We were absolutely thrilled to happen upon orchid treasures scattered throughout the bush, sometimes growing in colonies, sometimes solitary. We felt we’d stepped back in time and walked alongside Amy Mack as she wrote in A Bush Calendar, “Today I found a treasure trove. On the slope of a gentle hill, beneath the shade of young turpentines and sassafras trees,…
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Charlotte Mason encouraged supplementing informal nature walks with incidental, natural object lessons which sharpen a child’s observational skills with gentle, guided discovery questions once in a while. A Natural Object Lesson is simply noticing an object of interest while on a nature walk and taking a closer look at it in its habitat or environment. It’s the moment we recognize…
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My Autumn garden has been surprisingly busy with insects. I was impressed with my Sunset daisy which has been a hive of activity for wasps, flies and the Long-tailed Pea-blue, skipper butterfly. I’ve propagated a few stems to add more Sunset colour and insect activity to the backyard. This was my ‘Sit Spot,’ a place to sit and watch nature…
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Lately, I’ve been thinking of activities to do with my grand-daughter and support my daughter as she begins her preschool journey with our little pumpkin. So when dad decided to build a veggie bed and plant seeds, I thought it’ll be awesome to do some seed related activities with her. Jo had a brilliant idea to create a nature board…
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I was given a flower press some years ago and I’ve had a little fun collecting flowers from my backyard garden to press. I’ve also pressed flowers from my daughter’s wedding as I didn’t have the heart to chuck them out once their beauty had bagun to fade. I decided to use a few flowers that had been pressed along…
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While Little Pumpkin, Peanut and I were creating the Autumn Leaf Display Board, I remembered an Autumn Leaf Print I did with my children when they were younger. I love that I get to live the little years again as an Ouma. It’s a blessing! The Autumn Leaf Print activity has been around for years and years, but it’s a…
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I never tire of noticing the amazing shades of plum, gold, tan and auburn in autumn leaves as they fall to the ground to sleep, and it’s a privilege to share their beauty with my granddaughters too. Autumn leaves are often scooped up in delight by a child to be thrown in the air and watched as they fall to…
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I took my inspiration for April’s ‘slice’ in my backyard phenology wheel from the honeybees visiting my garden. I noticed that the number of bees in my backyard had dwindled, but the act of pollination was active and the stars of the show were ‘skipper’ butterflies which have been visiting since February. The Blue Wattle butterfly is absolutely gorgeous with…
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Have you seen this chrysalis laying on the ground and wondered who might have emerged from it? Rain Moth larvae emerge from the ground when rain is expected and metamorphosize into these huge brown, grey and white moths which we see fluttering or resting near our outdoor night lights. The caterpillars live in tunnels underground and forage on native plant…
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Creating a Backyard Phenology Wheel is an effortless project that will include nature journling into our routine as we flourish at home in a time of crisis. The phenology wheel is a simple, month by month, representation of nature around you, and right now, that is in the backyard. A simple walk into the backyard to notice which plants are…
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We’ve turned our focus on nature study into the backyard as we stay home and safe. Our cherry tomatoes self seeded themselves for the third year from fruit we allowed to fall last year and it’s been a bumper crop which has recieved very little effort on our part. We didn’t even stake them. Instead, we allowed them to flow…
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