Nature Study

[Sameera]

Is anyone interested in nature study or has anyone kept a journal? Please share your experiences, thoughts, journal ideas & articles here.

 

Interesting article:

 

Homeschooling With Charlotte Mason Part 5: Nature Study

 

 

 

 

 

Nature Friend Magazine

 

Creation based, it has crosswords, stories, poems, puzzles, nature trails, art lessons, drawings, photography, homeschool contests, etc. You can download free, April 2009 sample issue, drawing instructions on p.14

 

 

Here's a drawing of the roe deer I did a couple of months ago, using mixed media. I used ordinary paper for this. I drew a draft in pencil first and used my screen to see the pdf copy...it wasn't easy as I was not used to using a computer screen to copy a drawing (see the pdf file posted in the above post).

 

 

 

I used blue chalk for the background which I blended using a small piece of tissue. I then used colour pencils (crayola) for the trees,and blended in the colours to create the tanned brown for the deer. I added white paint using a thin damp brush for the deer 'spots', & flowers. (do not use water with paint on ordinary paper otherwise it will either tear or crinkle)

 

I am hoping to draw some templates for the kids to trace from - to make it easier for them to learn to draw & save time, while doing science narrations!

 

Best Wishes

[Rosie_0801]

I'm going to start journalling in the new year with my 5 year old. I bought an Australian nature study book and it came with an ebook of journal pages to print out. They have a few questions to answer about the critter and a space for drawing or sticking in a photo. I think they will be a good place for her to start.

 

Lovely drawing!

[Sameera]

Thanks for the appreciation, Rosie. It's nice you have a journal with pages already laid out. I think I am going to find some ideas on nature studies, see various types of journals so that the kids can choose their own layout.

 

Donna Young has some printable pages.

 

SCM website has info on how to do nature journals - Sonya has some really useful ideas which I like.

 

I also like my children doing narrations with science as explained in WTM. We might add some poetry, which I think will go nicely with their journals while they have a chance to memorise them :)

 

 

 

 

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

We have been nature journaling for a while. We just just use a multi media spiral art book and pencil colors. This new school year we will be trying to add some water coloring to it. In addition to our ongoing journals I plan on starting a new journal that looks like the one on pg 14 of Handbook of Nature Study

One thing we do is have several on going pages for things we look for as we hike. It is pretty much a collage of a particular thing...mushrooms, seeds, leaves....that sort of thing. We draw the item and then write when/where it was located and what kind it is. On our normal pages we write date and where we are and/or what we were doing and then what ever we want to add....sketch, drawing with color, just journaling, souvenir, ... pictures will get a captions with a label.

 

I have found lots of people want to do nature journaling but feel like they cannot draw so they will not be able to do it. A nature journal can be anything that records the nature you see. A date with a short blurb is a good place to start....Feb 28, 2013 Lone squirrel tracks mare the otherwise pristine blanket of snow in the back yard... when you look back on these "blurb" journals you will find a very nice collection of nature you have witnessed. For my dd, we are taking an idea I am doing for a knitting project (knit a row on a scarf based on the color of the sky) and coloring a line based on the color of the sky. We pre picked the colors for 8 sky conditions and each day around the same time she colors a line in her journal creating a striped pattern that shows the years sky conditions...a simple journaling idea with no writing or drawing experience needed but produce a record of the sky for a year (or just do a month, or week).

 

Thanks for the links, some good ideas in them.

[Sameera]

Wow! Thanks for sharing! You're welcome to the links. If you click on the pictures it will take to the website where there's nature journals for every season.

 

Here's one for spring:

 

http://handbookofnat...k/p/spring.html

 

This picture link below will take you the 'Watercolour Quick Sketch in the Garden link'.

 

 

 

Best Wishes

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

I had mine start as soon as they started drawing on their own, around 3. I just translated what they drew into words. My dd liked to draw holes when she first started so her first book has tons of black circles or brown patches and "hole next to azalea bush in the front yard with date, or mud under the bench at such and such nature trail and date.

 

A nature journal can be done in the field or at home. It is up to you. We do both. usually when we don't have time or patience to do a full page in the field we sketch a quick pic or make a note "draw the crow on tip of log" of what we saw then at home we look in a field guide for a crow and use it to draw. If it is okay to pick flowers or bring home other small objects we will do that, then at home lay them out and draw. We then journal afterwards or later in the day/week. For small children I do the journaling while they tell me about the picture.

 

As for adding souvenirs to your nature book...I have used glue or make small see though envelopes with velum paper to place the item in. I haven't tried dots, but I would think it would work. Anything used in scrapbooking should work.

 

Biggest key to getting your dc to do a nature book is to do one too.

[Sameera]

Hi Jaderbee

 

Glad you find the links motivating :) Don't worry, I also think I won't be able to do all of this, but I just posted it to give us some ideas.

 

With nature journalling I think the way to do it is to go out and take your sketch book and then draw exactly what you actually see. You can either do the full sketch there and colour your drawing, or write in pencil what colours you see, even part shade it if you need to get back home and don't have the time, or if it's about to rain and afraid your watercolours may run you can, use colour pencil shading as a code (see the fall color picture above). I took my kids to a country park last summer/autumn, use a digital camera took a few photos of the specimens we saw. i Thought we'd be able to complete the project but moved on to something else and they were ill during winter. In the mean time I pressed some wild flowers. We put them in between construction paper and put our library books on top! The pressed dried flowers turned out good enough to be on cards. It's only the second time I have ever pressed flowers or plants, and am happy with the results. From the photos I took last year, the kids can draw and label their botanical findings for last summer and include this with their spring projects (God willing).

