Nature Study Monday: January 2014 {NSM! Link up}

The {Nature Study Monday} link up is for ANY nature study-ish blog post written at any time during the current month. Which means, when you submit your link, it will show up in every. single. {NSM} post. during the whole month! Oh, and be not confused, feel free to link up on any day, be it Monday or not! (scroll down for linky).

Well, HELLO 2014!!

Due to holidays and prego woes (think swollen, hot and sweaty), we didn't get out much last month. I'm really proud of my kids as they are getting into the habit of making weekly nature observations on their own whether we go on an official nature walk or not. Nothing can replace the sheer pleasure and amazingness of a real nature walk, but at least they're not going to become nature-deprived by a long-shot. ;)

Thankfully, rainy season is beginning to pick up, which means endless sticky mud, but also promises some periodic relief to the oven like conditions we've been experiencing. Some say, and I'm tempted to agree this year, that 'tis actually hotter during rainy season. Who would have thought?

Before Christmas, we did get to greet this happy little pig on our walk to get honey from a local seller in a nearby town. I say happy because he was probably glad to be just a wee one, for which reason he may still be alive today. Many Tarapotinos eat pork in their Pachamanca for Christmas. (youtube video - kinda long and we're more rustic, but it's similar.)

Lately, I've been working on our nature study schedule for this term. I'll plan to keep loosely following the Nature Study Rotation here. Since we just started reading Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics (which gives signs of being very good - it's very well written and illustrated for a science book!!), and we have LOTS of legumes around here, I think we'll also have another and closer look at vines. Last term was trees/shrubs/vines, but we did a little more with stars/sky which was supposed to be this coming term (our science focus was astronomy). I think we'll just officially swap them.

Though we do a lot of nature study, we generally don't do a ton of formal study on a given subject, though we probably should. Occasionally, we do. Either way, I like to read up ahead of time on the scheduled subject so that I'm ready to point out interesting tidbits as the opportunities present themselves.

AO's Nature Study Rotation for 2013/14:
Summer/Fall: Trees/shrubs/vines
Winter: Stars/sky
Spring: Amphibians