Shining Dawn Books has been nominated for Best Curriculum or Business Blog in the Homeschool Blog Awards.  How exciting!!!  Thank you to our nominators!!!

You can click on the graphic above to see all the categories and nominees.  If you’d like to vote for Shining Dawn Books, you can click on the link above to go directly to our category.

Both of our personal blogs have been nominated as well!

Melissa’s blog, In the Sparrow’s Nest, for

• Best Photos and Artistic Content Blog

Cindy’s blog, Our Journey Westward, for

• Best Eclectic Homeschooling Blog
• Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger

We appreciate your votes!

]]> http://shiningdawnbooks.com/2009/11/11/hsba-nomination/feed/ http://shiningdawnbooks.com/2009/11/11/hsba-nomination/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ShiningDawnBooks/~3/gqdRa_K_Sgo/ http://shiningdawnbooks.com/2009/11/03/audubon-field-guides/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:30:59 +0000 admin http://shiningdawnbooks.com/?p=729 One nature study question I hear quite often is, “Which field guide series is your favorite?”  Depending on the subject, I almost always answer National Audubon Society Field Guides.

Now, Melissa may differ with me and decide to put up a post about her favorites.  :)  But, for this post, I want to focus on why I like the Audubon guides best overall.

• They’re inexpensive!  At Amazon, most of them are right around $14.00.  That’s very affordable when purchasing one at a time over the span of several years.  (At least that’s the way I’ve done it!)

• They’re durable!  This would be very important to me even if I didn’t have three children who want to handle the books after they’ve romped in the creek or dug a critter out of the dirt!  The cover is vinyl, so dirties can be wiped off and it’s less likely to be bent traveling in a nature bag.  The pages are also tightly bound.  In fact, I’ve never had one of the Audubon guides lose a page or break at the binding.

• They’re small enough to fit in a nature bag, but big enough to have very clear pictures.

• They’re thorough.  It’s hard to be thorough in the world of nature because God is so awesome and creative!  But, even though the books can’t cover everything, I’ve found them to be quite helpful for identifying most things.

• They’re organized.  I’m a Martha Stewart at heart.  (My kids aren’t, but that’s another post for another day.)  I like when books are organized in a reasonable manner.  It doesn’t take us any time to figure out where to look in the book for a certain colored nature object or a certain size.  Pictures are categorized in the front half of the book with a very clear system that makes it so easy that children can locate things without much help.  In the back of the book you find detailed descriptions about each nature object such as - size, color, texture, range, season and much more.

So there you have it.  The “why” behind my general recommendation.  When I come across a field guide that stands out from Audubon, I’ll be sure to share it!  Which are your favorites?

~Cindy

This is my preschooler walking along a wooded trail at a local park.

This past few weeks we have been busily studying deciduous trees in our homeschool. Here are some of the things, specifically, that I have been doing with my preschooler: 

We looked up high to see what we could see and found this bird's nest. We talked about whether there would be any birds in it right now.

We also talked about any fruits that we saw and what size and color they were.

We looked down low to see what we could find and found things like this fallen hickory nut and mushrooms.

We collected many leaves on our walks to take back home and press in books.

We noted all the different colors, such as orange, green, red, yellow and purple!

We also talked about the different shapes leaves, such as these star-shaped ones.

We talked about the different colors and textures of bark.

On our walks we always stop to notice a little fuzzy critter or two!

Keep in mind that older siblings are also a great help on nature walks with little ones. Sometimes they even love to get in on the teaching!

 Anytime of year is a great time for nature study with preschoolers and toddlers. Each season has it’s wonder in it; such as the Autumn is so full of vibrant colors! Do not miss out on this priceless opportunity to connect up with your young children amongst God’s beautiful creation!

Our family is having such a good time learning about autumn ponds.  There’s tons of life still to be found as colder weather approaches.  Including plant life!  You can read about our pond plant study by visiting this post on my personal blog.

Our lastest pond study led us in search of migrating waterfowl.  Aren’t these mallard ducks beautiful?

There were hundreds of ducks on this large pond!

Looking for food from the bank.

Looking for food while happily paddling.

Food found!

Happy ducks.

Happy duck hunters!

Ducks are some of the friendlier waterfowl we’ve found.  Geese haven’t been quite as forgiving about the noise that comes with two busy naturExploring boys.  Nor have the herons, hawks and other birds that we see flying off in the distance as we approach a pond.   Oh well, there will be time for peaceful pond studies in the years to come.  Right now, I’ll enjoy their rambunctious zeal for enjoying God’s creation.

Our pond studies this week will be comparing an old pond to a new pond.  You can find pond ideas for all seasons in the NaturExplorers unit Peaceful Ponds.  The price will go up before too long as unit revamping is nearing completion!

~Cindy

Coping with the Cold: How Animals Survive the Winter Season thoroughly covers the topics of adaptations, migration and hibernation through a huge selection of outdoor and indoor nature study ideas!

You’ll learn how and why animals prepare for the winter season as you make autumn observations, then learn about how various animals spend their winter days through wintery walks and warm indoor activities.

Nature times outdoors will be spent recording the busyness of animals storing food for the winter, locating possible burrows and dens, observing migration patterns, finding animal tracks in the snow and much, much more!

