I stood wide-eyed as I slowly started bending backward as if it were beginning to loom over top of me. Yeah, it was that enormous! I have personally never seen such a large cloud formation. And the rather odd thing is that the sky almost all the way around was clear other than this.

I zoomed in to try and capture some detail of it’s beauty. It was truly breathtaking.

It wasn’t long before my son was out being mesmerized by it also.

I’ve long since seen the symbolism of God’s peace in the beautiful clouds, but now I realize that His mighty power is being shown through them as well.

Sunrise 

 Morning Sky

 Breathtaking Storm in the Distance with Rainbow (I have never seen such an impressive sky!)

 Early Spiderwort

 Spotted St. John’s Wort

 St. John’s Wort

Jewelweed (Spotted Touch-Me-Not) 

Eastern Cottontail Friend Near Jewelweed 

Rough Fruited Cinquefoil 

Ozark Tickseed Sunflower 

Please be sure to take the time to stop and watch nature going on around you. I am blessed over and over again by the beauty that God has given us to enjoy and bring us peace, if we only take the time to notice.

In this photo, the storm was just breaking up and beginning to clear.

The next three photos were of the western sky with the sun rays beaming upward and illuminating the clouds into different hues.

Before the storms the kids and I took a wildflower walk and got a few photos to share.

Gorgeous group of Crown Vetch 

Crown Vetch up close

New discovery..Trumpet Creeper!

Another new one to add to our notebook…Cow Vetch

 I don’t know what this is, but thought it was so pretty!

Also, this morning we had another awesome Nature Club meeting, I’ll post photos of that soon.

First there was recently a report on Good Morning America on how scientists are starting to look more at ants to learn about improving our traffic systems. Seems ants really know how to cooperate and work together to make things go smoothly and efficiently. Well, our Lord and Creator tells us to “go to the ant,” I think that means there’s much to learn from them!

Here is a link to the video clip (of course any major news station has to throw in a “millions of years” reference, so I conveniently don’t listen to that part!):

What Ants Can Teach Us About Commuting

Secondly, a friend commented to inform me of a cloud photo that was taken by a woman in Iowa that has scientists stumped to label it. Seems we could have a new cloud type to add to the charts eventually; something that hasn’t been proposed since 1951. Any news about changes in clouds really makes my ears perk up and listen (Revelation 1:6-8). Below is the photo of the clouds that she took and here is a link to the article:  Has Iowa Woman Spotted New Cloud Type?

I could tell that something spectacular was brewing on the eastern horizon as well, as the sun was setting.

And it wasn’t long before the sky morphed into something even more than spectacular. I’m fairly sure that is a Lenticular Cloud in the photo below; the one under the moon. I have never noticed one of them before. It was amazing!

As the sun set further in the western sky, the eastern sky turned more and more rose-colored. And so did the Lenticular cloud.

  All I could do was sit and stare in amazement for the few moments before everything faded to black.

 What is a Lenticular Cloud?

Why does the sunrise and sunset reflect different colors?

Cloud Dance, by Thomas Locker

A Drop Around the World, by Barbara Shaw Mckinney

A Drop Around the World has the makings of a great unit study, especially full of lots of Science and Geography.  I also ordered the available Teacher’s Guide, thinking of possibly incorporating it into our studies for next year.

Speaking of clouds, we had a very windy day here, with a lot of “cloud dancing”.  So I snapped some photos while at my son’s baseball game.

I love to take photos of the clouds and then try to find images in them.  After reading all the Bible verses during our cloud study, where God appeared in the clouds to His people, and knowing that our Savior will return in a cloud, I can’t help but pay special attention to them now.  The next time you are outside or near a window, take an extra special moment to take notice.

Blessings for your weekend.

Bible Devotion:

We read Matthew 17:1-8 (The Transfiguration) – again God chose to appear in a cloud.  One look in a concordance and I was amazed at how many verses there were to do with clouds; and especially God appearing in them (invisible to man, made visible through nature)

Art Studies:

We sat in front of our computer and went through Amanda’s Clouds in Art Show.  First the kids picked their favorite painting from the show and filled out the notebook page; and then they put their hand to trying their version of that picture.

Alex’s Version of Lawren Harris – Clouds, Lake Superior

Hannah’s Version of Claude Monet – Water Lilies (The Clouds)

Also, Hannah and I completed another art assignment from the book Monet and the Impressionists for Kids, by C. Sabbeth called “Painting the Shimmering Sky”.  We used crayon to make cloud images in the background.  And then we painted over the background with watercolors (the wax clouds resisting the watercolor).  Also we filled in the grass with watercolor.  Then, on a separate piece of paper we sketched non-detailed images of a person of our choice and colored it in with either crayon or colored pencil, cut it out and glued it to our background.  Hannah, of course, chose Wonder Woman, well at least she put her in an elegant skirt!

