Sunday, March 15, 2009

nature study ~1


Nature study in our home is pretty simple and seems to happen effortlessly and often without any assistance from me. I think children have a natural curiosity in their natural environment and often an awe & wonder in a creature or the color of a leaf. As they come in and show and tell their discoveries we marvel together and they know that I also share in the wonder & beauty of nature, that it is a priority and valid work to be collecting leaves and flowers, different colored stones & seeds, setting up the nature table and keeping personal notebooks, reading about the seasons, animals, how plants grow, gardening and anything else that interests. Mostly though, nature study is the child one on one with nature ( I did say it was simple) the children run through the garden feeling the wind or sun on their skin or in their hair, they climb any tree that lets them, they scout the garden bringing me posies of flowers, they stop and look at that spider, ant or lizard, look up to see the latest bird that is visiting our trees. In other words they just get out there and experience it for themselves and we do make time for that, that freedom and exploration and each one being drawn to different things but all making their own connections with creation. This is nature week on Warm Love.

3 comments:

earthkissed said...

They all seem to have a wonderful appreciation for nature, I think it's fantastic. It's so great that you help to grow this in them.

HomeGrownKids said...

Fantastic - what great learning opportunities for you all...but more than that, some great building blocks of memories, which help grow relationships!

Cheers,
Susan

Kerrie said...

Wonderful Skye, we love it too x