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More questions about Nature Study, Nature Walks, and Object Lessons
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I have been reading through Hours in the Out-of-Doors and it has got me thinking about how Charlotte Mason implemented nature study as it seems that everyone does things a little differently for what works for their family. Can you help me work through understanding this?
In my mind..
There is a nature walk that we can do just for exploring and seeing what interests my little ones. This could turn into a specific nature study if we find something interesting and identify it, observe it, include it in our nature notebooks or it could just end up being time in nature for enjoyment and discovery. (I am learning a lot about nature myself, so when my little ones do find something it takes me forever to really identify it as I feel this is new to me. So nature study doesn’t really happen at that time, because I feel like I need to go research what we found.)
Then there is actually a planned nature study time that uses an object lesson, like questions from the Handbook of Nature Study.
I have SCM Journaling a Year in Nature and I am signed up for the weekly Handbook of Nature Study Outdooor Challenges, but I am just trying to piece it all together in my mind for a plan for me to be consistent and for my little ones to benefit the most from our nature time.
So my questions are..
1. Do you always include a planned nature study during your nature walks? Do you differentiate between the two?
2. When/if you plan a nature study time, do you go out looking for something specific, like milkweed, or do you just go out to look at wildflowers?
3. Do you try to plan out your object lessons in a specific order? Since I am learning things myself, I do not really know how to spontaneously have an object lesson? I feel like I would need to prepare myself with the Handbook of Nature Study and have a set plan before going out?
4. Is it better to focus your nature study/object lesson times around a specific focus area for a certain time to really familiarize yourself with that thing in nature? Should we spend part of a term really getting to know trees?
5. I am using SCM The Outdoor Secrets Companion, should I plan out more nature study/object lessons around those lessons (if so, this would not necessarily be every week) or just study something completely independent?
Please don’t feel like you have to answer all of my questions. I would just love some more thoughts about distinguishing nature walks from nature study and how object lessons fit into the picture. Thanks for your time!
I take a quick peak around the yard when planning an object lesson. For example, this time of year we have corn in the field by our house, so it would make a great lesson. Are there interesting flowers or weeds growing? Trees budding or dropping leaves? Insects infesting a plant? A line of marching ants? What birds are at the feeder right now? Those are the types of things I’ll look for. We probably only do 6 or so planned lessons in a year’s time, although I’d love to do more. Last spring we watched sturgeon spawning in a nearby river, which was very interesting, although it took a bit of planning (DH kept checking a local Dept. of Natural Resources report since they only spawn for a couple days).
Sometimes we capture a bug or frog in our “critter keeper”, then take a closer look. I can usually skim through the Handbook of Nature Study in a few minutes to prepare a few things to discuss. My DC are great at finding animals and bugs to observe. We release them after a few minutes.
I like to choose an area or two as our focus. Last year we studied trees and birds. We went to a chop-your-own-tree farm and DH tapped some maple trees in our yard. We also set up a couple bird feeders outside our window and kept binoculars and a bird ID book nearby. In addition, we read a living book on each topic.
My focus for this year, in addition to Outdoor Secrets, will be learning some constellations.
We are pretty new to nature study but I have been studying up on CM’s ideas about it & trying to be very intentional about it.
Here is how it looks for us:
1. We take a walk around our yard almost every day. I tell kids to keep eyes out for anything new or interesting. I sometimes point things out that I see. Sometimes I try to add to my personal list of wildflowers, trees, or birds (I don’t require this for kids yet). Sometimes we just enjoy being outside. If kids are really into something they have found then I will try to find some quick info via Google to share with them. They make an entry in their journal about 2 x’s a week.
2. We have special studies going. We read about an area (right now it’s fish) and when we go out on hikes I try to point out anything I see or notice that we have read about.
3. We do occasional object lessons. I haven’t done one in a while. But I use the Handbook of Nature Study website for these. I decide on a topic I know we can observe (ex dandelions, earthworms) and I study up about it using the info on website. I give a little talk to kids, read a short interesting story, etc and then we go out and look for it and journal about it. We do this with another CM family.
4. We go on a full outing somewhere away from home about once a month. We roughly follow CM out-of-door life template in Vol 1. So we play, hike, observe, journal, & just enjoy being outside. We invite friends along for this.
Hope this helps!
HollyS- I am so grateful for your time in answering my questions. I thought you would be a great person to ask, as I have read different posts from you before about nature study. However, I certainly did not want to ask you during this season of grief and loss for you. You have been in my prayers a lot lately, as my heart goes out to you. Your comments are quite helpful and make planning object lessons seem very doable. For some reason, I thought that if I have a focus for the term that all of my object lessons had to go along with that. The way you plan them seem much more natural. Also, it’s good to know that you read a living book about that focus outside of your regular Outdoor Secrets readings and that it’s okay if they are not the same topic. Do you have a plan for how many times you want your DC to write/draw in their nature journals/Do you plan for this after an object lesson? Again, thank you a ton for your thoughts as this helps me have a plan.
merryheart5-Thank you for the breakdown of how you plan nature study. I think I will have to try a daily walk outside. I guess we have such a little yard, that I was afraid that it would get boring to walk the same path every day, but I suppose it would teach us to be even more observant. Do you pick your special study independently of your other science reading material? Also, when do you do your object lessons…is it during your daily nature walk around the yard or do you schedule this during your monthly outing?
Yes our special study is independent. I find a great living book (or two) on the subject and use that. I read from it once a week.
The object lesson is done on its own. I plan those out with another CM family. We base them on the season and what we have available around us. We tried to do 2 a month but took a break during the summer. We have one on ducks coming up. We have picked the (short) living book & the location (a local duck pond). I plan to refresh my knowledge of ducks by reading through the Handbook of Nature Study and maybe some Google research. We will meet up and read to the kids, tell them what to look for, then observe & journal.
The monthly excursions are done with that same family.
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