8
It’s Your Life
Fully equipped during our walks, we focused on a variety of things depending on what we were
studying or what we were interested in that day. If it was a walk we frequently took during different
seasons, we would discuss changes we observed since our last walk. On our notebooking pages
attached to our clipboards or our journals in hand, we might sketch something that caught our attention.
We’d identify it with our field guide and write its name with the sketch and any interesting facts we
wished to include, maybe its location and the date as well.
Other times, we placed our notebooking or journal pages against the bark of different trees and
made rubbings, labeling each with the name of the tree. Or, we made a rubbing of a hardened track
in the ground, consulting a pocket guide of animal tracks. If we felt ambitious, we made a cast of the
track out of plaster of Paris. Leaf rubbings were also a big hit, as we examined the veins and leaf tips to
identify their sources. On our page with the rubbing we’d identify the classification of the tree and then
explore the area for signs of seed pods.
Any detailed labeling of parts of birds, plants, or animals observed would be done later at
home when consulting diagrams. Nature centers with live animals were a wonderful way to study
classification of animals as we filled out a notebooking page for each animal, its eating habits, natural
habitats, its predators, and place on the food chain.
This routine allowed my boys to refine their observation skills and attention to detail, and gave
them the opportunity to practice organizing their thoughts and putting them down on paper using their
spelling, grammar, and writing lessons. These journals solidified for them all they were learning on our
walks and served as a record of their adventures in the natural world, just like Lewis and Clark.
An extension of outdoor activities and observations were science lab experiments based on
observations we made during a nature walk, such as a water boatman scurrying across the top of
a pond. This led to a discussion and experiment demonstrating the concept of surface tension. We
sketched out the experiment, wrote the procedure, recorded the results and explained the scientific
theory that allowed this insect to walk on water.
Your learning does not have stop just with life science. The study of weather lends itself to a natural
study of physics and chemistry. Make charts of what the weather has been or make predictions, and
research what causes thunderstorms and lightning.
From thunderstorms, begin to read and do science experiments with sound waves and vibrations or
examine the water cycle. Or, look at acid rain and focus on some chemistry experiments looking at the
effects of acid rain, which can extend into a study of acids and bases and ph.
Move from there and look at lightning and its causes and conduct experiments with static electricity,
electrical circuits, conductors, and insulators. Or, after rain, sometimes you can see a rainbow. After
looking at the causes of a rainbow, look at the color spectrum and perform experiments with white light,
prisms, and color absorption.