Nature Study

Observing a snail in the trail.

One of the fun aspects of a Charlotte Mason education is nature study.  Although the boys are still quite young, we're out having nature walks at least a couple of times a week.  However, finding a good way to actually observe and notice nature more than a cursory glance or in passing on the trails has been something that I've wanted to do.

I recently got the boys some journals just for our nature study.  They also got some special coloring pencils that only come out for this special time.  We then either take our journals with us to find one special thing that catches our eye to draw, or we take a picture or sample home to draw in our journals at a later time.

This last month, we went to Hamlin Park and the boys really enjoyed all the English Daisies that sprinkled the grass on the playing fields.  I looked up the flower in my field guide.

Then the boys started drawing in their journals.

I think it turned out pretty!

If mama doesn't want to carry the journals around on our nature walks, sometimes we'll instead take a picture of what we want to remember or learn more about.  I've made a set on flickr of things we've seen on our hikes that we have or hopefully will sketch at a later time.

Sometimes we even bring things home. On Monday, we went to a splash park, and Button actually found a dead butterfly.  Although sad to find something dead, we were excited to bring it home and study it more.  I had purchased this wonderful coloring book of wildflowers, birds, and butterflies, and we were able to identify our butterfly as a Tiger Swallow Tail.  With my photocopier, I decreased the size of the picture of the butterfly so that the page will fit in the boys nature journals.

We also find things in our own backyard.  Again, it's always a little sad when you find things not in their natural place, but we can sometimes take advantage of it.  I found a fully intact Robin egg on the ground near one of the bushes in our front yard along with another egg shell that was dry.  Some predator must have knocked them out of their nest although I can't figure out where that could have been.  We peeked at the egg yolk through the shell with a light shining behind it, but couldn't see much.  After letting the egg sit for a number of days, I finally got up the courage to crack it and see if there was any other science we could learn from it.  This was hard emotionally to do!

Turns out that our egg had probably just been laid.  There was no beginning of a little bird that we could see which was somewhat of a relief for me.  We then looked at a book that we had, and learned even more!  It's been a great experience.