Of the thirteen areas of study in a Charlotte Mason curriculum, the one parents tell me they have the most difficulty with is Nature Study and scheduling outdoor time.  

Nature is good for children….

This seems fundamental and hardly necessary to point out. Why if it is good for them, is it so hard to get them and ourselves outside? It’s no surprise that life in the twenty-first century is becoming more and more electronically driven. But, there is more at work preventing outdoor time.  Many parents have little by little eliminated unstructured outdoor time for their children. They opt instead to carpool to team sports, martial arts classes or other pastimes that do not involve direct experience with nature. It gets worse, most of us have become so insulated from the outdoors that nature appears alien and even unsafe.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, says that children spend approximately 15 minutes outdoors each week. Louv points to the rise in attention-deficit disorders and suggests that corresponding decrease in outdoor time may be part of the problem. Children spend an average of 6.5 hours a day with television, computers and video games. Of course, many homeschooling families do not even own a television.  But, what about those video games? Louv says, a child is 6 times more likely to play a video game than ride a bike.

Is time outdoors the same as Nature Study?

Time outdoors and Nature Study are related but not the same. In a Charlotte Mason curriculum a child thrives by spending many hours outdoors exploring, playing, imagining. However, Nature Study is a time for focused looking, directed by the parent.

Living Books Curriculum recommends scheduling a Nature Study once or twice a week for no longer than 30 minutes. This includes the time of observation and an entry into your child’s nature journal. Of course, if there is interest, your child can be encouraged to do more than this.

Through the study of nature the child learns appreciation and understanding of natural processes and, most especially, keen observational skills. To stand quietly and observe an animal or plant and then to draw (as best one can) its likeness or describe its parts to an adult, develops clear thought, communication and assessment. And yet, as valuable as keen skills of observation are, nature is no mere tool for education. There is something more than skill to be gained outdoors. There is inspiration, refreshment, and joyous delight. These are no small things for a child to experience. Such times sow strength for the future into their young hearts.

Other articles to watch for….. 

• Alternatives to the outdoors
• Getting the most out of Handbook of Nature Study
• The art and science of Nature Study
• Suggestions are welcome!

I send this article out each year at this time and get many thank you’s. I think it is because it touches on something important to us all and offers simple, cost-free solutions to the Christmas bustle. Enjoy!

Secret #1: Call off homeschool for the Christmas season

You are probably saying, “What! That will put me behind in our school work.”

Years ago, my homeschooling mentor told me that she suspended regular homeschooling for the weeks leading up to Christmas. Instead she had the learning relate to Christmas-stories, math, crafts, cooking, writing and so on. I tried it. Instead of stress and burnout, it was fun and real learning was taking place. You might want to try it?

Secret #2: Read Christmas stories together every day

Another question which shows up this time of year is ‘How can I slow down the Christmas rush?’ The answer is: By reading high quality Christmas stories together. Sound too simple?

 We started a family tradition of reading a Christmas story each day for the seven days before Christmas. It was a big hit. At the time my daughter was in her early teens and not willing to listen to “baby stories”. I scoured the Internet and library and found a wonderful selection. Just the commitment to sit together 15-20 minutes a day to read these special stories made our pulses slow and the smiles come back.

 I put them into a notebook for future Christmases. In the Christmas Holiday Helper as the freebie provided for you. In it are some of the same stories my family enjoyed. Be blessed and love one another the more this holy season.

Secret #3: Enjoy the Christmas Story in great art

Children need the images of Christ’s birth etched in their hearts. What better way to do it than through the art of the masters. Charlotte Mason expressed this idea very eloquently:

The study of such pictures (are) a valuable part of a child’s education; it is no slight thing to realize how the Nativity and the visit of the Wise Men filled the imagination of the early Masters, and with what exceeding reverence and delight they dwelt upon every detail of the sacred story. This sort of impression is not to be had from any up-to-date treatment, or up-to-date illustrations; and the child who gets it in early days, will have a substratum of reverent feeling upon which should rest his faith. But it is well to let the pictures tell their own tale. The children should study a subject quietly for a few minutes; and then, the picture being removed, say what they have seen in it. It will be found that they miss no little reverent or suggestive detail which the artist has thought well to include.

~From Home Education, pp. 245-253

Studying these wonderful pictures with your children should not be a burden or an art lesson. Simply look at the pictures together and let the children tell you what they see. Do not interpret for them. Let them encounter the pictures on their own and let Holy Spirit speak to them through the images.