Vocabulary and Science:

We have been keeping up with some cloud vocabulary, our latest focus being the word “condensation”.  I had them write the word and definition in their absolute best handwriting. 

And then we did two different quick demonstrations of how condensation happens:  1)  blew hot air from our mouths onto a cold spoon, and 2) poured an ice cold glass of lemonade and observed the glass sweating.

We have also been continuing to periodically fill out our Cloud Identification Pages.  And I’ve gotten myself in the habit of asking the kids what type of clouds are out each opportunity that I have, whether on a nature study, or even driving in the car.  Often, they’ve been bringing it up to me!

We read more from Take a Cloud Walk.  Most recently we read the section on hail, and completed the yummy demonstration of how hail forms using chocolate covered strawberries.

 I think this was the kid’s favorite demonstration!  I just left them for a minute, Ridiculous!!!

Math:

Alex did a math activity to reinforce grouping and counting by tens.  He took an outline of a water droplet that had 100 smaller droplets on the inside.  He first gave his estimate of how many droplets he thought were in the drop.  And then he circled groups of tens and then counted them up to see how many there actually were.

Language Arts (Creative Writing):

Hannah wrote story about her favorite type of cloud.  I got her started using the following sentence:

Once upon a time there was a (type of cloud) cloud named __________.

Photography:

And, we’ve continued to take more photos of different types of clouds to add to our nature journals.  Here are a few of our recent additions!

 This photo has numerous cloud types

(cirrus, altocumulus, and stratocumulus were the ones we could see)

Cumulus Clouds – Fair Weather!

Stratus Clouds (Fog)

To see my original post, click Clouds Unit Study.

Charlotte Mason said, “Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.”

This summarizes up the last few days for us!  We have most certainly been rightly without doors!  I’ve lived in this area of the country all my life and I know by now that there is not always an opportunity weather-wise to be in the great outdoors; this winter brought that back readily to my mind.  And the spring rains are sure to return.  BUT for the last few days the weather has been perfect!  Not a shiver, not a sweat….. just divine.  So, the children and I have been basking in the beauty almost every moment! 

We have, however, still been on a slow road with our clouds study and I wanted to update you with that.  We have had some great cloud watching days!  We have been blessed to have great varieties to observe.  The past few days we have seen all sorts of cirrus, stratus, and cumulus clouds.

Yesterday, for our cloud study, we observed three different varieties of clouds in the sky at once!  So we filled out our Cloud Identification sheets.  And just spent some time sitting with the warm breeze and watching the clouds in their beauty.  We remained outside and read the book that I mentioned in the previous post, The Man Who Named the Clouds.

WANT TO KNOW the coolest thing we studied so far about clouds??? -  We read in the Bible, Exodus 16:10 “While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.  Then we read the side note on page 21 of Let’s Take a Cloud Walk where it talks about how clouds are really just invisible air becoming VISIBLE!  This was a great Bible lesson to talk about that maybe that’s why God choose clouds to appear in because they were symbollic of the invisible Lord appearing visible to them!  There are sometimes if I take more than a moment to gaze at the beauty in the clouds, I too can feel and see Him.

Stratocumulus Clouds – a photo I just took from our deck

 The Man Who Named the Clouds

by Julie Hannah and Joan Holub

About this book:  Born in England in 1772, Luke Howard began keeping a weather journal when he was 10 years old. He maintained an interest in weather and clouds all his life, though he supported himself and his family as a chemist. In 1802, he proposed a system of classifying clouds into seven types, basing their names on the Latin words cirrus, cumulus, and stratus. His system was adopted and, in adapted form, is still used today. This colorful book balances biographical and historical information with basic weather science, presented in the form of a modern child’s monthly weather journal. Artwork includes reproductions of a portrait of Howard and his own paintings of clouds.

2) Also, Lori from Camp Creek Press thoughtfully lead me to this absolutely fantastic and FREE e-book:

Take a Cloud Walk

 by Jane Kirkland

I’ve added both of these resources to my original Clouds Unit Study post.

Our first Clouds Unit Study day went very well (to find all my original plans for this unit study, scrolll down or click on the LINK). 

Here’s an overview of what we did for our first day:

•  Bible:  Genesis 9:13 – God set His rainbow in the clouds as a sign.  
•  Read four pages from:   Clouds, by C. Webster  
• We made our “cloud finders” using the guide found here:  Cloud Identification Key
• We weren’t able to “cloud watch” yet because we’ve had crystal clear blue skies! 

• We read the poem “The Cloud” by Percy Bysshe Shelley; studying the meaning of the first stanza and beginning memorization of the first stanza.

• Science Experiment – Make Your Own Cloud.  I’ll post the photos from this in a different post. 

• Sensory Activity – use a can of shaving cream to let the kids make different kinds of clouds with, we did this and wow was it, of course, a hit!  I know I’m crazy!  The cloud chart I purchased from our local school supply store.  And for the storm clouds we added in some food colorings.