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Nature Study Flunkies Unite: A possible alternate way of viewing this CM subjec
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I’ve never been able to accomplish an organized or formal Nature Study. In six years time!! Ours is not a family of lovely Nature Study notebooks, binders, etc. It’s more like random scraps and underutilized sketch books and mediocre drawings. Two of the three of us are not artists, not talented and our efforts have improved little as its just not an area we desire to pursue. We don’t even have Nature Study on our lesson list anymore (I couldn’t take seeing it go undone!)
Have hope if you recognize your family in my description. It may be that you’re more organically, unschoolingly doing a CM Nature Study already. I don’t *think* formality or discipline were the goal. I think a close observance and an appreciation and a general love of nature were CM’s goals because through that we strengthen essential skills.
So, if we have nothing to “show” for our NS, then what do we do?
Our family really appreciates nature and our life is lived in tune with it … on a farm previously, now in a big city, through camping and traveling, by being addicted to PBS Nature, while raising animals, in our gardens, through our ever growing/changing collections and generally in our being “present” with nature in the smallest of moments … as we sit to wait somewhere – we watch/listen/observe; when we walk we – investigate/ponder/collect; as we drive we – point out/notice/comment on what we see; things slow down for a great sunset, a good rainstorm, the invasive Monk parrots coming to feed. We pile up the weird, beautiful and interesting collections on trays and tabletops and window sills and the dashboard of the car. None of it is picture worthy; most of it is intangible.
I could feel like a flunkie or I could rejoice in what we’ve done and made a part of our lives. Because isn’t the real point of studying Nature to develop a sustained love and appreciation for it? To avoid walking outside with blinders on and instead walk outside and be blinded by the glory of creation, the majesty of this world, and the awed by the intricate beauty of it all? Can you make a live oak tree? Can you make the delicate details of a dragonfly’s wing in its iridescent beauty? Can you release the scent of a bacteria with a single rain drop and create that infectious smell? Nope! Nature is amazing.
I didn’t want to hijack anyone’s beautiful post about Nature Study with my dribble. I so admire those who end up with the journals, pictures, posts and such. When I grow up, I want to be them. I think everything done is delightful. I’m not advocating for this goofy way we do it AT ALL. I just like to put alternatives out here for those of us who may sometimes feel like we’re “falling short” …. 🙂
I feel like a Nature Study flunkie too. I grew up with nature just naturally being a part of my life, living in a rural area with lots of hills and trees and diversity. My dad had a career with the Forest Service, so it seemed like every weekend we were off on an adventure, wading around in streams and catching crawdads and minnows. I always envisioned that for my kids too because I loved it so much.
Now I’m a homeschooling mom, and thanks to the military, we live on the plains. Not my idea of beauty or diversity. We’re in a city. In order to get to nature, I feel like we have to drive through traffic for an hour and then share it with a bunch of other people. So I’m a little pouty about it, to be honest. I accept that home is where the Air Force sends us, and I try to keep a happy face on for my kids and enjoy the grass and rabbits and prairie dogs…but it’s not what I’m used to or what I grew up with and I miss my trees.
So yeah, I might have a little bit of a stinky attitude, but I don’t find nature study to come as easily and organically as it used to. I know I’ll get lots of suggestions of how to do nature study in urban areas, but sometimes, I don’t want suggestions, I just want to have my brief pity party and then move on.
Long story short, as a homeschooling mom, I feel like we’re missing out with nature study and failing a little bit too. 🙂
Formal nature study was great in elementary school when it was the main science for my children. However, as they have grown older and started very full science studies, formal nature study just became one more thing to do-to check off the list.
I have found it best to let it be a more organic process as my children get older. We go to nature parks, we take walks and bike rides. We notice God’s beautiful creation all around us. We talk about the lovely sunrises and sunsets. We notice anything unusual and rejoice at the sight of a rare bird, animal, flower, etc.
My 20 year old son will often text me pictures of deer, owls, birds, sunsets and sunrises just because he has learned to notice and enjoy these things. I call that nature study success! 🙂
I am very thankful to Charlotte Mason. Her words awoke the love of nature in me and I have been so blessed and amazed at the wisdom and creativity of our amazing Designer.
