Category: Uncategorized

It’s almost Winter Sky Week in Exploring Nature With Children. 

It’s a lovely week to ease you back into a nature study routine. Here are some links to help with your nature study:

The Snowflake Man ~ A short film about Snowflake Bentley

How Do Snowflakes Form? ~ video

Drawing Fog, Rain, Snow, and Dew ~ video workshop by John Muir Laws

What is Precipitation? ~ video

Winter Clouds Worksheet ~ Twinkl

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.

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: #ENWCwinterskyweek 

Happy exploring!

Wishing you a happy & peaceful New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope that this January 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! January is a smashing time to begin to study nature. 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 January fall as follows:

3rd ~ 9th Week 1 Winter Sky Week #ENWCwinterskyweek 

10th ~ 16th Week 2: Moon Study Week  #ENWCmoonweek

17th ~ 23rd Week 3: Winter Tree Study Week #ENWCwintertreeweek

24th ~ 30th Week 4: Winter Pond Study Week  #ENWCwinterpondweek

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:

January brings the snow,
makes our feet and fingers glow.

~ The Months by Sara Coleridge

Special days this January:

• 1st: New Year’s Day
• 2nd: New Moon
• 5th: Twelfth Night
• 6th: Epiphany
• 7th: Distaff Day
• 10th: Plough Monday
• 17th Full Moon
• 25th Burns Night

Happy exploring!

To my very dear readers; I wish you a very merry Christmas, and a peaceful new year.

Wishing you a happy Winter Solstice! We’re moving back toward summer time, and longer days again.

And to my dear readers in the Southern Hemisphere: A very happy Summer Solstice to you!

Next week will be the Twelve Days of Christmas in Exploring Nature With Children!

Use the chapter to make the most of your time in nature and with each other.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Traditional carol

What are the Twelve Days of Christmas?

The Twelve Tweets of Christmas: Radio 4 “Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song Twelve Days of Christmas. On the first day of Christmas so the song goes, a true love sent a partridge in a pear tree. As actress Alison Steadman suggests as ground birds, partridges are not known for their amorous arboreal perching. Why a partridge in a tree could have many meanings, but given the song is of possible French origin, the French or red-legged partridge seems an ideal candidate as sitter in a pear tree.”

Happy exploring!

If you would like to join us in keeping a phenology wheel next year, my Phenology Wheel Guide is available at the sale price of $6 until the New Year.

A Phenology wheel is a smashing way for you and your family to connect both with nature and each other. A way for all the family to gather together to spend time nature journaling; it doesn’t take up much time at all, and is perfect for families who have children of different ages and stages. Everyone can work together, but at their own level. A completed wheel is a treasure that a pile of worksheets will never be. I think that I may use next year’s completed wheels for our own 2022 family Christmas cards!

Pop over to the Phenology Wheel Guide page to download the sample and to find out more.

Happy exploring!

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

The Solstice actually falls on Tuesday the 21st. Because of the way the Solstice falls in relation to Christmas this year, I thought it best to study the Winter Solstice in the week leading up to the day to give you enough time to spend time learning all about the special event in the natural year. Please feel free to adapt the schedule for your own family!

Here are some helpful links to help with your studies:

• 10 Things About The December Solstice
• What happens during the Winter Solstice (video)
• Billy Nye explains the seasons (video)
• How to Draw Trees in Winter (Tutorial)
• Exploring the solstice & equinox – nature journaling

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.

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: #ENWCwintersolsticeweek 

Happy exploring!

FLASH SALE! 

As a small token of thanks to all my readers, I’m offering a Flash Sale beginning today.

Please use the discount code: FLASH20
It will be valid until the 13th of December, so please snap it up before it ends.

Happy exploring!

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

Here are some useful links to help with your studies:

• Drawing Birds Tutorial by John Muir Laws
• How to attract more birds to your feeder this winter.
• Feeding Birds in Winter
• Make a DIY birdseed wreath
• Are Crows the Ultimate Problem Solvers? BBC
• Seeing Like a Bird BBC

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: #ENWCwinterbirdweek 

Happy exploring!