Indoor Nature Study on Apples

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I don’t like to be outside.  I love to be indoors where there’s no critters that attack you and leave you covered in itchy red bumps. I don’t like to be outside, but God gave me to boys that LOVE the outdoors.  This year I committed to doing more nature studies and nature walks with my guys. The calendar may see that it’s Fall but where I live it’s still Summer. It can be too hot to be outside so I’ve started doing some nature studies with my boys indoors.

Indoor Nature Study on Apples |  heidistjohn.com/tbmb

When I think of fall I think of the leaves changing and pumpkins and apples. I thought it would be fun to do a quick nature study with my boys about apples. They are one of our favorite fruits so it was fun to learn about how they grow.  I started off with a short story called “How the Apple Blossom Came Back” from Outdoor Secrets. I also asked both my boys for a narration and then we headed to the table for some hands on fun!

Indoor Nature Study on Apples |  heidistjohn.com/tbmb

Our short story explained to us that you can find a blossom on the inside of an apple. I never realized this because I typically cut our apples the other way. My boys were very excited to see the blossom in the center of the apple once it was sliced. The trick is to cut the apple from side to side and not top to bottom.

I had one more activity for my boys before I was going to let them eat their apples: apple stamping. This is the first year that we have been keeping nature journals and I love them. My plan was to have them stamp the apples on a page so that we could still see the blossom in the center. It didn’t work out that well but they still had a lot of fun. Also both my boys wrote short poems that I copied at the bottom of their pages.

Indoor Nature Study on Apples |  heidistjohn.com/tbmb

While my boys enjoyed apples for a snack we read some books about apples and apple trees. I wish that we had an apple orchard to visit, but we grow citrus where we live. We spend some time reading books about apples, orchards and farms. I even threw in some fun picture books and stories about Johnny Appleseed.  I found some pictures of apple orchards and blossoms online and we had fun looking at the beautiful pictures. Here are some of the books that we enjoyed:

We have actually gone on a few one nature walk so far this school year. But we have done several indoor nature studies.  My boys found a frog by our front door and we spent some time looking up different frog species. We were able to identify our little friend and my oldest son even drew pictures of the life cycle of the frog.

What about you? Do you get outside and explore God’s creation with your children? Do you have a favorite indoor study that you’ve done? I’d love some more ideas.

Heidi St John Guide to Daylight

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About LaToya Edwards

LaToya is a recovering perfectionist and control freak that loves old movies, good books and strawberry Hagen Daas ice cream. She traded in a law degree to homeschool her children and be home full-time to serve her family. Through trials of divorce, depression, death and more she has learned how to find joy in motherhood and God’s purpose and plan in broken circumstances. As a certified life coach it is LaToya’s desire to encourage and equip other women to do the same. You can keep up with LaToya on her blog.

11 thoughts on “Indoor Nature Study on Apples

  1. Natalie

    We read a chapter from one of Thornton Burgess’s books. Last year it was “The Burgess Animal Book for Children” and this year it is his bird book. Each chapter deals with 2 North American animals or birds. Then we go online and look up photos and videos of the animals in action. Yesterday we read about Tree Swallows and Chimney Swifts. The kids were fascinated by seeing videos of the Swifts hopping around in chimneys as if they were some sort of feathered bat. We also looked up pictures of their nests (Swifts make a nest of twigs that they glue to the inside of a chimney with their spit!), their eggs, their hatchlings, and their fledglings. Even being outdoors, we could never see this kind of stuff. =)

    Reply
    1. LaToya Edwards Post author

      Natalie thank you for sharing that resource. It sounds like something my boys would really enjoy. I’m going to see if my local library has a copy. And I love that we can see things that are not in our backyards thanks to the internet 🙂

      Reply
      1. Natalie

        They are fun books! They are kind of old so sometimes the speech is a little odd to us, but they are still enjoyable. I think it’s cool that my 7 year old son is getting interested in birds because of this year’s book too. We have a bird feeder and a suet feeder in the yard and over the weekend he said, “Hey look! A woodpecker is on the suet feeder! I think it’s a Downy!” Today he pulled out the binoculars so he could get a closer look at a cardinal. When we get to the owls, I want to order some owl pellets online and look at what they’ve been eating.

        Reply
  2. Scotia

    The sand dollar is another incredible indoor study . . . if you are willing to break it open. You can just google “sand dollar story” and you should be able to find what I’m talking about. Good luck and enjoy God’s great world!

    Reply
  3. Holly

    We also use Netflix for some great resources. I love to explore nature and animals.

    The BEST so far has been a fairly short film on Killer Whales. My husband and I learned some interesting facts and even my six year old daughter has been going around informing people facts we learned. Did you know they aren’t actually a whale at all? It’s amazing to see how smart they are!

    Reply
    1. LaToya Edwards Post author

      Holly I have not checked out any videos on Netflix. I need to. And I had no idea that they weren’t really whales! I’m going to look up that video for our school time this week. My boys LOVE whales and sharks.

      Reply

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