Why Study Nature?
- Morgan - Established at Home Co.
- Aug 11
- 5 min read
Nature Study is a wonderful and simple component that you can add to a well-rounded homeschool education. Nature Study can be accomplished in simple or complex ways. It can be informal - such as going for a nature walk and searching for bugs, or more formal with using a curriculum. I dabble with both!
Outside time has been a priority in our home for it's many benefits:
fresh air
sunshine
unstructured free play
supervised risky play
exercise - burn off energy
appreciation of nature
“A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour.”
-Charlotte Mason (Home Education, p. 71).
From the time my children were young, we were having "nature study" informally during our outside time. Simple things like, "Wow! Come look at this bug!" "Boys, come see this flower I found!" "I wonder what kind of tree this is?" invited curiosity and conversation about nature. I often use a plant identifying app called Plant Net, to identify different wildflowers or trees we'd see. Or we'd look up plants or birds in a field guide. When we saw those plants again, we'd recall their name, and soon we'd all memorized the name of the plant and any special features I'd looked up about it (For example: is it edible? - We love finding edible plants!)
Sometimes I would bring a basket outside that had a few nature journals and colored pencils. I'd start drawing something interesting that I found and invite my children to draw as well. I would write the name of the plant or animal, and any facts I learned about it. Your children could do the same or you could write for them in their journals.
But why specifically study nature?
to cultivate a love for God as creator
it provides a foundation for formal science studies
it increases a child's capacity to understand the unknown
it cultivates a love for investigation
it provides an understanding of your child's local environment
it teaches them safety skills - what's safe to touch, what to avoid
it teaches practical skills - where our food comes from, what plants are edible
it enriches all of our lives
I love nature study for young children especially because it allows them to observe our world with all of their senses. It's visible, you can touch and smell it. It's easier to understand than abstract science concepts such as matter and cells. Those will come later after a foundation in nature is built!
The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the ‘print-books’ can teach. Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the ‘common information’ they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education. In the meantime, let them consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air”
-Charlotte Mason (Home Education, p. 63).
How to Get Started with Nature Study
The easiest way to start nature study is to plan a time outside once per week or every two weeks where the goal is to observe nature. Maybe you plan a nature walk through the neighborhood and say we're looking for different birds today. Or let's see how many different flowers we can find. Try looking up the name of an unfamiliar bird or plant using an app of field guide. Maybe you go on a local hike and challenge your kids to find as many bugs as they can.
If your children are a little older you can provide everyone nature journals - yourself included. Encourage everyone to find something to draw in their nature journals. Add detail! Write down any notes about the item, the location found, the date, etc.
Simple Things To Have for Nature Study
Journals for drawing
colored pencils or crayons
field guides for local birds, trees, flowers, insects, etc.
binoculars or magnifying glasses
Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study - great reference for parents!
Nature Study Curriculum Options
There are also some lovely curriculum options and journals available to use.
We've enjoyed Simply Charlotte Mason's Year-Long Bird Study and are about to start the Outdoor Secrets Study.
Gentle and Classical offers Nature Volume 1 and Nature Volume 2 Bundles.
My Neighborhood Nature Journal is a simple journal to print out that gives a place to draw and write about the nature object. It challenges you to find and identify 5 mammals, 5 birds, 5 flowers, 5 insects, and 5 trees in your local neighborhood. It includes a pre-writer's version with more space to draw and a fun tracker page to keep track of progress.
“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her”;––
and, in return for our discriminating and loving observation, she gives us the joy of a beautiful and delightful intimacy, a thrill of pleasure in the greeting of every old friend in field or hedgerow or starry sky, of delightful excitement in making a new acquaintance.
But Nature does more than this for us. She gives us certain dispositions of mind which we can get from no other source, and it is through these right dispositions that we get life into focus, as it were; learn to distinguish between small matters and great, to see that we ourselves are not of very great importance, that the world is wide, that things are sweet, that people are sweet, too; that, indeed, we are compassed about by an atmosphere of sweetness, airs of heaven coming from our God. Of all this we become aware in “the silence and the calm of mute, insensate things.” Our hearts are inclined to love and worship; and we become prepared by the quiet schooling of Nature to walk softly and do our duty towards man and towards God.
~Charlotte Mason, Ourselves, Book II, p98
If you have a preschooler or kindergartener, or if you enjoy having a more unit study approach to homeschooling, then check out the online course, Homeschool with Confidence. Not only will you learn more about homeschooling, but you’ll also receive 31 different printables, including:
A Sweet & Simple Year in Kindergarten - $36.99
A Sweet & Simple Year in Preschool - $25.00
Woodland Bundle - $17.00
Course Workbook - $15.00
Homeschool Planner - $15.00
4 Seasons Charlotte Mason Morning Basket Bundle (Ages 5-15) - $15.00
Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot in English & Spanish - $10.00
Gentle Nature Copywork (Ages 4-10) - $8.50
Claude Monet Art Study (Ages 5-12) - $6.00
Forest Animals (Ages 3-10) - $6.00
Charlotte Mason for Toddlers - $6.00
Watercolor Educational Posters - $6.00
Charlotte Mason Calendar Lessons and Copywork (Ages 4-12) - $6.00
My Neighborhood Nature Journal (Ages 4-12) - $5.00
Snow Literature Unit (Ages 3-7) - $5.00
Neatness and Order Habit Training - $2.00
Poetry Tea Time Morning Basket (Ages 5-15) - $4.00
Morning Basket for Mothers - $4.00
Frog Unit Study (Ages 4-10) - $4.00
Christmas Printables - $23
If you’re curious about homeschooling and want to learn more about how to get started, then I invite you to check out the online course, "Homeschool with Confidence."
Comments