Nature Study

I took time out this morning from our regular school time to do nature study.  I usually try to get the academics done first and then plan to do the extras.  On a day like today that would mean that the extra stuff just wouldn't happen.  I am pretty good about getting the academics done no matter what so I know that I will make time for those things later.  So, we worked on Green Hour Challenges #'s 2 and 3.  I am behind and want to catch up so I combined them.  Now, I'm up to speed.  We went on a nature walk through our yard and down the street and into a big field.  We did this almost silently and focused on listening and looking and collecting (flowers of course).  I wonder what boys collect--if they are like Joe it would be sticks.  After our walk we sat at the picnic table and talked about words to describe what we say, what we heard, and what we felt.  This was harder than it sounds.  I wanted to inspire them to use really descriptive, unique words but I totally failed.  We came up with pretty, soft, sticky, hairy, and so on.  I think I need a thesaurus or list of adjectives to help us.  Words are really not my thing.  After describing everything they wrote a short summary of their nature walk.  I wrote Grace's for her as she's not at that point yet.  Then instead of drawing they opted to tape flowers in their notebooks.  We'll do some drawing later.  We made one fun discovery in our yard--we've got a new crop of jaboticabas.  What are jaboticabas you say?  See the picture above--they are small, round fruits that look like a purple muscadine.  They grow directly on the trunk of the tree.  They are white and fleshy on the inside with little seeds.  They are not easy to eat--the skin is thick and not good, the fleshy part really adheres to the seeds so that by the time you've avoided the skin and seeds you just get about 1/4 tsp. of sweet fruit.  I also got a good look at the other half of the yard that is blocked from view by trees and saw even more mess that in my opinion should be cleared out.  I am not even going to think about that yet though.  One thing at a time...