Indoors, complete insulation experiments, learn about adaptation rules, find out about hibernation variations, complete projects to demonstrate animal adaptations, research migration flyways  - these name just a few of the many ideas!

As usual, choose one activity or complete a full-length unit - it’s your choice!  Fourteen notebooking pages supply you with attractive, ready-made lessons!  As colder weather approaches, don’t stop studying nature.  There’s an entire cold season of creation just waiting to be discovered!

Click here to order!

In each unit, there’s a section written specifically for little ones with ideas for sensory skills, motor skills, broadening vocabulary skills and several hands-on explorations.  There are also fun crafts, cooking and dramatic play ideas for little hands.

At the same time, most of the outdoor activities in the main section of the units can be used with young children, too!

Here are a few examples of how my two-year-old son has tagged along during our recent nature studies.  And maybe I shouldn’t even use the words “tagged along” because he was learning just as much as us on his own level!

He's probably more serious about finding things in nature than his big brother and sister!

Throwing and hitting help him learn about the world around him.

We touch a lot of things and I use descriptive words.

I never force nature on him, I let him make his own discoveries - and his finds are often better than mine!

I always let him take part in what the big kids are doing if he wants.

God reveals Himself through nature to our little ones as well as us!  Don’t leave little guys and gals out!

~Cindy

Gail Bartel is an artist living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  A mom of three, Gail became involved with the local elementary school seven years ago to assist with some art and crafts projects.  She is now the “artist in residence” at the school providing art education to students from Kindergarten to Grade 6.  She is also the author of the blog “that artist woman” which features step-by-step tutorials for many of the art projects she teaches at school.  In her personal work, she is a developing watercolorist focusing on the beauty of the Canadian Rockies.

Materials Required:

salt dough, recipe to follow
artificial silk leaves
round container to use as cutter
oven
acrylic paint
mod podge for sealer



Salt Dough Recipe

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 - 2 cups water
extra flour for kneading

Mix first 3 ingredients together to form a nice soft dough. Knead smooth with extra flour. The more you knead this dough the easier it is to work with.

Keep leftover dough in the fridge.

Make up your salt dough. This recipe will make enough for 8 rounds.

Roll out dough and the using circular container or bowl, (coffee can) cut your rounds.

Pick a leaf for your design. I initially tried this with fresh leaves but they did not leave a good imprint. I think it would have worked with clay.

The silk leaves leave a better impression in the salt dough.

Place where you want it and press the leaf into the dough.

When you lift it off you should have a nice impression.

Place on a parchment or foil covered cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for about 2 - 3 hours or until hard.

Let cool.

Take some acrylic paint in Autumn colors.

After trial and error I found the best way to paint these is to paint the leaves in different colors first. Let dry.

Then using dark brown paint that you have watered down apply a wash, like an antiquing glaze to the entire surface. The dark color picks up the veining in the leaf and still lets the Autumn color show thru.

Let dry and then apply a coat of glossy Mod Podge as a sealer.

That’s it. A good project for all ages.

We realize Gail has used artificial leaves for this project rather than real leaves.  If you prefer, try real leaves first to see if they leave a good enough impression for you.  If not, use artificial leaves and use it as an opportunity to talk about leaf parts and how fragile they are.

Also, Melissa completed a similar project with her children last year called Nature Prints in Clay that you won’t want to miss either!

Don’t forget - the new and improved Delightful Deciduous Trees NaturExplorers unit was released a few weeks ago!

Black and Yellow Argiope

This web was built in the crook of tree branches that have already lost their leaves.

These spiders and their webs were everywhere along a fence line with a lot of tree growth.

Can you see the hollow of this tree filled with wispy orange webs?

I have no idea how this heavy web sack was supported by the web! It was at least 2" tall!

Don’t let spiders scare you!  You don’t have to get too close to study and enjoy them.  This is the perfect time of year to find some spider activities in the Spectacular Spiders NaturExplorer study.  We’re currently revamping the unit to add more ideas and more notebooking pages.  It probably won’t be ready for several weeks, so now’s the time to order the study before the price goes up!

~Cindy

Thistle Seeds

Queen Anne's Lace Seeds

While my daughter was walking in the creek there were acorns from an Oak tree above falling on her head!

We collected lots of acorns.

Berry Bush

Berries on Tree

Berries, nuts and seeds that we collected.

We made a final stop at our raised bed garden to collect some last of the season fruits, Roma tomatoes.

After our walk we spread out our “finds” on a cutting board and spent some time looking at them under a magnifying lens and experimenting a bit with them. Do you see the beautiful colors of acorns?

This time of year is such a wonderful time to study about fruits and nuts and everything to do with them! Now, this weekend we’re going to the produce department at the local supermarket to buy some apples and walnuts to bake my favorite fall dessert, Apple Crisp! Which, by the way, this scrumptious recipe is included in the Fruits and Nuts unit!

This monarch caterpillar was just calling my name to take home and raise. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to carry it home in safely. I'm sure the caterpillar didn't mind being left alone!

I'm not sure if the tip of the wing on this monarch butterfly was damaged or not, but it sat very still while I snapped photo after photo. Thank you, friendly butterfly.

Does anyone have any idea what type of caterpillar this is?? My Audubon Field Guide to Butterflies didn't have anything similar.

It’s not too late in the year to do a quick study of butterflies using the Butterflies Flutter By NaturExplorer unit.

~Cindy