Nature Study

I hesitate to even write about nature study because it’s one of those areas that we do very imperfectly, especially this last year as we’ve focused more on math and language. I know many other moms feel the same, since it’s not a subject most of us grew up with, and we aren’t exactly sure how to do a nature walk or nature notebook. It takes time to develop new habits of observing and recording what we see and hear, of actually seeing and hearing in anything more than generalities.

One thing that works for us is having lots of field guides. When we first moved to Hawaii, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find appropriate field guides for the unique wildlife here, but I was blessed to hit on several great ones at our local library’s used book store. We have guides for local wildlife, sea creatures, birds, bugs, trees, and flowers, and more general guides for mammals, butterflies, shells, and rocks. The children are constantly referencing these guides on their own initiative to settle disagreements about which bird that is in the front yard or to figure out if a certain bug is good or bad.

I may have briefly shown the older children how to use the field guides at some point, but mostly they have picked this up on their own after being told a few times that they could look up something they’d drawn in their nature journals. Each of the school-age children has a spiral art notebook with thick drawing paper that works for pencil, pen, colored pencils, or watercolor. The youngest students can just do simple labeled drawings, but for older students each entry is supposed to include sentence-length narrations of their observations with illustrations.

I’d like to assign weekly entries, but because it didn’t fit on everyone’s regular schedule this year, I’ve only occasionally remembered to assign and inspect their journals. Still, they have learned (because I’ve sometimes required it) that even in what appears to be a plain plot of grass, there is always something new to observe.

Another thing that worked was doing what in Charlotte Mason education is called “special studies.” Last school year we had a different focus each term for nature studies together. One term we read a book about clouds and learned to identify different types. Another term we studied spiders, reading several different stories from some well-written nature readers. One of their favorite terms, we watched a number of the free, very detailed videos on drawing birds available at johnmuirlaws.com (this link goes directly to one of the most helpful videos).

Though we’ve done nature studies as a family, each of us has some topics we enjoy more than others. I enjoy getting out my watercolors once in a great while and painting a scene at the beach or in the garden. I write out my observations with a micron pen. Trailman would rather be doing science or history, and his entries tend to be quickly scribbled drawings done in pencil, with only as much writing as I require. Tarzan is our resident bird expert, able to identify practically every bird in his huge Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Apart from his nature notebook, he decided to fill a sketchbook with drawings of different birds, and he has even sold several of his bird paintings to people we know. 

Sir Knight decided with a friend at church to have a contest to see who can draw the largest number of realistic animals—so for the past week he’s had multiple encyclopedias and reference books out trying to find models for his drawings. The younger children are all at different levels in their observation, drawing, and writing skills, but I’m hopeful that if we just continue filling their imagination with good nature stories and building the habit of observing details, they will all learn to appreciate the wonders of God’s creation.