60-day returns • free shipping on USA orders $129+
I love nature study!
- This topic has 11 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 1 month ago by
.
Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
- Posts
My kids are 6, almost 4 and almost 2. I have been reading and understanding more about CM for the past couple years. In May, I started working more on nature study with the kids. I got the 2 big kids nature journals, and we’ve been trying to write/draw in them weekly. In June we found a tadpole in our pond and have been caring for him since then and watching his transformation. Two days ago we brought inside a grasshopper we found on the screen door, and added another grasshopper this morning. My kids are excited to see these creatures, and are quick to tell me the differences between them (the two grasshoppers, for example). I love to see the progress that they’ve made at learning about creation over the past couple months. My 21 month old can identify a crow by it’s call!
Just want to encourage others who are on the fence about nature study that we are really enjoying it! We are using exclusively nature study and living picture books for science this year, and I feel the kids are learning a ton and enjoying it!
Love it! Do you, as some others, have a nature table inside that you update periodically with seasonal things (leaves, berries, flowers, etc.) you find out of doors? I always thought that would be fun, especially with little ones! I hope you continue to enjoy your adventures!
How exciting! I love nature study and am thrilled when my boys are excited about the world God made. Thanks for sharing!
We don’t have a nature table yet, but they have buckets they keep all their treasures in. They love dried grass! Acorns. Leaves. Pine cones.
I love being able to see things through their eyes and how excited they are about it!
I’ve started loving it too! It really seems to be a pleasant break in our day on the days when we sit down with something from outside and draw it in our nature jounals. And as a bonus, I’m noticing that I can actually draw!! I’ve thought for years that I couldn’t – my grades in art class in school were always “N” — for “needs improvement”!!! Now, I’m no where near becoming an artist, but it’s a boost to me to draw something and have it actually look similar to what it is!
My daughter(10) also loves nature study. She loves animals. She got excited when a hawk was flying very low over our property this morning. I said that maybe he spotted our chickens. She was concerned and said they were one of the chickens ‘best’ predators. I think she meant worst:) She has learned so much about animals from watching Wild Kratts on PBS. I think she knows more about some animals than I do. That is why I have a hard time deciding what to do for science. There are other topics that we cover, but we’d rather be outside when it is nice. I want to do Queen’s “A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie”, but it is fun to just go out and observe on our own. I got Stan Tekiela’s field guide and audio cds for Birds of Pennsylvania. I am giving it to my daughter for Christmas. She will have fun with that in the spring when many of the birds return. Next year I’ll have to get her to use a nature journal more often since she likes to draw.
When we moved here, I could spot the CM kids in our co-op very easily…they were the ones intently staring at the bugs or even running up to show Mom a critter they had collected!! The sweet mama’s who said, “Oh, how interesting! Look at that!” were invariably CM’ers ;0).
I had a lovely moment last week. My dad loves to take the kids on nature walks through his property and he stopped to show them the Bluegrass that had grown well over our heads. He told the kids how the ‘old timers’ called that grass Turkey feet because when you spread the tips, it looks like a turkey’s footprint on the ground.
Learning opportunities like that are so precious, and I missed all that knowledge from my parents and grandparents – I was in ‘school’ all day! I feel so blessed that my kids get to get out in nature and learn about Creation with their family.
Yes, I love them too! Our nature journals are precious to us. Well, at least, to me they are, and I am tryiing to instill that into my children. I fully credit the time we spent talking about dragonflies as one of the best lessons we have had. One morning we had hundreds of them flying around in our backyard. A couple of my kids were frightened. So, we talked about dragonflies with the help of a little research on the net and lay in the grass and watched the dragonflies. Now, they all love dragonflies especially since they know they eat mosquitoes. I especially love it because besides read alouds it is one of the only formal “school” activities we do together. It brings us together especially since we all love nature so much.
Yeah, I love that they are not scared of stuff we find. The other day we found a snake, and they were all captivated! My parents were here visiting a few weeks ago and thought it was so odd that my almost 4 yo DD likes “creatures.” lol!
Oh boy, what a fun topic! We LOVE our nature walks and studies! I am not working right now so I have time, plue the mosquito population just dropped to TWO! lol. We can finally enjoy the great outdoors again! I just posted a pic at AO nature forum of a slab of wood we found with a small family of mushrooms on it. My dd and I took it home and studied it and then I placed it near my oldest dd’s flower garden.
My dd was never able to handle journaling before, but she is now. Today she got started with gusto! It was so much fun!
I loved Natue Study once too! Notice the passed tense there ladies?! Science seems to take on a whole new realm of being as they grow older. Not that I think it should … it just seems as if it has. I don’t feel like we’re in the great outdoors, marveling, investigating, wandering and collecting nearly as much as we did in the earlier years.
Our Nature Table exists still but has morphed from a little nook on a beautiful table to rather unusual places! One being the dashboard of my car … when we spot things, find treasures and do a bit of wandering (from one city location to another usually) then these finds make their home on the car dashboard. Luckily it sparks continual conversations, so I do hope that Nature Study for us is not completely lost.
I’ll keep the faith and hope we get back to daily walks and our old Nature Study ways sooner rather than later around here.
Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
- The topic ‘I love nature study!’ is closed to new replies.