Spring Nature Study

A patch of dog-violets in the park

It's taking a while for Spring to get going here. Only last week we still had some snow, and the daffodils haven't quite bloomed yet. However, we're starting to see some spring flowers in the park, and thanks to our nature diary, which we started this time last year, it's much easier to identify them. So far we've seen dog violets, speedwells, celandines, chickweed and cowslips.

Dahlia seedlings

At home we're starting to think about this year's gardening projects. We've got some seed trays on our windowsill. The dahlias did really well last year, so I'd like to try some again. We've also planted sunflower seeds and lobelia in the hanging basket.  We'll have to wait a bit longer to plant the vegetable seeds in the vegetable patch. I'm keeping an eye on the neighbours, to spot when they start planting outside, and they haven't yet, so perhaps it's not quite warm enough. In the meantime I've started pruning the blackberry and raspberry bushes.

Ant world, with cowslips we picked in the park

Charlotte Mason recommends keeping ants as a good nature study project for young children, so when I saw this 'ant world' kit in the shop last year I snapped it up. Last week I noticed loads of ants had found the lunchbox in Sophie's rucksack, which I'd forgotten to unpack and still had a bit of food in it. I thought that was a good opportunity to get the ant world up and running, since it said we needed 20 to 30 black ants. It didn't take them long to start making tunnels, and the girls have been very interested. Unfortunately I think some of the ants have escaped out of the bottom - I don't think I pressed the sides down firmly enough!