Green Hour Challenge: Week 2

We had our 2nd nature walk today, a glorious day with a brisk wind, bright blue sky, and moderate temps with plenty of sunshine. For this week's assignment we were to make an effort to be quite during our nature time, so we could hear interesting things. Uh, yeah, with 3 boys all vying for my attention and giving me an earful, that in itself was the challenge for me lol. The birds were very obliging today and sang extra loud so that we actually could hear them. We started our walk in the backyard again, and meandered from there down the street until we reached the highway. The boys were still interested in their finds from last week, pill bugs and trees. During the week we did some research on the bugs, and I printed up some worksheets for ds to label the parts of a tree.

This is ds3 holding some bark we found. He is the one interested in trees.

We returned to the spot where we found the pill bugs last time, but didn't see any. I gently prodded..."Where did we learn this week that pill bugs like to hide?" They remembered about the bug's affinity for wet areas and old rotting wood. Ds2 finds this branch on the ground.
Success! Under the branch were tons of the little guys. We brought some home and had a good look at the 7 pairs of jointed legs and two antennae...see, even mom has learned something in this challenge. We then set them free in our front garden.

The name of this week's assignment is "Using Your Words." Here are my kiddos' descriptions of the things they heard, saw and felt on our adventure.

Ds2 (12yo) heard "chirping" saw a "wet log" and felt "weird tickling pill bugs."

Ds3 (7yo) heard "birds" saw "brown bark" and felt a "log."

Ds4 (3yo) heard "caw caw" saw a "stink beetle" and felt "soft and hard flowers."

We haven't started keeping any kind of journal yet, but I hope to introduce one soon. I think I'll have everyone contribute to one journal, instead of trying to keep three separate ones. If you want to participate in the Green Hour Challenge or see what others have been up to with theirs, see Barb's site The Heart of Harmony.