If my daughter or I want to draw something in our nature notebooks, we will. However the feeling that we had to do so, had begun to overshadow our nature studies and turn them into a bit of a chore instead of a pleasure. I am very happy with where we are now in our approach to enjoying nature-it’s not so much of a study for us now, just pure enjoyment. 🙂
Claire, this is good. I’m in this place right now. We notice lots of things and enjoy them, but I struggle with myself over it not being enough or right or whatever when it’s not a formal study or put into our journals. I need to remember to keep noticing, keep praising God for His wondrous creation, keep taking the time to enjoy and let that be enough.
I don’t consider that to be nature study flunkie at all! This summer I read a bunch of studies about the benefits of nature on health, mental welling being and cognitive ability. Do you know what they all had in common? Not one of them mentioned Nature Journals or Field Guides. The big benefits from nature come from just being there, noticing it, and relaxing and drinking it in. It sounds to me like you are doing a stellar job at that.
I think sometimes we get too warped up in details and let them derail the really important things. So good for you for keeping the big important part and not letting the details bog you down!
Lindsey
Oooo, can I be in your nature study flunkie club too? We do some sketching, but it’s never in a very organized or planned way. I have great intentions to do better this year. We just started school this week, and yesterday while we were driving, I was thinking that I need to figure out what we are going to do for nature study this week. (I was focused on more academic planning first.) Then I realized that I was in the car with a family covered in mud because we were on the way home from a kids orienteering class and had traipsed through the woods, up and down slippery muddy slopes, in the rain, getting soaked by wet leaves. Um, I think I’m calling Nature Study done for this week. No sketches were done, no specific observations were made and discussed, but we got very up close and personal with nature!
If I put nature study on my schedule, it’ll never get checked off either. Formally going somewhere with all the kids and taking art supplies, etc. just isn’t going to happen.
But, do my kids love and often observe nature? Absolutely. We live out of town and have a homestead. They’ve watched chickens lay eggs (I’ve never seen a chicken lay an egg!) They know how to candle eggs and watch the chicks move around inside. The don’t say, “Oh, look a bird,” but rather, “Look a cardinal.” We catch and identify moths, butterflies and caterpillars.
They love nature. It’s fun to watch. And when they go to co-op, I get comments about the things they know. But we do very little formally.
I’d love to have journals, but that’s just not going to happen for us right now. Maybe when the kids are a little older.
The past few years Nature Study always got pushed to the back and hardly ever got done because of so many other things needing to be done. There is only one of us who can draw nicely so I totally understand what you mean. Just this year in an effort to revive the lessons I made a list of lessons and am having the older (5th grade and up) kids do them on their own. And it’s only twice a month and if we only get one a month done I won’t stress about it. Even if you don’t manage to do the “formal” lessons with the journal but still surround yourself with nature you are still absorbing it and it counts for something.
I’m glad this resonated with some of you.
While I was running this morning, I thought of something else. I think it’s the recording of things that deadens Nature’s impact on our older children. Maybe not the young children who are still “following” and learning where their strengths and weaknesses lie. But as children age they naturally become “leaders” in their lives and know more distinctly what they enjoy and where their strengths lie. If they are interested in Nature and we insist that they draw it, sketch it, record it in a way that intrinsically goes against where their natural strengths lie then we’re putting a spotlight on that weakness and we’re killing their joy and fascination in it.
I think that begins to erode the efforts of our “feast” idea.
I can certainly understand that. I think some recording (when the child is interested) is OK, but I can see how making a child record every little thing can deaden the joy of discovering it. Yesterday we spent the day at the zoo. I had to try not to be in my homeschool mom mode and just let my kids enjoy seeing the animals and enjoy the environment. They soak up so much in their environment, not everything has to be a lesson. 🙂
Thank you Claire for starting this. I don’t often have time to chime in although I thoroughly enjoy this forum. I have often felt like a failure because I am coming no where close to the ideal for CM nature study. Thank you for the ideas and thoughts. In fact, we have a hike scheduled in a week, and I decided just to let us all get out and enjoy it rather than feeling like we have to lug all our nature journals. Just because we don’t draw something doesn’t mean we haven’t built memories and enjoyed being together out in God’s creation.
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