handsonhomeschooling

Grab this free The 'Look About You' Nature Study Book. Nature study doesn't have to be hard.

Nature journaling is an easy, practical way to capture what you see when you’re outside focusing on nature. 

Do an easy nature study at home by watching the birds in your backyard.

Watch butterflies turn from caterpillars to chrysalises to
Monarchs.

Spring is here and the warmer weather is ushering in all the delights of this season! Now is a great time to explore the beautiful world of butterflies.

There’s not really any great mystery about how to plant seeds with kids, but these tips and tricks will give you lots of extra play and learning ideas.

 I decided to let my kids explore worms some more with a worm tower. It is a great Spring science activity and a fun way to learn more about nature.

I wanted to put together some quick easy ideas you could do with your kids when they find their first worm (or second, or third…).

Turdus Migratorius, commonly known as the North American Robin. You'll love these resources I rounded up for a fun American Robin unit study. Be sure to grab the free American Lapbook too.

10 more nature study ideas for spring.

John Muir, America’s First Environmentalist and loved that book. It looks like you could use it for about middle school down to elementary. It’s just a great book no matter which ages you use it for. 

I created a first week of spring grid.

Children enjoy learning how to care for a garden as well as learning the science behind plants

Are you teaching your kids about the frog lifecycle this spring? 

Here’s a fun activity to get you and your kids outside and exploring nature and Springtime! 

One of our favorite parts of spring is watching the birds in our yard and in the woods beyond

Not only do I have Free Strawberry Notebooking Pages but I have a fun and free Strawberry Lapbook.

This Early Spring Beauty notebooking page will help you catch the very first signs of spring.

Head outside with this FREE printable Spring Scavenger Hunt list and look for signs of Spring!

You might enjoy this leafy printmaking project.

Get out your crayons and get ready to color! 

Explore wildlife at your local pond with this free pond scavenger hunt. Perfect for preschoolers, kindergartners, and elementary aged kids!

Growing gardens with kids can be a lot of fun. We’re currently babying some seeds of our own as the kids are excited to grow their own salad garden this summer with the seed pods we started earlier this spring. 

Here are two easy ways to make beautiful DIY doll clothes made out of pieces of nature! You can try this activity during any season.

Well this week the kids wanted to learn about flowers so today I have flower and tree resources for you.

If I was a more traditional homeschooler, I would call this a unit study on flowers. 

If the thought of feasting on flowers makes you feel a bit standoffish, then here's food for thought: You may already be eating flowers without realizing it.

I am sharing some free carnivorous plants notebooking pages and fun hands on ideas.

I decided to make the kids kits for their gifts.

Spring is an exciting time of year. The days are getting longer and warmer. The grass is getting greener. The flowers are blooming. It’s such a welcome change from the cold and snow of winter for many of us.

Grab this free bird journal for your kids. They'll love it.

Whether you study a pond in winter or summer, a pond unit study makes for a great hands-on science project. You can add in so many different nature topics.

Your kids will be excited about these first day of spring ideas to add to your homeschool.

Plant Activities For Preschool Through Middle School

One of our favorite science activities for kids is observing plant growth. In this science experiment for kids, children will be forcing bulbs into bloom and observing the changes that take place over time.

Learn to identify common garden flowers.

Hands-on learning shouldn’t quit after a child finishes elementary school. No matter the grade level, hands-on learning has a high retention value and making time for it even with older kids has always been worth my time.

A fun kids diy flower press can turn a simple wildflower (or garden flower) unit study into a fun and memorable unit by adding in some simple hands-on activities.

Along with The Tale of Peter Rabbit printables, I’m also sharing fun hands-on activities during my spring unit study with Mr. MunchKing. He is such a sweet kid to mentor, and he had so much with this spring unit study. It is one of his favorites already.

Seed tape makes a great activity during the spring months. While creating super easy seed tape, kids’ hands are busy and their minds are open to absorbing new information!

While planting and watching a garden grow is tons of fun you kinda miss out on some of the fun and learning.

How to garden plan with kids using LEGO is a way to sneak in some learning. My kids, like so many others, love to create and build with LEGO so it is just a great hands-on natural extension to learning.

This printable art will have you enjoying hours of fun making decorative butterfly suncatcher art for your home windows.

Whether you want to learn about how honey bees are fascinating master pollinators, learn about the interesting social activities in the hive, learn about beeswax, or know what is honey, these honey bee activities and resources will be helpful.

Your kids will love labeling the parts of a honey bee lego activity. Bees are fascinating little creatures from how they create their honeycombs to maximize space, to how they know to fan the hive to keep it cool. Bees are used in so many ways than just the delicious honey they produce.

About four weeks before the last frost, try planting some vegetables in egg shells.  Have the kids help you too! These will need to be kept in the house or a heated garage until they are ready to transplant in your garden.

To help with observation we used a jar instead of a bean this time, and I was delighted to discover that my kids were just as amazed by this simple bit of science as I was so many years ago. 

My kids absolutely loved making rain clouds in a jar a few years ago!  Today, we decided to revisit that experiment but with more color.

Farmer and I helped Sweet P plant an indoor garden.

We love fun kids’ science and this easy rainbow jar activity is one of our all-time FAVORITES!