The study of our world-better known as "nature study", is one of my favorite CM activities. I have always been drawn to the little things buzzing around, blooming and beckoning for another closer look and hidden secrets the Lord has placed throughout his creation.
Problem is, this is one area that is sadly tossed aside as an extra curricular activity, instead of being infused into the weekly plans of one's education. And by "one's" I am not just implying for the student, but yours too, dear reader.
It is safe to say, that this is one of the easier methods of Charlotte's to start with and one of the most rewarding. You do NOT NEED to be an artist. You do not need to be a botanist. You certainly do not need to be a Latin scholar and most importantly-you don't even need to like the outdoors so much (but that will change). What you need to be is educated in what a nature study involves and the gumption to give it a try. The best advice I can give you is to do your research. Check out blogs (like mine), books and online articles to learn all you can about integrating nature study into your children's education and life.
There are several great resources out there to help you with this area of the Charlotte Mason method-here are my favorite ones:
Resources:
images from various sources: Google images, Cindy Rushton's website,
Queen's Homeschool, Amazon, Handbook of NS blog
and we use the internet to find the Latin names (if not in the guide books,
and other curious info about the subject of our studies).
These are just some of my resources, and ones I refer to a lot. I also have a stash of these kind of helpful field guides-mind you mine are the older versions that I have been collecting over the years....I really like the Golden Guide books best.
images from macmillan.com
Websites with useful NS eBooks, project kits, etc:
(here is where I got some fun NS material [ebooks] and the Outdoor Hour Challenge is here too
(also sell a NS copywork book with nice quotes for the children to copy)
(she has a variety of nice pages to use that are NS oriented)
(they have a listing of helps, ideas and such)
can be found thru Amazon.com and many other places, check those garage sales and used book
stores too! I have found some for a dime a piece~
Don't forget to check your local library too. There are tons of books for children on NS, such as:
just to name a few-
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