I'm so confused

Hi there from a fellow BC gal (lower mainland)!

We’ve done Outdoor Secrets and are now working through 106 Days and have loved both. My daughter is a big into drawing though.

What about One Smal Square: Woods for spring, Burgess Seashore in the summer, Pagoo in the summer, etc and you could do more nature photography instead of drawing.

Take care,

Rachel

I have 3 boys just a little younger ( and used to live near Belingham….gorgeous place!!!!). I haven’t started any drawing with nature studies. Might do that next year. We just read lots of living nature books, spend time outside and use lots of resources like field guides to find out more information on the things we see that are interesting. We also watch Wild Cratts and other nature shows and they are learning a lot and loving it.

What about learning to take digital photos of the nature they encounter?  They could experiment and hone their skills.  It could become a life long hobby and maybe even a business.

Well, the curriculum you listed is just that. Curriculum for science with Nature Study ideas thrown in. Except Hours in the Out of Doors – that is the Nature Study handbook full of CM’s quotes on why and how to do nature study and Outdoor Challenges which I have struggled to implement – I am not sure why, unless it is confining and doesn’t always match what is around my personal area. 😉

in my house, they are often separate subjects because they don’t always mesh with our seasons or what we have going on outside. So while we may be doing 106 days, I totally do my own Nature Study based on what I have been observing around me – not what is written in the book.

At first, we just went and walked. Then I tried to take our pencils and books, etc. so we could draw plants. It is so hard with multiple children of various ages. Some are done in two seconds and others want to stay for two hours – others don’t want to draw the plant. In the meantime, I was chasing papers and kids, evading bugs, and watching out for dogs. Ugh. Not condusive to any kind of study. 😉 I finally modified that whole routine! It basically follows this pattern:

Sit for a few minutes and jot down some things that you know that they will be able to find somewhat easily. Use one thing per walk to focus on. With a certain subject, your kids will enjoy it more (at first).

Don’t do the plants first – look for bugs, fish, bark, birds, animals, leaves, and then add in the occasional plant.

Keep it fresh and minimal at first – a few minutes to observe and take a picture, then run and play. Soon they will want to do more of the nature. 

After we got home we did the “journal” part – sometimes it was just a picture we took, sometimes it was a picture we colored, sometimes we glued in leaves or feathers, sometimes we drew a picture. Sometimes we wrote neat experiences we had when we were out – often unexpected things would happen and we would extend the study to include that. We could look it up or we could just label and date it, depending on our experience.

Be consistent in your nature study routine. Make it important – have fun – and do it regularly. Soon they will love it and want to include things in their journals because you taught them the value of it simply by being consistent. In a Cm lifestyle, observant nature study – up close and personal – sets the stage for more formal science.

Don’t worry – your topics can and will get deeper the more they go because they will start to notice changes and new things themselves.

Nature study has become one of our favorite subjects. They constantly make connections from our other lessons on their own, too. =)

oh what great ideas. I did do the christian liberty readers. We enjoyed them. I then went on line and with my older ones and made out a quiz of sorts on what they read. this way they would know what to look for. This way I had their attention. LOL…  We did this and finished a few of the readers. I think it helped them notice the bugs more and I could remind them oh that was a paper wasp remember? Then I would talk to them about it all over again. We would even go out and see if we could find any. sometimes we did sometimes we didn’t. I like the camera idea. I should have incorperated that into the nature walk. I also let them go outside and spend some time by themselves. you wouldn’t beleive what they would bring back to me. Then we would look it up in the guide books and read all about it. 🙂 One time my DH brought them back and they had these ugly creatures with big eyes in altoid cans. We looked them up only to find they were dragonfly larvae. They were big and looked alien like. So we hit the books and the computer till we found out all about them. We shared our info with some other kids that have lived all their lives here and never have seen them. Amazing what kids will find. Year before last  my son was into birds. He could catch them even. He was so happy to be outside and be so near them. He made a special feed, hung suet, built houses, ect.. He was so excited the whole family got into looking up and studying the different kinds of birds. It was awesome. It was random but I think they learned more then if they would have sat around reading the book. Oh he also took some awesome pictures of those birds… and the hawk that sat in the tree waiting for them. We got rid of him fast! My daughter is already showing signs of growing flowers this year and she has seed for all different kinds of sunflowers, morning glories, you name it we did a seed swap and she is in flower heaven. so we will document them. Of course now with the camera.. 🙂  thanks ladies for all the great ideas I sure have missed you guys!