Outdoor Hour #30 Weeds, Seeds and a Butterfly

We really needed our walk today. We have neglected our almost daily walks around the block and we have missed them. But this morning we had some cranky kids, that were fighting with each other. I knew just what we all needed. We needed to head out and explore outside for awhile.
I told the kids to grab their scooters and we headed out on our usual walk around the block. We know our neighborhood well but it is always changing at the same time. Since we have been really looking at everything as we scoot around we are noticing the changes as they happen.
I told the kids that we were going to look for seeds as we went.

Ian pointed out the pods in the Silk Tree that we had studied earlier in the summer. We pulled one off and broke it open to see the seeds inside.

We also noticed the Hollyhocks were still blooming but there were also a lot of dried bunches of seeds on the stalks as well.
Sophie broke one of the bunches open to see the seeds. She thought they looked like little disks arranged in a circle. I hope our neighbor doesn't mind, but we stuck a handful of the seeds in our pocket in hopes that we can plant them next year.


We passed a number of Sycamore trees and noticed that some of the balls on the tree were turning fluffy and when we took a closer look we could see that each of the balls was really a bunch of seeds with fluff to catch the wind.

There are still a number of flowers out and about. These purple dahlias were beautiful.


We always stop at the fence covered in morning glories. It is always a good place to spot some kind of bee or wasp or something. But today we got really lucky and got a good look at this.......
We sat and watched it for awhile. I was surprised at how quiet and calm my kids were. They didn't try to grab it and we all just watched it shift its wings and open and shut them. It was very nice to let us look at it.


Henry stopped to look at these fun feathery plants. They weren't as soft as we thought they would be. But for Henry, nature is something to explore through touch so this is a good one for him.

There are plenty of weeds along our walk too. And they were all sending out their fluffy seeds as well.

We made it home and I broke out my new field guide. I just bought one when ordering other school books a few weeks ago. I was tired of checking them out of the library. I had no trouble finding our butterfly in it. We had such a good look at it and the field guide is very easy to use.

I also gave Sophie a new little sketch book. She somehow lost her last one. I kinda think she left it sitting on the side walk during one of last walks. I often have to send her back for it when on our walks. So I think for now we may just keep our sketch books at home and draw when we come back.

She did draw a lovely little Grey Hairstreak butterfly and colored it in.

It is amazing what a little outside time did for our short tempers this morning. Sunshine, fresh air and a little exercise was just the right medicine for our fractiousness today. We were actually able to do some more of our other studies after our outing. I was almost ready to call it a day before we had gone out. I am going to have to remember to fit in some more walks in the morning. We often get outside to play in the afternoon but it I can see it really helped us this morning.