An Ideal Day Exploring Habitats {with Free Printable Co-op Lesson Plan}

{Disclosure:  This post contains affiliate links to books that we used in planning, prep and follow up to our co-op meeting.  We thank you for blessing our family should you choose to click through any of these links to make any Amazon purchase.  Doing so adds nothing to your purchase price, but does provide our family with a tiny percentage of your sale.  Thank you!}

 Start with a beautiful day.

Add children.

Stir in several brief mini-lessons.

  Add a generous amount of free, child-directed exploration.

And you have a recipe for one successful kick off to a Habitat Explorers Co-op!

At least you do in our experience.

Last week, we thoroughly enjoyed our first meeting using the Habitat Explorers Meeting One lesson plan that I created and am sharing here.

Some highlights of our experience were...

Coming together in Discovery Circles...

 Going on a Micro-Hike...

 

Sharing our nature journal entries...

Trail walking...

Please feel free to adapt the plan for your own family's, club or co-op's use.  If you do, I would love to hear how it goes.  I'd also be excited to hear about your favorite outdoor adventures and read alouds, websites and other resources related to hands-on habitat exploration!

Read-alouds my children and I enjoyed while preparing for this co-ops. following up from it and prepping for the next meeting on Woodland habitats are:

Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places 

 

Roxaboxen

Crinkleroots Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats

   

Fun With Nature: Take Along Guide (Take Along Guides)

 

  

Backyard Detective: Critters Up Close

 

  

Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac

 

 

Woods & Forests (Nature Hide & Seek)

 

  

Forest Explorer: A Life-sized Field Guide

 

  

Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Trees

A Log's Life 

  

Around One Log: Chipmunks, Spiders, and Creepy Insiders 

  

Trees, Leaves & Bark (Take Along Guides)  

I'll share about the Woodland Habitat meeting, too, in weeks to come.  Stay tuned for all five parts of this series! And, please find all the posts so far by clicking the Habitat Explorers button.

 

• 4 Steps to Beginning a Habitat Explorers Outdoor Co-op {with a Free Editable Invitation}

Joining the Children's Rosary Prayer Group Movement

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas reading this and happy "Mary Month" to us all.  

At the start of this beautiful month dedicated to Our Mother Mary, my children and I participated for the second month in a row in our parish collaborative's Children's Rosary group.  

The group is one of many springing up around the globe in response to the example and guidelines set by a small parish group in 2011.  In fact, our local group joins in prayer with groups in Australia, England, Kenya, Timor Leste and, of course, many other states in the U.S.A.  How cool is that?  Small local groups of children all over the world praying the Rosary so that Our Lady will guide them while at the same time snctifying their families and parishes!

Cooler still, from my personal perspective, is that our local Children's Rosary group has helped my children pray two whole Rosaries in recent months.  For while this may be no small feat for some families, I admit our family struggles with praying the entire Rosary in one sitting and has been known to only do so with the aid of CD's or the promise of cupcakes.

I am especially delighted to be participating in this monthly prayer group and encourage others to join the movement.

If you're local to us, we'd love for you to come join our collaborative's Children's Rosary group.  If you're not, check out the Children's Rosary site to find a group near you or to learn how to start your own group.

You may also enjoy:

• revisiting 3 Ways to Bring Little Ones Closer to Mary

• printing and using Seven Sorrows of Mary 3-Part Cards

• printing and using 3-Part Life of Mary Sequencing Cards

What helps you and your children pray the Rosary?  Feel free to share your experiences in comment or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.  If you leave a link to an idea, I will pin it on the Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation in Young Children Pinterest board.

4 Steps to Beginning a Habitat Explorers Outdoor Co-op {with a Free Editable Invitation}

Spring has sprung and with it comes a seemingly constant impulse to take learning outdoors.

So, that's exactly what my family and seven other families are doing this May and early June as we enjoy a four-session mini co-op that I developed called Habitat Explorers.

Want to create your own Habitat Explorers co-op?  

To borrow my ideas, it just takes four steps.

Step One:  Pause and Pray!

As with anything in life a "good" idea is only truly  "good" if it aligns with God's will for our lives  So, before moving forward with initiating a Habitat Explorers group, I prayed about a number of things.  Among the questions I waited on the Lord to answer were "big" general ones and "small", specific ones:

• Co-ops and clubs have proven themselves to be "right" for my family, but is right NOW the "right time" for me to initiate and lead this group?  Would doing so enrich our lives or would it tip the already precarious balance I try so hard to maintain?  Lord, do you want me to lead this and, if so, do you want me to do so now? 

• Our family loves to get outside, especially when the weather is welcoming.  Would dedicating a large portion of our "learning time" on a given day each week to exploring the great outdoors in fellowship with others be fruitful for us and for others?  Would it bless us all, bringing us in some way closer to God, closer to one another and closer to meeting our given missions as we understand them?  Would it help us develop knowledge and exercise skills?  What would be the right balance of "learning" vs. "fun" time at each meeting?

