How to Run a Homeschool Nature Study

I'm sure as the school year is wrapping up for most of you, it may be hard to buckle down and get some of that last schoolwork done for homeschool. There's so many places that are opening up now, especially here in Michigan, that it can be a distraction, thereby tempting us to finish our days just as soon as we possibly can so we can get out there and start enjoying the outdoors.

In our homeschool we actually school year-round. Even if you don't do year round school, you can continue learning while you're outdoors. I thought it would be a good time to talk about this since the weather is changing. The trees are budding and the flowers are growing. With all of these things going on it is a perfect time to incorporate learning outside and I will give you some insight as to how to teach nature simply and stress free. This will keep you learning something, and so will your kids. I'm talking about nature study!

It's simply a way of seeing science in all the nature that is around us in our areas on a day to day basis. There are lots of benefits for nature study and one is it's a simple way to put science into your homeschool. This can, especially for the younger kids, build a stable foundation for your science studies and can help them when the children get older.

It's also beneficial because it requires time outdoors on a regular basis. Your children will get into the routine of observing things in the atmosphere around them. This trains them in the habit of observation. This is really important.

Even if you're living in a city like I am, there are plenty of opportunities to do nature study, around the neighborhoods, the parks or the Arboretum's in the cities. This will allow your children to observe various types of trees. They can learn the different types of trees that drop their leaves, what type of birds may be living in these trees and other aspects of the neighborhood or wherever you are doing your nature study.

It is important that your children are learning all this information from first hand knowledge. What I mean is, seeing it and noticing for themselves. This is also beneficial because it trains them into the habit of just wanting to be outdoors and getting that exercise on a daily basis.

The easiest way to start is going to be in an informal nature study. An example could be going on a nature walk as a family. During the walk you may want to focus on one thing.

I will give you some examples:

• You can focus on leaves on trees or bushes, what different shapes they are in, if they notice a repeating pattern with the trees and the bushes.

• You could focus on rocks, birds, soil colors, and anything of their interest that they notice while you are out and about.

• You may just casually say, “Hey, how many different kinds of leaves can you find today while we're out walking? Or how many different kinds of trees do you see today?” And talk about what they observe.

• In this method it is a beneficial way to incorporate some science in a way they can relate to. You could also say “Hey, I've seen that tree before. Or look at this. This little weird looking flower here. I've seen that before. Wow!” And then once they start to see those, they'll start to notice that they've seen them in a lot of different areas and a lot of different places.

• When you come back to the house you can look these things up. You don't have to make it a lecture where you're talking about the specific Latin name and, and talking about this is deciduous or anything like that. You can make it fun. Make sure to keep their mind attentive and awake by casually pointing out a thing or two, but let your child really notice as much as he or she can.

This is a really quick way that you can do an informal nature study. There's more to it than this, but this quick method is a way to get you started simply. Then once you get into it a little bit more you can add in a nature notebook, and draw some of those things that you're seeing with your child, to make it more fun.

If you would like a downloadable nature journal, I'm working on putting one of those together. If you're interested in receiving that, let me know below! It will be ready shortly, and I will send it to you!