Outdoor Hour Challenge No. 9

Outdoor Hour Challenge No. 9 involved marking off a square of ground in our back garden with some string and encouraging the children to look as closely as they could to see what they could see in their square. I had a notebook with me to jot down things they found. I also gave them some small trowels and forks to dig a little deeper under the grass, as well as their magnifying glasses.

“Children should be encouraged to quietly and patiently watch the bee, spider, ant, caterpillar or other wildlife that crosses their path. If this seems dull to them, they just need to watch more closely, because their alert eyes can catch the smallest ways of insects in ways that grown-ups can’t without magnifiers.” Charlotte Mason, volume 1, Outdoor Life, page 57 

 Charis started off by putting down her string square and filling it with things she found in the garden, like an apple, a blackberry.. I had to explain that you had to see what was already there and not add new stuff! After noting down things like grass, brown leaves from the apple tree, moss, dirt......Sophie suddenly found a tiny, dark brown snail, which she had a look at with her magnifying glass. She was surprised that the snail didn't seem at all 'shy' and happily crawled up her hand. We also found some clover and the stem from an apple. Unfortunately there weren't any other bugs or interesting things, although probably if we'd dug deeper (we didn't want to mess up the lawn) we would have found a worm or two.

Here's Sophie's nature study entry, again it's a bit faint, sorry!.