January Creation Club - Birds!

Well, we had another really neat Creation Club meeting this week. Before starting this group I had no idea where any local nature centers were, let alone that there would be so many. We decided to study birds this month and we were really in for a treat. The nature center we visited had a "bird blind". This is a small heated building with large windows along one side. Outside the windows were several bird feeders. There was even a speaker feature that we could turn on inside the building and listen to the birds outside.

One of the moms in the group planned this trip. It was so helpful to have her there to help us to identify the birds. She gave the kids printouts with black and white pictures of the most familiar birds to our area to use to keep a bird count for the day. The bird above is a chickadee. Keeping count of the birds made it like a game for the kids and kept them interested.


Thanks to Kim, from our group, I know that this bird is a carolina wren.


Many of you will probably recognize this bird, but I didn't know what it was. It's a downy woodpecker! Pretty cool, right?


Okay, the cardinal was the only bird we saw that I actually did recognize.


Look at how red he is! When going through my pictures, I realized I didn't have any of the female cardinals which are a much duller red, almost brown color.


Sort of like Where's Waldo. Can you see all four cardinals? When taking a bird count, you can only count the birds you can see at one time. So if you think there are four cardinals, you can only write it down if you see four all at once. We are in cardinal country, so we saw plenty of these. I counted four males and five females in the thirty minutes we were out there.

After the bird watching we made some simple bird feeders.

Directions:
Use gallon milk jugs and cut out holes on the opposite sides of the handle. (see picture).
Then poke a hole under each cut out circle with a large nail or spike. Slide a dowel rod through the holes to create a perch on each side.
Use a small nail to poke several holes on the bottom of the jug for water drainage.
Use the small nail to punch holes on either side of the lid and thread and tie a metal wire through the top.

You can fill this with any type of bird seed you like and hang it on your back deck or a tree in your yard.

Want another cool bird idea for you and your kids? Try participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count in February. Here's some information from their site:


"The Great Backyard Bird Count (or GBBC) is an event that takes place over four days in February each year. It's very easy! All you have to do is watch birds in your yard, a nearby park, or maybe at your school. Then you tell us what you saw by entering your bird list online. We collect that information from people all over the United States and Canada so scientists can learn what kind of birds are being seen in the winter and whether there are more or fewer of them than before. You'll have more fun taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count if you first learn about the birds you're most likely to see. We have some fun ways for you to become familiar with birds. Visit our website at www.birdsource.org/gbbc/.


JOIN THE GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT
Count for Fun, Count for the Future

New York, NY and Ithaca, NY—Bird and nature fans throughout North America are invited to join tens of thousands of everyday bird watchers for the 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), February 13-16, 2009. This free event is an opportunity for families, students, and people of all ages to discover the wonders of nature in backyards, schoolyards, and local parks, and, at the same time, make an important contribution to conservation. Participants count birds and report their sightings online.

“The Great Backyard Bird Count benefits both birds and people. It’s a great example of citizen science: Anyone who can identify even a few species can contribute to the body of knowledge that is used to inform conservation efforts to protect birds and biodiversity,” said Audubon Education VP, Judy Braus. “Families, teachers, children and all those who take part in GBBC get a chance to improve their observation skills, enjoy nature, and have a great time counting for fun, counting for the future.”Anyone can take part, from novice bird watchers to experts, by counting birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and reporting their sightings. Participants can also explore what birds others are finding in their backyards—whether in their own neighborhood or thousands of miles away. Additional online resources include tips to help identify birds, a photo gallery, and special materials for educators."


I was told that that if you put your bird feeders out now, you'll have plenty of them visiting in time for the Bird Count in February. Happy Bird Watching! Pin It Now!

November Creation Club

Last week we had our November Creation Club. We had about 15 children and we all met at a local nature preserve. It was such a beautiful day and the temperature was just right.There was a 200 year old house on the property and this area above is called Mayhem Lane. It was the road that led to the house 200 years ago. We walked down this lane to enter in to the wooded area. It was neat to imagine the horse and carriages that surely traveled down it.

A woman who worked at the nature preserve was so kind as to take us through the woods and tell us about the trees and area.

They had even set up an "outdoor classroom" to sit and learn in the middle of the woods.

They had a bait box set the night before and the kids attempted to identify tracks left by animals nibbling on the food. I'm pretty sure over 10 animal tracks were identified.

This is a picture of snake weed (or is it snake root??). Anyway, this poisonous plant was actually the cause of Abraham Lincoln's mother's death. Apparently she drank milk from a cow that had consumed it.

The kids played for awhile at the end of the day. Here A6 poses in the tree that she was climbing.

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October Creation Club

Our October Creation Club theme was 'Trees'. I was absolutely shocked to have 75 people (kids and adults) attending our October event! This was our one event for the year that was less like a nature study and more like a field trip.