There are several excellent sources online for art. One I especially like is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Christmas_Story/intro.html

Another is:

Art and the Bible (good for any subject in Scripture). Type “Nativity” or “Birth of Christ” in the search box and you will find many.

http://www.artbible.info/

Above all pray that the grace of God will abound in your family this holiday season.

I have an important story to tell you:

 One spring morning in neighboring villages in Nigeria, two boys were born. They were very much alike, these two. Both had better than avenge intelligence, both were warm and personable and both were filled with dreams for the future.

These boys grew to be men. They were still very much alike. Both married. Both had children. But there was a difference. One of the men continued to farm as his parent’s had; growing root crops and being cheated by unscrupulous buyers. His children were often sick due to the poor water supply.

The other was able to get the laws enforced that forbid price fixing in the markets. He was also able to teach the people of his village how to grow their crops more productively. He became an elder, conducted Bible studies and adult literacy classes. And, he worked with the villagers to hand dig the well that brought clean water.

What Made the Difference?

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference in people’s lives? It isn’t always native intelligence, talent or dedication. It isn’t that one person wants success and the other doesn’t.

The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she makes use of that knowledge. In a word—education.

Education is what Jim and I are committed to bringing to children in remote places, such as rural Nigeria. Because the need is huge,  I am writing to you. UNESCO reports there are 118 million boys and girls who have no access to education, yet within them is the potential to be history makers and nation builders.  

Living Books Curriculum exists to help educate not only homeschooled children but impoverished children in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Shortly I will be leaving to to train the teachers of our four schools in the use of the Charlotte Mason educational method—a literature-based, learn by doing approach that avoids the pitfalls of a dumbed down curriculum often seen with workbooks and textbooks.

An important part of the trip is the establishment of a training center at the site of our lab school, near Lagos. The training center will be a prototype of many more to come.

Check in from November 15 through the 15^th for updates from Nigeria.

We had a wonderful webinar last night on Nature Study for the Whole Family. If you couldn’t make it and still want to learn, contact me at lbcinfo@livingbookscurriculum.com .

Dara, a mom of  two, wrote the following this morning after the webinar:

You’ll be proud to know that today I took my two children to the “mog” as my husband calls it. It’s a stream/ small river that flows through town. We went to the portion just on the outskirts of town, which is surrounded by plenty of prairie grasses that we collected and compared to each other. I had never paid attention to the many different kinds of grass seeds there are. We saw baby ducks, a snake, red-wing black birds and a turtle. It was a very successful first visit. I promised the kids that we would visit again soon and bring some paper and paint brushes to better record our visit. Thank you for the inspiration.

Here are a few tips for a nature study lesson from our webinar:

Begin with what your child is already familiar.
Give abundant observations, few inferences ( if you have to talk, make observations, don’t give explanations).
Study a subject under natural conditions (reading about a natural topic is okay but no substitute for the real thing).
Discovery of a principles at work in nature is strengthened by oral expression (let your child talk about what he sees, rather than have you explain what you see.).

Five kinds of nature walks
Inside your house 
Yard
Nearby woods or other natural place
Park, Nature Center, botanical gardens, any organized display
Family vacations or outings to special areas 

Each summer between vegetable gardening and our annual Upper Peninsula trip, I have prayed this prayer: “Lord, show me the best way to meet my daughter’s needs and homeschool her in a way that honors You.”

Then, with my journal nearby I go about my work or play, pausing to write down what I sense He is saying. God has never failed to give me direction and the rights words to explain it to others.

Why is homeschool planning so important?
Charlotte Mason said in Home Education (p. 8), that a parent who does not follow a fully thought out plan of education will fail to fulfill the claims his children have upon him for growing to adulthood in full possesion of his abilities. Wow, this only underscores the need for careful planning. It’s not just about getting the right books and putting them in order. It is a heart process first.

Do you have questions about how to move forward in your homeschool? I encourage you to wait before the Lord and ask Him, “which way and how for my homeschool, Lord?”.

Read Jeremiah 6:16:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.”

The Scripture refers to “crossroads” and tells us we are to stand there. Crossroads are the points of decision in your life. Surely this time of year you have decisions? Stand in the midst of them. Make your crossroads as clear as possible, then ask for God’s best–the good way. When you see it, walk in it. You will find rest there and joyful learning.