Skip to main content

Homeschool Help Series: Nature Study and Outdoor Time for All Ages!




Nature Study: Good for the Homeschooler's Soul


In 2012, our family moved from a small farm in Virginia to a beach condo in South Florida. Our kids were 6, 11, and 14 and had been exclusively home educated. They were used to running outside barefoot in warm months to climb white pine or cherry trees and getting their hands dirty in the 

garden before school each day. They bundled up in warm winter clothes in cold months to collect chicken eggs or milk goats and to build snow forts and ride horses.


Florida now offered them the warm salty beach and the ecologically diverse Indian River Lagoon. They could kayak, paddle-board, and spy on manatees and dolphins. I looked for educational opportunities and found marine biology internships at the Florida Oceanographic Center and Smithsonian Marine Station, sailing camps, and surfing lessons. Condo living is much different than farm life, though, and my kids no longer felt the freedom to run outside barefoot at any hour of the day. There were other people around to consider, and in the summer, the intense midday heat was overwhelming. I found that I had to be more purposeful and strategic in getting my kids outdoors.

So we began daily nature study excursions. We have found it to be good for our souls. Nature study improves our health and well-being, grounds us in reality, and gives us a greater context for other academic studies. It has also instilled a deeper sense of wonder and curiosity and awakened my kids' powers of observation and attentiveness.

To begin: Start with 15-minute walks, pointing out everything you see in nature. Have a conversation about nature, and look up interesting finds when you get back home. To take it to the next level, bring blank journals and drawing pencils on the trips. You can even bring a backpack with field guides, a magnifying glass, binoculars, and snacks. Make it casual and fun for your kids. Here are some photos from our experiences during our first-year nature journaling in Florida: 




































































































Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Inspiring Excerpt from "Little Women"

"It's my dreadful temper! I try to cure it. I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever. O Mother, what shall I do?" cried poor Jo. "Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault," said Mrs. March, drawing the blowzy head to her shoulder and kissing the wet cheek so tenderly that Jo cried harder than ever. "You don't know, you can't guess how bad it is! It seems as if I could do anything when I'm in a passion. I get so savage I could hurt anyone and enjoy it. I'm afraid I shall do something dreadful some day, and spoil my life, and make everybody hate me. O Mother, help me, do help me!" "I will, my child, I will. Don't cry so bitterly, but remember this day, and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it. Jo dear, we all have our temptations, some far greater than yours, and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them. You th
1 comment
Read more

An Autumn Story (How to Help Our Students Love their Education)

    She’s 14. Disturbingly beautiful. Breathtakingly uncooperative. She laments a lack of fall weather in Florida, so I schedule a short trip to see family in northern Virginia during “peak leaf week.” Our usual homeschool days start with caffeine and math, one of the two subjects into which I invest an hour beside her each day. Then, we work separately for a few hours and converge again for history and debate, during which I guide her through annotating American Documents and researching debate issues.       We stride through the Orlando airport, our conservatively-packed personal items slung over shoulders. We’re not rushed. We follow signs calmly with our covid masks in place. I often feel that I annoy my daughter, but she’s not annoyed now. She sees me navigate easily through the airport. We find our gate an hour before departure, so we have time to grab a coffee and a donut. We visit the gift shop to buy keepsakes for her cousins.    I chose her academic curriculum this year, and
1 comment
Read more

(From the Archives) Classical Conversations Overview and How I Lead my Foundations Class

As mothers, we brood over our young like hens brood over their nests. We try to  provide a nurturing environment to foster t he perfect balance of self-discipline and creative- thinking in our children and ourselves.  We're not alone in these trenches. We turn inward in faith and find the love and support we  need to carry the precious burdens of motherhood with grace. Today, I've invited my Classical Conversations Director over for lunch. She is a kind, intelligent woman,  who has already graduated two children and is still homeschooling her 9-year-old son.  Classical Conversations is a national homeschool group that models the Classical method in local communities.  We meet once a week. The weekly classes look like this: 30 min: The  tutor introduces new memory work to a class no larger than 8 children of a certain grade level.  New memory work includes: -A history sentence in song form (e.g. In 1898, Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders defeated the Spanish at  the B
Post a Comment
Read more