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It’s Butterfly Week in Exploring Nature With Children!

Here are some links to help you with your studies this week:

• Butterfly life-cycle printable
• How to draw butterflies with John Muir Laws (Video)
• A hatching butterfly (video)
• Butterfly ID: 5 Common Butterflies -UK
• Common Butterflies of North America
• Lifecycle of a Butterfly writing activity

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: #ENWCbutterfliesweek

Happy exploring!

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!

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:

2nd ~ 8th Week 1 Caterpillars Week One #ENWCcaterpillarsweek

9th ~ 15th Week 2: Caterpillars Week Two #ENWCcaterpillarsweek

16th ~ 22nd Week 3: Black Garden Ants Week #ENWCblackgardenantsweek

23rd ~ 29th 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
• 2nd Early May Bank Holiday (UK, IRL)
• 2nd Eid al-Fitr (Muslim)
• 8th Mothers’ Day (US)
• 23rd Whitsun / Pentecost (Christian)
• 26th Ascension Day (Christian)

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!

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: #ENWCgrassesweek

Happy exploring!

The 2022 ~ 2023 planner is now available!

It runs from August 2022 ~ August 2023 and is currently on sale at the introductory price of $8

If you already own the 2021 – 2022 Planner, then please purchase the 2022 ~ 2023 refill, which contains the updated calendar and other dated pages that you will need for this year.

The planner is packed with useful planning pages as well as guiding you through creating your big picture goals for the year, through to planning out daily lessons. The planner is a hand hold along the journey. You can find more information and download the sample here on the website.
Also now available on the website is the free 2022 ~ 2023 Calendar download to help you to best plan your year with Exploring Nature With Children. It gives you all the dates for the weeks in one place.

Happy planning!

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

Here are some helpful links to support your nature studies:

• 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!

Next 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!