Nature Study & being a homeschool mom

This fall we hit upon something that we all love to do....nature study. I honestly can't say exactly how I happened upon the idea. I've been reading quite a bit about Charlotte Mason, an educator from the late 1800's-early 1900's who ended promoting parental involvement with educating their children. Its almost but not quite the same classical curriculum that we follow. One of my favorite quotes from Charlotte Mason is about choosing books: "They must grow up on the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading made easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts well put; inspiring tales, well told." While I will fully admit that at times we've allowed twaddle (Captain Underpants and Rainbow Fairies immediately spring to mind!) Maddie certainly isn't fed a steady diet of it. Charlotte Mason also encouraged Nature Study and children being outdoors as much as possible. So its highly probable that the idea first sprang from the reading I've been doing. In addition Maddie simply loves being out of doors and enjoys animals of all sorts and types. She is certainly a budding scientist and I think naturalist would be an excellent label for her right now!

 

Naturally I immediately did some research. How were we going to do this? I found an excellent website that was done by another homeschool mom, one we had purchased curriculum from in the past. This time she had things for sale but it was a supplement to her online information. I could chose what to purchase and when we wished to purchase something. The blog is called Handbook of Nature Study and its been a wonderful resource. I requested books from the library....Handbook of Nature Study, Pocketful of Pinecones and Keeping a Nature journal and I also started a pinboard on my Pinterest page to keep track of the good things I was starting to find. All of this happened right before our camping trip and, naturally, the books didn't arrive before we started out. However I found this website to help me make the nature journals. Maddie and I made one for each of us.

Daddy's, Maddie's and Momma's

 

I was able to locate a cover page for Maddie that she could color.

 

We added things into our journals while we were camping. Frogs, chippies and a list of all the things we saw. Then Maddie was off again to camp with Mamaw and Poppa. I sent the nature journal again along with the grid of the month from Handbook of Nature Study. They worked hard to fill in the journal some more. Maddie was even able to add a hawk feather!

 

At home I also set up a "nature table" although really its the top shelf of the cubbies for the day care kids' bags of extra clothes. This is something I've wanted to do for a while but just couldn't figure out exactly where to do it! I cleared this shelf of the assorted clutter and viola! nature shelf. We already had a ton of things (most on the shelf prior to the clean up) to fill it up. Maddie and the day care kids have added to it. I have to keep pitching some of the things as they become dried up or otherwise yucky....leaves, sticks, seeds and a blue jay feather are all things that have been added.

 

 

 

My books finally arrived. As you can see the Handbook of Nature Study is quite a hefty volume!

It was written in the early 1900s by a woman professor at Cornell University. So some of it is quite fun because she writes about New York. Its also interesting to see how little some things about teachers and teaching have changed in ways we might not expect! There is a section devoted to helping teachers find the time for nature study and another about being aware that there is always something new to learn. The front section of the book is about how to do nature study then it is divided into sections with some field guide information and great questions to help guide observation. Pocketful of Pinecones  is a novel written to help a homeschool mom see how nature study works in the "real world" but it is set in the 1930s. I loved reading it! Both books are now on my wishlist!

 

This weekend we put a little of this into practice. We took Maddie to the Landis Arboretum  for her birthday trip. Despite the threat of a storm we had a great time and have plans to go back soon. The first thing we happened upon was an excellent spider. Brian did some research when we got home and discovered it is a banded garden spider....we think.

Can you spot him/her in the center? The web was easily a foot wide and a really pretty orb web.

Maddie discovered it while trying to get down to the water's edge to touch a cattail and check out the lilly pads. She has an excellent eye...she spotted the web and didn't disturb the spider, just inspected!

 

Maddie has her new "nature bag" in these photos. I managed to get it made for her just before our camping trip. She had a backpack but it simply was too big. We needed something smaller with easier access. I discovered this pattern and knew it would work! What is in there any way? What isn't?

binoculars (aka bins), emergency whistle with compass and secret compartment, magnifying glass that can also be used as bins, plastic baby food containers, small (tiny!) flashlight, portable microscope and a bird call--we need to add a measuring tape--and her junior ranger badge!

patches on the back of the bag!

 

 

 

Chasing down a giant grasshopper!

Checking him out with Momma!

 

Then we headed up the trail to check out the old oak tree. Its 400-500 years old! This took us into history as we tried to figure out what was happening in the world at that time.

Its fenced off so no one gets hurt if those limbs in the center decide to fall down. Not sure that will happen to be honest since they have been there since the 1940s!

 

On our way out we saw a bird we thought might be a hawk. Maddie whipped out her bins and was able to spy a white head. It wasn't a hawk but an eagle! We had a great time and can't wait to go back.

 

Its funny how things start to pop up more when you learn about them or hear about them. This is certainly true of our nature study project. All of the sudden I'm finding books at the library and things on the web. The other day our October issue of Family Fun arrived and it was all about getting outside with your kids (my favorite part of that was "Squirrel Awareness Month" ummm....those people obviously don't live here!). Something else kept popping up earlier in the month all over my favorite homeschool blogs and in pleas for help on homeschool lists I get via e-mail. Lots and lots of burned out moms. I wouldn't say I was burned out earlier in the summer but I was certainly feeling overwhelmed by it all and underwhelmed by the start of school. I have little to complain about here! I have the best partner for homeschool a mom could ask for in Brian and an awesome cheerleading squad in our family. But, the fact was still there that I was ready to cash it all in several times for a "regular" job with a "regular" income and let someone else take on the task of getting Maddie to do her math every day. There are times when it is a hard thing to take the road less traveled! Nature  study was certainly a part of my answer to that and why I'm tacking this onto the end of my post about it. I include all the kids in my care in this venture and I feel like we've at least accomplished one thing during the crazy days we have lately. In addition to that something always comes up about kids in the school system that re-energizes me and gets me moving again....it can be anything from a crazy teacher to kids not knowing simple things like the date of the American Revolution to a story on the news about "bullying". That reminds me that I would still be schooling Maddie even if I didn't have the daily math struggle! I also got an excellent book for my birthday called The Homeschool Experiment. It was wonderful. I laughed out loud in several spots, read parts to Brian and just simply got my good humor back again. Pocketful of Pinecones also helped with that.

 

 

Yup, thats me on the front cover minus the vacuum since the state says no housework during day care hours! Kids here, there and everywhere. And, despite all the rough times,I wouldn't change it for the world. A little reminder to me and perhaps a little help for one of those moms I was reading about this fall who was at the end of their rope....we all get there, don't feel bad about it, just have some tricks to pull yourself back to your sense of purpose!