{"id":1341,"date":"2014-12-01T15:44:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T22:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/?page_id=1341"},"modified":"2015-07-06T22:09:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T04:09:13","slug":"keeping-a-nature-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/keeping-a-nature-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping A Nature Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20150419_143942\"<\/a>Every day I walk in the river bottoms, across the road and down the country lane from my house. It is so breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful there. I am all alone, and very rarely see another person in the 45 minutes that I am wandering through cornfields and along the banks of the river. What I do see, however, is wildlife! As I come home and describe what I have seen to my children, they take great interest in each day\u2019s discovery. I have even taken them along, one by one, in hopes that they might happen upon the red fox and her 2 babies frolicking in the morning sunshine, as I once did.<\/p>\n

One way to record nature\u2019s wonders is to keep a \u201cNature Journal\u201d. You don\u2019t have to take a walk in the countryside to see evidences of God\u2019s handiwork every single day. Having your children keep a nature journal helps them be alert to nature\u2019s changing display and aware and more interested in animal life, as well as providing the best possible science lessons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

All seasons hold interesting potential entries. You may want to sketch and describe an electric storm and its eventual rainbow, autumn\u2019s changing leaves, the praying mantis on the front porch, or the wild sunflowers in bright bloom.<\/p>\n

To create a Nature Journal, fill a 3 ring binder with heavy white paper, or buy a spiral bound artist’s sketch book. Each time you or your child sees something interesting to enter, sketch the creature or plant and then describe it briefly. Later, go to the internet, encyclopedia or field guides to make sure you are identifying it correctly. If you keep a Nature Journal yourself, it will be an inspiration to your children in keeping their own. This book can become a source of joy and education for your family.
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May I recommend:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"homeschooling_summer\"
\nSummer Journals
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"blue-656342_1280\"
\nLet’s Go Exploring: The Best Education
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\"11083\"
\nBig Book of Play and Find Out Science Projects
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day I walk in the river bottoms, across the road and down the country lane from my house. It is so breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful there. I am all alone, and very rarely see another person in the 45 minutes that I am wandering through cornfields and along the banks of the river. What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,9],"tags":[83,166],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-articles","category-what-articles","tag-nature-journal","tag-science","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/20150419_143942.jpg?fit=3264%2C2448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IrRN-lD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/science-fun-plasma-gloop-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1341,"position":0},"title":"Plasma Gloop! Science Fun","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"There are 3 states of matter, right?\u00a0 Solid, liquid and gas. Well, there is theoretically another state of matter, a 4th state known as \"plasma\".\u00a0 Our plasma concoction is solid enough to break, but it flows like a liquid. Treat your kids to this fun science experiment! It is so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science"","block_context":{"text":"Science","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/science-articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"hth4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/hth4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":667,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/lets-go-exploring-the-best-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":1341,"position":1},"title":"Let’s Go Exploring: The Best Education","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Open the door and let your children go out exploring today! Give them each a little sack, and tell them to put their treasures in it. Better yet, go along with them, and be the \"sack holder\". Smell all the blossoms. Listen to the birds. Look for butterflies. Observe the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"blue-656342_1280","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/blue-656342_1280-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":741,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/take-a-walk\/","url_meta":{"origin":1341,"position":2},"title":"Take A Walk!","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"I really didn't want to go. I had far too much to do, but I had committed to try to take better care of myself, so I was going. I had to yank myself up off the couch, and put on my walking shoes and force myself. I pleaded with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "How to Homeschool"","block_context":{"text":"How to Homeschool","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/how-to-homeschool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"rivertrees","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/rivertrees.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1022,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/summer-journals\/","url_meta":{"origin":1341,"position":3},"title":"Summer Journals","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing in a journal is wonderful in the summer because there is often so much more to write about! Swimming, vacations, gardening, the county fair, church picnics, camping . . . all these topics give my children plenty of writing ideas for their daily journal entries. In the summer, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "English: Writing"","block_context":{"text":"English: Writing","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/english-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/69.195.124.81\/~homescp3\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/homeschooling_1081_zpicnic1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/writing-in-my-homeschool\/","url_meta":{"origin":1341,"position":4},"title":"Writing in My Homeschool","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Come take a peek inside my homeschool. Here's how I teach writing! And it works\u2014one of my sons got a perfect score on the English portion of the ACT test for college. Journal Writing Each day I expect my students to write a journal entry. I use the number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "English: Writing"","block_context":{"text":"English: Writing","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/english-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"emily_journals","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/emily_journals-234x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":438,"url":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/autumns-glory-wreath\/","url_meta":{"origin":1341,"position":5},"title":"Project: Autumn’s Glory Wreath","author":"Diane Hopkins","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"Autumn's beauty is pretty overwhelming where I live. As I drive up my little lane, it seems to have turned all gold! This is the time of year that my kids start asking when we are going to make our fall wreaths\u2014a very easy craft for little ones that helps\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Music\/Drama"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Music\/Drama","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/category\/what-articles\/artmusicdrama\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"harvestwreath3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/harvestwreath3-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7806,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/7806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}