“The child must not be left to discover everything for himself;
his mind must be prepared in some measure for what he is to see and observe.
It has been well said that the previous history of the mind
determines the impression which the sight of any object is to make.
We can only see what we have been trained to see.”
The Parents’ Review, “How to Best Study Nature” by Mr. J. C. Medd, M.A.
When I started my homeschooling journey sometime around 2009 or 2010, my mom sent me copies of For the Family’s Sake and For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. It was through these books that I discovered and adopted the philosophy of Charlotte Mason. Mason’s ideas about educating a whole person were like a soothing balm to my soul. How did I miss that true learning involves the things that I find engaging in the world? Why had I fallen into the trap of chasing academics alone? I am so grateful and forever indebted to the unmarried school teacher, Charlotte Mason. Her life’s work was to be a student of the ways of children, watch how they learn, seek out the very best for them and then, share what she learned.
The study of nature is one of the habits that sets apart the Charlotte Mason method from other literature-based or classical educational philosophies. I have done my best to get my children out-of-doors (as Mason puts it) with great regularity. We have lived most of our parenthood in subdivided neighborhoods with two glorious years spent in a farmhouse and then in a house in the woods. I know that it is much easier to get outside and explore nature when there is a generous feast just beyond the kitchen window calling to me. We are once again living in a subdivision, and I’ve had to develop some tools to help me continue getting our children introduced to nature so that they too will be able to call the trees, flowers and birds by name so that they will know they are friends.
As a small child, my family spent two years living on one acre squished between a herd of cattle beyond one fence and a circus horse and pony on the other. It was in this home that I was able to see my first bird’s nest and chrysalis, and I became intimately acquainted with the daffodil, which remains my favorite flower to this day. I’m sure I watched some Sesame Street while living there, but my most vivid memories are of my time spent exploring our country acre.
During times of stress, loneliness and upheaval, I’ve always found restoration and solace in nature – be it animals, birds, trees or flowers. They seem to remind me of God’s unchanging stability. They help me remember how small I am and how vast God is. Such comfort and joy. I credit much of this love and intimacy with nature to my mother’s love of it herself and getting to spend unscheduled time out in it as a young child.
As Anna Comstock poetically describes in Handbook of Nature Study:
“Nature-study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful; it brings to him early a perception of color, form, and music. He sees whatever there is in his environment, whether it be the thunder-head piled up in the western sky, or the golden flash of the oriole in the elm; whether it be the purple of the shadows on the snow, or the azure glint on the wing of the little butterfly. Also, what there is of sound, he hears; he reads the music score of the bird orchestra, separating each part and knowing which bird sings it. And the pattern of the rain, the gurgle of the brook, the sighing of the wind in the pine, he notes and loves and becomes enriched thereby.”
And we all sigh collectively and agree, that YES, this is what we want to learn to sense, experience and even express if it is in our ability to do so. Even if we have just a small bit of this level of love and intimacy with nature, we and our children will be certainly closer to what God created us as humans to be and experience from life.
So, what is nature study exactly? Why is it worth interrupting my school day in order to be sure it gets done? How should I get started? What is involved? Do I really have to read about the subjects we are studying each term? Why should I plan out our nature studies? Can’t I just learn about things as we go?
Let’s explore these questions and see if we can find a few helpful answers. I’m certainly not a nature study expert. But, I am passionate about introducing children and their grown-ups to nature. I also enjoy finding ways to make things simple so that I will actually do them. “A goal without a plan is just a wish,” penned French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery. So, if nature study is your goal, I will reveal a modest plan to help you and your children not only begin studying nature together, but also start a nature notebook and hopefully, make the study of nature a habit that you and your children will make your own and enjoy freely. That is what has happened in our home, and it is my prayer that it will happen in yours!
The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.
– Robert Louis StevensonThrough him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:3
What Nature Study is and what it is not is important to determine before we go on.
na·ture
/ˈnāCHər/
Noun
the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.
So “nature study” is the study of the physical world collectively or the study of all things visible created by God. We use our senses when we study nature. We don’t break apart, analyze or deconstruct, we observe the whole so that we may know it.
Here’s a helpful definition:
“Nature Study, as a process, is seeing the things that one looks at, and the drawing of proper conclusions from what one sees. Its purpose is to educate the child in terms of his environment, to the end that his life may be fuller and richer. Nature Study is not the study of a science, as of botany, entomology, geology, and the like. That is, it takes the things at hand and endeavors to understand them, without reference primarily to the systematic order or relationships of objects. It is informal, as are the objects which one sees. It is entirely divorced from mere definitions, or from formal explanations in books. It is therefore supremely natural. It trains the eye and the mind to see and to comprehend the common things of life; and the result is not directly the acquiring of science but the establishing of a living sympathy with everything that is.” (Emphasis mine.)
