OHC – The Teasel

We are not getting nearly enough nature study done around here these days. Things always are a bit up in the air when you have house guests – and that’s our situation at the moment. We have granny staying with us for 2 months which means that our homeschool rhythms are all bit different.

The Teasel has been one of this months topics that we did not want to set aside however…

We have been working on this study for over a year. Last spring we planted teasel seeds and nurtured them for a whole year before we started to see the fruits of our efforts. This is a biannual plant so only flowers in it’s second season.

We’ve watched it go from being a rosette of leaves, to growing long spiny stalks, soft green flower heads forming, the more mature heads flowering in their own unique way and now we have reached the end of the cycle as they have dried out and are heavy with seed.

We cut off a generous branch and brought it inside to use as a centrepiece on our school table. We read from The Handbook of Nature Study and discussed all that we had observed. We also recalled a visit to a Mill over the past year where we learnt that Teasels were used to card sheep wool in times past!

Then it was time to record what we had learnt and observed over the past year and a bit in our journals…

Miss V-L’s Teasel

Miss J-L’s Teasel

A job well done 🙂 I’m pleased we managed to carve out the time to focus on this particular challenge.

Blessings to you all.