Nature – Page 8 – Preparation Education

Smith Rock–a walk with Daddy

December 1, 2008prayingmother

Our vacation was enjoyable and refreshing. In fact, a couple of days ago I was introducing myself to a lady who knew one of my siblings and as I chatted with her, she asked me if I had started a family yet. I told her that we have three children and introduced them to her. She said, "Oh! You’re so young!" I decided my vacation must have done a lot of good, if I look too young to have started a family! I’m not going to ask anybody else for their opinions. Thank you very much!

I want to share a few of the things we got to do while we were gone. (Besides doing math in the car.) We went to walk at a really neat place called Smith Rock. It is located in Central Oregon and is a favorite attraction for rock climbers. Actually, it’s considered the birthplace of modern American sport climbing. It has climbing faces for every expertise and has miles of trails that wind around it. The Crooked River runs around the bottom of it. We’re not much of rock climbers, but we like to take walks in nice places and this definitely qualified.

G’tums fell asleep right when we got there, so I stayed in the car. So it turned into a nice time for Daddy and the two big kids to spend together.

They hiked for quite awhile and got a nice view of this massive rock. They got to climb in a little cave.

Why is it that hiking somewhere far from home is so much more fun than at home? It always is. Someday maybe we’ll learn how to be rock-climbers and go back! At least, that’s what JD Boy hopes.

Impromptu Nature Study — Wood Ducks

November 25, 2008prayingmother

We’re on vacation! Yeah! That’s why not a lot is getting posted on my blog, but we’ve had some really nice learning opportunities while on vacation. We always do. Maybe it’s because we’re more relaxed, so we notice when the learning opportunities just pop up. Anyway, my husband discovered that one of the parks here had a family of Wood Ducks in it. I’d never seen them before and neither had the kids, so we were very excited to go see them.

Wood Ducks are one of the most amazing birds. If you’ve ever seen any video about them, you already know how fascinating they are. They build their nests in hollows of trees and then their ducklings have to jump out of the tree and walk/waddle sometimes up to a mile to where the water is. That can be a very dangerous trek for the little ducks, but they’re not extinct, so it must work. We were already interested in these birds from seeing them on the outstanding Life of Birds video series narrated by David Attenborough. (Not a Creationist series.) Now we got to see them in real life in their natural habitat.

Here is picture of the kids and me at the park:

A picture of one of these absolutely beautiful birds:

JD Boy said after we were done watching them, that he wishes he could always do nature study. Me too!

Zippy drew a picture of the Wood Duck to add to her nature journal. Here it is:

Birds Lapbooks

October 29, 2008November 4, 2010prayingmother

In August Zippy and JD Boy each made their first lapbook. They each did one on birds. We got this lapbook from In the Hands of a Child.

They also worked on learning about birds by completing a Feathered Friends Honor from the Adventurer Club. One of the things they did for that honor was to memorize the calls of ten different birds: Great Horned Owl, American Robin, Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Herring Gull, Ringed-billed Gull, American Crow, Common Raven, California Quail, Mallard and Steller’s Jay. (Oh, that makes eleven.) We learned these sounds at enature.com and from listening to birds around our house.

This first set of pictures is from my five-year-old’s Bird lapbook. We cut the photos out of Wild Animal Baby magazines for his front and back covers.

Cover:

Back Cover—a pocket for a puzzle:
Bryant's Back Cover -- pocket for puzzle

Inside of bird lapbook:
Bryant's Bird Lapbook

list of birds identified at our feeders:
Bryant's Bird Feeder List

See more pictures of John Deere Boy’s Bird Lapbook

Here is my 8-year-old’s lapbook. Her cover was cut out of National Geographic Magazine.

lapbook cover:

Inside of her bird lapbook:
Zippys's Bird Lapbook

See more pictures of Zippy’s Bird Lapbook.

Zippy also started a life bird list in April. Below is her bird list as of today (10/29/08). She is also working on completing the Bird Honor from Pathfinders.

Zippy’s Life Bird List

Date	Bird	Location
4/4/08	Black-Capped Chickadee	Backyard Birdfeeder
4/4/08	Chestnut Backed Chickadee	Backyard Birdfeeder
4/4/08	American Robin	In grass/backyard
4/4/08	Nuthatch	Backyard Birdfeeder
4/4/08	Spotted Towhee	In grass/backyard
4/4/08	Dark-eyed Junco	Backyard Birdfeeder
4/5/08	Gadwall	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Mallard	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Marsh Wren	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Red-winged Blackbird	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Canada Goose	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Common Raven	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Blue Heron	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/5/08	Gold Finch	Mill Creek, WA, Northcreek Swamp
4/7/08	Varied Thrush	In grass/backyard
6/3/08	Pigeon	Maple Valley Hwy./Close to bridge/on electric lines
6/15/08	Harry Woodpecker	Backyard Birdfeeder/Suet
6/18/08	Western Bluebird, Family	Grandma’s Backyard/In birdhouse
6/18/08	Cedar Waxwing	Grandma’s Backyard in bushes and trees
6/18/08	Tree Swallow	Grandma’s Backyard
6/18/08	Gray Cat Bird	Grandma’s Backyard
6/20/08	Mourning Dove	Grandma’s Backyard
6/25/08	Black-headed Grosbeak	Backyard Birdfeeder
6/28/08	American Crow	Forrested Campsight around picnic table
7/1/08	Bald Eagle	Issaquah-Hobart Road/Wooded Valley
7/2/08	Song Sparrow	Backyard Birdfeeder
7/2/08	Northern Flicker	Backyard Birdfeeder/Suet
7/3/08	Immature Spotted Towhee	Back Porch/Under Birdfeeder
7/3/08	Steller Jay	Backyard Birdfeeder
7/11/08	Magpie	Yakima, somebody’s yard
7/12/08	Western Kingbird	Electric line, open area close to Lake Rosevelt
7/12/08	Housefinch	Grandma’s Backyard
7/12/08	Turkey Vulture	Fields in Eastern Washington
7/19/08	Gray Jay	Camping near Mt. Ranier
7/24/08	Pileated Woodpecker	On Douglas Fir in Frontyard
8/9/08	Cormorant	Deception Pass/Pacific Ocean
8/9/08	Red Tailed Hawk	Deception Pass
8/9/08	Herring Gull	Deception Pass
8/20/08	Belted Kingfisher	On telephone wire in Central Oklahoma
8/20/08	Great Horned Owl	In tree in Central OK
8/21/08	Cattle Egrets	Field in Southwest Kansas
8/21/08	Great-tailed Grackle	Parking lot in Derby, Kansas
8/25/08	Great Egret	By pond in Wichita, KS
8/28/08	White Breasted nuthatch	At feeder in Gentry, AR
8/28/08	Cardinal	At feeder in Gentry, AR
8/29/08	Green Heron	Creek behind Rahm’s house, Gentry, AR
9/1/08	Scissor Tail Flycatcher	Trees in Rahm’s yard, Gentry, AR
9/1/08	Eastern Bluebird	Gate by the road, Gentry, AR
9/1/08	Eastern Kingbird	On telephone wire, Gentry, AR