Pebblekeeper

Handbook of Nature Study ~ Outdoor Hour Challenge

Spring Series #2 – Spring Weather Observation

We had our structured time of going through the questions today in our E-Book for the Spring Series #2. I have really enjoyed having the E-Book in advance to the challenges, knowing what is coming up, and how I can prepare for it!

Life on the coast dictates that we know the weather and the tides. We have learned how to read the satellites and enjoy trying to predict when the strongest winds will come, how sustained they will be, and how much rain will drop. We have learned that April is the month that the most debris is washed ashore as the currents in the oceans rotate and the final winter storms pound the coast line. The boys have become quite the meteorologists between knowing the cloud patterns and interpreting data available on line. They got to have a field trip last year to a local TV station, meet the meteorologist, play with the weather prompter and take a few photos. Its a good field trip to plan if your kiddos enjoyed the weather study.

We have learned that the tides run 50 minutes later each day at 12 hr intervals. So if Low Tide is at 5:10 today it will be at 6:00 tomorrow. We keep this info active in our memory as close as today’s date as many of our favorite spots are only open for an hour or two surrounding Low Tide.

For today’s challenge – we ended up putting a blanket and a pillow on the warm deck, read the questions, sketched a flower and the shadow stick, and wrote down our answers to the challenge.

We wedged a pencil between two boards to track the movement of the sun during our project, however, the dog, the younger son not interested at the moment, and the dog, and the son kept knocking over the shadow stick . . . . Good Gravy. Really? Yep.

So, after our time we put the pencil in a spot that Jon promised he would not kick over, and we have been tracking it since about 2:00.

A couple of pics for ya – Oh and we do not have a thermometer, ours got blown to bits off the deck in a storm, so I’m off to the local mart to find one this evening. So – that challenged us to answer in “feeling” answers.

Temp – Warm enough to warm the back of our jeans and the tops of our feet. Warm enough for a nap in the sun.

The Pooch – Rookie the Loyal Nature Dog. She prefers walking observations, unless sitting in the sun means getting your tummy rubbed. 🙂

Jon’s advice to Dad at lunch time -

We did notice that the shadow is getting longer as well as moving as the day goes by.

(We filled in the Sunrise/LowTide/Hours of Daylight at the house later)

Update on April 23, 2010 – A few April Spring Weather Photos –

Spring Storms and Flooding – The River was blocked with sand which flooded the lake – creating the largest waves we’ve seen yet. Water pushed through the dock – as you can see at the far top of the photo.