OHC More Nature Study Book 2: Winter Wonder Walk Challenge and a Special Offer!

More Nature Study Book 2
Winter Weather Walk

Inside Preparation Work:

• Read the “How to Use This Book” section in Part I of the Handbook of Nature Study (pages 23-24). This information will apply to every challenge in this ebook. If this is your first time reading this section, use a highlighter or pen to underline thoughts you can implement with your family.
• Ebook Users Only: Before beginning this series of challenges, use the Winter Wonder? Notebook Page to create enthusiasm for this season’s nature study. Print a page for each member of the family and complete it together. Refer to this page as you work your way through the challenges and spend time outdoors this winter. Keep the page in the front of your nature journal as a reminder of the three questions you hope to answer and the three activities you hope to accomplish.

Outdoor Hour Time:

• Take a Winter Weather Walk and observe as many things in your neighborhood as possible that are special about the winter season. These can be man-made or natural items. If you downloaded my January Newsletter you can also use the Study Grid ideas as part of this challenge. Ebook Users:You can take along the notebook page and record your thoughts as you walk outdoors or wait until you return home to complete the page.
• Advanced study: Challenge yourself to take a walk keeping completely silent. Go as a family or all alone. Ebook Users: You can take the Silent Winter Walk Challenge notebook page along with you and record your observations as you walk or wait until you go back inside to record your findings. Collect a small item to bring inside to sketch in your nature journal or onto your notebook page.

Three notebook pages are included in the ebook for this challenge.

Follow-Up Activity:

• Record your Winter Weather Walk experiences in your nature journal. Ebook users can complete any or all of the notebook pages associated with this challenge as a follow up to your winter weather walk. You may wish to complete another walk later in the season just to compare your weather and surroundings. File your notebook pages in your nature journal.
• Advanced study: Keep track of the weather in your nature journal. Design and sketch out your own weather chart. (Handbook of Nature Study, page 807, Lesson 222 has an example.) Suggested topics of study: Rain and snow amounts in inches, temperatures (highs and lows), wind speed and direction, cloud types, anything else weather related that you can think of to include. You can use the free weather chart I posted in this entry: Dry December Leads to a Dry January.

Make sure to share your January blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.

You can view our Winter Silent Nature Walk here on my blog.

Special Weekend Offer - 

Expired Sunday January 8, 2012 at Midnight.

Purchase the new More Nature Study Ebook Book 2 this weekend for a reduced rate AND receive a set of NotebookingPages.com's Bird Notebook Pages for free. I am really trying to encourage families to get outdoors this winter season and spend time together even if the weather is not perfect. The challenges in this ebook are easily adapted to really cold weather and with the ebook you receive all the follow-up notebook pages which can be done inside where it is cozy and warm. The bird notebook pages will be a perfect fit for next month's Great Backyard Bird Count and with a library of pages on hand it will be easier than ever to learn more about your neighborhood birds.

Special Weekend Offer - 

Expired Sunday January 8, 2012 at Midnight.

New to this series of challenges is the addition of suggested additional reading. I have gathered a few picture books and field guides for you to look for at your library. You may need to click over to the blog to view the Amazon.com widget. These are all on my personal library shelves and are timeless favorites.

More Nature Study Book 2 - Introductory Video

It was brought to my attention that my new YouTube video did not come through on the email subscription entry. So in order to make sure everyone gets a chance to view the Introductory Video to the new More Nature Study ebook, I will post it again here along with a direct link over to YouTube.
OHC More Nature Study Book 2 - Winter 2012 Video

Click over to the blog to see the details!

Outdoor Hour Challenge: More Nature Study Book #2 - Winter 2012

This is the third winter nature study ebook I have put together for the Outdoor Hour Challenge using the Handbook of Nature Study. It was a difficult task to come up with ten fresh challenges but the results are wonderful! I am excited about this series and I know you are going to be too. If you purchase the ebook you will have all ten challenges on hand to complete as the opportunity arises.


As always, each challenge gives you step by step instructions to get started with simple weekly nature study ideas...even in the middle of winter! This may just be what your homeschool week needs to get you through the cold winter days of January, February, and March. Each challenge is written for you to complete in your own neighborhood or backyard and you can adapt each challenge to fit your local area with suggestions I offer with each topic. Don't be discouraged if you look at the list of topics and think you don't have that particular subject close at hand. I will guide you through finding a replacement to still offer you a weekly dose of nature study.

The More Nature Study Book #2 challenges were written for families with children of all ages. In addition to the regular challenge, I have bumped up the nature study for older or more experienced children, complete with their own set of notebooking pages. You will be able to use this book with your whole family and pull it out from year to year and have a nature study resource for all levels. 

Outdoor Hour Challenge: More Nature Study Ebook #2 Winter 2012

• Ten completely new challenges using the Handbook of Nature Study. See a Sample Challenge.
• 13 notebook pages and 5 coloring pages
• 17 Upper Level notebook pages for advanced or experienced students
• 11 Charlotte Mason style exam questions
• Complete list of supplies needed
• Detailed instructions for each challenge, including links and printables
• Nature journal suggestions 
• All the challenges will coordinate with the January through March Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletters
• Alternate ideas to adapt the challenges to your local area
• 60 pages
• Kindle Friendly
• $8.95

• Please note that I send the ebook personally so it may take up to 24 hours to receive your download link.
• Download links will be sent to the email address associated with the Paypal account.
• Ebook Price $8.95

I am really looking forward to getting started on 1/6/12 with the very first challenge in the ebook. 

As always, please email me with any questions or comments. harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

If you like what you see, spread the word about this winter nature study ebook! Share this entry and the YouTube video on Facebook, Tweet it out to your friends, or pin it on Pinterest! I appreciate all my loyal readers and fellow Outdoor Hour Challenge participants. I know that my success has been because of all your word of mouth advertising and it means a lot to me!

Winter Nature Study with the Outdoor Hour Challenge

Just For Your Information


For tax purposes, I am holding off the release of the new ebook until January 1, 2012. I promise it is ready and will be posted this weekend! I know that many of you are waiting for the release so you can start planning your term's nature study so I appreciate your patience.

Here are the topics that will be posted started January 6, 2012:

• Winter Wonder - winter weather/silent walk
• Chickadee or other winter bird
• Tree study - focusing on twigs and/or buds
• Sheep with a focus on wool
• Mullein or other winter weed observations
• Galls and gall dwelling insects - signs of insects
• Quartz study or starting a rock collection
• Magnets and Compass
• Moon names
• Pansy or other early blooming flower

I have made them all easily adaptable to your neighborhood. Many of the challenges can be done inside if you are experiencing really cold weather. As always, the challenges encourage to actually get outside but I know this is not practical for many during the winter months. The ebook includes 28 notebooking pages this time and suggestions for older or advanced students for every challenge. We continue to take it to the next level!

Other Up-Coming Events
Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival - December Newsletter Edition: It is not too late to fit in a nature study and blog entry for this edition of the carnival. You can submit your links here: Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.  The deadline is 12/30/11 and the carnival will be posted 12/31/11.


Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter - The January edition will be available on 1/1/12. You need to be subscribed to this blog to receive the link to download the monthly newsletter. It takes a few seconds to enter your email address in the box on my sidebar and you will receive the link in the 1/1//12 email footer.