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

Here are some helpful links to get you going:

• Snowflake Anatomy
• Storms: Bill Nye the Science Guy (Video)
• How to Draw Cloud Shapes: John Muir Laws
• How to Draw Clouds in perspective: John Muir Laws
• How to Paint Skies in Watercolour I: John Muir Laws
• How to Paint Skies in Watercolour II: John Muir Laws
• Painting Shadows on Snow: John Muir Laws
• Come Outside : A Windy Day
• Come Outside : A Rainy Day

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. There’s a direct link in my profile.

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 following along with the community over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! Think of it as your virtual home school co op! 

To enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum, this week’s hashtag will be:  #ENWCweatherweek 

Happy exploring!

Here is a list of supplies you will need to follow along with the nature-themed advent calendar, which begins on December 1st.

Please feel free to follow along each day, or dip in and out as you please.

If you would like to share your days on social media, please use the hashtag #natureadventcalendar

Week One

• A journal in which to record your thoughts & memories about this season of Advent. This will be your Family Advent Journal.

• Ingredients to make hot chocolate.
• Candy Canes
• Your nature journals, or heavy paper for sketching, plus your sketching materials of choice (watercolours, coloured pencils etc)
• Secateurs, or robust scissors
• Old newspapers
• PVA glue
• Small paintbrushes (ones that you do not mind using with glue; the glue will spoil them somewhat.)
• Lots of glitter! Here is a biodegradable option, for those who would like to consider the effects of micro plastics on the environment.
• Cotton thread
• Garden wire
• Garden twine
• Large sheets of paper: I like to use brown wrapping paper, lining paper is another option.
• Poster paint
• Small cookie cutters (festive ones will be extra special!)
• Potatoes ~ you can see where this is headed 😉

Week Two

• Your Family Advent Journal in which to record your thoughts & memories about this season of Advent.
• Ingredients to make hot chocolate.
• Candy Canes
• A selection of Christmas books to read aloud

Some of our favourite nature-themed Christmas stories:

• The Christmas Kitten by James Herriott
• Night Tree by Eve Bunting
• This is the Star by Joyce Dunbar
• The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
• The Cobweb Curtain by Jenny Koralek
• The Tale of Three Christmas Trees by Hunt/ Jonke
• A Wish To Be A Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe

• Bird seed to top up your feeders
• Ingredients to make Play dough:

• 300g salt
• 360g plain flour
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 250ml warm water
• optional extras:
  • Cinnamon & ground ginger (1 tsp each)
  • Peppermint essence (a few drops) and red food colour dough
  • Food colour & glitter. Here is a biodegradable option, for those who would like to consider the effects of micro plastics on the environment.
• Dark-coloured crayons
• White paper (printer paper is ideal)
• Glue
• Scissors
• Metallic marker
• Blank cards and envelopes (or make your own cards from folded coloured cardstock.)

Week Three

• Your Family Advent Journal in which to record your thoughts & memories about this season of Advent.
• Ingredients to make hot chocolate.
• Ingredients to bake your favourite Christmas treat
• A pencil
• Felt-tip markers or poster paints
• Metallic marker
• Varnish or PVA glue & a suitable brush (non-essential)
• Your nature journals, or heavy paper for sketching, plus your sketching materials of choice (watercolours, coloured pencils etc)
• Ingredients to make a favourite mulled drink (If you wish to follow my recipe, you will need a bottle of apple juice, a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves, and an orange.)

Week Four

• Your Family Advent Journal in which to record your thoughts & memories about this season of Advent.
• Ingredients to make hot chocolate.
• Wild bird seed, suet balls
• A favourite Christmas film

Some of our favourites:

• Elf
• The Polar Express
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Home Alone
• The Grinch

We’re almost there! Don’t forget to subscribe to the website, so as not to miss a day!

