Outdoor Challenge #5

We went to the Botanical Gardens today, and the boys kept noticing birds on their own, and trees (sometimes with a little prodding by me). So, I guess our focus is what they notice! Haha :)
The first thing they noticed was a flock of birds which they identified as tufted titmice. We followed them for a while, watched them eat berries, we think, and stop to rest in a group of crape myrtles. We counted around 100 of them... wow!! They also noticed 2 mocking birds that seemed to be following them, and came across a brown thrasher (up real close) in the vegetable garden area.
After that, our friends showed up and there was not quite as much observing. Although, I remember that David was noticing that there were some differences in the magnolias- he noticed that most of the ones he sees are shaped in a definite pattern, but that he had seen one on our walk today that had branches going "all different ways". I would not have known what he was talking about, except that my friend Ashley had pointed out that tree- that it was a type of magnolia that was deciduous. In fact, the blooms had already come out on them, and the leaves were a lighter green than the evergreen variety. Thanks to Ashley, I was able to explain the difference in the trees to Noah and David.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no picks today. But, later in the walk, Noah and Joshua drew sketches in their journals. I wrote down the latin names for the plants an we are going to look them up this week. One was a type of cactus, and the other looked similar to a yucca plant.

Seasonal Tree Study-spring

We went today to the Botanical Gardens and spent all our time (a few hours) at the Japanese Gardens. I asked the boys to each pick a tree to do our seasonal study on. Noah and Joshua picked trees at the garden and David chose the crape myrtle in our front yard. Noah's is first, then Joshua's, then David's.





We took pics of the trees, and then we went home, they drew them in their nature journals. I have included the pics from their nature journals below.

Outdoor Challenge #4

Today we (including daddy) went to the Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover. We spent a little over 2 hours on the trail. The twins got tired, but they did well!... and especially liked the "big wocks and watie" (big rocks and water)


The boys had chosen insects to study, but they noticed so many things, and Josh especially noticed things he had been learning in botany, and pointed out an unrolling fern, which we had discovered last week at the Botanical Gardens. The boys saw some bees, but not many other bugs. They did notice several spider webs, though. They were very excited to discover several "caves", and we got a picture in one.


We noticed several types of moss, they noticed the blooming oak leaf hydrangeas, and even found some minnows in the stream. All in all, it was a great family excursion, even if we did not make it to the official "boulder fields"; a place where lots of rock climbers spend their time. We have been there before but went in by a different route this time, and did not make it because we had hungry stomachs and tired toddlers.





The last picture we are going to follow up on; it was a dead log across the trail with tons of lichen on it.

Outdoor Challenge #3

Today is St. Patrick's Day, so it is very appropriate that we spend time in nature seeing God's handiwork. The Irish/Celts were very aware of and "in tune" with God in nature. I read the boys the Lorica of St. Patrick, an awesome prayer, and we headed out to the Botanical Gardens early.

The first thing we saw was a patch of beautiful tulips and we took a few close ups.



Then, we went to the right of the fountain...


...and headed toward the hothouses, but they were closed for repairs, so we went a little past it and got sucked in at one small plot where we took tons of pictures of different stages of a flower (?) opening up. (the pictues somehow loaded backwards, the next to last one is first of the bloom, and then as it opens, and lastly how the petals fall off, and what is left was in order very last).







We spent a lot of time walking around and observing tons of flowers, trees, bugs, worms,and the first bees of the year. Then, after looking at the lenten roses, we stopped by some tulips to draw in our nature journals.(Again, the pics are kinda backwards). Josh drew all the different kind of leaves he had seen (because they are studying different vein patterns in leaves and he found all the different types, so he was very excited.) david drew the tulip, and Noah drew a tree that had split and then grown back together. We had a wonderful time.






The first picture is one Joshua took, he was noticing the hair-like things on the stem of this bush.

Last but not least was my favorite group of tulips- purple for Lent!

Outdoor Challenge 2

February 25th; I sent the boys out to the front stoop to be quiet and listen and watch. Noah saw a ground squirrel, and heard chirping. David saw a triangular spiderweb, and heard blowing (wind). Joshua saw a dead bird, and heard screeching (a hawk).
They came in and reported what they saw/heard, and then I sent them outside to find something to touch.
Noah felt a rough spiky pinecone. David felt dry, old dirt. Joshua felt a soft,thick plant.

The dead bird got them to wondering how it died. It was a house sparrow sitting upright with all its feathers intact, but was obviously dead. (We showed it to jeff's dad the next day, and he said it was probably injured and when it was really cold a few nights before, he said it probably froze... very sad.)


Actually, they were supposed to do this with jeff when they went out on Saturday but jeff forgot to do the assignment. Here are pictures from that outing:

Outdoor Challenge #1

The boys went to the Botanical Gardens, and had Jeff take pictures of things that interested them. Then we followed up on the pictures, trying to figure out what they were. Following are the pictures.



the first picture is what jeff calls cypress knees. It is behind the japanese gardens and the bamboo- what our boys call "their hideout". The second picture was of new growth on what I think was one of the oak leaf hydrangeas. The last looks alot like an eastern hemlock pine cone.

these are leaves from last years hydrangeas.