Bird Watching and A Few Thoughts On Field Trips


A word about field trips:

Sharing them seems to have taken the homeschool blogosphere by storm. I love it! One of my first realizations as homeschool mom is that education does not have to happen at the school table. Not only that, often more education happens on the road! 

If you doubt it, I have a story. Our third year of homeschool was derailed by health problems (mine). It was very difficult to accomplish much that required being consistent or organized. I could, however, drive to a field trip where an expert on a particular subject would teach my children while I tagged along. ;) We visited museums, grocery stores, restaurants (some feed you for free!), historical sights, a marine lab, aquariums, factories, zoos,... My older girls would pack lunch, dress their baby sister, and we were off. 

Now, the interesting part. My girls took standardized tests when we began homeschooling. Not that I put a huge amount of stock in those results, but... the year that we did this, my girls' test scores soared! Go figure. We did less "school" and more exploring, and somehow they still managed to get the "education" needed. Field trips really are learning at its best.  

Just thought I'd share. 


On to bird watching. 

Our expert, Freddie, took us on an expedition to view some of our local feathered friends. 


She began by having each of the students color a bird identification chart. 


Her hope was that they would get a chance to see each of these beauties- and they did! 


She also had a bird behavior chart that I hope to get a copy of. 


Our students tried to find birds that were presenting the different behaviors- feeding, hiding, flying, preening... We saw them all. Everyone was impressed with the ducks dabbling (feeding). It is amazing how beautiful and colorful the birds look through binoculars when you can see the details- girl ducks are not plain. You just have took closer to see the loveliness. 


This scope is wonderful- with it Freddie gave is a close up of Coots feet, and an awesome view of Snowy Heron.

 Silly Picture!! :) 

It was a magical afternoon!

I came to the conclusion that we were going to make this the year that we dove into 
nature studies after I planned this field trip (I planned it for my bird loving niece), 
but it was a another great jump-start for us.





Chestnut Grove Academy Field Trip Friday Blog Hop



Comments

  1. Chestnut Grove AcademyOctober 28, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    best way to study nature is to be in nature! Thanks for linking up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 28, 2011 at 2:19 PM

    Isn't it ironic how that works? LOL Sometimes less IS really more!

    LOVE birds! We just started filling our feeders again. We do most of our bird watching from inside our warm livingroom during the cool falls days and long winter months. We make sure our feathered friends and furry squirrels are fed!

    Thanks for stopping by! Yes, it was rough with the library out for 2 weeks (and it took us another week to get in)!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The AdventurerOctober 29, 2011 at 4:17 AM

    Love your wise words about field trips as I feel the very same way:) which is why I started the hop. I am looking for some guest blog posts would you be interested in doing this:) Contact me if you are interested I would love you to do something to expand on what you have already written:)

    Great field trip so glad every one enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RikOctober 29, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    I have to agree with your thoughts on field trips! We love to hit the road and get our hands dirty :) I also love reading about what other HS families are doing, it gives me great ideas for our own trips :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownOctober 29, 2011 at 7:29 AM

    You're so right about field trips. We need to plan more of them, then maybe I wouldn't hear "I'm bored" so often. lol

    Thank you for linking up at NOBH. I still get a kick out of seeing your blog design. It looks new to me every time. =)

    ReplyDelete
  6. BrittneyOctober 29, 2011 at 7:55 AM

    Hi, this looks like a great trip! I plan to start incorporating more bird watching and nature studies. I can't wait to check out more of your blog.

    Stopping by from Friday Field Trip Blog Hop.

    ReplyDelete
  7. PattyOctober 29, 2011 at 3:13 PM

    Love your trips. I live through them! Enjoyed that super cute pic at the end the most. And who says that home schoolers are not well-rounded?! Seriously!

    ReplyDelete
  8. TiffanyOctober 30, 2011 at 8:41 PM

    Love the interesting tid-bit about the improvement of test scores after all of your exploring!

    ReplyDelete

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