Blues

Where nature study is concerned, we oscillate between being structured (i.e. using books, lesson plans, etc) and learning from the moment.

Just the other day, we drove around the corner and a bunch of blue just growing by the roadside caught my eyes: bluebells!

These gorgeous flowers are usually found in the woods, so we were surprised to see them by the roadside.  I had planned another topic for our nature study this week, but decided to seize the moment (bluebells only blossom for a few weeks at most) and do an impromptu study on bluebells instead.

We walked back to the location and examined the plant in detail, noting the strong fragrance of the flowers, their colour and shape, their size, the leaves' size and shape and texture.

Then we came home and added an entry into our nature journals:

We then learned more about this lovely plant from BBC Nature's bluebell page.  The videos there are very informative, and we finally understood why the ones we saw by the roadside were bigger and 'fatter' than the normal bluebells we had seen in the woods previously: these were Spanish bluebells!  Apparently the native, British bluebells are 'daintier' and more blue in shade, while the Spanish version is bigger and more purplish in colour.

British bluebells vs Spanish bluebells

Another very interesting fact we learned is that Britain has more than 50% of the world's bluebell population!  What we have learned certainly helped Tiger to go through the quiz quickly and accurately.

When the sun came out, we decided to do a few more activities from the Bluebell pack.  Armed with his camera and a spotter's sheet, Tiger was tasked with finding all things in nature that are blue, including bluebells of course.

We decided to see whether we can find bluebells in the woods nearby.

No luck with seeing a bluebells in the woods, but Tiger found a stream which fascinated him for over an hour with jumping over it, watching it, playing pooh-stick, looking for any living organisms in it, generally just gazing and losing himself in the flow of water.  Perhaps the greatest gain in nature study is to develop a love and curiosity for the natural world around us.

 

This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.  It is also linked to the Homeschool Showcase #103.