Archive for the ‘nature study’ Category:
In case you’re wondering. . .
if we’ve been wearing our boots.
We have indeed!
And boy are they loving the idea that they can wade right into the stream.
Actually so am I - very cool.
Subscribe to the comments for this postField trip!
We headed to Hawk Mountain this morning to meet up with Margot and some other families from her homeschool group.It started with a short “class” that included a live demonstration of a red-tailed hawk.
Then, after each child was loaned a pair of binoculars, we headed up the trail to see what we could see.
What we saw was plenty of Turkey Vultures, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, A Northern Harrier (or Marsh Hawk) and a Bald Eagle!
I have no pictures of them though. . . I was much too busy watching them in my binoculars and by the time I thought to take a photo, they were gone.
Back down the trail we spied some other specimens:
a friendly little chipmunk (he walked right up to us!) . . .
some mysterious mushrooms . . .
and a very cool spider!
It was a decidedly perfect day - one we will hopefully repeat several times before it gets too cold. We’re told November is when we are most likely to see a Golden Eagle - we can’t miss that!
Of Flora and Fauna
My mother is the type of woman who could tell you the name of pretty much any plant in her neighbor hood. My grandmother (her stepmother) was the same way. I grew up knowing I could ask (and still do) but for some reason I didn’t take the time to learn the names myself. Oh I know some but not nearly as many as I could and well, I think that’s a shame.
Although we have always done “nature study” to some degree we haven’t really dove deeply and our knowledge of nature isn’t what it could be. But we are determined to learn the flora and fauna of our area this year. And we’re all pretty darned excited about it.
Besides the fact that this area is rich is plant and wildlife we also have a local environmental center and nature library (with over 4500 books and materials available for loan!) close by.
While we have many nature books it’s always exciting to add more. It seems to reawaken one’s curiosity. We’re still waiting on a few to arrive but these are getting lots of use already.
Nature Study and Charlotte Mason
I was talking to a friend a few days ago about our plans to really make it a great nature study year. She has similar plans and her excitement rivals mine. 
We started discussing ideas and then books and I told her about a book I had reviewed recently that claims to use the Charlotte Mason approach . . . except that it doesn’t - not really.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely book and if you want everything laid out for you it’s ideal. But nature study as Charlotte Mason defined it means getting out there and observing nature as it is. Not as a textbook dictates, but as it happens.
Keeping a nature journal means recording your observations and experiences in nature over time. And those experiences can’t be predicted, they have to be allowed to happen.
A textbook can’t take into consideration the particular climate or landscape you live in and it won’t give you enough information to be sufficient for in depth study. Only living books - lots of them - can do that. All this isn’t to say that a textbook of this nature (no pun intended) isn’t useful. I’m sure it is - I just don’t think it’s necessary.
After years of practically applying her philosophy Charlotte Mason wrote “Of Natural Science, too, we have to learn that the way into the secrets of nature is not through the barbed wire entanglements of science as she is taught but through field work or other immediate channel, illustrated and illuminated by books of literary value.”
One mom argued that she can’t possibly know all these things so she needed the textbook. I don’t know all these things either but where I will learn it (and indeed if I am requiring it of my children should I not at least make the effort myself to learn it?) isn’t in a textbook but by firsthand experience [field work] and the help of references [field guides and living books] .
Yes it takes time and effort. Yes it can be frustrating. In fact it took the better part of an hour yesterday to identify a particular tree we were wondering about. But identify it we did and I am confident in time we will improve our skill in this area.
I promised I would post more on the books were using and I will do so in my next post.
Nature Study
Books on order to add to what we already have and enjoy:
Winter Tree Finder (Nature Study Guides)
Flower Finder (Nature Study Guides)
Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees by Their Leaves (Nature Study Guides)
Those 3 were really inexpensive and seem lie handy little books (the reviews were good anyway)
Update: We got them and like them. We already used the tree finder to identify a large pine tree. The younger kids especially thought it was fun and were all excited to tell Dad about it.
Drawn to Nature Through the Journals of Clare Walker Leslie
Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching
The Burgess Animal Book for Children
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
Create Your Own Artists Journal
More to come . . .
