Once again I’m joining Aurie, Lisa, Amy, and Connie to share ideas for fun, family activities for the summer. We hope you’ll stop by every Wednesday to share in our theme or link up your own posts about great summertime fun for the whole family!

This week, our theme is Nature Connections–which my regular readers will know is near and dear to my heart!  Nature study is high on our casual summer study list this year and I’ve got some budding naturalists on my hands.

One of the ways I’ve started feeding their excitement this year is by pulling out the old field guides the Mr. Fix-It and I have acquired over the years–and investing in a few new ones.

Our stack started when we lived in PA and the roadsides were just FULL of wildflowers like I’d never seen before.

While I’m a huge fan of Amazon (and their prices…and their free shipping…and Swagbucks giftcards…) you can also find these in library book sales and thrift stores. They’re pretty common. Or when new editions come out, I’ve found a couple older editions on the bookstore bargain shelves.  They also make great gifts with a pair of binoculars or a magnifying glass.

For younger kids, I would definitely recommend the Peterson’s First Guide series. They are small, easy to carry, and have simple drawings in them. The text is pretty big print for early readers and they tend to only include the most common species, so kids don’t get overwhelmed. (Although older kids might be a little disappointed.)

My Ladybug loves the butterflies and moths. I found the wildflowers a little too condensed for all of the varieties we see, but the kids love the pencil drawings and try to copy them.

The colored pencil drawings are also great for encouraging kids to try and copy them. I like to use the books to help the kids identify things around our yard, but they are also packed with great pictures and stuff to learn. They include all kinds of animal facts like natural habitats, endangered status, difference between male and female of the same species, and types of food.

I love that they show the top and underside of the wings and the differences between male and female.

But you know what my favorite part of Nature Study is? You don’t have to go to exotic locations or far away to find great nature study opportunities–they’re all around you all day long! Our butterfly bushes alone attract more than 7 different kinds of moths and butterflies.

This is a Copper moth–the underside and the top side of it’s wings look completely different!

We’ve identified males and females of 6 different species of birds so far, including bluebirds, mockingbirds, house sparrows, purple finches (nesting on our front porch no less!), cardinals, and robins. We’ve discovered 4 different kinds of bees and wasps (fun, right?), two different kinds of toads and frogs, and don’t even get me started on the flowers. I love flowers. Getting back into wildflowers is as much a joy for me as it is teaching for them.

Here’s a Copper moth with wings open on our other butterfly bush.

Nature study together is one of our favorite ways to connect–it’s something that doesn’t have to be done far from home and doesn’t require much (or any!) money. It can be done morning, evening, or in between and it can be done at all age levels (at the same time, no less!).

I’ll be sharing about making each of the kids nature notebooks next week–after I pry them back out of those busy little fingers to get some pictures! {grin}

***THE LINK UP IS NOW CLOSED–BUT PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ENJOY THE POSTS!***