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Can Apologia count as nature study?
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Hi! Last school year we did the Apologia Astronomy book the first semester and the Apologia Botany book the next semester with my 4th and 2nd graders. We really enjoyed it, and are planning to do the Zoology 1 (Flying Creatures) the first semester and the Zoology 2 (Swimming Creatures) the second semester this coming school year. We do science 4 days per week and it has been a good schedule for us doing it in this way. We are doing it as close to CM as we can. We are reading, doing oral narrations, doing a science notebook (notebook with blank space at the top for sketches and lined at the bottom for copy work and written narrations), watching videos, and taking field trips that go with our topic along the way. I also fill their book shelf for free reading with good living books on these topics as well. We don’t do all these things everyday, but a mix of them.
My question is, is this enough to count as nature study too? We did not do a separate “nature study” last year. I keep trying to fit into our schedule for this coming year, but just honestly feel like what we are doing is enough. I think that I am getting too legalistic with it and I am letting it bother me that it’s not on the schedule.
We seem to be doing a lot of nature things, including just getting outside and observing and playing. We just aren’t doing the whole sit-down-in-the-backyard-and-journal type stuff. Is that really necessary? It just seems to come more naturally as we go thru the Apologia books.
Is any one else doing this? Counting Apologia and Nature study as one?
Thanks!
Christy.
I applaud you for getting through not one, but two Apologia books in one year. We have yet to finish one Apologia book in one year. While I do not think your science is lacking, it is still not the same as nature study, imho. I did a blog post last fall about how we fit in nature study. It includes a link to the SCM blog series on 8 Reasons to do Nature Study. Perhaps that will help you decide.
http://wherelearningabounds.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/determined-to-learn-through-nature-study/
Also, you can choose how often to do Nature Study. You do not have to do it every week. You do not have to do it every term either. We slowed down in the winter. But I am determined to work it back in this September. I enjoy the drawing aspect of it. And that helps you to be more observant, to grow in attention to details and to grow in appreciation and wonder at what God’s hand has created.
Thank you so much for your help! After posting this I did some research and found this really good blog post on nature study:
http://jimmiescollage.com/2009/05/nature-study-christian/
I have never thought about nature study in that way.
Nor did I realize that not everyone does nature study EVERY week. We were doing a boxed curriculum (HOD) up until last school year. I decided that I wanted to combine my two kiddos for as much as we could and we did have a really smooth year. There were just a few things that I wanted to fit in (like nature study), but couldn’t figure how to do it going by the plans on the Typical Schedule on SCM. I guess that I thought I had to follow that schedule for the extras.
As far as doing 2 Apologia books in a year, we did it, but it did feel like too much. We really like the Apologia books, and I would love to only do 1 per year, but my daughter (11 in September) and son (9 in October) won’t get thru all the different types of science if we don’t do it that way. We’ve got 2 years until my daughter will be in the General Science book for 7th grade. Even doing it this way, she won’t get in the chemistry/physics book before that. We used HOD in her K-3 grades before moving into Apologia last year. But there are a ton of science subjects that we never covered in that.
Christy
Christy – don’t rush to try to get in ALL the Apologia books. Spend time and enjoy the ones you do, and it will work out – honest.
Great, Christy!
Here are some thoughts from Karen Smith on studying science in elementary, with a CM quote:
“Reading and narrating good living books alongside nature study is enough to cover science for this age. This is the age of discovery that will be built on in later years. As Charlotte Mason said, “there is no part of a child’s education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future. He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant.” (Vol. 1, p. 264) And again, “Of Natural Science, too, we have to learn that the way into thesecrets 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.” (Vol. 6, p. 256)”
taken from:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/living-books-for-5th-grade-science
I would not rush through ALL of the books either, but help them gain a love of learning science.
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