A Charlotte Mason Nature Study Group

[Naomi Goegan]

Have you thought about forming a Nature Study Group or Co-op? Charlotte Mason, a turn of the century British Educator, whose homeschooling ideas we use, had some big ideas about child education and the value of nature. Our Nature Study group, a part of our curriculum, has been a wonderful blessing for us in so many ways. We highly recommend it.

Every group is different and will have a flavor all its own depending on its members.
Here are some of the things that have worked well in our group:

Nature Journaling

This is the one thing we do consistently on a weekly basis.

This is what we wish to do for children in teaching them to draw - to cause the eye to rest, not unconsciously, but consciously, on some object of beauty which will leave in their minds an image of delight for all their lives to come. ~Vol. 1 p. 313






Recitation

We aim for the children to recite once a month. We let the children pick a poem of their choice from a selection of our choosing. Some children memorize it, others read it - we leave it up to the individual families to decide what is best for them.

An accepting and encouraging environment is obviously important being that it can be intimidating to speak in front of others, some personalities struggle with this more than others. Overcoming the fear at first is a good beginning goal. If they are working on memorizing it, it's good to give them ample time to do so because the goal of recitation is not to memorize, but to learn to speak well in public and "to find the just expression of thought for himself."

(Although, I will admit there were a couple of times we memorized the last stanza in the car on the way to Nature Study! I apologized to them profusely and helped them with any lines they may have forgotten during their recitation.)




Foreign Language

We did this through a short song or quick game like duck, duck goose in Spanish, rock paper scissors in Japanese, role-playing shopping in French, etc.

Art Lesson

We've had quick art lessons (thanks, Jen for all the great lessons you've put together for them!) like . . . sketching - use a sharpie or a soft graphite pencil (no erasing!) and use quick strokes to draw a thing, keep the hand moving.

Or, shading - take one color, add white for a lighter tint, brown or black for a darker shade; use all three colors because even though a bird is blue, there are shades. A leaf would be great for this also.

Bird beaks - See all the shapes of birds beaks? Look at the birds you see and only draw their heads, paying special attention to their beaks. Use hatching (fine, parallel lines drawn close together) to create shading or texture.

Field Trips

Every now and then we like to mix things up or attend something that sounds interesting or fun - the farm for colonial days, museums, the aquarium, a musical performance at the local university, Olvera St. and Chinatown in Los Angeles, the community mud park, the Japanese grocery/department store, kayaking, etc.

Another CM nature group recently had a bake sale and contributed all the funds to the wetlands conservatory - isn't that a great idea!? It's expected coming from a wonderful group like theirs. :)

For the most part, we just take them out in nature and let them be.

We give them free, unstructured time to explore, discover, create, and mainly 'be in touch' with nature.

In the beginning, it took a little time for all of us to learn 'Masterly Inactivity,' which works best when your child is well trained. Now, we are able to enjoy our time discussing a book or talking with very little incident arising from the children.

The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children. ~Vol. 1, p. 136

Some of the books we've enjoyed as a group include topics like: child training, theology, parenting, etc.

The nature of a CM education is that we are learning along with our children, and we often find ourselves discussing the books, art, music, etc. that we learn along with our children - much of which, not surprisingly, has itself been inspired by nature.

Since our particular group uses the Ambleside curriculum, some of us may add some reading from a living book on the topic for the term (wildflowers, trees, insects, etc.) or play audios (free downloads available from http://www.librivox.org - john burroughs, arabella buckley, Fairy Book of Science, etc.) so that they learn about the subject through living books.

We may also choose a location where our children would more likely encounter those things we are to be learning about.

Mostly what we find though is that our Nature Study ends up revolving around whatever the children find and show an interest in. For example, fossils wasn't until YR4, but we found a creek that has fossils so we're not going to prevent learning where it is naturally going to occur.

The Handbook of Nature Study and field guides to wildflowers, animals, lizards, bugs, plants, etc. are all great books for the Mothers to have so that when the children show interest, they will have answers to their questions. We all have our own favorites. :)

Most of the locations we go to are natural places where the children are free to touch nature without being scolded. We do teach them not to hurt creatures, plants, etc. unnecessarily. A good book to read on this topic is Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Di...

Some reasons why we think our group works so well:

• We really like each other and get along well.
• We passionately love CM education and continue to learn about her philosophy and methods.
• We love homeschooling our children.
• We are committed to training our children.
• We are willing to trek almost anywhere with kids and babies in tow for the sake of a good nature outing. Our kids, especially babies, have learned to be flexible, and we have too. (e.g., we can change a diaper anywhere!)
• We've learned a good routine to get everything packed and ready for the day:

packed lunches water for everyone in their own bottles

sunscreen
nature journals
art supplies
field guides
camera
binoculars
diaper and wipes
baby carrier
picnic blanket
and if you're on track, a cup of coffee to go

And of course, there will inevitably be those days when all goes wrong.

If you are looking to connect with other CMers or would like to possibly form a CM nature study group in your area, we've created a forum called CharlotteMasonEducation specifically for that reason. While there may not be anyone in your area right now, the community is growing.

[Daniele Sharpe]

How inspiring. Than you for sharing, I hope you don't mind if I try some of your ideas with the children I teach. It is so important to teach children to slow down and really observe nature. Thank you

[karin kachler]

this blog and the pictures are sooo beautiful. thanks for doing this for your kids. karin

[Suz Lipman]

Hi Naomi! Thank you so much for posting this. It's rich with inspiration, information, and practical resources that most anyone interested in connecting children and nature can use. I appreciate you taking the time to share all this. I'm excited about the growing Charlotte Mason community and learning more about her ideas, and also, as John notes, in the obvious overlap of interest among our Natural Families Network, Natural Teachers Network and other homeschoolers and parents.

[John Thielbahr]

This is wonderful information, Naomi. I hope the folks who are part of the Nature Clubs for Families Group take a look at all this rich information. Groups of families and friends getting out in nature on the weekends or after work could enhance their nature experience with any of these ideas and activities. Chip and Ashley Donahue, the founders of Nature Clubs for Families, would love this. Thanks so much for sharing. I just love the face of the child in the last picture whose day did not go well.