Outdoor Hour Challenge June Newsletter is Posted!

Thrilled, excited, energized! I couldn't be happier about the new format for the Outdoor Hour Challenge. The monthly newsletter has not only given our family more flexibility as we spend time outdoors but I find myself enjoying the process more. Spending time outdoors is more about exploring again and letting interesting subjects come our way.

I was happy to see that other families felt a little of this freedom as well and the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival that was posted yesterday reflects all the wonderful nature study completed in May along with some of the suggested activities from the May Newsletter.

Just to remind readers of the changes to the Outdoor Hour Challenge:

1. Instead of a weekly challenge, there will be a monthly newsletter with a month's worth of nature study suggestions, new nature journal ideas, a custom notebook page, and always a few more goodies. 
2. Each newsletter will be filled with specific ideas for encouraging nature study in your family, no matter where you live.
3. The newsletter will be available at the beginning of each new month and you will be able to download it and print for your family.
4.The newsletter will outline the Outdoor Hour Challenge topics for the month and all participants will complete the challenges the same as before but there will no longer be a Mr. Linky each week. Instead, blog entries will be shared in the monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival at the end of the month.
5. I will still share our family's Outdoor Hour Challenge experiences on my blog and support everyone's entries by sharing about them in the Blog Carnival.

Please note that you are encouraged to try to use the topics suggested in the monthly newsletter but if your family finds another topic of interest...always follow your interest. You can still submit the entry to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. You can submit more than one entry to the carnival.

I am going to start asking that your entries submitted to the carnival include a link back to the Handbook of Nature Study blog, which can include the OHC logo if you wish. I am hoping that by sharing the link back to my blog that other families will be encouraged to download the newsletter and participate in the carnival as well, spreading the OHC community. For the month of June there is a special giveaway to those families that submit an entry to the OHC Blog Carnival by 6/29/11. Read the June Newsletter for details.

I would love to hear your feedback on this issue of the newsletter. It includes many new features and I am excited to hear how you like it or if you have any suggestions for future issues.

Here is the June 2011 Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletter. 
(If you have trouble downloading the newsletter and you have Mozilla Firefox, right click the link, save it, then try to open it from your desktop.)

Outdoor Hour Challenge - New Direction: May Newsletter

Itch: To have a restless desire or hankering for something.

Have you ever felt an itch and couldn't scratch it? Has something ever nagged you and you at first could not decide what it was that was bothering you? I have had an itch to do something different with the Outdoor Hour Challenges for awhile now and the time has come to make a few changes. Changes for the better that will freshen up the concept and give us all a little freedom.

My life has changed quite a bit in the last three years, growing children and changing interests have flavored my days with wonderful experiences and opportunities. I am not ready to leave the Outdoor Hour Challenge behind yet....but rather give it some new life.


Here are the highlights of the changes:

1. Instead of a weekly challenge, there will be a monthly newsletter with a month's worth of nature study suggestions, new nature journal ideas, a custom notebook page, and always a few more goodies. 
2. Each newsletter will be filled with specific ideas for encouraging nature study in your family, no matter where you live.
3. The newsletter will be available at the beginning of each new month and you will be able to download it and print for your family.
4.The newsletter will outline the Outdoor Hour Challenge topics for the month and all participants will complete the challenges the same as before but there will no longer be a Mr. Linky each week. Instead, blog entries will be shared in the monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival at the end of the month.
5. I will still share our family's Outdoor Hour Challenge experiences on my blog and support everyone's entries by sharing about them in the Blog Carnival.

There will be something for everyone whether you are brand new to the Outdoor Hour Challenge or you have been participating through the seasons. I encourage you to download May's Newsletter and see for yourself that the change is going to be exciting. My hope is that this will help even more families find a way to incorporate nature study into their monthly homeschooling. Please feel free to send me an email with any questions or comments.

Here is the May 2011 Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletter.