I used to overload my children with Teachable Moments, especially when it came to nature study.

Their eyes would glaze over at Mommy’s dream of lovely watercolor-filled field journals.

We moved to our current home about a year & a half ago and there is a beautiful little park with a pond at the end of our street.

We started taking a nature walk every Friday when the weather was nice and I discovered something interesting during our little walks.

My children learned much more about our local wildlife simply by exploring on their own. They would come home and eagerly look up information on their newest specimen.

And then they would enthusiastically do a page to add to their Nature Notebook!

Sometimes I just print out a page of useful info for them to file away.

We also enjoy the occasional scavenger hunt, especially when the seasons change.

Here is a list of some of the resources we use for our notebooks. I printed them all out and organized them in a binder so that I can just grab whatever we are interested in that day.

~*~ I will be glad to share how I organize this binder if anyone is interested ~*~

 

{Journal Pages}

Donna Young

Bird Identification Notes  Page 1 Page 2

HS Unlimited some of my favorite generic pages

Ranger Rick’s Nature Notebook

Science Notebooking

Soil Concepts Imagination Book

Field Journals

Trees

Winter & Spring

 

{Coloring Pages}

Wildflowers

Feeder Birds

Birds

Butterflies & Moths

Insects

Insects

Habitats

 

{Scavenger Hunts/Activities}

Nature Center Activities

Nature Detectives a family favorite!

Camping/Hiking Hunt

Seasonal Nature Walk Guides for non-readers

Classification Cards

WildSquare Activities

Tree Identification

Texas Wildlife Activity Books

 

{Identification Websites}

Bug Guide

Amateur Entomologists’ Society

What Tree Is It?

All About Birds

 

Just remember . . .

A topic randomly taught still educates your children!

 

Once you decide to walk away from Big Box curriculum, it is easy to start worrying about missing something. (Not that you can teach it all!)

Use these tools to help you form a plan:

~ World Book Typical Course of Study –   grade-level lists of what should be covered in each subject

~ Core Knowledge K-8 Sequence – you are probably familiar with their What Your  –Grader Needs to Know series

~ Assessment Tests – resources for every grade

~ Check your state’s Department of Education website – it should have a scope & sequence listed, and will probably have practice tests for any state testing

Some ideas for using these resources:

• Assessment tests can give you a starting point by pointing out the gaps in your child’s education.
• A scope & sequence will give you a skeleton plan. You can create your own curriculum, or use it as a guide when ordering curriculum.
• State tests will give you an idea of the minimum requirements in public school. I used this when my oldest was in 6th grade. We hadn’t done any formal science at that point, and I wanted to see what gaps we might need to close up. I was afraid we would have several months of catch-up, but it turned out that she could have passed it with flying colors!

Just remember . . .

A topic randomly taught still educates your children!

Just Teach Something!

That is my school battle cry motto for this year.

Too often I get all caught up in the details and make things more complicated than they need be.

Plans get made, lessons get printed, and Momma gets overwhelmed & never gets it done!

Some things are simple and just need to be taught – not with a unit study, or a workbook, or fancy diagrams – but with a few minutes of discussion and maybe some practice worksheets.

I am starting a new series oh-so-creatively called Just Teach Something. I will be posting links that will give you a simple way to slip important concepts into your busy school day.

There is no set posting schedule for now . . . I’ll share ideas as I find or use them.

To borrow an idea from FlyLady:

A topic randomly taught still educates your children!

p.s. If you are a Type-A mom, you might be shaking your head by now LOL. Just ignore this & carry on! But if you are a Type-B Homie, then you might want to stay tuned!

{Just for the record: this is not the extent of our school life – we do use real curriculum. 🙂 Hubby & I have decided that some things are not worth making our children do hours of work. We just want them to grasp the concept & move on.}