The new year is an excellent time to make a resolution to get outside with your children and enjoy nature more! Despite the cooler temperatures, January is plenty full of nature study opportunities. Perhaps you are just needing a list of ideas to inspire your nature study time. My intent is to post nature notables/ideas at the end of each month for the following month. Then throughout the month I will put up posts on how we are incorporating some of those ideas into our homeschool.

I’m doing this to not only inspire you but also to keep our family’s nature study on proper course. It is true that if you spend a lot of time outdoors like we do, sometimes a little direction is needed to keep nature observation focused. We spend plenty of unfocused time outside too, that’s good, however I believe it is also good to sometimes have a list of ideas and a plan. There’s a balance between having a plan but knowing when to chase down “rabbit trails” when desired too.

With that all said, here is our list of January nature notables:

• The beginning of the year is a great time to start a Nature Calendar.
• Whenever possible study and observe snowflakes, ice and frost.
• Hunt for animal signs and tracks in mud and/or snow.
• Watch for ways that animals are surviving the cooler temperatures.
• Chart the sun on the horizon throughout the month at the same time each day. Note how the position is changing (study the winter solstice).
• Watch for sun or moon halos (this time of year is a great time to observe this).
• Spend time cloud gazing. Humidity levels are low in the sky giving a very clear view on certain days.
• Spend time at night star gazing for the same reason listed above.
• Adopt a tree to watch and journal monthly about throughout the year.
• Search for beauty in winter, even on gray, drabby days look for details and give God the glory.
• If possible, put out bird feeders. This time of year they will greatly appreciate it and you will immensely enjoy watching them. Plan to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count coming in February! AND January 5th is National Bird Day!
• Observe wooded areas. While the brush is gone and leaves are off the trees you can get a great view of wildlife such as deer, squirrels and birds.
• Study and observe evergreens and conifers.
• Applicable Shining Dawn Books topics: Snow and Ice, Constant Conifers, Animal Signs, Captivating Clouds, Coping with the Cold, Beautiful Birds.

Need more inspiration and ideas on how to prepare for winter nature study?  Read Winter Nature Study.

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This entry was posted by Melissa on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Monthly Nature Notables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.