#natureadventcalendar

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

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

Bill Oddie Goes Wild: Lovely Lichens (BBC video)

Beautiful Lichen sketches, by Claire Kathleen Ward

Getting Started With Lichen Dyes by Alissa Allen

Foraging in Winter

Rare Lichen: a living legacy of WWII

Lichens & Mosses Poster from Twig & Moth

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 following along with the community over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! Think of it as your virtual home school co op! 

To enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum, this week’s hashtag will be: #ENWClichenweek 

Happy exploring!

Please note that lichens are a very delicate structures so should always be collected responsibly.

Happy exploring!

Over the last few Advent seasons I have shared a daily, nature-themed Advent calendar. So many of you let me know how much you enjoyed it, that I have decided to run it again this coming Advent.

Beginning on December 1st, through to December 24th, I will be sharing daily Advent posts: an unfolding of the Christmas Story in scripture, and an activity for the day. The activities will be mostly nature-based, with a few special, festive activities here and there, to add a little Christmas magic.

On November 20th I shall post a list of the supplies that you will need to stock up on, in preparation for the daily activities.

Please feel free to share to spread the Christmas joy, and be sure to subscribe to the blog so as not to miss a day! If you would like to share your days on social media, please use the hashtag #natureadventcalendar

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

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• Mosses life cycle (video)
• Moss life cycle under the microscope (video)
• A general introduction to mosses and how to identify them (video)
• How to create realistic textures (video) This is helpful for not only moss, but all areas of keeping a nature journal.
• How to preserve moss.
• Moss-filled clear Christmas baubles (scroll)

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 following along with the community over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! Think of it as your virtual home school co op! 

To enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum, this week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCfungusweek 

Happy exploring!

I hope that this November 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 November fall as follows:

2nd ~ 8th Week 1 Fungus Week #ENWCfungusweek 

9th ~ 15th Week 2: Moss Week #ENWCmossweek 

16th ~ 22nd Week 3: Lichen Week #ENWClichenweek 

23rd ~ 29th Week 4: Weather Week  #ENWCweatherweek 

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:

Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are falling fast.

~ The Months by Sara Coleridge

Special days this October:

• 1st: All Saints’ Day & Daylight saving time ends (US)
• 2nd All Souls’ Day
• 5th: Guy Fawkes Night
• 8th: Remembrance Sunday
• 11th: Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, Martinmas
• 13th: Watch out for details of the annual Nature Advent Calendar being posted here on the website!
• 22nd: Stir Up Sunday
• 26th: Thanksgiving Day (US)
• 29th: First Sunday of Advent
• 30th: Saint Andrew’s Day

Happy exploring!

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

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• How to draw fungus (John Muir Laws video workshop)
• Exploring fungi
• The Magic of Mushrooms – BBC documentary
• Foraging in Autumn
• Mould Time Lapse

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 following along with the community over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! Think of it as your virtual home school co op! 

To enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum, this week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCfungusweek 

Happy exploring!

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

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• Know your pumpkin
• How to draw a pumpkin step by step
• Bobbing for pumpkins: The science behind ‘Will it float?’
• Pumpkin soup recipe
• How to carve a pumpkin
• Pumpkin carving templates

Happy exploring!

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

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• Claire Walker Leslie’s Guide To Sketching Trees
• Why Do Leaves Change Colour & Fall Off In Autumn
• Autumn Leaf Experiment 
• Do Trees Hibernate?
• 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 following along with the community over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! Think of it as your virtual home school co op! 

To enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum, this week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCautumntreeweek 

Happy exploring!

This week in Exploring Nature With Children is ‘Autumn Pond Study Week’.

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• Life in a pond Study Guide
• Pond water under the microscope
• How to draw ducks: profile view. John Muir Laws
• How to draw ducks: The head. John Muir Laws
• How to Draw Ducks: Video workshop
• Come Outside: Geese

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 following along with the community over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! Think of it as your virtual home school co op! 

To enable you to connect with other families working through the ENWC curriculum, this week’s hashtag will be: #ENWCautumnpondweek 

Happy exploring!