Nature Explorers
We're planning on doing a "friend school" with another family in our area a couple of days a week, and one of the days we want to do some nature studies. We have the Exploring Nature With Children curriculum https://raisinglittleshoots.com/2015/08/14/exploring-nature-with-children-a-complete-year-long-curriculum/ which I plan on using, then I just went to a training for nature groups and it was an eye opening experience! If we can put this together I think it'll be a class of the ages. Not really, but it should be enjoyable and educational...
At the training I met other homeschool/nature enthusiasts (not an easy mix to find) and felt like I found my tribe! We're all starting our guiding adventures, with the leader saying she was only 6 months ahead of us in her knowledge! It's amazing what you can learn in 6 months, because the whole day was fascinating, humbling, exciting, cold (light snow showers), inspiring, and of course educational. We met in a beautiful setting next to the hills in Heber City, with a little creek, trees, grass, it was the most beautiful place. If I could build a house there I would, but that's a little off topic. We started off the day by doing what is done in a typical club day- we met in a circle for gathering games, singing a song then acting like animals. This will make kids really think about why animals act the way they do and we can discuss it afterwards. This definitely got us out of our comfort zones doing that as adults, but my kids love stuff like that.
Then we were instructed to find a "sit spot" and listen to the birds for "Bird Mapping" (whatever that was). We all spread out and found a place to sit quietly and listen... How long has it been since I've done that? Quite some time. The stillness was lovely. but I broke the rules because at first I got frustrated. I sat by the creek and couldn't hear any birds! I figured it was because I was too close to the water, so I got up and moved closer to some trees. After a few minutes I noticed a guy was already there but it took awhile to see him because he was behind the trees, so now I was frustrated for interrupting his quiet time. I moved a ways away, but then my feet were freezing so I figured I would get up and move around. At that point I went across the creek to observe the birds there, and finally heard some, but I felt kind of dumb, because I wasn't hearing a lot, and didn't quite make the connection to the calls that the leader called. She made 4 crow calls and I just thought it was to let us know how much time had passed, but really we were supposed to pay attention to the changes in between those times (what did you hear/observe in between the 2nd and 3rd call? etc). I realized how much I had to learn, and that the habit of attention is a good habit to work on! After all of this, we went to the house (it was on a lovely property with a house for our use) and did Bird Mapping. Kelly (leader) drew a map of the property and we said where we sat (I moved all over but still), then we discussed what we heard and saw. #1 thing I learned: birds have warning calls! I had read that before, but they said it's just short squawks, then it goes quiet after that. like "Twerp! ... twerp!" instead of little songs that flow together. We discussed what we had noticed, and we realized why it had been so quiet. From the different positions of people and the things they had seen, we found that a fox had run through in the hills, and then a cooper hawk had flown past looking for lunch! I didn't see either of those, but I did see 2 ducks speeding past through the light snowfall. When the cooper hawk appeared, the birds did their alarm sounds, then it went dead silent. That would make sense, right, it's not that my ears aren't trained! Apparently you can know all about what's going on in the natural world by the birds! Kelly spoke of a birder who visited Africa and he said that the tribes people aren't killed by lions or the big snakes, because they know where the animals are by the bird warnings! He went with some official guides to lion country, and they had guns for protection and started getting tense when they heard something, but the tribe members weren't concerned at all, BECAUSE OF THE BIRDS, what?!?!?! I love it. I've been focusing on trying to identify birds, but now I know it's so much more more than that. I didn't feel so dumb after that, just in awe of the magnitude of this, and the many things to learn.
While I was in one of my sit-spots I just looked up at the gently falling snow and felt so grateful to be out there, just basking in the loveliness of nature. I feel like none of us get enough of that, unless you're already past me in your nature/kid adventures of course! The ideas they use with kids are brilliant. I asked how to get kids to sit and listen to the birds, and they "trick" them with games like hide-n-seek! They have some kids hide and some kids stay back and do some fun activity songs while they wait (for quite a long time). When they get up and find the kids, they then ask what they observed while they were hiding! Brilliant. When I tell my kids to, "Be quiet so we can listen to the birds." Mr. 7 yells and flaps his arms to scare them away! If they are hiding of course they'll be quiet and listen on "accident."
