My New Nature Study Blog: A Private Eye Nature

I have been so intrigued by incorporating The Private Eye into a comprehensive nature study that I have created a new blog dedicated to writing about it: A Private Eye Nature.

Admittedly our nature studies have never been much.  For whatever reason I never seemed to be able to make this into something regular and productive.  We love nature walks but never got much beyond that.  Drawing is not a strong suit for Ds#1 or Ds#2; we'll see about Ds#3.  Writing was a struggle for the older two as well until this year when some mystical switch flipped inside them, especially the oldest.  His creative writing has really impressed me!

Using the loupe, writing analogies, drawing, and asking why--the four basic steps--just seemed to make everything else come together.  It gave me a method from which to inspire the art and the writing.  It gave the boys something fascinating and hands-on to do.  I started the blog not just to record our endeavors, but to also write about tips and resources to help others interested in this approach.  Follow along and enjoy!

The Private Eye

A friend of mine recently started a workshop based on The Private Eye: "5x" Looking/Thinking by Analogy and I am hooked! The process is very simple yet quite powerful. The product is designed for the school market but really could flourish in homeschools.

The idea is this: look at a natural object using a 5x loupe. Just that alone in fascinating because objects look so different magnified, revealing detail one never imagined was there. It also focuses a child's attention on that small piece of the world. Next, make a list of analogies for the object thinking about of what other things it reminds you. Similes and metaphors work well here; try to come up with a list of 5 to 10 of them.

After examining the object for awhile, draw what you see. This is ideal material for any nature notebook, of course. We draw a circle to simulate the loupe and then draw the object in it.

Finally, kids ask themselves why something looks the way it does, why it has the structure it does. Because so often form follows function, this line of questioning is really a scientific investigation. The first steps are to ask a question and form a hypothesis. Most often the answers will come from a book or Internet search, but as kids get older they may be inspired to carry out some investigations themselves.

One can easily imagine applying this simple process endlessly throughout years of nature study. Yet what I found even more intriguing are the suggestions and projects listed in the book to extend the analogies and investigations, especially for writing. By thinking in analogies, the natural objects more easily become the subjects of poetry, short stories, expressive journaling, as well research. The book gives ideas "across the curriculum" as one would expect from a school-based curriculum. I find it to be a fascinating way to look, think, and write about nature.

Bugscope

Would you like a chance to look at bugs through a scanning electron microscope? My boys would, and Bugscope gives kids that chance. After signing up ("Home School" is one of the radio button options under "School Information") they will contact you to confirm the 1 hour time slot. Then you send them bugs that you want to view in the SEM.

I signed up our homeschool coop since I am about to teach a Beginner's Microscopy class. I am hoping to schedule the hour for the last Thursday in April, our last day of class. One of the advantages of homeschooling is that we could book the session in the summer if April doesn't work.

I sure hope we thaw here earlier enough to get some interesting bugs to them in time should we get that April date!

Snowflake pictures

It is snowing again today--big, light flakes. Inspired by In the Sparrow's Nest, I went out and took some pictures of these snowflakes. When you really take the time to observe them, like while trying to photograph them, you realize just how big they are.

The detail is amazing. You can clearly see in these photos that each has six sides and is unique. As you can see, the flakes show up best on a dark background, and you should let it get cold enough so that the flakes don't melt when they land on it. (Given that our temperatures are somewhere in the high 20's right now, it didn't take too long.)

You don't have to be as close as these photos appear; these are cropped, so at an arm's length you still get great detail.

Check out information on Wilson A. Bentley, The Snowflake Man, for more about these marvelous creations. (Thanks, Melissa!)

Backyard finds--downey woodpeckers

We are having major repairs done on our house, so we have a large dumpster in our driveway, along with lots of other eye-catching things (my MIL says it looks like someone bombed the place, LOL.)

During school the other morning, my boys' eyes could not be helped but be drawn to these male and female downy woodpeckers checking out the wood debris in the dumpster.

They are such striking birds! I of course suspended whatever school work we were doing at the moment to get the camera. I shot these moments before they flew away for good, and we have not seen them since.

More backyard finds--caterpillars

We have come across some interesting caterpillars crawling around our backyard this fall. This first one looks to be a banded tussock moth (Dasychira obliquata.) Here is what it looks like as an adult moth (not as aesthetically interesting.)

This critter is a polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus.) The moth this will eventually become is enormous! We will have to keep watch for them in the coming weeks. If I find this caterpillar again we may keep it until it metamorphoses.

It just looked to us as if it were Eric Carle's inspiration for his Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Nature around the yard

My kids enjoy catching creatures that happen to enter our yard. We take the opportunity to examine and identify them. Simple lessons like these are the source of much learning.

This is a very small ringneck snake.

It is very easy to identify especially with the Snakes of Massachusetts site.




This is ds#1 staring at an enormous bug the kids saw sitting on our glass door.

It's a true katydid. I can't wait to show them the picture in the guide tomorrow.






We have many dragonflies in the yard (they eat mosquitoes so they are both beautiful and helpful) and my kids love to catch them by their tails. The large ones are tough because they are fast, but ds#1 was able to get a huge green one today.

After looking at the delicate wings and the large, powerful mouth parts, he let it fly off into the woods.