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Nature Study…
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I don’t know why this is so hard for me. I’ve finally determined I need to get this in this year. What kind of CM’er doesn’t do nature study?!! Not that we never observe, but the whole notebook/labeling thing. I’ve had the Handbook of Nature Study a couple years and have hardly cracked it. Keep thinking I should just go to Harmony Art mom, but do better with something in front of me, if you KWIM. So we go out with our nature notebooks, the kids find something they’d like to bring home/draw. The trouble is I usually don’t have a clue what kind of flower, leaf, etc. it is. I want to label it, find the latin term for it….but I don’t have time to search and search to figure out what it is!! Any suggestions? I’m sure I’m making this too hard. Thanks:) Blessings, Gina
Since you want to specifically utilize the Handbook of Nature Study, this site has some simple, good ideas. Click on the How to Use the Handbook. 🙂
Maybe just start with the idea of drawing and label things with the date and “flower” or “leaf”. Once you are in that pattern, you could have the kids copy Bible verses or lines from poems in with their drawings. Sometimes I ask them to find something cold to draw, or something moving in the wind. That doesn’t need the detailed label. Once you have the hang of just fitting nature study in you could get more fancy! Baby steps right?!
Gina, do you have some field guides? Do you have any kind of a nature center in your area with a naturalist? I have to confess that when we started, I knew NOTHING except trees. And I only knew trees from Kansas. There aren’t many trees in Kansas! It took me YEARS to really feel like I was able to get somewhere. One thing we did is a monthly trip to our county nature center which has naturalists. I would glom onto them and ask them questions and they’d take us on tours and show us things. That, and repeated use of field guides, especially field guides specific to your area, will help. You just need to get out there and try and keep trying. You are going to misidentify some things, you are going to never figure out what some things are, but the day will come when you will drive by a stand of trees and know what they are, or see a bird fly overhead and know what it is without hesitating, or stop to look at a wildflower and realize you know just what it is. It just takes time and trying. Where do you live? I could recommend some field guides if I knew. You do want local–once I got all excited with a general butterfly guide, CERTAIN I’d just figured out what butterfly we just saw, and my oldest pointed out that this was a butterfly found only in Borneo. Oh, well.
You are doing GREAT if you are notebooking. we just need to get you set up with some field guides and you just need to jump in and keep trying and you’ll eventually be fine. Simple home….thanks, the site looks great!
Igeurink…thanks for the ideas, I do need baby steps:)
Bookworm….great ideas. We do have a couple nature centers close by. Always love visiting, but have a hard time taking the time and remembering to:) We do have field guides, but not all are area specific (mid-west). Love the idea of a monthly trip to the nature center to quiz the naturalists:) Grandpa is coming next week and I was trying to think of some fieldtrips…think that would be a great one.
Thanks all for the encouragement, I just need to jump in and do it I suppose and quit feeling guilty! Blessings, Gina
You are doing GREAT if you are notebooking. we just need to get you set up with some field guides and you just need to jump in and keep trying and you’ll eventually be fine. Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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