how to get started with nature study?

Hi Angela,

I have the same resources as you, but have neglected to really start much:(  Come Spring, I plan to use:http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/  as my guide.  A CM friend loves it and I see it recommended.  If you go to the bottom right corner you’ll see her weekly outdoor challenges using the Handbook of Nature Study.  Hope that helps:)   Oops… just re-read your post—is that the site you already tried?  If you do the challenges, they do tell you how to get started—what pages to read and what to do.   :)Gina

Hi Misty,

I haven’t started using the blog yet, but under Challenge #1 (getting started) she says she assumes you have a copy of the book or online access to it.  You could read through the challenges to see if you could get by without it, but will probably glean a lot more if you have it.  Blessings:)  Gina

I had trouble getting started with the Handbook, so I found these Nature Journals and we loved them. It helped get me started so this year I am using the Handbook and the Blog and I know better what to do.

http://www.queenhomeschool.com/alphapage/alphaframe.html

This is just my personal opinion, but I think what you should do when just starting out is GET OUTSIDE!  Look around and see what interests you and your kids first and focus on that one thing for the first time.  Look at it, draw it, take a picture of it, then read about it from your nature Handbook.  It could lead you down some interesting paths.:)  If it is really cold this time of year for you like it is for me in Wisconsin, set up a bird feeder and watch the birds for now.  You can use your field guide and learn the different species maybe even find some bird calls to listen to.  The possibilities are endless!  Good Luck!

Christie, I have Barb’s ebook:  Outdoor Hour Nature Study Close to Home Getting Started with Challenges 1-10 and also one of the NaturExplorers ebooks (Clouds).  They are both very good! (Though we have yet to get started on regularly scheduled nature study here….it’s a goal of mine too!)

Even though all of the information is free on Barb’s blog, I find the ebook to be very helpful since everything is organized into book form with all of the specific directions for each challenge, notebooking pages to go with each challenge, and lots of pictures from her family’s nature studies and examples of notebook entries.

The Clouds study is very organized also, with book recommendations and notebooking pages as well.  There is even a brief section for suggested extensions with clubs or co-ops.  There are artist and picture study references and also some projects that may be done related to clouds (science, art/craft type), along with scripture references and topics for research (and more).  I haven’t looked at the site to see if all this is already on there, as I got the ebook when it was first launched; so I’m sorry if I’m repeating things you already know.

I think the unit study nature of NaturExplorers might make it very easy for a co-op teacher to use and to give a definite focus to what will be studied.  The Outdoor Hour challenges begin with understanding how to use the Handbok of Nature Study and follow with picking a focus area, but the teacher would need to do a little more work organizing and planning.  They would both be good options depending what the teacher(s) might be comfortable with.

I don’t remember how much each ebook costs, but perhaps if the co-op has funds available you could get the Outdoor Hour challenge ebook that puts the first ten challenges together and also one of the NaturExplorers to review and compare.  You could likely put each to good use in the coming year.  I could see using lessons from both in a co-op setting.

Hope that helps a little.

-Kim

Christie, I hope that you can find someone who will enjoy leading the class and that one or both of the resoureces are helpful. 

I wanted to mention an idea I was reading about last night in a book called Creative Nature Study.  It is to keep a perpetual nature journal.  For example, make a notebook (three ringed/punched paper) with each day of the year at the top. (Month, day only) and then as your family goes through the year, anyone can make a dated (month, day, year) entry into the journal on the appropriate page.  The first signs of spring, unusual weather/temperatures, sighting favorite birds, nature related field trips, etc.  The entry can be a simple sentence about what was seen, a drawn picture, a photograph, or a clipped picture matching what was seen—-whatever you’d like.  Then the next year, as you add in similar things (seasonal things especially) you can see how close they fall to things in the past.  It becomes a memento of special family nature finds or seasonal remembrances. 

This sounds very easy to start (for those who might like to keep a written record but not individual nature journals yet), so I wanted to share.  (It actually sounds like a neat thing to do even if individual nature journals are kept as it could serve a different purpose and also be a simple way to involve everyone in the family.)

I’ve read a similar idea before which is to keep a calendar nature journal and enter special things onto an actual monthly calendar page/grid, but I thought the perpetual journal idea would allow for some fun comparisons and easier access to memories since the same pages are used over and over again each year.  (Sort of like the Book of Centuries for history….)  Oh, and the author said if a page gets filled up over time, she just adds another page with the same date written on it right behind it in the notebook. She also mentioned that more than one member of the family might work on more than one entry for the same day and that if pictures are drawn, they are often drawn on separate paper and cut and pasted into the journal.

-Kim

Assuming you mean the nature study challenge site…

Did you go to the Get Started Page?

http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/2008/02/green-hour-challenge-1-lets-get-started.html

basically, she recommends doing the first 10 challenges in order – then you can pick what you want, or join the current challenges.

hth!