Happy Winter Solstice

3 o'Clock Shadow

Nature doesn’t recognize all of the holidays and celebrations that happen at this time of year, but it does notice the winter solstice.  On Sunday, December 21, nature will experience the shortest day of the year and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere.  It sounds like a sad time for those of us, like me, who enjoy the daylight hours and the ability to get out and enjoy nature.  I have to remind myself that the next day will be a little longer.  So even though the 21^st is a little short, I can still celebrate nature.  Your children can too!

Something fun to do on the day of the winter solstice is to mark your child’s shadow at noon.  Because the sun is at its lowest point in the sky on the winter solstice (due to the tilt in the Earth’s axis), shadows are their longest on this day at 12:00pm in the Northern Hemisphere.  What you can do is find a sunny spot in your yard and place a nice, flat stone on the ground.  Have your child stand on the stone and mark where his or her shadow ends with a stake, stick, garden decoration, etc. (something that you can leave in the ground for months).  It will be a fun place in your yard for your child to visit when playing outside to check where and how long his or her shadow is throughout the year.  If you have a nice garden area for this activity and want to leave it up year-round, you will want to redo the activity every winter solstice as your child grows.  You can make it a tradition to help your child celebrate nature!  And it’s one more way to help children notice the natural changes/cycles of the world around them.

I’d also like to advocate that you do something for nature this winter solstice!  At my daughter’s age, we simply filled our bird feeders, hugged a few trees, and explored our yard looking for signs of winter.  We’re taking small steps for now as my daughter begins to think of ways she can help wildlife at this time of year.  What will you and your children do for nature this weekend? 

Wishing Stars

Homemade Stars

I remember the first time I saw a meteor shower.  I was a few years older than my daughter is now.  At the time, I didn’t know anything about meteor showers.  I just thought of stars as something mysterious that listened to and granted the most heart-felt wishes.  As poem goes, “I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”   When I was young, I made many wishes on the first star I saw at night (which I now realize was most likely the planet, Venus).  I also knew to wish upon falling stars, but had never seen one until an end of summer slumber party at a friend’s house many years ago (during a meteor shower). 

Of course during sleepovers, children don’t really sleep; so a few of my friends and I were looking out a window very early in the morning when we saw the first one.  We couldn’t believe our eyes!  We knew falling stars were rare, but within a minute, we saw another one, and another one, and…  We spent the next several hours surveying the night sky.  We saw so many falling stars, we lost track of how many.  We ran out of wishes to wish!  It seemed like a truly magical night.  I just knew I was going to get my greatest wish (I had wished for a horse!)!  I learned years later that the slumber party must have been on the night of the Perseid meteor shower in August. 

My daughter is too young to stay awake and watch a meteor shower, but if you are interested and have a child a little older than mine, one of the more prolific meteor showers of the year will be best viewed this Saturday evening around 9:00 or 10:00pm.  The Geminid meteor shower (named because it radiates from the Gemini constellation) should produce around 120 meteors an hour falling from the sky.  It is the best meteor shower for younger children since most showers are best viewed after midnight, while this one is best viewed before midnight.  I can’t wait to enjoy this magical evening with my daughter in another year or two.  After all, I did get my wish a few years after my first experience with “falling stars.” 

While I don’t want to keep my daughter up too late, I can still help encourage her excitement and wonder for stars by telling stories about the constellations.  And now that it gets dark so early, we can spend some time outside telling tales and looking at the stars before her bedtime.  You can too!  To start, find the Gemini constellation (where the meteor shower will appear to originate) by first locating the Orion constellation.  Orion is the constellation with the brightest star in the night sky.  It will be in the East.  You’ll recognize it by the three bright stars that make up Orion’s belt.  Just west of Orion and a little closer to the horizon is the Gemini constellation.  It’s easy to identify by the two bright stars that represent the heads of the twins.  These twins are known as Castor and Pollux from Greek mythology.  They were very close brothers who were known to help sailors find their way across the seas, and according to myth, they even saved shipwrecked sailors. 

Explain to your child that a long time ago, people noticed patterns in the stars that didn’t change (whereas the moon and planets move through an orbit, changing their positions throughout the night).  These patterns were named from the stories they told.  Ask your child if he or she can see shapes in the stars too.  They don’t have to conform to known constellations.  Just let your child use his or her imagination.

