100 Species Challenge

Did you know..."Most people... cannot recognize even a hundred plant species within a mile of their home."

Can you recognize a hundred plant species that are living within a mile of your home?

I know that I can not name probably more than 2, very sad I know. I am hoping with the motivation the kids and I can become more aware of our surroundings and the specimens that live here among us. I am very excited about this challenge...

Think this looks like something you would enjoy with your kids, here are the rules:

The 100-Species Challenge

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant's home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I'd like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two--"camillia" if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like. I'm planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

Our Little Visitors

Hurt no living thing:

Ladybird, nor butterfly,

Nor moth with dusty wing,

Nor cricket chirping cheerily,

Nor grasshopper so light of leap,

Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,

Nor harmless worms that creep.

Christina Rossetti

Our memory poem for the week above, lovely little thing I think. We have a rule in our house, that we are to respect all of life ugly, disgusting and even annoying because they are God's creatures, with exceptions of course. If it is in the house it is usually fair game unless someone is feeling particularly merciful one day. If it is outside and not potentially dangerous to us then we are to let it be and observe, moving it is an option if we are to disturbed by it's presence.

Now, I want to share a few friends that we have met in our backyard this week. I would like you to meet Mr. Garter, the snake. We actually found 4 of them in 2 days. Very exciting. We all enjoyed some time visiting with them and getting to know them a little better. They were quiet joyful little guests. We then let them go where we found them, T-Rex had a hard time saying good-bye.

T-Rex enjoying some one on one time.

Superman taking his turn

Here is the third guest that I found in the grass.

And here was one of our guest rooms, I hope they enjoyed their stay as much as we did. :0)

*I am hoping to begin a little lapbook on our backyard, some time soon.

Green Hour Challenge #8

Our Sweet Gum

We set out in our front yard to examine nature and find some real treasures to bring in a study more about. I told them to go look around our yard and find 3 things that you think look interesting and would like to learn more about. They came back with a Sweet Sum ball in our front yard, another little thing from the Sweet Gum tree and a little wild flower. We anxiously went inside to learn more about the little nature treasures.

We found out that the Sweet Gum balls that are so fun to play with in the front yard but not so much when you step on one were actually the fruit of the tree. From it come little winged seeds. We immediately ran outside to find these little winged seeds and sure enough they were everywhere. We took a few inside and compared it with a huge one we found a few days ago outside.

They then found that these little winged seeds made good "spinners". When they are thrown into the air on their way down they spin making them "spinners" They had a blast.

We enjoyed learning about our Sweet Gum tree. This week we have had many wonderful encounters with nature that have been very exciting. I hope to share all of these later. We did not make a journal entry this time unfortunitly. Last week I made a little nature shelf to display our collections from nature, I am glad to say it is growing quickly. Find more Green Hour Challenges at Heart of Harmony.

Green Hour Challenge #4

We have been unable to get outside and have a time for nature study recently. We finally got outside to participate in the Green Hour Challenge. I am not going to say a lot about it other than how exciting it was to find a focus area to examine for 6 weeks. We decided after walking outside to focus on birds. We have seen some exciting visitors around our house lately and we have been fasicinated to watch the little birds build their nest, the big unidentified odd black bird search for food in our front yard, the doves observing from obove, the Red Robin singing and searching in our backyard for bugs and the Wood Pecker scavengering for bugs high in the trees and many other birds just coming and feeding from our bird feeders. I am excited to learn more about these busy creatures. Here are some beautiful birds that we have been blessed to catch in the moment, enjoy:

I was particularly fascinated with this one. I heard an unfamiliar bird call and looked up to find it and found him and a few friends. I was intrigued by him, isn't he beautiful? Interestingly enough I accidently stumbled upon a site that identified him for me as a Cedar Waxwing. (not the orinal site I found him on, lost it somehow)

Visit Barb for more Green Hour Challenges!! I am late with this post, sorry.

Unexpected Excursion

Don't underestimate the power of nature. It has taken hold of my children and intrigued their minds. They find themselves yearning to be in her presence surrounded by her mystifying and entrancing beauty and it isn't just enough to simply enjoy her with eyes of wonder they are overtaken by their curiosity to touch and feel and learn more about her. Last week while out doors at a local park just enjoying some nice weather they became quickly bored and unsatisfied with the superficial created structure they played on and found themselves drawn to their natural surroundings. They ran off away from the colorful structure meant to fullfill all their playful desires and into another world. I was suprised by this spontanious excursion and felt very proud as we ventured off.

I could not have predicted this little spontaneous adventure. My children's natural curiosity with nature is growing into a true love. I was truly amazed and excited to see them run into the arms of nature as she embraced them and they enjoyed eachothers company.

We all really enjoyed ourselves. The boys enjoyed gathering up acorns and using them as "bombs". T-Rex found a little "sleeping" snail in the dirt...

and on our way back to the car we found this, what appears to be a dog skull or possibly and more excitedly maybe a Coyote skull or something altogether different, we haven't examined it much since we got home.

Nature study is obviously not going to be any kind of a problem in our communion with Charlotte Mason and I knew that already. I am excited about the learning experiences that are going to be found in this aspect of the CM method, we have already learned so much and it has already brought so much to our school room.