Blog

It’s Black Garden Ant Week in Exploring Nature With Children!

Here are some links to help you along:

• Ants. Attenborough: Life in the undergrowth – video
• How to Draw Insects: John Muir Laws – video workshop
• Black Garden Ant Info
• Ants in the garden; the benefits of ants
• Label the ant anatomy printable
• Ant life cycle printable
• Flying ant day
• The Ant & the Grasshopper story

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCblackgardenantsweek

Happy exploring!

It’s almost Caterpillars Week One in Exploring Nature With Children.

Here are some links to help you along:

• Raising butterflies indoors
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Life Cycles
• What is the difference between a Chrysalis & a Cocoon?
• Monarch butterfly metamorphosis
• Some fun; A caterpillar ordering & sequencing game

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #enwccaterpillarsweek 

Happy exploring!

It’s almost Caterpillars Week One in Exploring Nature With Children.

Here are some links to help you along:

• How to Find Caterpillar Eggs
• John Muir Laws’ Caterpillar face
• Caterpillar Anatomy – Enchanted Learning
• Come Outside: Eggs

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #enwccaterpillarsweek 

Happy exploring!

I hope that this May Nature Note finds you & your loved ones well.

If you are new here, and to Exploring Nature with Children, I’m thrilled that you’re joining us! If you subscribe to the blog posts on the website, You’ll receive the monthly Nature Note, which will give you an overview of the month ahead, and also the weekly Exploring Nature with Children theme posts, which I hope will be helpful to you in your studies.

For those of you who are using Exploring Nature With Children, the weeks for May fall as follows:

3rd ~ 9th Week 1 Caterpillars Week One #ENWCcaterpillarsweek

10th ~ 18th Week 2: Caterpillars Week Two #ENWCcaterpillarsweek

17th ~ 23rd Week 3: Black Garden Ants Week #ENWCblackgardenantsweek

24th ~ 30th Week 4: Butterflies Week #ENWCbutterfliesweek

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags { see above } to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum.

There’s a free ENWC calendar for the year to download  here.

As always, please work the weeks to suit your own circumstances best; these are just my own suggestions! 

Seasonal notes:

May brings flocks of pretty lambs, 
Skipping by their fleecy damns. 

~ The Months by Sara Coleridge

Special days this May:

• 1st: May Day
• 13th Ascension Day (Christian)
• 13th Eid al-Fitr (Muslim)
• 17th Feast of Weeks (Jewish)
• 23rd Whitsun / Pentecost (Christian)

Happy exploring!

It’s almost Grasses Week in Exploring Nature With Children!

Here are some links to help with your studies:

• Sketching Grass, Rocks, and Conifer Forests by John Muir Laws
• Grass ID
• Grasses, Rushes, and Sedges – Woodland Trust
• More on Grasses, Rushes, and Sedges
• How to Weave a Simple Grass Basket
• Archeologists Making Baskets (Not directly related, but fascinating and worth a read!)

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCwildflowerweek

Happy exploring!

This week in Exploring Nature With Children is ‘Wildflower Week’.

Here are some helpful links to get you going:

• UK Wildflowers
• US Wildflowers
• How to Draw Wild Flowers: Video workshop John Muir Laws
• FlowerChecker app
• PlantSnap app
• How to Create a Mini Wildflower Meadow in Your Garden – Video
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Flowers – Video
• Come Outside: Dandelions – Video

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCwildflowerweek

Happy exploring!

This week in Exploring Nature With Children is ‘Plant Life-Cycle Week’.

Here are some links to help with your studies:

• BBC Plant Life Cycles
• Attracting Pollinating Bees
• How to draw plants: A series by John Muir Laws
• Come Outside: Bulbs
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Plants

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

Happy exploring!

This week in Exploring Nature With Children is ‘Spring Tree Study Week’.

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• Identifying your tree: UK
• Identifying your tree: US
• How do trees know when it is spring?
• Claire Walker Leslie’s Guide To Drawing Trees
• Come Outside : : Wood

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCspringtreeweek

Happy exploring!

I hope that this April Nature Note finds you & your loved ones well.

If you are new here, and to Exploring Nature with Children, I’m thrilled that you’re joining us! If you subscribe to the blog posts on the website, You’ll receive the monthly Nature Note, which will give you an overview of the month ahead, and also the weekly Exploring Nature with Children theme posts, which I hope will be helpful to you in your studies.

For those of you who are using Exploring Nature With Children, the weeks for April fall as follows:

5th ~ 11th Week 1 Spring Tree Study Week #ENWCspringtreeweek

12th ~ 18th Week 2: Plant Life Cycle Week #ENWCplantlifecycleweek

19th ~ 25th Week 3: Wildflower Week #ENWCwildflowerweek

26th ~ 2nd Week 4: Grasses Week #ENWCgrassesweek

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags { see above } to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum.

There’s a free ENWC calendar for the year to download  here.

As always, please work the weeks to suit your own circumstances best; these are just my own suggestions! 

Seasonal notes:

April brings the primrose sweet, 
Scatters daises at our feet. 

~ The Months by Sara Coleridge

Special days this March:

• 1st: April fools’ Day
• 2nd: Good Friday
• 4th Easter Sunday
• 8th Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day (begins on the evening of the 7th)
• 13th First day of Ramadan (begins at the sighting of the new moon on the evening of the 12th)
• 22nd Earth Day
• 23rd Saint George’s Day

Happy exploring!

Next week is a break week in Exploring Nature With Children. 

To keep up your nature study momentum, spend a little time discussing the changes that have been happening in your own special nature spot. Talk about the topics that they’ve recently been learning about: 
• What do they remember about how & where birds build their nests?
• How do we tell apart frogs and toads?
• Tell what they know about the Vernal Equinox.

Do keep in mind these wise words from Miss Mason’s book: School Education:
We have all been in the case of the little girl who said, “Mother, I think I could understand if you did not explain quite so much.”

Here are some links for an extra little break week fun:

Kid’s Nature Activities to Do at Home

20 Science & Nature Questions

Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum. This week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCbreakweek 

Happy exploring!