I Never Paid Attention To Cattails....Until Now

How many things in nature do we see everyday that we just pass right by? 

For me, I can honestly say that I never gave cattails a second glance.  But, they were the next challenge using The Handbook of Nature Study.  We drove around the countryside, went to local parks, in and out of town. But, we couldn't find any.

We needed to be at church at 1:00 for music lessons for Andrew and Parker, so I thought our search was over.  The boys headed in to lessons, and the rest of us decided to enjoy the day.  While walking around the property we came across this!  A little pond loaded with cattails!  Woohoo.  I was excited, and so were the Littles.

They were supper soft, and really reminded us a lot of a corn dog.  The stalk was almost like a bamboo skewer you would use in the kitchen.  For some more basic info you can go here.  This link gives more information about their habitat and growth.

Parker even found this skull.  We are guessing it is from a deer?  Do any of you have a guess?  It was defiantly an interesting addition to our Nature Basket!

Once home, it was time to do a little Note booking.  The boys have really done a great job with their sketches this year.  Even though that might moan a little at the beginning, they really work hard to capture the details in whatever they are drawing or painting..

Parker decided he wanted to take the artwork a little farther, and do a watercolor painting.  We watched these two videos first.  One here and here.  I was surprised at how much we learned, and I am excited to use these techniques in future paintings.  Here is his finished painting.  I was impressed :)

Would you like to learn more?  The blog Under An English Sky documented their four seasons of Cattail studies.  Really interesting.  

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