Outdoor Hour Challenge: Choosing a Focus

Well, I'm a bit late on my Green Hour Challenge post, but better late than never, right? The fourth Green Hour Challenge assignment was to choose a focus for the next six to eight weeks, of course staying flexible if our children find something else of interest. The kids were on vacation with my mom for a few days last week, so I wasn't even sure if we would get to our nature study at all. They were in northern Michigan, so they got to spend a lot of time outdoors. We did end up going out as a family on Saturday to the same park we went to for our last assignment. It was late on Saturday when we went for our walk, so we didn't get to the nature journals yet. We watched the ducks for a while again. They were pretty active, so it was a really fun time. It was nice to have Rob there too - he took TONS of pics!

Our focus for the next few weeks is going to be invertebrates since we have some worms to dissect that I haven't gotten to yet. We didn't see any worms or snails, but the Canadian Geese were eating something in some mud.... .

Here's another squirrel:

Some pods that lasted through winter:

This was pretty funny! The ducks were flying into the water and sliding on the water. Here are a couple of pics, although it was much more fun to watch!

One of the interesting things we noticed was that the roots of many of the trees were much more prominent on the river side of the trees. Not all of the trees were like that, but there were enough to draw our attention to it. Here is an example:

I was immediately reminded of Jeremiah 17:7-8

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

HomeschoolBlogger Comments
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Mar. 24, 2008 - Love the duck photos

Posted by HarmonyArtMom

I love to watch ducks as they come skidding into the water.

You are the first person to pick invertebrates as your focus. :) We did an earthworm dissection a month or so ago and it was actually quite interesting.

I will be watching to see how your study goes.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Mar. 24, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by ApplesofGold

I really enjoyed this post-and all the pictures, too! Holly