Nature Worth Observing: Charlotte Mason Nature Curriculum

March 27, 2019 by Leahbmartin Leave a Comment

When we get outside everyday, I can rest in the fact that all of my children are getting what they need at the same time. So often, I feel like I'm neglecting one child's needs to tend to another's, but the moment their feet hit the earth, I know that all of our needs are being met, even mine.

For that reason, I love sharing nature study with my little tribe. It's an area that young children can enjoy too- observing, listening, and just being outside. I was excited to have the opportunity to review Nature Worth Observing: A Year Long Living Science Nature Study Curriculum by the Holistic Homeschooler because I'm always interested in finding ways to simplify this area so that I can enjoy the process of nature study, too. I received this product in exchange for a review, but I always strive to share my honest opinion.

What it is

This curriculum combines the methods of Charlotte Mason and Anna Comstock into a series of seasonal nature study lesson plans. Those who follow Charlotte Mason as closely as possible will love that her recommended activities are included. The curriculum contains:

Nature study lessons for each season, focusing on specific trees, plants, insects, and animals.
Picture painting activities: Charlotte Mason recommended this mental activity to help children really take in the their surroundings. In this curriculum, each season has a picture painting activity.
Tree study: Charlotte Mason encouraged us to adopt a tree throughout the year. Each season of Nature Worth Observing includes activities for tree study, including detailed questions to help you direct your child's attention to important features.
Book lists for each object studied. The book lists are leveled by age, so both younger and older children can participate.
Printable nature journal pages for each object studied.
A poetry packet to deepen the connection to nature.

Nature Worth Observing: A Charlotte Mason Living Science Nature Study Curriculum by the Holistic Homeschooler.

Using Nature Worth Observing with Little Ones

We started using Nature Worth Observing just as the snow gave way to little budding flowers. It is very thorough and detailed, doing a nice job of guiding the mother in what to focus on. (It's easy to feel unsure about what to teach and how to teach it when it comes to nature study!) The direct questions, taken from Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study (affiliate link), were so helpful to me. They call to the attention things that I wouldn't have thought of mentioning on my own.

This curriculum follows the same trees throughout the year, which I really appreciate. Several times, when we've started observing a specific tree, we often forget after several weeks, and our plans fall to the wayside. Sometimes I need to be held accountable, and this does exactly that.

A poetry packet is also included in this curriculum, offering another way to focus on the lovely. Classic poems describing nature are a wonderful way to integrate several areas in your homeschool.

After our first lesson, studying the budding trees in our front yard, Miss H went to make an entry in her nature journal. Without guidance from me, she painted a beautiful branch. This was a far cry from the paintings that formerly occupied her nature journal. I knew what was different this time: this time, she really saw what she was painting.

To buy Nature Worth Observing, you can use the code natureworthobserving for 10% off until April 7.

Froebel’s Alphabet Sticks: ABC’s Outdoors

February 4, 2019 by Leahbmartin 1 Comment

Ever since writing my post about Charlotte Mason and kindergarten, I’ve been trying to get more familiar with Froebel’s ideas. Friedrich Froebel lived in the late 18th century and early 19th century, and his principles on early education deemed him the affectionate title “the father of the Kindergarten.” Unfortunately, Froebel did not have an outstanding way with words, as pointed out in an introduction to his collection of letters explaining his Kindergarten principles, Froebel’s Letters. His works are a little cumbersome to read. There are a lot of ideas that Charlotte Mason accepted as valuable for young children, and some of them that she dismissed with sharp allusions in her her volumes. In another pamphlet Froebel wrote, called “How Lina Learned to Write and Read,” my shoulders, which were slightly slumping after poring through his bulky letters, perked up a bit. He recommended building the alphabet with sticks outside, which to me, sounded like a fun, Charlotte Mason style way to learn the ABC’s outdoors.

Froebel’s Alphabet Sticks

In “How Lina Learned to Write and Write,” Froebel described a reading instruction method that is pretty different than what Charlotte Mason described. Lina, at the age of six, showed an interest in reading a letter that her father had received. So, her mother took her outside and taught her how to make letters with sticks. Mother taught her each sound in her name at first, and then she made the letter with thin, small sticks. The rest of the process is somewhat similar: she learned an interesting word, like “father” or “mother”, by learning each sound and its symbol, and then writing it with sticks.

While Charlotte Mason thought that reading and writing were a bit more separate than this, I think the process of writing letters with sticks is engaging, low-maintenance (which I always look for!) and can be done nearly anywhere.

Suggestions

Froebel recommended using thin sticks for this process. We have a pretty silver maple tree, and the smaller branches are perfect for this. We’ve also collected willow boughs before, and their flexible branches would work well for alphabet sticks, too.

Letters with straight lines (like H and T) are the obvious choices when building letters with sticks, but Froebel recommended using a thumbnail to pierce a thin stick to make it bend easily to build letters with curved lines, like R and P. You could even get creative and add in little pebbles or the flexible stems of ubiquitous dandelions. Instead of introducing an entire word and its letters all at once as Froebel recommended, choose a letter that represents the beginning of a familiar word, and introduce it. Teaching an entire word’s worth of letters is a little more ambitious than Charlotte Mason’s approach!

Miss H and I built some letters on the ground, as Froebel mentioned, but we also tied some of the letters together with twine. She had fun playing with the letters for a few days!

