Spring Has Sprung! Nature Studies in Blooms and Feathers

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Spring is here! Officially on the calendar and officially in nature. The grass is giving us hints of green, the weather is milder, the wood stove only gets used in the mornings and evenings, kids are outside more, all the signs are here! What does the arrival of spring mean for my home education? Just another change of rhythm, lol! I can feel the sap of creativity bubble up in myself and my children, so we are going to make more time for handicrafts. We might switch from Mom reading aloud to audiobooks to allow Mom some creative time. Nature study will come back to the forefront, along with Nature Walks. I am excited!

Seasonal rhythms

I love the changes of season! For one thing it means that my seasonal picture book basket changes, which is always exciting! This time around the winter picture books will go back on their storage shelf in the garage and the spring ones will be dusted and brought in the house. The kids always get so excited with this change, as do I. Storing seasonal picture books out of the house while they are not in use always gives us a little Christmas morning feeling when the seasons change. There is this joy and anticipation as old friends return into the seasonal basket that is just a delight.

Then there is the evening rhythm that changes, with later daylight, most of us are outside until dark, which becomes mighty close to bedtime. Bedtime read-alouds are shorter, no more plugging in some school readings into our evenings. Mornings are brighter and we are up a little earlier, allowing for some lingering time around farm chores.

Spring School

Spring school happens organically with more time outside. Babies are born, flowers raise their heads. The green only lasts such a short time for us on the prairie, soon it will be brown again. Everyone wants to make the most of it. We will tinker in the yard, no garden this year, except maybe a flower garden. We will be going on Nature Walks at different State Parks, maybe even go to the Botanical Gardens. All the picture books on flowers are flying off the shelves and the focus has switched to nature in all its spring glory. Even art pursuits are turning to nature with new watercolor technique books focusing on flowers.

Flower Unit Study

I have put together a small and fun flower spring unit study with two of our favorite picture books: Cinderlily, A Floral Fairy Tale by David Ellwand and Christine Tagg and What’s Inside a Flower? By Rachel Ignotofsky. Cinderlily is at the heart of this idea, it is such a lovely book with all the different parts of the flowers revealed through the illustrations. We will be going on a flower specific Nature Walk, studying the details of flowers through dissection and learning how to press flowers. All of this will be accompanied by yummy flower treats and spring music. We would love to have you come and join us for this sweet and simple flower unit study!

Baby birds

My 10 yo has been breeding white pigeons. She is joining me today to give you all the details on her babies. Pigeons and doves are technically the same species, the only difference lies in the number of chromosomes of each, so we have been going with pigeons, of the columbidae family. The mother lays a clutch of two eggs, back to back within 1 to 3 days, as far as we have been able to observe. These are teeny tiny, absolutely white, eggs. Both parents will then sit on these eggs for 18 days. At the end of the gestation period, the babies will come out. They are completely featherless and resemble tiny dinosaurs, lol! It will take them two months to be full grown.

For about 6 weeks they will eat out of their parents’ beaks. Both parents have a small milk sack in their throat, providing the proper nourishment: crop milk. Around 4 weeks the babies will start supplementing their diet with leftover peas and seeds from their parents bowl. At 2 weeks their feathers start growing and they will be completely feathered by 5 weeks. As they grow, their beaks will thin out allowing them to peck for food rather than drink from the parents’ milk sacks. By 8 weeks they are full grown and will live for more than twenty years. They will be able to start reproducing at around 5 to 6 months old.

Why pigeons?

I (my daughter) chose pigeons because they are beautiful and can be used for many different things. They can be used for racing, carrying messages, and released at special ceremonies, such as weddings. 
Pigeon races: The pigeons are let out at a certain distance from their home base  and the first pigeon to find its way home wins. 

Carrier pigeons: They were used during wars to carry messages from war camp to war camp. They knew where to go through training. Homing (carrier) pigeons are released away from their home and will fly back to their home, not the other way around. It takes about 8 weeks to train a homing pigeon with multiple practices a week, extending the distance away from home each time. 

Pigeon releases: a flock of white pigeons being released looks beautiful at weddings and special ceremonies.
My daughter is hoping to breed and sell her pigeons mainly for releases. In the meantime she is enjoying her pets and loves to document their growth.
The first clutch hatched in December and the second in February. So far, 3 of the 4 babies have survived. And I was just told that a new egg was discovered today!

Spring goodness

I cannot wait to be able to spend more time outside, to explore nature further and longer and to soak in as much sunshine as possible. Spring is a delightful season in which all things become new. The grays and browns turn to greens and splashes of colors scatter the landscape. A good rain storm washes everything clean and makes more green appear magically. I just relish this time of year.

As I have grown older, I have realized that my favorite season is the current season I find myself in. And similarly my favorite project is my current one, my favorite quilt is the one I am working on, etc.. And I have worked hard to apply this principle to the season of life I find myself in as well, not quite as easy sometimes… But it has brought great contentment to my life. Being content with where I am at, with what I have to do during this season of life has then brought great peace and a better ability to surrender. So this spring, let us be content in the season, enjoying each moment, no matter how simple.
Wishing you a beautiful spring!
Love,
Mattie