nature study/notebook question

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  • August 14, 2015 at 4:37 am
    bethanna
    Participant

    Should we make an entry in our nature notebooks every week when we do nature study? We have been, but this week we didn’t and I’ve been feeling guilty! I put nature study on Monday’s list of things to do, but it sometimes rolls over to a different day. This past Mon morning I was weeding & saw a spider with a large egg sack. I called the children over & we watched it a while, talked abt it’s markings, size, color/size of the egg sack. When we were back in the house, we looked it up in the field guide & read about it. Then we moved on to other school subjects. It was short, simple, but interesting & enjoyable. Is it necessary to have the children document every nature study? Is that “enough” nature study for one week?

    August 14, 2015 at 5:31 am
    Tristan
    Participant

    Repeat after me: No guilt!

    Seriously.

    We’ve been on this CM learning journey for quite a while and nature journals are still something we are hit or miss about.  We get in a lot of nature study, we just don’t record it formally every time. I think that is okay!  Do what works for you that week/month/year.

    August 14, 2015 at 6:09 am
    Karen
    Participant

    I feel like nature study is one thing I consistently fail at – we don’t get around to drawing in our nature journals so much of the time.

    But I had encouragement yesterday! My 3rd daughter, who likes bugs, found a katydid and all by herself (7yo) looked it up in the field guidebook then came to me and repeated what she had read.  She also asked for a “bug book” of her own.

    So, we didn’t draw, I had nothing to do w/ it, but at least one daughter knows what to do when she finds a bug!

    By the way, do you have any recommendations as far as bug books are concerned?  She specifically wants one that says what the bugs eat so she can keep them alive for a couple days. (!)

    August 14, 2015 at 7:05 am
    Tristan
    Participant

    Karen – the two books that come to mind are Pet Bugs and More Pet Bugs.

    August 14, 2015 at 7:41 am
    MountainMamma
    Participant

    I was struggling with consistency last year in this area too…

    This is the first year my oldest DS6 is keeping his own nature study notebook. Last year we would  go out, observe, and then come back and write in our family journal. This was nice since it was fresh on our minds, but we (especially me!) were usually exhausted by that point from going outside and hiking with 3 little ones. This made the journaling time more of a burden than a joy.

    This year we do our hike or backyard nature walk sometime over the weekend and then DS6 draws and writes in his journal on Monday afternoon. He is always most fresh on the first day of the school week so he is happy to comply.

    This new schedule seems to be working better for us this year. It seems that we are outside more as a family on the weekends anyway and neat moments (like your spider egg sac!) happen naturally.

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