“@Karen Smith: Could you add to your comment about the parent directing the study of science? Would that mean having covered usual scope-and-sequence topics during the elementary years?”
In the elementary years you are laying a foundation for more in-depth science studies in the high school years. Making sure that you provide a wide feast of science topics for your children in the elementary years will lay that foundation. So, yes following a usual scope and sequence would help guide you in choosing topics.
There are many living science books covering a variety of topics available at libraries. Experiment books are helpful for studying topics that don’t necessarily stand out in nature, for example electricity. I recommend using libraries for science books because science books go out of print so quickly.
I think this excerpt from volume 6, A Philosophy of Education, gives us a peek at how Charlotte Mason taught science that wasn’t readily observed in nature.
“We find an American publication called The Sciences (whose author would seem to be an able man of literary power) of very great value in linking universal principles with common incidents of every day life in such a way that interest never palls and any child may learn on what principles an electric bell works, what sound means, how a steam engine works, and many other matters, explained here with great lucidity. Capital diagrams and descriptions make experiments easy and children arrive at their first notions of science without the verbiage that darkens counsel.” (Volume 6, p. 219)
“Intentionally seeking specific things for nature study rather than just whatever happens to be in the backyard?”
Yes, you should be intentional about nature study, but also allow the child the pleasure of his own discovery. I think that nature study is one area that moms tend to not be intentional and it becomes almost a bit of unschooling, allowing the child to decide what to study today. Most children will not naturally observe all of the nature even in their backyard. We all tend to gravitate towards what we enjoy. One child may enjoy birds, but won’t look at insects. Another may love to observe insects, but doesn’t like birds. It is the parent’s responsibility to make sure that both insects and birds are observed by both children.
In Charlotte Mason’s schools, nature study was intentional, but still allowed the student to make his own observations.
“They are expected to do a great deal of out-of-door work in which they are assisted by The Changing Year, admirable month by month studies of what is to be seen out-of-doors. They keep records and drawings in a Nature Note Book and make special studies of their own for the particular season with drawings and notes.” (Volume 6, p. 219)
“The studies of Form III (ages 11-15) for one term enable children to––”Make a rough sketch of a section of ditch or hedge or sea-shore and put in the names of the plants you would expect to find.” “Write notes with drawings of the special study you have made this term,” “What do you understand by calyx, corolla, stamen, pistil? In what ways are flowers fertilised?” “How would you find the Pole Star? Mention six other stars and say in what constellations they occur.” “How would you distinguish between Early, Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic? Give drawings.” Questions like these, it will be seen, cover a good deal of field work, and the study of some half dozen carefully selected books on natural history, botany, architecture and astronomy, the principle being that children shall observe and chronicle, but shall not depend upon their own unassisted observation.” (Volume 6, pp. 219-220)
Here are some examples of exam questions on science, or natural history, from Charlotte’s schools. The answers given by the children show that their studies were both directed and intentional, and from the students own observations. The exam questions can be found in Appendix II of Volume 3, School Education.
“Q. What have you noticed (yourself) about a spider?
C. (aged 7 3/4):––
“We have found out the name of one spider, and often have seen spiders under the microscope––they were all very hairy.
We have often noticed a lot of spiders running about the ground––quantities. Last term we saw a spider’s web up in the corner of the window with a spider sucking out the juice of a fly; and we have often touched a web to try and make the spider come out, and we never could, because she saw it wasn’t a fly, before she came out.
“I saw the claw of a spider under the microscope, with its little teeth; we saw her spinnerets and her great eyes. There were the two big eyes in one row, four little ones in the next row, and two little ones in the next row. We have often found eggs of the spiders; we have some now that we have got in a little box, and we want to hatch them out, so we have put them on the mantelpiece to force them.
“Once we saw a spider on a leaf, and we tried to catch it, but we couldn’t; he immediately let himself down on to the ground with a thread.
“We saw the circulation in the leg of another spider under the microscope; it looked like a little line going up and down.”
“Q. Gather three sorts of tree leaf-buds and two sorts of catkin, and tell all you can about them.
D. (aged 6):––
«(1) “The chestnut bud is brown and sticky, it is a sort of cotton-woolly with the leaves inside. It splits open and sends out two leaves, and the leaves split open.
(2) “The oak twig bas always a lot of buds on the top, and one bud always dies. Where the bud starts there is a little bit of knot-wood. The oak-bud is very tiny.
(3) “The lime bud has a green side and a red side, and then it bursts open and several little leaves come out and all the little things that shut up the leaves die away.
(4) “Golden catkins and silver pussy palms’ of a willow tree. The golden catkins have stamens with all the pollen on them. They grow upwards, and two never grow opposite to each other.
The silver pussy palms have seed boxes, with a little tube growing out, and a little sticky knob on the top. The bees rub the pollen off their backs on to the sticky knob.”
“Q. What have you noticed about a thrush? Tell all you know about it.
F. (aged 8):––
“Thrushes are browny birds. They eat snails, and they take the snail in their mouths and knock it against a stone to break the shell and eat the snail. I found a stone with a lot of bits of shell round it, so knew that a thrush had been there. Where we used to live a thrush used to sing every morning on the same tree. The song of the thrush is like a nightingale. We often see a lot of thrushes on the lawn before breakfast or after a shower. They have yellow beaks and their breasts are specked with lovely yellow and brown. Once we found a thrush asleep on a sponge in a bedroom and we carried it out and put it on a tree. Thrushes eat worms as well as snails, and on the lawn they listen with their heads on one side and go along as the worm gets under the ground, and presently, perhaps, the worm comes up and they gobble it up, or they put their beaks in and get it. Thrushes build their nests with sticks at the bottom and line them with little bits of wool they pick up, or feathers, and they like to get down very much.”