 

• More and more, I try to allow my my faith to define and direct everything I do in life, whether quietly or overtly.  Should this co-op be overtly faith-based or simply one that allows participants to grow with God through interacting in His amazing creation?  Should I incorporate Bible verses, stories of faith, the Catechism, communal verbal prayer and other such things into co-op sessions or simply encourage space and time for the Spirit to work in me and in other folks without planned catalysts? 

 

• There is such thing as too much of a "good" thing when it distracts us from other things we should be doing.  Thus, how often should our co-op meet, for how many weeks and for how many hours each time?

• God has created so many fantastic places!  Which one should we base out co-op at?  Of the many wondrous things we could explore there, which should we focus on? What overall learning objectives should we cover during co-op and what types of specific activities will best help us meet those objectives while also enjoying fellowship?

• Co-ops can take many forms.  A "basic" of all co-ops though is that duties within them are shared.  What duties would best be shared in this co-op?  Planning?  Supplies?  Lesson leading?  Something else? 

 

Step Two: Share and Set Details

Over the course of several weeks, during quiet time alone, in the back of my mind during busy times with my children, as well as through conversations with other folks in person and online, answers to my prayers and questions became clear.  As they did, the "right" frameworks for our co-op were defined.

We would meet four times over the course of five weeks at a single local conservation area.  We would not rotate to different conservation areas for several reasons:

• Past experience with a Fall Art and Nature Club that I had created and led proved that "new" areas beg to be fully explored and, sometimes, the joy of exploring such areas usurps time that for planned activities.  By sticking to one conservation area, we might better ensure that participants enjoy a balance of spontaneous exploration and planned "learning" objectives.

• My Art and Nature Club experience also proved that my children and their friends thoroughly enjoy building huts and shelters.  By staying at one location for all four weeks of the Habitat Explorers co-op, we can afford our children the opportunity to create and add to structures week to week, thinking and planning in between times.

• The conservation area I chose has multiple habitats within one relatively small space.  It is a "just right" fit for our objectives, so why spend time and energy looking for other locations simply for the sake of moving the group around from week to week.  Later co-ops and initiatives can do that!

These location details sorted out, I, then, moved forward with the week-to-week planning: During Session One, we would focus the specific topics of Etiquette for Naturalist Explorers and Introduction to Habitats.  During each subsequent meeting, we would focus on a specific habitat, spending one week on Woodlands, one on Meadows and one on Rivers and Ponds. 

Each meeting would be three hours long and would include:

• a Meet & Greet and a Mini-Lesson
• a Hike, Nature Observance/Exploration
• Lunch, Sharing, Stories and Journaling
• another Mini-Lesson
• Free Exploration Time 

To keep the group manageable, the co-op size would be capped at 15 or so participating children.

To facilitate communication, we would use a private Facebook group.

Shared responsibilities would include providing supplies, helping with planned field activities and managing children.   

Since the co-op would only include one "class" of students, I would do the main lesson planning and facilitating.

All this set, it was time to invite people to join the Habitat Explorers co-op.

Since part of the frameworks for the co-op were set through discussion with several moms from a Sensing the Saints mini-co-op that I had developed for March and April, I, of course, invited those moms to join first.  Then, with these moms' agreement, I reached out to families in a small local homeschool support group that some of us are a part of as well as to some other homeschooling families that live in the same town as the conservation area that we'd be meeting at is located.

The group filled quickly, and, although, I admit, I was tempted to broaden our invitation to a larger homeschool network in our area, I did not.   

For while I would have loved to have offered an open invitation to anyone and everyone to join our Habitat Explorers co-op, prudence told me to keep things relatively small this time. 

Habitat Explorers is first outdoor co-op with planned lessons that I have initiated.  The frameworks, including participant limits, came to me through thought and prayer.  Ignoring them would not be wise.  So, I decided NOT to keep inviting more people once our "limit" had been reached.

Of course, you can decide your own limits.  Thus, for your ease, I am sharing an editable Habitat Explorers invitation (with a partial preview below).  It is the notice I used on the local homeschool support group board to invite others to the join the co-op.  Please feel free to adapt it when creating your own Habitat Explorers co-op or club, and, as always, please be kind enough to share its origin with others by providing a link to this post or to Training Happy Hearts in general.  Thanks!

Step Three: Plan and Prepare!

Once I knew which families would be participating in Habitat Explorers and what ages the children would be, I filled in the planning frameworks with specific activities.  I decided to plan the first session in detail and to ready a menu of ideas for subsequent sessions without planning every detail of them until after each prior meeting.  That way, I can adapt plans for our second, third and fourth meetings based upon whatever unfolds with the children week-to-week.

As for the specific plans:  Planning events and lessons comes naturally to me.  I love digging into what I already know, asking around for new resources and, then, pouring over handwritten notes, books and other materials in order to shape lesson objectives, activities and assessments.  (For the record, "assessments" as I plan things are not tests, but simply observable measures that let me know the kids are "getting" the objectives of a lesson.)   

So, this is exactly what I did when planning our first co-op meeting.  And, then, once I had the lesson plans for our first session ready, I reached out to participating moms to ask if anyone had specific supplies and to let them know what supplies to bring.

