If you're new to the nature club, please take a minute to look around. On the sidebar to the right you should find listed the proposed monthly nature study topics starting with March. Every effort has been made to provide an inspirational and informational site here. The location for the March nature walk will be announced here as soon as I decide. ;) Joining in the club does not obligate you to anything - come and walk with us if you can, or maybe meet up with us another month.
A quick note....this is my personal nature study blog. I thought it would be an ideal "home" for our nature study club since I already post resources and books here. I journal here when I can as a way of recording our family's most exciting nature walks. Reading past this post will show you some of our nature walking from the past year or two. You are free to visit this blog and check in as often as you like. When blogging about nature club walks, I do not post pictures or names of anyone except my own children (unless I have been given specific permission to do so) as a way of observing and respecting privacy. This is a public blog, viewable by anyone.Monthly Themes for the Nature Club and use of the SidebarI will propose a theme for a monthly nature walk (location announced via email and on this weblog) and provide resources to bolster that theme. However, you will lead your children on the individual nature walks. Please, don't consider me the guide. These are walks I would be taking with my children anyway, and resources I'm using (or would like to), and I'm happy to share resources and ideas and let you know where we're going to be if you'd like to meet up with us, but please do not expect a guided tour through the forest! :)
With the resources listed on the right sidebar, you should be able to build an entire nature study unit around the monthly theme, supplementing with your own favorite books and resources. These are suggested resources (many of them are my favorites), some of which can be obtained through the library. Unfortunately, I can't include every single book, but I did link to my favorites! The sidebar is quite long, so scroll down all the way. The "digital book baskets" are divided up by the monthly themes for easier planning and there are some set up for general nature study resources as well.
Allow reading to springboard rabbit trails that take you in new directions of learning. I always offer a "theme" for our walk with my children. I might say something like, "let's look for signs of spring!" But, there is always something on the walk that sparks an interest that is off-topic! Always! A newly found spring bubbling up from the earth, a strange moss formation, eerie sounds coming from the interior of the forest...these are to be embraced! More often than not, the treasure of the day overshadows my thoughts and themes and we have such a delight hunting and investigating the new treasure found. This is why I have learned not to spend too much time preparing for a nature walk. I might provide some background reading (general stuff), but I leave the real digging into and reading for after the walk.
What if I'm not a naturalist?When asked, "what is this?" Do not be afraid to say, "I don't know." Sometimes I know the answer, and sometimes I just don't. Investigate later...
on nature walk day, bring your inner 5 year old. Explore with your children, open your eyes to God's beautiful and awe-inspiring Creation. Observe how ordered He made things. Wonder at the beauty in the tiniest of creatures. And then, go home and read. Wonder again. Allow yourself to be a child within nature. The eyes of an adult are sometimes too busy staring down the way and can look past the tiny ant carrying his dinner home, but a child never misses it!
Nature Time with Older Children?There is no age limit to join this club, in fact, I find myself learning as much as the children. All children of all ages are welcome and encouraged to participate! There is one book I would suggest for an older child that is a wonderful and informative resource - Anna Botsford Comstock's
Handbook of Nature Study. This book provides lessons and extensions along with an absolute treasure of information I have not found anywhere else. The writing and vocabulary is beautiful and not at all elementary in tone. To use this book, you may choose a topic before the nature walk to research, or you can use it as a study guide after the walk searching the index for pertinent topics. If you nature walk with an older child, encourage quiet and watchful observation. Often, an older child enjoys bringing a nature journal and sketching on the trail.
A few suggestions and guidelines for nature walks:Please be attentive to children's behavior on a nature walk. Though we will be outside, voices should be within reason, and if we are on a path, we must stay together and
on the path! These are the rules I convey to my children when we take a nature walk and I propose them for your consideration:
*** Walk with Indian feet. Pretend you are an Indian walking through the forest. They stepped gently and with great respect for the living creatures about them. Practice walking like Indians in your backyard. You'll find that you step gingerly, more slowly, and notice more about you.
*** Use inside voices. Yelling and screaming is healthy and encouraged - at home in the backyard. Nature walks are so fruitful when the screech of the hawk and delicate song of the Cardinal aren't drowned out by enthusiastic shrieks.
*** Leave nothing but your footprint. No littering. Period.
*** Wear comfortable clothes.
*** Nature treasures abound. Take only what you need to examine a specimen, and only if you can do so and leave an abundance of that specimen behind. For example, if we spot a majestic oak and find thousands of acorns, it would be fine to remove 2 or 3 for your nature shelf.
Please
email me if you're interested in participating in the monthly nature club. And, feel free to watch this blog for future posts. I'll be posting all of our family's nature finds here and frequently updating the sidebars. I may also post information relating to nature walks - links, websites with further information to bolster studies, etc. I'll also be posting articles here on:
- incorporating nature walks into your curriculum
- how to use various nature walk resources
- what to do with nature treasure collections
- seasonal finds
- seasonal online programs such as Journey North and Great Backyard Bird Count
"There is no part of a child's education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future. He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant." (Charlotte Mason, Volume I, p. 264)
I've only recently discovered some glorious wildflower trails around North Alabama. One of the most exciting is the Wildflower Trail on Fagan Creek. The trail is absolutely stunning and is taken care of by the Huntsville Land Trust. We stopped by Sunday after Mass, and the wildflowers that were already in bloom in early March were just breathtaking! The spring which feeds Fagan Creek is beautiful right now as well. The creek runs parallel to the trail almost the entire length of it.
(pictured above - Toothwort, 3/8/09)
(pictured above - Trout Lily, 3/8/09)
(pictured above - Hepatica, 3/8/09)
