"....Your children shall be like olive plants all around your table." Psalm 128:3

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Nature Exchange #5

Hi, friends!

This post about our most recent nature exchange is a bit overdue. As in, 6 months overdue! 

 For a little background, our first 3 nature exchanges were with Silvia.  You can read about them here, here, and here. 

Our fourth nature exchange was with Celeste.  Then, last fall, we arranged a fifth nature exchange with Amber.  

We spent many fun hours searching for treasures to send to Amber and her family. Since Amber and her family live about 2,000 miles away, we searched high and low for unusual items that they might not have in their area. My children enjoy
the searching part as much as they enjoy the receiving part.  :)

We found butterflies, moths, insects, feathers, snail shells, flower seeds, a lump of pine tree sap, a mantis egg sac, a snake skin, milkweed pods, etc.


The children sketched some of the treasures so they could look back at their Nature journals and  remember what we sent.  Here's a peek.....

Naomi sketched a Monarch butterfly, a pigeon feather, and a snail shell.  I love her Monarch butterfly.  :)

Ian sketched a wood beetle, snail shell, and a Spicebush Swallowtail.

Love the detail of his wood beetle.  :)

Aaron sketched a wood beetle, a Monarch butterfly, a pigeon feather, and a dragonfly.

Love it!  :)


Natalie sketched butterflies and a feather. Even though the Giant Swallowtail was a bit ratty around the lower edges of the wings, she  sketched it accurately.


Asher's sketches..I love the horsefly.  :)

The detail on his cicada was impressive.  :)



After sketching, we carefully boxed everything up and mailed it. A short time later, Amber's box arrived. 
We were thrilled to open the box and see what Amber and her family sent us - 
 - all tree-related treasures. :)
Everything was carefully packed and labeled.





The biggest pine cones we have ever seen!





And to top it off, Amber enclosed a very informative letter with a detailed explanation of each item. It was like a tree-based Science lesson in a box!  :) We compared the tree specimens with similar trees in our area. Lots of hands-on learning and fun. Thanks so much, Amber! 

Sharing with Celeste.

4 comments:

  1. I'm sorry it was all tree-related, but that is certainly what we have in abundance here! We hardly ever see butterflies and larger insects, so I don't allow my children to capture them.

    We enjoyed your box, and we're looking forward to planting the seeds in our garden once our weather settles a bit more. I'm hoping we'll be able to do so in the next couple weeks.

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    1. The tree-related theme was wonderful, Amber. We learned so much!
      Happy planting! :)

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  2. So good to see you continuing with this idea, Lisa. 2,000 miles distance would add such diversity. Love the nature nature drawings. Your children have been honing their drawing skills, I see! Please pass on my compliments to the artists.

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    1. Thank you, Carol. We don't journal as much as we should, but I hope to work on making more time for it next school year. :) I will pass your compliments on to my children. :)

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