 

Here's some photos I took last year:

 

 

 

 

 

You can stick the leaves with glue and make collage picture. Here's one we did when my kids were very small. I used this horrible slippery paper to colour in the sky with crayons and I really should have used good paper - even cheap wall paper lining would have produced better results, but surprisingly it still came out okay:

 

 

 

So just have go at finding something, draw & colour it, describe it, jot down where it was seen/found and label it.

 

I have a link which shows some labelling, will post it soon

 

Best Wishes

[Sameera]

Here's the webpage & link

 

 

 

Homeschooling With Charlotte Mason Part 5: Nature Study

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Every hour spent in the open is a clear gain, tending to the increase of brain power and bodily vigour, and to the lengthening of life itself. They who know what it is to have fevered skin and throbbing brain deliciously soothed by the cool touch of the air are inclined to make a new rule of life, Never be within doors when you can

rightly

be without." -Charlotte Mason

 

It would be an understatement to say that a very important part of Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy was the study of nature and outdoors. She believed that often being among nature was as important as breathing. She compelled mothers to allow children to play not an hour or two a day, but four or five hours a day outside, often attending them and directing them to study, drink in and immerse themselves in the marvels of creation.

 

 

 

"Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me

absolutely best for the children

; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them." -CM

 

She suggests that while children need a great deal of time to be left alone, the mother also needs to be actively and deliberately helping to train their eyes and senses through the classroom of nature.

 

 

 

"They must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of earth and heavens; for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this––that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder––and grow. At the same time, here is the mother's opportunity to train the seeing eye, the hearing ear, and to drop seeds of truth into the open soul of the child, which shall germinate, blossom, and bear fruit, without further help or knowledge of hers." -Charlotte Mason

 

Most Charlotte Mason homeschoolers use the term "Nature Study" to define that part of their curriculum that employs the study of the outdoors. A nature study is the practice of taking the children out to observe the outdoors. The children either take along a sketch book (better if it's designated specifically for this exercise) or they bring back some part of nature or they try and remember an object they wish to illustrate. Using their best memory of details, they sketch a selected object (leaf and bark of tree, bird, acorn, grass, flower, etc.) Some description of the object is then written on the page, although sometimes a poem or quote can be written. A field guide is helpful in writing descriptions.

 

But like all of the CM philosophy, this aspect goes deeper than just checking off an activity. The mother must understand and embrace the depth and value of this practice. Charlotte Mason gave some practical guidelines a mother can follow if she wishes to make nature study an integral part of her child's education (more are discussed in the referenced link at the end of the post):

 

Education of Sight-seeing

 

"…she sends them off on an exploring expedition–who can see the most, and tell the most, about yonder hillock or brook, hedge, or copse. This is an exercise that delights children, and may be endlessly varied, carried on in the spirit of a game, and yet with the exactness and carefulness of a lesson….

 

This is all play to the children, but the mother is doing invaluable work; she is training their powers of observation and expression, increasing their vocabulary and their range of ideas by giving them the name and the uses of an object at the right moment,––when they ask, `What is it?' and `What is it for?' And she is training her children in truthful habits, by making them careful to see the fact and to state it exactly, without omission or exaggeration. The child who describes, `A tall tree, going up into a point, with rather roundish leaves; not a pleasant tree for shade, because the branches all go up,' deserves to learn the name of the tree, and anything her mother has to tell her about it. But the little bungler, who fails to make it clear whether he is describing an elm or a beech, should get no encouragement; not a foot should his mother move to see his tree, no coaxing should draw her into talk about it, until, in despair, he goes off, and comes back with some more certain note––rough or smooth bark, rough or smooth leaves,––then the mother considers, pronounces, and, full of glee, he carries her off to see for himself." -CM

 

Reading about Miss Mason's passion for nature is contagious! But even more is her conviction that a mother holds the power to lead her children to a higher awareness than we are accustomed to believing can be obtained. And perhaps never more in the history of man must we fight against the deadening amusements that constantly pull our attention. I wonder what she would have to say if she could see the children in our day with all their hours of mindless video games and television.

 

 

"It is infinitely well worth of the mother's while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation." -CM

 

As I read Mason's explanation of the educational value of the nature study, I am reminded how we complicate things so much. It's ironic that our educational system boasts of more money, more books, more technology and more resources than ever in history, and yet a simple browsing through a text book from 100 years ago will reveal the unmistakable fact that we are less educated now than ever. Let it be a reminder to us then, that it doesn't take more teachers, more classes, more advancements to raise intelligent, insightful children. Do you feel pressured to "keep up with the system"? Consider that there is a wealth of education and opportunity at our disposal–let's use it!

 

 

 

 

"Consider, too, what an unequalled mental training the child-naturalist is getting for any study or calling under the sun––the powers of attention, of discrimination, of patient pursuit, growing with his growth, what will they not fit him for? Besides, life is s0 interesting to him, that he has no time for the faults of temper which generally have their source in

ennui

(boredom); there is no reason why he should be peevish or sulky or obstinate when he is always kept well amused." -CM

 

http://www.generatio...ture-study.html

[Sameera]

Your child is special and deserves your attention & time. Do what you know is good for your child and don't worry about what others may think.

Life is not about the destination or to achieve worldly status for success, but it is the journey what counts!

This is a photo I took of a goose we saw in a park:




 

[Sameera]

That's great!

 

If you look for spiral sketch books they can easily be transformed into journals.

 

I also loved the idea about colouring the sky! :)