We started our day at the Forest Discovery Center where we walked through an indoor forest. The animals you see on the slideshow are not real...at least not anymore. We watched a short video about forest regeneration and took a tour through a large wood manufacturing factory (no pictures aloud). Then we headed upstairs to the activity area where we saw the world's largest wood mosaic mural (1,000 square feet). An artist was there demonstrating the process of wood mosaic. Also there was a large tree that we could walk through and the kids could sign there names. Hubby left a message for me.

After eating a sack lunch, we then headed over to Huber's Farm. We took a tour called "What happens to apples after they're picked." Apparently they are stored in a 'cold room' where they are kept at 32 degrees. Apples will stay fresh at this temperature for six months. We also saw how the apples were cleaned and sorted.

Afterwards, we headed out to the pumpkin patch where the kids each picked a pumpkin. We walked through the rope maze, the corn maze, and the bamboo maze. The kids had fun jumping on some sort of large inflatable and walking through the petting zoo. A6 has recently developed a fascination for all things horse related and was elated to ride on a pony for the first time.

We also bought some yummy apple cider, apple butter, and half a bushel of apples...did I mention we got some apples? Looks like I'll be making applesauce again.

And don't miss our hot off the press school shirts. They were printed a couple of weeks ago. They have our homeschool logo on the front and 2 Peter 1:5-7 on the back.

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September Creation Club

I attended our local Homeschool Convention in July. It was a small convention by convention standards, but I simply cannot resist the lure of inspirational speakers and vendor halls. Imagine my surprise when I noticed a familiar name on the list of speakers. I had been reading Cindy's blog for a couple months doing research into incorporating nature study into homeschool. I had no idea that she was from my area. I attended REALLY great sessions on Saturday, including one on nature study taught by Cindy and Melissa. Let me tell you, these ladies and their blogs are gems!

At the session, they mentioned starting a Creation Club. Cindy describes a Creation Club better than I could. But basically it's a nature study group. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I don't mix well with nature. I can still remember vividly standing on the shore of a lake when I was about 6 screaming at the top of my lungs, frozen in terror as my two older sisters pointed and laughed because there was a bug on me. I recounted this story with my sister recently and how they refused to help me. She said, "Well, we were afraid of the bug too."...yeah, they looked terrified.

Even now, I rarely go outside to just be outside. We lived with my mom for a couple of months one summer while our house was being built. We pulled into the driveway one afternoon. The sun was shining, everyone was outside doing outside things, the kids jumped out to play...and all I wanted was to go inside, down to the basement and curl up on the couch under a heavy blanket in the air conditioning. I know this unhealthy, you really don't need to tell me.

Nevertheless, I believe in the importance of nature study and letting the kid's explore God's creation. I also know, that left on my own, I would procrastinate and never get around to doing this with the kids. I thought the Creation Club sounded like a great idea and I contacted the homeschool group I'm a part of. I had well over 20 families respond. Several of us met in August to decide how we would operate the club.

Luckily for me, these wonderful moms were willing to help. We decided on meeting monthly at parks and nature centers all around our area. Each month we will meet on a different day of the week and at a different location, since we have a lot of families interested and there is no way to make everyone happy. Two moms will plan the event, pick the date, and location. The next month will be planned by someone else. Also, we focus on a different theme of nature each month. Like this:

Sept. - Insects
Oct. - Trees/leaves
Nov. - Animals/How nature prepares for winter
Dec. - Evergreens
Jan. - Birds
Feb. - Fossils/Rocks
Mar. - Ponds
Apr. - Earth Day (focus on ways to be responsible with God's creation)
May - Wildflowers

We met this past Wednesday for our September meeting at a local park. Two women who worked at the park designed an educational program about insects for our group.


I was so excited to see more than 25 kids from little babies to teenagers!


Our wonderful teachers taught us about the anatomy of insects and prepared some fun activities for the kids.


Insects find each other by using their senses of smell and hearing. So each child picked up a film canister that had a nail hole punctured in the top. Inside was a different scent (mint, peanut butter, etc.). There was two of each scent and all the kids had to walk around smelling each other's canisters to find their match.


They also had canisters filled with different small objects (sunflower seeds, candy, thumb tacks). This time they had to shake the canisters and try to find their match without opening the canisters to see what was inside. This was really hard.


This is my H3 and E5 shaking and listening.


Finally we went on a scavenger hunt looking for insects to catch and view up close. Here A6 looks closely at an ant.


Another young man holds up a wasp.


Some of the insects were drawn in nature journals.


Then we released the insects back into nature.

All the kids had a good time. Here E1 poses with a big stick. What is it with boys and sticks?

He just got his hair cut that morning.


Too handsome!

Baby L was content with Daddy.
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