Nature Study

This one is for Laney, who asked me to describe how I teach Nature Study. I hope it isn't too disjointed to follow. There are lots of things in our homeschool that I don't think go very smoothly sometimes, but this isn't one of them. I really do this ala Charlotte Mason. My inspriation to start this was A Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola. I would also read The Charlotte Mason Companion for more nature study ideas.

And lastly before I start, here is a great link Jane posted on the WTM boards just this morning that has tons of great ideas for Nature Study in winter.

The important thing for us in this group is not how well we draw, but doing it on a regular basis, learning as we go, and having lots of fun in nature. Before I had the group to keep me in integrity, I averaged one drawing about every 2 months in a 3 yr time period. Now I average 2 to 4 a month, sometimes more. Two of us moms are learning to draw for the first time, and the one that just joined our group is very good. I like having lots of different levels/styles to round us all out.

The goals I have set specifically for the kids are to use quiet voices in nature (especially when we are birding) so that we actually have a chance to see some of it; to get them comfortable with drawing in nature and not to feel self-conscious about it; and to learn to appreciate and take care of our natural world.

We started out with just 2 moms and 3 kids, and now, in our second year, we have 3 moms and 5 kids, ranging in ages from 4 to 13. Keeping it small is a good idea, especially with the wide age range. We meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays from approximately 1 to 3, although we have been quite flexible on our times, sometimes meeting earlier in the day if we are doing more of a field trip. We have met at our various homes, mostly keeping it in the backyards, at Kubota Gardens (a fave of all of us, and where we all adopted trees to watch over the upcoming year), at the zoo (where the kids surprised us once by drawing for literally an hour and then not being ready to leave), Camp Long (a great place to go when studying ponds, and where the kids want to do an overnight field trip), the afformentioned Burke Museum, or the Arboretum.

Just some of the topics we have covered are trees/leaves, birds (this is a fave topic which gets revisited often), shells (I have a big box of these, and they are surprisingly challenging to draw!), insects (Papa has a great insect collection which is fun to draw from on a rainy day, as does the Science Center.), and owls. We have had one lesson on contour drawing, and will focus on more drawing lessons when I get my tushy in gear and start learning ahead of them like I am supposed to be doing. Sometimes we just go out and draw whatever we find. That is fun, too.

I usually don't have too much of a plan as to what we will be studying ahead of time. I prefer to keep it fluid, and go with what interests the kids. I will sometimes email the kids the week prior and give them a choice of two topics (Do you want to collect and draw leaves in my backyard, or do you want to go visit and draw our trees?). Once I know what we will be studying, I go to the science shelves in my schoolroom (unfinished basement), and grab every book I can on the subject, including any and all field guides on the subject. I sometimes also will go to the library and just pull out whatever is currently on their shelves, too. Put it all in a tub, and have it all set up with our other regular supplies/resources, and either load them into the back of Whitey the minivan, or set it on the table on the back porch. The other moms bring resources also, and we all have different ones, so we usually have a wide variety to use/choose from.

In addition to these, I always grab The Handbook of Nature Study and Sketching in Nature. These are the main tools I am using to teach myself and the kids about our subjects and how best to draw them. I also refer to Artistic Pursuits, often, for simple drawing tips.

My standard supplies include drawing pencils, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, CrayolaTwistables, our nature journals, plain sketch pads, etc. **A note on the art supplies-I don't use all of these for every lesson, just pick and choose what will work best or what has been motivating the kids lately. The watercolor pencils are new- we are just getting started learning how to use these out in the wild.

Nature Journals: We have tried out many different ones, from the first one at Tanglewood (which looked okay, but was too flimsy, and had a bad binding that always came off), to a more scripted version. One of my students has a great waterproof 3 ring notebook her mom made of cardboard, taped over to avoid the rain. It has held up well, and provides a nice hard surface on which to draw. What we use most now are a 5 by 7 blank sketchbook, and this one from Rainbow Resource. The next time I order from them, I plan on buying several of these- I want all kids in my group to have this one, because on days when I have been too lazy to plan, it is easy enough to teach right out of this book. Two of us moms also have this NJ, based on the book Keeping a Nature Journal (I have checked this out time and time again and really want to own this- a very good book!) by Claire Leslie Walker. If I know I am going to the zoo or going to be doing contour drawing or something really sketchy, I use the sketchbook, otherwise I take the pretty, hardcover one.

Once we are all together and ready to go, I will teach a very simple short lesson. If we are studying ants, say, I would read pertinent tidbits from HONS, and maybe a poem if I found one. We might go over the 3 body parts of insects, and in general talk about observations we have made in the past of ants. I would show the kids the books to choose from, in case they want to do any research while we are working. Then we would probably all take a jar and head out to find some. We would probably draw one in our journal, either from real life, or one of the field guides. One of the moms takes lots of pics, and uses them in her journal. I always make sure we use Latin names whenever possible to label drawings, and encourage the kids in their drawing skills.

When we first started, I praised every drawing and commented only a little. Now after a year, I will encourage them to draw only the lines they see, add more detail, write a paragraph about where we were when we saw it, a poem, etc. I am trying to stretch them a bit now. Of course with the littles (4 and 6), it is still praise, praise, praise. I have been having my two olders pair with the littles on things like owl pellet disection, etc. and I think there will be great value in this. My kids are realizing how much they know by tutoring the littles.

After they have worked hard for at least an hour (this time has increased greatly since we first started, and is much shorter for the current littles- I try to bring something fun but nature oriented for them to do while the olders are still working), hopefully a bit longer, I let them play. They either play in our treehouse or engage in imaginary play in the backyard, or run free at whatever park/place we are at.

Once we figure out how to use the Boy's digital camera, I will try to post some of the things we have done.

I probably haven't covered everything, but that's it in a nutshell. Let me know if you have specific questions.
LB
addendum: Here are a few links from one of the other moms in our group. I haven't visited these sites yet, but will today. Cool! New things to explore!
Charlotte Mason Nature Study ideas.

backyard nature

bug guide

bird guide

enature

more bugs