Congratulations on choosing to experience and study Florida wildlife and ecosystems with your child. This blog is set up to help you turn The Young Naturalist’s Guide to Florida into a teaching adventure. I will update the blog as our family completes each section of our study.
There are a number of ways you can use this blog and participate:
Ideally, you should own your own copy of The Young Naturalist’s Guide to Florida as we will refer to it constantly throughout this study.
You are encouraged to complete the chapters within the book, in any order. Across the top of the blog are the navigation buttons for Florida’s Special Places, Flora, Fauna, and Florida’s Skies; these correspond with the sections in the book. All of the posts related to each section are tagged to appear under the corresponding section. Also included is a navigation link for Field Trips. This is the easiest way to view the Field Trips that have been completed for this study. Each Field Trip destination will be listed separately. Please read 5 Tips for Field Trip Planning to learn how you can plan your own successful field trips to accommodate this study.
On the sidebar you will find a section called, Chapter Challenges. The Chapter Challenges may also be completed in any order. However, I recommend that you start with the first two (Florida’s symbols, and Keeping a nature journal) before moving on. The purpose of the challenges is to encourage you to experience each chapter in a more in depth and very hands-on way. You may participate in as many of the challenges as you are up to. If you choose to participate please use the Mr. Linky to link to your own blog posts pertaining to that chapter. By visiting the other participants listed in this section you will find additional ideas, inspiration and encouragement.
You are encouraged to have your students keep a Notebook and a Nature Journal. The notebook will contain everything related to this study. The nature journal is a general nature book for use at any time to record any experience in nature. Regardless of it’s location or association with this particular study.
If you don’t know how to create a notebook or are unfamiliar with the term notebooking please visit Jimmie’s Squidoo page featuring a notebooking exhibit.
If you are a Florida homeschooler please consider adding a Young Florida Naturalist’s Guide button to your blog and telling your friends about this study. It can only lead to more ideas and more teaching adventures!
