I want to offer a nature study out of my home

Here are my thoughts . . . please move near to us so I can bring my kids!!

I think it sounds great.  Having someone who knows what they are talking about and can relate to kids is so nice.  I have had to tell my kids “I don’t know, maybe we can look that up.” so many times.  And, there are just some things that get left to the side that wouldn’t be if it were a planned time with others.  Also, there is something to be said for kids getting more into something when there are other kids there enjoying it.

I haven’t done this at all.  The only thing we do with another family is art 1x/week.  It was one thing that neither of us were getting done but wanted to.  Now it is in the schedule and happens because someone else is also planning on it.  Unfortunately they are gone for several months twice a year and just left a couple weeks ago. =(  And, we haven’t done art since . . .

As for a charge, if you do, make sure that the parents are told what is included in the charge (30 minute guided creek exploration, sketch notebook, pencils, paint, or whatever will be included).  And, make it clear what they are expected to provide (rubber boots, jacket, binoculars, gloves, sketching supplies, or whatever you need them to bring).  That would help me decide if it was something I wanted to spend my money on or do on my own.  Also, the more prepared they are (with knowing exactly what they are to provide) the more time will actually be spent on the activity.

I would also start small, low key and not too often to get a feel for it.  You can always make it more often and more involved as you go along.

Just sharing the web site of a nature camp near us. It’s excellent. This woman does classes and activities for kids of all ages.

http://www.naturessteppingstones.com/Site/Home.html

I think this is such a great idea! I used to do a nature study at every meeting when I led a girl scout group – a lot of wildflower and plant observation, they loved that. they liked taking reference books outside and trying to do plant id. It was great to vistit the same place over and over as the seasons changed.

I think charging a small amount is a good idea because it makes people feel committed. You could just charge per family, then it would not be scary for large families to come. If I were setting this up, I would plan a certain number of sessions – like maybe seasonally, do six sessions, one every 2 weeks for 3 months. then they could sign up for the next season. I would want to have something for them to take home each time – a page in their journal, a pressed plant, a leaf rubbing. oh, the possibilities are endless LOL 

I agree with the others, I want to come, too!

HA HA be careful what you wish for LOL I had made out a whole schedule at one point, when I was trying to convince my girls scout parents that we could keep meeting as a group, but just not as scouts. The girls loved getting together and doing activities, they had just lost interest in the scouting program as we moved up to Juniors. The parents didn’t want to spend the time if it was not part of some legitimate group with a name like Girl Scouts 🙁 but the girls wanted to continue. It was sad to let it go, and my plans all sat in a notebook, and I considered writing a nature study curriculum and made a lot of notes, but never followed through. I really should, because it it not a flooded area of curriculum – people are always asking for nature study guidance on forums…

My idea was to break it into seasons, like I said before. Focus on making the nature notebook – each meeting would have something to take home, usually as notes in the notebook but sometimes we could do a little crafty thing – like the duct tape bracelets (you make a duct tape bracelet, sticky side out – walk around and find stuff to stick to the tape, leaves grass flower petals… kids really like this and it looks cool when finished).

Teach one simple art technique for the nature notebook per season – look at a watercolor site or art journal site for ideas. Handbook of nature study site has great journaling ideas also. Repeat the technique at meetings as you work through the season.

Learn one tree, one bird, one plant, one bug per season, you could do an animal too if you wanted – so each of these would be introduced at a different meeting, entered into the notebook. Your job as leader is to continually point out these things in nature as you see them. I always tried to focus on having them learn about their own local place – so I would ID the trees and plants etc that I knew we would see in the location we went often, then use those as the ones we would learn. Amazing how many parents have spent their whole lives here but do not know local flora and fauna.

We always had a bag of stuff when we went out – wildflower and tree id books, hand held loupes (these are the ones I have – with cords so you can carry them around your neck), plastic pencil box with scissors, tape, and forceps – like big tweezers, I think i got a package once at the science aisle in hobby lobby…  

Another thing in our bag was something I made for matching colors in nature. The kids loved these. I got a bunch of paint chips – the kind that have the same color in different shade, kind of shaped like a bookmark. The most useful colors are purples (lots of these), yellows, greens (need a bunch of these! get yellow greens and bluegreens too), browns – a few blue and pink. We had ten or so strips on each bundle. Punch a hole at the corner of each strip and string them on a metal ring, like a big keyring or one of those that opens to bind paper. Kids can go around holding the color strips up to the flowers or leaves until they find a matching color. Helps them realize how many shades there are in nature. 

A big part of the nature study outing is just free time looking around. Letting them show you a million-trillion times what they found. You can tell it is time to move on to a more stuctured activity when they start to play and bicker – then gather everyone up and look at something or make some notes – then let them go again to look. Before they go home talk a few minutes about what they saw. If you did a notebook activity, let the ones who want to put out their notebooks for everyone to look at, practice paying each other compliments 🙂

Other activities could be recording weather, recording “firsts” (what did you see for the first time this year – a bird, a flower, tree leafing out… stuff like that) – all that goes in the nature notebook.

If I were doing this with changing groups, I would start out each group with a short “leave no trace – frontcountry” lesson – see this link for the priciples – look over at the right sidebar for leave no trace for kids wording.

http://lnt.org/learn/7-principles

I used to made the kids sign a pledge each year after briefly discussing the guidelines. It really did help with the kids that tend to tear stuff up :/ The pledge can go in their notebook.

In our neck of the woods we also would often review POISON IVY – you might need to do the same. I wanted them to be able to tell it from other plants and recognize it during all seasons and stages of growth. If I were doing groups like you want to, I would always start with this review. Then I would ask several kids at each session about it – is this poison ivy? or do you see any place here where we need to be careful of poison ivy? questions like that. 

Well I hope any of that is helpful – sorry it is just a “brain dump” I guess they call it Lol. I need to get out my notebook and get back to work organizing that material – springtime and your question has got me thinking about it again 🙂

I also love teaching nature to our local co-op group.  This is great!  We recently did a class on owls and dissecting owl pellets.  I think I defenetly enjoyed it more than some of the kids did as some have very little involvement with nature (not following Charlotte Mason of course).  I also want to plan a trip to a local wildlife rehabilitator.