I have been super busy this week getting ready for the new Autumn Series of challenges for the Outdoor Hour. Extra time spent outdoors since the weather has cooled off a little has given me some things to think about in regards to nature study and I thought I would share a quote that has had me so absorbed.
I sometimes am tempted to pack into the Outdoor Hour Challenges lots of extra creative activities to go along with each topic but after remembering how important it is just to be outdoors with our children, having them direct our attention, I come back to the simple model we started with in the beginning.
To know a plant by the way it grows, where it lives, when and how it flowers and bears seeds, or to know a bird by the way it flies, its song, and when it arrives and leaves, to know when you might find a robin or a thrush, takes a lot of focused observation and the kind of knowledge that helps us understand science.
Students keep a dated record of what they see in their nature notebooks. They're allowed to manage these notebooks however they want; the books aren't graded or corrected. They take pride and pleasure in these notebooks and freely illustrate them with dry-brush work paintings of twigs, flowers, insects, etc.
They notice things by themselves, and the teacher tells them the name or gives other information only if they ask for it. It's surprising how much knowledge about different things a child can gain by the time he's nine or ten years old.
I think that an essential aspect of any living education should be for all students of all ages to spend a half day every week throughout the entire year, outside in nature. In almost every town, there's some place where children can have the opportunity to observe the changing seasons from week to week.
Charlotte Mason, volume 3, page 236
I am really looking forward to our new series of challenges.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
