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Nature Study with a 4th grader
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Much to my surprise, we have added a student to our family’s homeschool! My niece, who would be in 4th grade in the upcoming school year, has joined us this year to see how she likes homeschooling. So at the last minute I’ve been adding her to our mix (ds nearly 7 and ds 4, who now decided he must do school right along with us, sigh). Our hang-up right now is nature study. She loves the out-of-doors and is excited about nature study, though I don’t think she really “gets” what its about yet. We’ve done one of the challenges from the handbook of nature study blog the summer series, which went OK. I’m learning too, so its a little rough going. The problem is that she wants MORE. And I haven’t the foggiest idea of how to give it to her. We have NS scheduled for once a week right now, with 15 min outside and then some time to make their journal entries (which is what’s recommended in the HNSblog) as our goal time. Also, we are doing the Apologia Astronomy as well, though I don’t think that’s really what she’s looking for. We are also reading from the Burgess Bird Book and coloring the bird we read about as well as listening to its song. Maybe this is enough and we just need to keep going for it to work for her. This is only our 2nd week! Any thoughts/ideas for the older child would be so very helpful!
One other thing is that I’m trying to keep our school hours fairly short (from 9 until about 12 with 2 short breaks), so maybe she needs something she can work at while at home. I know her mom is open… Plus, if she ends up staying with us, which I think she will, there will be a future post from me about how to fit it all in!!!! We will have to add dictation, typing, and Latin, ack! 🙂 lol, its all good, though, and will work out somehow, right?
Becky 🙂
What about ordering the My Nature Journal by by Adrienne Olmstead You can get it from Amazon, Queens or Rainbow Resources. All the reviews for it are very positive. I am planning on ordering one for each of my kids this year.
If you can, i would get her one of the Queen Home School Discoveries in Nature Series books. My G4 daughter is doing the Parables in Nature one and is SO excited about it. Just the thing to satisfy a nature study enthusiasts extra cravings. Good stories, sketching, colouring, researching… good stuff. Just my 10 cents
Thanks Kalle and cedargirl. I just looked at both of those items – they book look pretty cool. As for the Queen’s – the Parables in Nature looks a lot more in-depth and more for an older kid than the other ones – would starting with say, A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie (could she say “Aunt Becky” ha ha) be too “young” for her? I want to make sure she is doing work for her level. I mean, I even wonder about the Burgess Bird Book – is this too young for her?
You are best to judge what she will enjoy and handle. I am sure Aunt Bessie would be fine as they are so flexible. you can make your study as in-depth as you wish. We are doing Parables because it encompasses many topics she needs to study this year. I plan on reading the stories with my daughter because they are so interesting. Let us know what you work out,
I have my soon to be third grader reading Christian Liberty Nature Readers and most of us like to listen to the stories. (I know I do), would she like that? Also, this is just me (and I’m a big nature buff with a B.S. in wildlife) but 15 minutes of outside time doesn’t seem like nearly enough for someone who is so very interested in nature.
That’s my 2 cents anyway.
Kristen – well, I’ll tell ya, I really dont’ know what I’m supposed to be doing with them when we’re out there! lol And this first time, it did go over 15 min. We were doing the summer tree study from the Handbook of NS blog, and we were checking out trees, but I really didn’t know how long it should go on or how much they can veer off topic. I mean, it wouldn’t be long before they were climbing trees and playing in the dirt with their trucks and whatnot. Which is fine – but not while we are in “school”. Plus, the way I understood it, they also then needed to do a journal entry. So we went inside and did the tree journal page and also made some rubbings of the leaves we collected to put into our journals. But then this week was bats, so we just watched a youtube video and looked some stuff up and wrote a little page in our notebooks. I’m not sure how worthy any of this is….. I’m really sorta lost on the whole subject! 🙂 btw, after she goes home (which is after lunch) she spends quite a lot of time outside on her own. What she’s doing during that time, though, I really don’t know. So maybe having a journal like they mentioned above would give her a little direction. And maybe reading the CLNR would give her information so she has more of an idea about whatever she’s discovering when she is outside? I really don’t know much about those books, to be honest.
ja, I’m totally clueless on how to approach this subject!!!! 🙂
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