I {heart} November

I feel like in mid to late September everyone loves autumn.  

It's easy to love autumn when the stores are filled with back to school sales, the leaves are starting to be beyond brilliant, pumpkin spice drinks and doughnuts and hand soaps (guilty!) are everywhere, and you get to wear your favorite chunky scarf on the first crisp day of the season. There is sooo much to love about the first stirrings of fall.  It can make a person giddy.  

But fall waxes on.  And then it's November.  The nip in the air is replaced by cold winds. The formerly brilliant leaves are brown, or gone.  Pumpkin spice drinks are replaced with gingerbread lattes and candy cane cappuccinos :( And chunky scarves aren't just cute accessories anymore, but necessities for leaving the house.  

November tests one's love of autumn.  

I love autumn.  And I especially love November, in part because I feel a little sad for it.  It sort of gets lost in the hooplah that is that giant end of the year celebration - Hallow-istmas.  I love taking the deep, fulfilling breath of rest and gratitude that November offers before we become busy with keeping Advent and our preparations for celebrating Christmas.

I also love November because you don't always know what you're going to get.  We've been blessed with a mostly dry and gorgeous fall so far this year.  Last week we even had a few days in the 70s!  But those don't last.  And November shows its true nature in the flannel sheets, hot soups, mittens, and the first fires of the season.  

I love November because it often is the first month where we're inside more than we're outside.  We're gathering in.  We're drawing our children in from their play on chilly days, we're drawing our family close at Thanksgiving, we draw near around the fire, we gather in the heart of the home as the heart of the home.  Our house, which was more like a shell, a jumping off point for all the activity of summer, becomes more home-like - a warm, safe, sacred space for family life as the weather gets colder.  

Last year on the blog I celebrated November with a few special activities, and intend to do the same this year.  I have a few posts I've been saving up for Diabetes Awareness Month, I'm going to celebrate the "birthday" of my blog with a giveaway next week (!!), and I've got some opportunities for a little Ordinary Lovely Christmas shopping for you.  In fact, stop back here tomorrow for an opportunity to see (and maybe purchase!) a few things I have that are perfect for celebrating autumnal November!  

I hope you don't mind that I'm wrapping things up here by springing a photo dump on you from a late afternoon walk we all took last week on one of those rare gorgeous and deliciously warm November days.  This walk was so special to me because it's something we used to do a lot more frequently, but haven't done as much lately (homeschooling has been sapping a lot of the free time we used to have, but that might be another post for another time...)

Happy November!

Jim Arnosky :: Summer Author Binge

(Summertime Author Binge-ing on Jim Arnsoky)

Yesterday I wrote about our practice of author binge-ing during the summer and shared some of our favorite books by Dahlov Ipcar.   In June we also enjoyed tons and tons (ok , more like tens and tens) of books by author/illustrator Jim Arnosky.  So today I'll share my thoughts on Arnosky with you :)  

Jim Arnosky is a self-taught artist and naturalist who has combined his interests and talents to write informative, beautiful, and engaging books for children.  It's clear that he has a passion for sharing his love nature with young people.  And my kids love the way in which he does it.  He's written over 100 books for children, so it's likely that your library will have a very large and wonderful selection of his work for you to check out.

Many of his books are delightfully story-like while still conveying plenty of information about a subject - a particular animal or animal group, habitat, or event.  The stories my kids love best are the ones in which he describes an event he watched unfold while out in nature.   Some of our favorites like this are

Beaver Pond, Moose Pond

(this is my personal favorite!)

Wild Ponies: A One Whole Day Book 

Coyote Raid In Cactus Canyon 

Under the Wild Western Sky

Several of his books I love because they're written very simply with large font and words suitable for beginning readers.  When my oldest was still practicing early reading, I'd ask him to read these books to the younger kids for "science class."  While the words are simple, the stories are still enjoyable and the illustrations (mostly colored pencil artwork) are beautiful!

Rabbits & Raindrops

Little Lions

 

  

Otters under Water

 

  

Babies in the Bayou

 

  

Come Out, Muskrats

 

  

Raccoon On His Own

Arnosky also has a series of informational books that we like quite a bit.  Animals in the "All About..." series include rattlesnakes, sharks, lizards, manatees, turkeys, turtles, frogs, alligators, owls, and more.  We've enjoyed several of these... they make great lunchtime reading material :)

Finally -- and it's not really finally, because he has so written so much more but I just can't cover it all here --  Jim Arnosky has a series of books for young naturalists in which topics are presented by a a character called Crinkleroot.  These books cover a wide variety of topics such as tracking, identifying animals tracks, identifying common animals and trees, understanding habitats, and how to make the most of a nature walk.  For older children and adults that are interested in learning more about drawing from nature, Arnosky also has books on sketching - Sketching Outdoors in Summer (and other titles that cover autumn, winter, and spring.)  

My kids and I all love Arnosky's books.  They are a perfect blend of lovingly detailed artwork, engaging stories, and information about the natural world.  As I said, an Arnosky study is easy to pull off because he's written and illustrated so gosh darn much!  I bet you'll be able to find a lot of the library.  Enjoy!

Do you have any Arnosky favorites?