From “Leaflet I: What Is Nature-Study?” written by Liberty Hyde Bailey.
And so I am treading carefully when I attempt to provide a guide for mothers to better lead children into the joys of Nature Study. The spontaneity and “supremely natural” aspects of nature study are helpful to keep in mind as we try to get a handle on the practical habits we need to form to:
1. Take our children out regularly for the purpose of Nature Study
2. Decide what do we do while we are out there
3. Figure out how to actually use those charming Nature Journals without ending up frustrated and annoyed at our little darlings.
All of this, can be accomplished with less resistance if the children are following the lead of a mother who is herself seeking to learn. In fact, Nature Study is one of the areas in family life where the children and the parents can be co-learners. There has been many a time when my children notice, recognize or name something we’ve discovered where I am in complete ignorance. It is truly satisfying once this happens because you know that they are starting to take the responsibility of self-education. In this co-learning role, a mother can lead with her enthusiasm and wonder. Such as simply asking “I wonder where that squirrel lives?” or “I wonder why those caterpillars are all crossing the road together?” These questions may be difficult to find on Google, but I am always surprised at how much not knowing encourages deeper learning. As Anna Comstock (Handbook of Nature Study) put it “the object of the nature-study teacher should be to cultivate in the children powers of accurate observation and to build up within them understanding.”
Now that we’ve explored what Nature Study is, it is important to look more closely at “WHY” we should include it in a STEM/STEAM world. You might ask, “can’t they just google it and find out what something is?” or perhaps you think there is not a utilitarian purpose for Nature Study as in “what can they DO to earn money with this information?”
In a world where truth is always being muddled and manipulated, it is important for our children to encounter truth as a matter of habit. For the child, Comstock tells us, “Nature Study cultivates in him a perception and a regard for what is true, and the power to express it. All things seem possible in nature; yet this seeming is always guarded by the eager quest of what is true. Perhaps half the falsehood in the world is due to lack of power to detect the truth and to express it. Nature study aids both in discernment and in expression of things as they are.”
When our family is able to learn about The Way Things Are together and does so as a regular rhythm of our family life, then we are getting the opportunity to experience and talk about the little things that truly matter with our children. There is so much in nature that can teach us lessons about getting along with others, death, procreation, colors, war, peace, beauty, weather, truth etc. All of these are available lessons if we are willing take the time to pay attention.
Another way that the study of nature is valuable is that it has been the inspiration for arts, music and dance. All throughout recorded history, we find the relationship with mankind and nature reveals our need of it and closeness to it. Of course our food source comes from nature. And our lives are forever entwined with it even though we seem more separated from the inconveniences of nature. We also miss out on becoming intimately familiar with its ebbs and flows unless we take the time to be outside regularly.
The reality is, we could live all our lives never encountering nature at all. You could stay inside your home all day and when you leave from your garage, head to a store or church and walk inside never touching the soles of your shoes to dirt. On the days that I don’t get outside for one reason or another, I know that I missed something. I certainly missed the sunrise or sunset, but I also missed the birds playing or the squirrels jumping through the trees. I may have missed the flowers bloom and fade. All this is nothing I think about or even think I miss. But for some reason if I take time to pursue those little moments, my day is better. It makes me feel smaller or more poetic. Sometimes I feel that I’m getting to witness God at work in the midst of a mundane day.
Perhaps the most important reason to develop the habit of studying nature is to cultivate wonder and learn more about God. We can learn about God’s attention to detail when making the tiny ant. Or what about His creativity when making insects that engage in metamorphosis and change from one type of creature to another? We can also learn about God’s love for His creation as we learn about how He has equipped us for work. “Look at the birds of the air,” we read, “they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:26) Surely we are of more value than these. We can also simply sit in awe of God by watching a sunset or listening to the waves breaking on the shore. He is great and we are small. We are weak and He is strong. All of these old lofty ideas become intimate truths we claim and agree with as we learn more about the world He created for us to live in, work in and learn about Him through.
“But ask the animals,
and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky,
and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth,
and it will teach you,
or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
Job 12:7-10
Nature Study Series Resources:
What is Nature Study? (Start here.) You are here!
Do Nature Study with your children and like it!
Getting outside with children for Nature Study
Getting started doing nature journals with your kids
Nature Study Hacking| Flowers Lesson Plans