Blog

Small Winter Stoneflies: Insect Life in Winter

This site contains affiliate links that benefit my family if you purchase through them. Read my full disclosure here.This site contains affiliate links that benefit my family if you purchase through them. Read my full disclosure here.Most insects hide in winter. Winter stoneflies are one of the few insects that are active. Special compounds in their blood act as anti-freeze…
Read More

in Homeschool· Life Unplugged

Great Backyard Bird Count

A Citizen Science Project For All Ages In anticipation for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I’ve designed some materials to help you prepare. I’ve included a watercolor bird poster of common birds, bird flashcards, and a copywork poem. First you may be asking… What is the Great Backyard Bird Count? The Great Backyard Bird Count website says this about the…
Read More

in Life Unplugged

Nature Journaling: A Close-up View

Smoky Eye Boulder Lichen Nature Journal Page We’re surrounded by so much beauty and diversity in nature that sometimes it can be hard to know what to focus on. It can be easy to forget to examine the details. A great nature journaling idea is to zoom in on a certain feature of an item you see in nature. It’s…
Read More

in Life Unplugged· Nature Calendars

Investigating Rehydrated Lichen

A Winter Nature Activity A fun nature project to do in winter is investigating rehydrated lichen under a microscope. We’re exploring lichen in our nature study this month. One of the extra projects is rehydrating some lichen and examining the water droplets under a microscope. You don’t need an expensive microscope to enjoy doing this. First, you need to rehydrate…
Read More

in Life Unplugged· Nature Calendars

How to Identify Bitter Dock in Winter

Dock Seeds are Key to Identifying Dock Varieties We found two different types of dock this week. The thing I love about dock varieties is that you can identify bitter dock (and curly dock) in winter just by looking at the seeds. Even when the leaves are hidden under ice and snow, you can examine the seed heads that are…
Read More

in Life Unplugged

January Nature Walk

What You Can Discover on A Winter Nature Walk We try to get outside and explore every day, even during the winter. Once you know what to look for, exploring nature can be just as interesting in winter as in summer. Here are a few things that we found on our recent winter nature walk. Winter is a great time…
Read More