Beth chase's Blog (12)

Today is National Public Lands Day and there are activities around the country that will help you participate in you public land near you.

 

Try the National Environmental Education Asso.'s site with its interactive map.

 

Try the…

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"What mattered to my father (Edward Kennedy) was not the scale of an accomplishment, but that we did our share to make the world better," Kara Kennedy.

Kara Kennedy died today. I know this because of an NPR headline that I saw my iGoogle page. Were it not for that fact I would not have become aware of that quote. It is a quote that struck me and that inspired me to type up this brief post.



When we undertake…

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This has been a tough year for weather. Here in Texas we are experiencing the worst drought in the state’s history. In the coastal bend of Texas the temperatures have routinely been in the high 90′s and in other places of the state the temperatures have topped 100 for many, many days. With weather like that everyone and everything suffers. Today it is hot enough that I feel like I could bake cookies on the sidewalk. I have no desire…

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Latest post at my blog: TheNatureSchool.net

Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are, of course, in the midst of winter (you southern hemisphere folk will have to wait till July). What winter looks like varies greatly from latitude to latitude. What winter usually does usually have as a common thread is unpredictable weather. The northeastern United States is buried under mountains of snow that are atypical for that region at this time of year. US weather reporters have said that…

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Shopping for the nature lover is easy. Gifts to help the nature lover, especially a budding one, can be simple and inexpensive. Gifts like these don't usually require batteries or cables. The object of the game is to keep is simple. This is about connecting to nature rather than gadgets and kids need to be trained to value gadgets. They can also be trained to value life over things.



For the wee ones, 18 mos to 3 yrs you want to encourage observation but they aren't yet… Continue

A while back I did a series on Moon Watching at my TheNatureSchool blog. Yesterday I learned that Texas Tech and others are doing a moon study that is gathering 4th-8th grade students from around the world to make observations and contribute essays about their observations. You can read more about the study here at the World Moon Project site. They are requesting students register by Oct 8th. Details on… Continue

At TheNatureSchool.net I am running a multi post series on moon watching.



I remember, with great fondness, trips to the Arizona desert during the mid 60's to go star gazing. We'd lie on the car and my dad would point out all the constellations and tell me their stories.



Children love looking up at the stars and are facinated to try and find shapes in the stars. This coming Sunday's post at TheNatureSchool.net focuses on the new moon and finding stars in the night sky. There… Continue

I am moving house at TheNatureSchool to its own domain. You can see my most recent post, a lesson that you can use as a home school acitivity for science and language arts or art.



We are a sight dependent species. Although there are other species, and eagle for example, who could make our quality of vision seem paltry, we rely heavily on site. Further, in this technologically miraculous age, we often have gadgets in front of our… Continue

Two articles from Science Daily inspired me to focus on butterflies this week. Article on focused on the difficult winter that Monarch butterflies faced in their wintering grounds in Mexico, this year. The weather was cold and wet. This, along with habitat destruction threatened the overwintering butterflies. The second article focuses on creating butterfly oases to help their north/south migrations.



One of the greatest threats to all wildlife is habitat destruction. The same forces… Continue

These are the three elements to attracting wildlife. Most people begin with the food by putting up a feeder or two and food is a big attractant. Often the next step is adding a water feature. Water features can range from the complex and expensive to the simple and inexpensive.

I remember my uncle and I used to sit in his back yard. He had put in an elevated waterfall fountain where the water tumbled down like water in a mountain spring to a small sunken pond. On warm…

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Reading something Richard Louv wrote recently inspired me to write the post from which this is excerpted.



Perseverance, discipline, responsibility and independence are learned skills. I will differentiate skills from knowledge in that knowledge can be contained in books whereas skills are learned only by doing and usually by trial and error. The process of acquiring skills is, I think, hugely important to the development of people. In the process of acquiring other skills, like playing… Continue

Here you go, Suz. Thanks for the encouragement.



Oririnally posted at " thenatureschool.wordpress.com



I think we live in a jaded world. Perhaps this makes me a jaded person. Perhaps this is not news to people who are reading this blog. Perhaps you are the sort of person who lives in a state of wonder and you think I am smoking my socks. If you are in the latter group, share your ideas of wonder in the comments. If you are in the first group, read on because I share some… Continue