After the bird mapping, we went back out for a scat hunt. They brought along some field guides for tracking (did you know there are guides for animal poop?! It was very helpful) and we split up into 2 groups. My group found lots of rodent Vole holes, which I've seen a lot near our water areas but didn't know their names. They have rounded ears and are sort of like a mix between a rat and prairie dog. So we saw lots of those tunnels and one girl thought she saw some movement inside. Then we found lots of large scat around, and from the guide figured it was elk poop. It looked like a herd had come through and stayed there awhile, because the grass was all pushed down in an area like the elk had laid there to sleep, while the rest of the grass surrounding it was still standing, and there was a lot of poop around. Now I know that it's larger than deer poop, though similar shapes. I want to look up elk calls because we talked about that too. We also found some type of bird poop, which we thought was goose, but from the tracks that the other group found we decided it was probably wild turkey. We then found a crime scene, with lots of feathers in a spot, that looked like a kill spot, then an animal had dragged it to the trees to eat it. A more knowledgeable person suggested that it was a fox or coyote because there weren't any feathers near the branches like a large bird would have done, and a bird probably would have taken it somewhere else instead of dragging it. Who knew all of this was around? When we first walked the area for the sit spots, I didn't see any of that. I figured I wouldn't have to go study scat or something, knowing that I saw quite a bit, but didn't know how to find out what kind of animal left it. Yay for field guides! The greatest find was a Dad and his daughter found an elk (we are pretty sure) bones and fur. We took a picture by it because it was such a good find. I'm still not to the point that I want to touch things much, but I did feel the fur of this one. I'm still using sticks for scat though, possibly forever... I wish I could do that class once a week! It was so nice to be with like minded people, on a journey of discovery and all of us trying to find clues in nature that we haven't noticed before. We found lots of scat that were either goose or turkey, then the other group found the prints of a turkey, so we knew they had been there. On my way home, I saw these and we were right, turkeys for the win!
There's just something about groups like this that I just can't get enough of. Can we do it again tomorrow? If it hadn't taken a lot of orchestrating (sleeping at Aunt Cheryl's so I wouldn't have to wake up the kids at 5 am, finding a babysitter, (Aunt Cheryl was able to when no one else could, she's such a giver) and then the driving etc. I would be more likely to do it, but it was still one for the memory books. What a blessing for a momma to have this experience to take home and try to recreate. What a blessing it is to have nature surrounding us, giving us clues to depth and knowledge you weren't even aware that you were missing. THANK YOU NATURE CLUB! It couldn't have been a better day.
I went away with a list in my head (next time I'll bring a nature journal) of things to study more, and the book "Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature" that will really cement teaching kids about nature, letting their questions and discoveries guide as we immerse ourselves in God's beautiful creations.
To Study:
Then we were instructed to find a "sit spot" and listen to the birds for "Bird Mapping" (whatever that was). We all spread out and found a place to sit quietly and listen... How long has it been since I've done that? Quite some time. The stillness was lovely. but I broke the rules because at first I got frustrated. I sat by the creek and couldn't hear any birds! I figured it was because I was too close to the water, so I got up and moved closer to some trees. After a few minutes I noticed a guy was already there but it took awhile to see him because he was behind the trees, so now I was frustrated for interrupting his quiet time. I moved a ways away, but then my feet were freezing so I figured I would get up and move around. At that point I went across the creek to observe the birds there, and finally heard some, but I felt kind of dumb, because I wasn't hearing a lot, and didn't quite make the connection to the calls that the leader called. She made 4 crow calls and I just thought it was to let us know how much time had passed, but really we were supposed to pay attention to the changes in between those times (what did you hear/observe in between the 2nd and 3rd call? etc). I realized how much I had to learn, and that the habit of attention is a good habit to work on! After all of this, we went to the house (it was on a lovely property with a house for our use) and did Bird Mapping. Kelly (leader) drew a map of the property and we said where we sat (I moved all over but still), then we discussed what we heard and saw. #1 thing I learned: birds have warning calls! I had read that before, but they said it's just short squawks, then it goes quiet after that. like "Twerp! ... twerp!" instead of little songs that flow together. We discussed what we had noticed, and we realized why it had been so quiet. From the different positions of people and the things they had seen, we found that a fox had run through in the hills, and then a cooper hawk had flown past looking for lunch! I didn't see either of those, but I did see 2 ducks speeding past through the light snowfall. When the cooper hawk appeared, the birds did their alarm sounds, then it went dead silent. That would make sense, right, it's not that my ears aren't trained! Apparently you can know all about what's going on in the natural world by the birds! Kelly spoke of a birder who visited Africa and he said that the tribes people aren't killed by lions or the big snakes, because they know where the animals are by the bird warnings! He went with some official guides to lion country, and they had guns for protection and started getting tense when they heard something, but the tribe members weren't concerned at all, BECAUSE OF THE BIRDS, what?!?!?! I love it. I've been focusing on trying to identify birds, but now I know it's so much more more than that. I didn't feel so dumb after that, just in awe of the magnitude of this, and the many things to learn.
