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Nature Study

Homeschool Winter Nature Study Tips

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

The groundhog has spoken and it will be 6 more weeks of winter here. I’m not surprised with a storm in the forecast. We’ll be continuing our winter nature study for awhile longer as things melt and freeze again and again. After living in the freezing Saskatchewan for years, we’re enjoying learning about everything about winter on a lake.

Homeschool Winter Nature Study Tips

Homeschool Winter Nature Study Tips

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

As a child I hated going outside. It was boring as an only child with no one to play with. My children love being outside and have since my oldest was little. I made a point of going outside with them so that they could love it out there. 10 year later, my kids would rather be outside than in the house. And if we could get some more great sledding snow/weather, I’ll be right out there with them.

Tip #1: Go Out in the Sun

Watch the weather forecast and make plans for the sunny days. This was the biggest challenge after leaving Saskatchewan, it’s not always sunny here in New Brunswick, and I am a sunshine person.

The afternoons are often the warmer time of day to go as well, so that’s when I venture out. And when my kids go out and stay out for longer periods of time too.

Tip #2: Study Winter-Specific Topics Outside

Spend time learning about hibernation and winter adaptations of local animals, and animals in other parts of Canada. Look for and study tracks and scat. Ice, snow, and conifers also make excellent winter subjects for nature study, including building snowmen, and igloos. You can check your local library for books on animals that you have in your area to learn more about them.

Arctic Animals – Science Experiment

Snow Reaction in a Bag

Snowy Owl

Homeschool Winter Nature Study Tips

Tip #3: Invest in Good Winter Clothing

I buy the majority of our outside winter clothing – boots, coats, snow-pants, at the end of winter, beginning of spring. It can be expensive to buy boots for 3 kids, and I want warm boots, no frozen toes over here please.

Mommas, don’t forget to buy warm outside winter clothing for yourself. Snow pants, boots, winter coat, hat, mittens, the whole works. It’s a lot more fun when you can feel your legs still.

My kids are super hard on things and I am always sewing them back together. This year I found this waterproof spray to coat their things after I sew them and it has been reported back to me that they are staying dry!

View this post on Instagram

The kids were so excited to get out on the frozen river last weekend.

A post shared by Ashley (@forgetfulmomma) on Jan 24, 2020 at 7:18am PST

Tip #4: Enjoy the Cozy Rewards

Come in from learning about animal tracks to a cup of hot chocolate. Grab your read aloud or book of poetry to enjoy at the same time. Talk about what you learned, what you observed while out there. Maybe make a plan for your next outside adventure.

If you are lucky enough to live where you are able to make and enjoy an igloo, maybe take your hot chocolate outside to enjoy in your igloo… I really wish we could do this!

Tip #5: Stay Inside and Keep Learning

Observe what is happening out there. Watch the squirrels come down from the trees to dig through the snow for seeds, or to come down all crazy as the snow is melting. Or the hawk that is enjoying a duck for lunch out on the ice and we can watch from our living room with binoculars.

We have learned more about nature from standing in our living room. Nature is beautiful and prefers us to take a step a back from them. Set up or make bird feeders for the birds that are around all winter.

Winter Nature Study - Hawk eating

Similar posts you may be interested in:

101 Reasons to Homeschool Outside

20 Outside Activities & Games for Kids

Taking Homeschool Outside this Spring and Summer

Backyard Summer Camp: Nature Camp

Filed Under: Family, Homeschool, Natural Homeschooling Tagged With: Nature Study

Learning about Snowy Owls + Giveaway

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

There is a very common sight on the highways here in Saskatchewan during the winter and that sight would be snowy owls. They sit on the tops of telephone poles in the cold winter weather. Once in a while we get to witness them swiping down to catch prey.  I thought it would be a great idea to learn a little more about these beautiful animals since we see them so much (winter being a rather long season here it seems).

Snowy Owl - Winter Nature Study

Learning about Snowy Owls in Saskatchewan

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

I was really excited about hosting this link up this year because I have wanted to do nature studies with my kids but just haven’t done them for some reason or other. This is the perfect opportunity to do so at least once a month. As I mentioned we were learning about snowy owls, and did a cute little owl craft as well.

Snowy Owl Craft- Winter Nature Study

My first stop of course for learning about anything was our library. There I found a few books about snowy owls including:



We learned a lot about the birds we see so often from these two books.

To make our craft, we tore up a couple sheets of white paper into small bits. I rough handed a silhouette of an owl on black paper for the black of night. Added some glue and they filled in the owl with “feathers”.

Austin choose to leave some black showing through to be a female owl, something we learned about these beautiful owls.

Snowy Owl Craft- Winter Nature Study

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 1.

The Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.

It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature.

There is a theme for each month in 2018. We welcome your nature book and activity related links!

The Nature Book Club theme for January: Winter Birds and Nests

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these 15 nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts! Are you following them? If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one.

Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for the month.

Something 2 Offer
Birds, Nests, and Eggs Nest Scavenger Hunt

The Usual Mayhem
The Boy Who Drew Birds Free artist study set (John James Audobon)

Preschool Naturally
Whose Nest Is This? – Nest Building Activity

Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
(Backyard Bird Series) Cardinals – Free Northern Cardinal Unit Study & Lapbook.

Rule This Roost
Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds – DIY Bird Feeders

Hide The Chocolate
Those Darn Squirrels Fly South – Free online book club.

The Homeschool Scientist
Birds, Nests, and Eggs – Make a Suet Feeder

Forgetful Momma
Snowy Owls Snowy Owl Craft

Table Life Blog
A Nest is Noisy – Art Project.

Eva Varga
Ravens in Winter: Nature Study Activities and Lessons for Teens – Winter Bird ID

Wind in a Letterbox
Birds for Beginners in Southern Africa – Nature Journal Entry

Rainy Day Mum
Coming Home – Needle Felted Robin

Handbook of Nature Study
Backyard Birds Field Guide for Young Naturalist – Backyard Bird Nature Study

The Playful Scholar
Backyard Birds of Winter by Carol Lerner – How to Make Hanging Suet Ornaments

Freshly Planted
Nests – Nest Weaving

The Nature Book Club theme for February: Small Mammals

WHOOP! – The Nature Book Club Giveaway!

We’re so excited about this month’s freebie. It is an ebook, Backyard Science – Easy Activities for All Ages, by The Homeschool Scientist.
A huge Thank You to The Homeschool Scientist!

Click on the link above. It’s free until February 4, 2018.
Use the coupon: bookclub

Party Rules

        • Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
        • The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
        • You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
        • By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts.That’s it!
        • Let’s party.

      Nature Books Study

      An InLinkz Link-up


Filed Under: Kids Activities, Nature Study Tagged With: Nature Study, Saskatchewan, snow owl

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A Little About Me

I'm Ashley, a Canadian secular homeschool mom of 3, living in Nova Scotia.

I share our adventures in homeschooling and parenting.

You can usually find us at the library surrounded by books.
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