Since I like to combine hands-on activities with nature education, my daughter and I made our own constellations.  It’s easy!  Find a small lamp with a lamp shade.  Take a few pieces of black construction paper and wrap it around the lamp shade.  Tape as many pieces of paper together as you need to cover the shade.  Then, take the paper off the lamp and untape one side.  Flatten the paper out on a table and let your child make stars in groups or clusters using a white crayon.  Your child can make them into patterns or outlines of objects.  The nice thing is, it doesn’t have to be perfect!  After your child is done, place the paper on a towel and use a push pin to make holes where each star is located.  After you are done, tape the paper around the lamp again and turn out all the lights in the room except for the lamp.  Then, let your child name the constellations.  It’s that easy! 

Enjoy the light show, whether it’s from inside or outside your house!

Step 1:  Cover Lamp Shade with
Black Construction Paper
 

Step 2:  Color Stars

 

Step 3:  After using a Push Pin to Poke through Stars,
Tape Paper over Lamp Shade

For the Love of Owls

Cute owl craft!

From a very young age, my daughter has had a special love for owls.  She is drawn to toy owls, stuffed animal owls, books about owls, owls on clothing, you name it!  She loves owls.  She even has a bike helmet with owls on it and an owl night light.  Maybe it’s because of their big eyes or their sweet round faces and fluffy feathers.  But most likely, it’s because of our neighborhood barred owl (Strix varia) family. 

One of our neighborhood owls likes to sit on the pine tree outside my daughter’s bedroom window in the late evening where it makes its well known call, “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all.”  After a night of calls, my daughter wakes excited about the owl that visited her window.  One morning, when we were leaving early to go somewhere, we got a chance to see my daughter’s window visitor resting on another tree in our front yard.  (Barred owls are one of the few owls that may be seen during the day.)  That sighting and the occasional window visit have made owls an important animal in my daughter’s life.

For a few months now, the owls have been quiet in our neighborhood; but just last night, my daughter received a visit from one of them, hooting right outside her window.  And I’m guessing it’s just the first visit of many this month.  In December, barred owls (and great horned owls, Bubo virginianus) begin their courtship behaviors, meaning we can expect a lot of vocalizing.  And we are excited for our late night serenades from our neighborhood barred owls!

If you are lucky enough to hear either the barred owl or the great horned owl, you probably won’t hear the other species.  Great horned owls are predators of the barred owl, so if a barred owl hears a nearby great horned owl, the barred owl will seek another area to call home.  Once these owls move into a territory, they generally stay in that area for the rest of their lives.  And yes, they do mate for life.  So if you are lucky enough to hear a pair of owls in your neighborhood, they really are your neighborhood owls.  (They tend to live where there are large trees near fresh water.)  Get to know your neighborhood owls and enjoy them as my family does.

To help celebrate the season and to decorate our house, my daughter and I made pinecone owls.  They are a cute, decorative craft that you and your child can complete in an hour or two block of time for older children, or over a couple of days for preschoolers (after some prep work for you the night before).  Here’s what you’ll need:

·       6 – 12 pine cones

·       Cotton balls

·       Clothing dye in your choice of owl-color

·       Craft feathers to match owl-color

·       Googly eyes

·       Pipe cleaners for beaks

·       Glue

·       Toothpicks

I died cotton balls a tan to light brown color a day or two before so that they could dry thoroughly, bought some pinecones, and gathered my crafting supplies (craft glue, googly eyes, a tan pipe cleaner, toothpicks, and brown feathers).  We stretched out and pulled apart the cotton balls into small, fluffy tufts and then stuffed them between the pine cone scales.  Using a toothpick, we were able to stuff the pine cone full of cotton leaving only the tips of each cone scale visible.  This took some time and patience (something that can be difficult for young children), so we took a few days to do it.  Once her owl was stuffed, my daughter picked out eyes and feathers (for the wings).  I cut about an inch of pipe cleaner and bent it into a “V” shape (for the mouth) and helped my daughter glue all of the pieces on each owl (see photos).

Although it took a few days, we now have our very own family of pine cone owls to sit amongst our holiday decorations.  And they look nicer than the usual construction paper / paper plate crafts made in school.  With patience and time, this is a fun craft for preschool through elementary age children.  And it’s a great way to pay homage to the real owls in your neighborhood while encouraging the innate love of nature in your child!

Stuffing cotton in a pine cone.

Using a toothpick to stuff the pine cone.

Gluing the eyes.

Adding feathers.

Pine cone owl family.

Having a conversation with the new owls.  (The owl with the attached
string will be an ornament for our Christmas tree.)