While I was in one of my sit-spots I just looked up at the gently falling snow and felt so grateful to be out there, just basking in the loveliness of nature. I feel like none of us get enough of that, unless you're already past me in your nature/kid adventures of course! The ideas they use with kids are brilliant. I asked how to get kids to sit and listen to the birds, and they "trick" them with games like hide-n-seek! They have some kids hide and some kids stay back and do some fun activity songs while they wait (for quite a long time). When they get up and find the kids, they then ask what they observed while they were hiding! Brilliant. When I tell my kids to, "Be quiet so we can listen to the birds." Mr. 7 yells and flaps his arms to scare them away! If they are hiding of course they'll be quiet and listen on "accident."
After the bird mapping, we went back out for a scat hunt. They brought along some field guides for tracking (did you know there are guides for animal poop?! It was very helpful) and we split up into 2 groups. My group found lots of rodent Vole holes, which I've seen a lot near our water areas but didn't know their names. They have rounded ears and are sort of like a mix between a rat and prairie dog. So we saw lots of those tunnels and one girl thought she saw some movement inside. Then we found lots of large scat around, and from the guide figured it was elk poop. It looked like a herd had come through and stayed there awhile, because the grass was all pushed down in an area like the elk had laid there to sleep, while the rest of the grass surrounding it was still standing, and there was a lot of poop around. Now I know that it's larger than deer poop, though similar shapes. I want to look up elk calls because we talked about that too. We also found some type of bird poop, which we thought was goose, but from the tracks that the other group found we decided it was probably wild turkey. We then found a crime scene, with lots of feathers in a spot, that looked like a kill spot, then an animal had dragged it to the trees to eat it. A more knowledgeable person suggested that it was a fox or coyote because there weren't any feathers near the branches like a large bird would have done, and a bird probably would have taken it somewhere else instead of dragging it. Who knew all of this was around? When we first walked the area for the sit spots, I didn't see any of that. I figured I wouldn't have to go study scat or something, knowing that I saw quite a bit, but didn't know how to find out what kind of animal left it. Yay for field guides! The greatest find was a Dad and his daughter found an elk (we are pretty sure) bones and fur. We took a picture by it because it was such a good find. I'm still not to the point that I want to touch things much, but I did feel the fur of this one. I'm still using sticks for scat though, possibly forever... I wish I could do that class once a week! It was so nice to be with like minded people, on a journey of discovery and all of us trying to find clues in nature that we haven't noticed before. We found lots of scat that were either goose or turkey, then the other group found the prints of a turkey, so we knew they had been there. On my way home, I saw these and we were right, turkeys for the win!
There's just something about groups like this that I just can't get enough of. Can we do it again tomorrow? If it hadn't taken a lot of orchestrating (sleeping at Aunt Cheryl's so I wouldn't have to wake up the kids at 5 am, finding a babysitter, (Aunt Cheryl was able to when no one else could, she's such a giver) and then the driving etc. I would be more likely to do it, but it was still one for the memory books. What a blessing for a momma to have this experience to take home and try to recreate. What a blessing it is to have nature surrounding us, giving us clues to depth and knowledge you weren't even aware that you were missing. THANK YOU NATURE CLUB! It couldn't have been a better day.
I went away with a list in my head (next time I'll bring a nature journal) of things to study more, and the book "Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature" that will really cement teaching kids about nature, letting their questions and discoveries guide as we immerse ourselves in God's beautiful creations.
To Study:
- Elk fur, calls, herds, size etc.
- Warning bird calls
- Chickadee calls ( I heard one that sang a high note, then a low squak, then three high again, is that a chickadee??)
- *Look at the DI for field guides, why haven't I thought of that?
- Cute little nature songs and games for gathering activities
- Cooper Hawks
- Starling and jay calls
- The difference between goose and turkey scat
- Vole pictures to make sure I'm thinking of the right animals
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