My favorite twigs in my yard – and one of the reasons that helps me not miss Central Oregon – Year Round Roses. Yellow, White, Red – all year long. We took a slice of time – armed with yarn and knives.
The Challenge:
- Find three different budding twigs to bring in doors,
- tie your yarn to a branch in the yard to be monitored during spring and early summer, &
- spend 15 minutes outside between rain showers
Nate was disappointed that I made him machete his twig of choice – the climbing ivy. This plant takes over the forest! He thought it was beautiful, which it is, when it is tiny. . . . Chop Chop!
One thing we found in our forest – was that there were quite a few tree tops that were down – and crossing our well worn trails.
One of the problems – is that the branches blocked the culvert /river to the lake. We thought it was free fall from the winds – but do you see the yellow circle in the left hand of this photo? Not Free Fall. Tree Service from the Electrical Company. They also left garbage:
Took out the boys fort . . . . you’d think they would have noticed the Ladder and Swing . . .
But this is no beaver or wind storm cut. From the best that we could figure – they cut the tops from above, and just let them fall.
The stream is now re-routed about 15 feet to the south, and goes right into the neighbor’s yard now.
Many of the tree tops now look like this – which is strange, as there are no lines above.
We spent about a half hour cleaning out this area to help the water redirect to the path it normally takes.
Back inside – we had a great time writing about our twigs!
I so enjoy the Handbook of Nature Study for our research. I am always amazed at how the book, and our Notebooking Page Creator – Barb – can turn an object that is abundant and often seen, but seldom observed, into a piece of wonder and learning. We are REALLY enjoying the older advanced notebooking pages!
+Angie Wright
Pebblekeeper 
The boys have had fun this month, chopping the wood in the forest. A few pieces are next to me at the fire place as we speak. It’s actually turned into a good fun afternoon activity for them. Go figure! They have seen how important it is to have the rivers run on path, and have been digging out silt to make them flow more strongly and directly. Glad now that they gave the boys something to do!
You made me laugh with ‘chop chop’. that is sad about the trees and weird too.
Enjoying the Winter Twig Study! Thanks sooooo much for all of the great pics. and infromation. Love to see more high school infromation- always thanks- Much fun in Winter!
– Reese Homeschool Family
I’m so sorry..I put the comment on the wrong blog…ooops! But your twig study was lovely to look at 🙂
Thank you for the link to the free Nature Study Handbook! I am looking forward to incorporating this in to our homeschool activities. I especially enjoy the fact that you are giving us ideas of what to study in the winter months! 🙂
Inspiring! I love the comment you made about taking a look at the twigs between rain storms. I grew up in Oregon and I know what you mean. If you don’t go out in the rain, you don’t go out at all. Loved your study. Isn’t it amazing what one do with a twig or two!
Guess I should hurry and get our twig study done. Nice pics.
What lovely photos!
Excellent job on this study…love seeing your Oregon world and hearing your outdoor stories. I think you do an excellent job of balancing the “what to show” act. Our children do deserve their privacy and the freedom to create without sharing all the time.
Thank you so much for being such a great example.
Your guys did a great job on their drawings! Thanks for sharing! We were supposed to do twig study yesterday, too, but out week was so busy that we bumped it to Monday/
We have an area with the trees topped off like your area. Our area was topped off for a local small airport, for the landing zone. Is your area near an airport?
What gorgeous photos! I love this post. It is inspiring to me and I appreciate you sharing it. 🙂
Warmly,
Kate
FYI – I have not been taking photos of Nate’s completed notebooking pages on purpose. It is too much pressure for him to think they will be on the blog. He’ll let me snap in process – but without the public display – I have found he turns out ALOT more writing. I trust you’ll understand!