In our early years of homeschooling, I got caught up in trying to make everything an educational experience. Our attempts at nature study usually ended in one of two ways:
1- I squashed the fun out of our explorations by trying to turn everything into a project.
OR
2- We never got around to nature study because my plans were too elaborate to carry out.
All of you tired and stretched-too-thin homeschool Mommas, relax and slow down. You know what your kids are going to remember about nature study? Two things –> God’s creation is amazingly beautiful, and YOU spent time with THEM admiring it.
Don’t worry about whether Charlotte Mason would approve of your activities, or whether your nature journals are worthy of being displayed on the coffee table. Just pick somewhere to start and have fun!!
I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants gal. I thrive on having a weekly routine in place, but please oh please don’t make me decide now what we might want to explore three months from now. Or even next week! Nature study is one area where we can pick and choose according to what we are interested in at the moment.
Having our nature notebook printables ready to go is the key to making our Nature Fun Fridays run smoothly. I can create lists of activities, and pages of printables, but those are useless if they just stay on my computer. I keep a binder filled with pages that we might want to use during the current school year. It is super quick and easy to flip through and find something to do each week.
My Nature Notebooking Binder is divided into five sections:
{I am linking to a few examples of what I have in each section.}
- Scavenger Hunts- Insect Hunt, Hike Observation, Botany Hunt
- Activities- Sea Turtle Origami, Ocean Explorers, A Calculating Turtle Tale, Florida Bird Checklist
- Poems/Quotes – poems, quotes, and Bible verses about nature & seasons
- Journal/Coloring Pages– Nature Study Pages, Bug Observation, What’s That Bug? Bird?, Nature Around the House
- Guides- Illustrated Plant Structures, Guide to Tree Sketching, Learn About Texas Insects (we started this before we moved & it has such great general info about bugs that we will be continuing it)
Do you have a nature table to show us, or maybe a Nature Study Pinterest board? Get those links ready because tomorrow we will have a Nature Fun Friday linky!
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