Banksias & Bilbies - A book review

The other day my daughter, my mother & I went on an op shop brawl in our local township. Browsing through the 50c special on books, I discovered the above book 

'Banksias & Bilbies'.

The book on top I took from my laptop camera, hence the backward writing, and the next photo is one I found in google images, just so you my readers can view this delightful cover properly, because I love you.

The illustrations are delectable. 

Have a look-

Sorry about the backwards writing!

This marvelous nature book I personally wouldn't class as a 'living book' but more like an Australian yearly time line. 

The naturalist gives a brief weekly overview of just some of the happenings in nature during the specific month.

There is also room for your very own naturalist to draw and add their own discoveries for the month.

I am thrilled to be adding this to our Australian Natural History shelf for AO year 4 next year.

All for 50c! 

WOW!

You can find a copy here and here  

:)

We went on a Nature study walk...

..."Mum, I have packed water, banana's & some biscuits" said Grace, and we grabbed our nature journals along with charcoal & pastel pencils, then

off we trekked, Joshua, Grace & I.

I wasn't planning on going far, but we just kept walking up the track, seeking

a nice shady spot to sit and draw.

One spot we looked is here where we found some ducklings and ibis birds. Our house is hiding just behind these tress.

But this spot was too hot, so

Joshua encouraged us to just "keep on walking, we will find a spot just up the road" he said

We finally found a lovely shady spot on the hill and when I turned around this was the view we enjoyed and drew from.

While we were drawing it was so quite and we began to hear a bird singing and Joshua says "that's a lyrebird, let's go and find him"

You can see Joshua & Maggie in the background

heading towards the bush.

It was so refreshing and liberating to go off the main track.

I was amazed that Joshua found the Lyrebird, for they always run away very fast.

The male Lyrebird imitates other birds, people, chainsaws and all sorts of other noises. He also was named after the Lyre insrtument, for when he spreads his display of feathers to dance around trying to attract a female, his feathers look like the Lyre.

By the time I got to where Joshua was the lyrebird was hiding in the tree.

I thought this was a very cute shot of the children's hands admiring the Australian bottlebrush seed captules.

Whilst Grace & I were enjoying this one lyrebird, Joshua had ran off venturing for other ones he could hear.

Next he yells out "Koala Bear"!!!

This is my 3rd Koala that I have ever seen in the wild in 30 years ~ unbelievable.

It looks like this one is carrying a cub.

The road on the left is where we saw those magnificant animals.

Now the little bridge you can see here on the right is where Joshua spotted a black red belly snake and we just watched him slide under the bridge. He was a beauty, and very long indeed. I took this picture while we were waiting for him to come out, but he never did.

These type of nature walks don't come along very often, and I was very aware of God's goodness as He took us to these animals and blessed us.

What an adventure!!!

Nature Study and being in the right place at the right time!

Oh yes, isn't she a beauty?

“A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour” - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, p. 71).

This magnificent butterfly Joshua spotted, while we were in Merimbula last Monday! She was just sitting in the tree looking delightful.

After a good hour of web research I finally identified this wonderful creature...

She is an Orchard swallowtail (papilio aegeus)


Today the children and I found out they are common to Brisbane, QLD and that there food plants are orange and lemon trees. Charlotte Mason encouraged that we don't go into a full depth study of all new things we discover, especially while they are little, so we just learnt the basics of this little beauty!

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Revelation 4:11

Scenery on our Nature Walk...

...I'll let the pictures do the talking

Joshua built his survival hut, just 'like the Aborigines would of done' he said

Joshua's Scarlet bracket fungus that he found - by looking at his face you would think he was disgusted, but he was very excited

Nature walk with daddy

One teaching I completely grasp from Miss Mason is the importance of being outside in nature as much as you possibly can. My children have grown up encouraged to go outdoors and explore and see what they can discover. This week Daddy took the children on a plant reproduction study in our very own Croajingalong National Park. The children had to look for 10 different plants each with seeds and take pictures to later put into their nature journal.