it a few years ago. The creek that runs along it, and which you can cross over at one point was a big draw!



We spent about an hour there, and our "normal observations" of birds, trees, and flowers was "added to" this week. The creek brought with it some new things, and our wildflower intro at home brought new observations.
Let's see, we saw a few robins at work, tossing old leaves and searching for worms. Also, we heard the bluejay long before we saw him. We had to sit for a few minutes before one of the boys saw him high up among the pine a beech trees. Noah had me take a picture of his favorite tree,


...and we took pictures of a flowering bush that had amazing flowers on it. I can not figure out what it is- maybe someone could help me?? Each branch had 5 leaves at the end of it, and the limbs/stalks are a pink color. It is very pretty, but I don't have any idea what it is. We are definitely learning to use all our field guides, though!




Down at the creeks edge, we found some shells, and wondered what they were. Joshua grabbed a handful to add to our ridiculously large assortment of shells. We have an enormous collection that grows every year :)
We also encountered a lot of wildflowers and the boys were amazed at how tall they were. everyone was trying to find one his height or taller.




Now we just have to figure out what those wildflowers are!

Our flowers

As an introduction to flowers, we did another treaure hunt in our yard. We just took pictures, and I did not lead it in any way. The twins comments were that everything was pretty. The older boys were noticing the flowers we have that "come in different colors" and that some of our flowers come back every year.
We also added the blooms of the azalea in the front yard.

Dandelion Study

We went through the HNS info about dandelions. It was very interesting because there were some things I had not thought about, and the one in particular that my kids had noticed and that Comstock talks about is the placement of the leaves and what that means to the plant and to its neighbors. I had never real thought about how the leaves seem to hug the ground and that really big ones don't allow anything to grow too near it.
We also discussed the stalk lengths- of the seed verses the blossom. They noticed that the seed stalk was higher, and because they studied botany this year (Jeannie Fulbright's book) my oldest immediately talked about the seed dispersal, that it was by the wind, so it needed to be higher to carry the seeds.
These "weeds" are really appreciated by all children as flowers. What mom has never received a "pitty fower" from a toddler's chubby hands only to find it was a dandelion. I have 5 boys who love to bring mom pretty things, so I have received my fair share!
The boys drew in their nature journals also, focusing on blossom and leaf, the day after the study/discussion.







I especially loved Noah's animated picture of the wind blowing a seed :)

Our wildflower search

Our wildflower search through our front and backyard was more of a treasure hunt. We were leaned over walking slowly through the back yard (thank goodness my husband has not mowed yet) with camera in hand. I am posting pictures of what we found, and then we will try and identify them.
This activity is my introduction to wildflowers, and then we will focus some by doing the dandelion specifically.

We love birds!

Thanks to my husband's (and his dad's) enthusiasm for birds, it has rubbed off on our entire family. All the boys have binoculars, and we have a feeder right outside our family room. So, I thought I would post the pics we have so far this year.











They are, in order, house sparrow, chipping sparrow, one of a brown thrasher "thrashing", then of him with his beautiful back to us, then a male and female cardinal (he had just finished giving her a seed), followed by dad at the feeder, then if you look real close in the tree there is a cedar waxwing (we have had a flock hanging out but they never get close), then a purple finch, 2 doves, a blue small water bird, and a Canadian goose.

Nature Walk on April 1st

We went to a different trail today. We went around 8am, which was pretty early to get out for us. We went to an old "exercise trail" near our house. It is in front of the Montclair Hospital, and I am sure it was built in the 80s for the hospital employees. It is a great little trail, and friendly for my 3 year olds. It has a small creek and 2 ponds, tons of trees, and a huge field across the street.
Before we even got to the trail, they saw about 10 worms in the gutter all traveling up the street, so we had to stop and inspect them, of course!

Once we started on the trail, we immediately noticed birds. We do not have any jays at our house, and they noticed 4 blue jays pretty quickly. We even ended up identifying their call, and pointing it out to each other every time we heard it afterwards. Joshua saw a hawk, that we guess was a red-tailed hawk, and the boys saw 2 different woodpeckers. One was a red-bellied, and the other was either a downy or a hairy... we are not sure which because it was so high up in the tree, and alas, no binoculars! When we made it to the pond, we saw a mallard duck, which the twins thought was amazing.


Noah noticed a magnolia, but did not know the name of it; just that it was like the one at Mimi's- and we later identified it. We also identified dogwoods which are in full bloom- we saw white and pink ones. We also saw the ever present oakleaf hydrangea; they are everywhere!




We also noticed a wildflower, but my pic was kinda blurry. We are going to try and figure out what it is this week.