Summer is a great time to get outside to study God’s wonderful creation. There are so many new and exciting things to study during the summer months. Whether your little ones are interested in insects or pond life, clouds or flowers, there are tons of unique learning opportunities present on a hot summer afternoon.
Head outside with a field guide or a scavenger hunt list, and go explore all that God has created!
Summer Nature Study
- Insects: Grab a magnifying glass, a bug hut or net, and go explore the insect life in your backyard, park, or even a nearby creek. Harrington Harmonies has a fantastic set of Insect Notebooking Pages for little ones to record their observations.
- Birds: While birds can be observed year round, summer is a great time to do a backyard bird count. Fill the bird feeders with seeds or make your own. Grab a field guide or some identification cards like these from Natural Beach Living. Print out a recording sheet, and start identifying and counting your backyard visitors.
- Nature Journals: Even at 11, my daughter loves to collect nature. She loves to pick flowers and leaves. She enjoys doing bark rubbings, and sketching the things she observes on her nature walks. Ed Snapshots has a great tutorial on how to start a nature journal.
- Scavenger Hunts: Print out these free nature scavenger hunts from Ben and Me, and help your child sharpen their observation skills.
- Pond Life: My kids used to love taking walks to the neighborhood pond by our old house. They loved watching the water bugs and hunting for tadpoles. It was always a bonus to see a turtle poke his head above the water. If you live near a pond, you could make a whole unit study of the creatures that live in and near the pond.
- Clouds: We have always loved lying on our backs in the yard and finding shapes in the clouds. Summer is a great time to learn about the different types of clouds and the weather they bring. Make it easy to identify the types of clouds by printing out a cloud inspector. Then, see what’s in your sky.
- Flowers: Our flowers are in full bloom with all the sunshine and rain we’ve been getting. The flowers we find on our local nature trails provide an interesting study of flowers we wouldn’t find in our flower beds. This DIY pocket flower press makes it easy to preserve our findings until we get home.
- Gardens: From seeds to flowers/fruit and everything in between, gardens make great places to conduct a nature study.
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