(My lesson plan for the first meeting will be shared in a forthcoming post!)

Get Together and Get Going!

Prayers shared with our Lord, invitations made and accepted and plans created and prepared for, the final step to making Habitat Explorers a reality, of course, was simply getting together and getting going!

Sounds easy, right?

Well, as fate would have it, the weather forecast for our first meeting time looked foreboding:  rain and possible thunder storms.  So, we used a poll on our Facebook group to decide what to do:

• Wait until the morning of the meeting. If forecast and real weather was more then a drizzle, cancel.
• Wait until the morning of the meeting. So long as the T-storms had not rolled in by an hour before our meeting time, go for it.
• Who cares about rain?  Get together and get wet!
• Cancel ahead of time based on the forecast. 

The first option got the most "votes".  On the morning of our kick off date, it was pouring.  Plus, my oldest came down with a fever.  So, our "getting going" was delayed a week.

Best. move. ever.

Instead of mucking through a wet and potentially stormy first meeting, we ended up being blessed by perfect temperatures and beautiful skies.  Not only was the weather absolutely ideal, but the day ended up being so, too.  

I'll share more specifics about our first meeting in an upcoming post.  In the meantime, please feel free to request specific details about anything or to share your own favorite habitat  and nature notebooking resources in a comment here or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.  I'd love to share forward by answering any questions you might have about starting your own similar initiative.  Likewise, I'd be delighted to benefit our local mini co-op through your tried and true tips and resource ideas!  Thanks!

Please enjoy all the posts in this Habitat Explorers series by clicking this button.

  

Just Step Outside!

I made a secret commitment to myself about a week and a half ago. It wasn't anything major, but it is something that has been impacting the kids and me in positive ways. It was simply to get outside every day regardless of weather, schedules, moods or health. 

You see, I love the outdoors.  I always have.  I find that being outside has a soul-nurturing effect.  Rarely do I spend time in nature without pausing to marvel at God's creation and to offer praise for being part of it.

Yet, sometimes I find that I get so swept up in indoor tasks and distractions that I fail to get myself and my children outdoors for any length of time each day.  

 

In prayer one morning, I decided that was going to change.  In my own head, I made a commitment to myself and my children:  Regardless of weather, moods and to-do’s, I would spend some time outside with the kids every single day. 

Family Work Time seemed like play time to my happy helper as we cleaned the edge of the wetlands behind our house on Day One of my personal commitment.

That promise sounded easy that morning when the weather was beautifully sunny and warm and I was feeling healthy,   In fact, on the first day of my secret outdoor commitment, we worked, studied and played together outside for long stretches of the day.

Th children enjoyed discovering tiny creatures under rocks in their "one small square".

However, a day later, I awoke with an earache, itchy eyes and congestion.  Then, in the days that followed, three of us faced fevers, one vomited and all of endured us some combination of lethargy, muscle aches, congestion, weird rashes and the like.  Such woes tempted me to forgo the personal promise I had made.

You know the boy is sick when he joins Daddy in a riot of pillows and blankets for an afternoon sleep for this boy has not taken naps since he was 18 months old!

But I did not fall to the temptation.  Instead, I obeyed the small voice in my heart that whispered, "Get outside anyway," and, each day, one or more of my children and I stepped outside our front door.  We gloried in the world God has created as we worked, played, studied and, best of all, just spent time outside.  As we did, we:

practiced stewardship by cleaning up the edge of our wetlands....

...delighted in discovering roly poly bugs in our "one small square"...

...enjoyed a bright, windy morning at the beach...

  

...helped one another sculpt on the stoop...

 

...noticed how each leaf on our trees blooms at its own pace...

 

...tried to catch raindrops on our tongues while sheltering from the wetness as we inspected our "one small square"...

 

...exercised our muscles climbing rock walls and such at playgrounds...

 

...conquered climbing trees in the front yard...

 

...monitored our efforts to feed birds, squirrels and other creatures through spreading our "one small square" with birdseed...

 

...tried pull ups in a natural gym....

...tested waters before gleefully sploshing through them...

...delighted in each round of spring blooms...

And, of course, while doing so we also paused on occasion to verbally recognize and praise the Creator, to inwardly let the Spirit speak to us, and to joyously offer gratitude that this is the world the world the the Lord has made.  

Truly, by obeying the prompt I felt to get outside with gratitude on a daily basis again, I have been edified and blessed this past week and a half. 

As I prayed the daily readings yesterday, this became even more apparent to me.  I read Psalm 19:1, which reverberated in my mind.  

The heavens declare the glory of God;

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

These words are so true and so timeless.  In every era, all we need to do to be reassured of God's presence, glory, genius and generosity is to step outside.  His natural creation awaits us daily.  I encourage others to commit to being present in it with their children as often as possible.  Doing so certainly has been blessing me of late.

What are some of your children and your ways of spending time outside appreciating God's glory?
 Feel free to share about them here in a comment or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.  If you leave a link to an idea, I will pin it on the Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation in Young Children Pinterest board.