When to Start

You can introduce this activity when your child shows interest in letters, although it is probably best with children at least three years and older. Your littlest children can join in too, like mine did! He loved rearranging the sticks for me 🙂

Why I Love This

I’m always on the search for ideas that fit with Charlotte Mason’s methods. This stood out to me for a few reasons. 1) H and I have done something very similar to this before. She had a ton of fun with it, and it was a natural, by the way learning experience. 2) It’s outside! Anything that we can do outside always has the added benefit of appealing to all the senses.

Other Ideas for Learning the ABC’s Outdoors

Shadow letters: Why not get creative, and make letters with stick shadows? See if your little ones can experiment with holding up multiple sticks to make shadow letters.
Mud drawing: When it’s muddy outside, use sticks to write letters in the mud.
Stick hunt: Sometimes sticks just naturally look like letters. What kind of stick shapes can you find? (We’ve found Y, L, etc.)
Twine sticks: Wrap your alphabet sticks in twine so they keep their shape. Connect the two sticks by wrapping the twine around them several times, and then tying a knot.

Easy Clean-up for Messy Outdoor Play

June 6, 2018 by Leahbmartin 1 Comment

Letting our kids participate in messy play outdoors is SO good for them- it lets them have an enhanced sensory experience and paves the way for their creativity. But as easy as it is for kids to get dirty, it’s hard for moms to cope with the mess. Being totally okay with kids getting messy outside means that most likely, some of that mess will get into the house, and the cleanup will be a huge hassle. Recently, a reader asked me what to do with this muddy mess that kids joyfully create. Hose them off when the weather is warm? Carry them straight to the bathtub? I told her about something that we’ve been trying recently with huge success: a hand washing station.

Outdoor Hand Washing Station for Messy Outdoor Play

I learned about this idea through Tinkergarten, and I thought it was such a wonderful way to clean up when we’re out and about, so I decided to use it at home. This hand washing station can be set up in your backyard or on the go. And as an added bonus, the process of washing hands outside, where the wind might blow on sun-kissed skin, and they might hear the cheerio call of robins singing, offers another sensory integration experiences, which is crucial for healthy sensory development.

Since we’ve started doing this, cleaning up from muddy or messy play has been so much easier. No more muddy handprints lining the walls all the way to the bathroom. And, my sweet kiddos love it. They like to help me set up the station by filling the bucket, and it’s the sweetest thing when they help each other rinse off. I like to think that this approach preserves some water in our drought-stricken state.

Station Set Up

(I’ve used affiliate links to share what I use for my washing station.)

For a washing station, you’ll need-

A bucket. If you plan to take your washing station with you on a hike or to the park, a collapsible bucket is perfect. If you’re just planning to set up in your backyard, a big utility bucket will work, too.
Eco-friendly soap. We use Dr. Bronner’s castile soap because it’s safe for plants and little ones.
Water. (Just to point out the obvious here!) If you’re in your backyard, you can use the hose. If not, get a expandable water carrier like this.
Towels to dry off little hands and feet before coming inside

Cleaning Up

Hands– When your children are worn out from all of their fun, sensory rich messy play, get the collapsible bucket or utility bucket ready for them. Fill it about halfway with water. Let your kids splash in the bucket to get all of the dirt and mud off of their hands. Then, give them a bit of Castile soap and ask them to scrub with it for 30 seconds. After they’ve worked up a good lather, rinse their hands with water from the hose or expandable canteen. They can dry off before heading inside. Castile soap does a great job of getting grime off of hands and surfaces, but it is not a great anti-bacterial agent. If that matters to you, you might want your kids to wash up again when they come in. The bright side here is that there won’t be mud in your sink or on your walls!

Feet– After hands are all clean, you can dump the bucket water over feet to start working some of that mud off. Then, use the Castile soap and rinse. Towels are especially important for foot washing!

Other Messy Play Clean-up Ideas

Hose ’em off– In warm weather, this is a good option. But our messy play is not seasonal 🙂

Baby pool– Those old plastic baby pools that everyone seems to have would be great for messy play clean up. Add a little bit of water, and let kids splash themselves off. You could even take it a step further and just do bath time outside. Bring out the towels, nature-friendly soap, and then you’ve consolidated a couple of steps!

Clothes by the door– No matter how your kids choose to clean up, they will probably still have muddy clothes. You can keep towels and a change of clothes for them by the door, or even an over-sized tee shirt to contain the mess until you can get them changed. Keep a laundry basket by the door, too, for messy clothes and shoes.

Carry them in– This is a little tricky with more than one child, because having the other child (or children) stay outside while you’re carrying a messy one in can be tough. But I’ve definitely attempted this before! I just had to be strategic about who waits and who goes in first 🙂

Get mud clothes– Charlotte Mason recommended pinafores for messy outdoor play, but in case Victorian fashions aren’t your thing, consider having a designated set of mud clothes, or invest in a rain suit for really muddy days.

For me, these messy, beautiful moments that make up childhood are more important than having a spotless house. And with a little thinking ahead, the mess that comes with hours of outdoor play can be contained.

You won’t want to miss the Mud Kitchen Recipe Book printable available in the subscriber library, perfect for recording precious preschool memories!

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How to Start A Family Nature Journal

April 26, 2017 by Leahbmartin 4 Comments

Over the past year, the time we spend outside has increased, and so has my appreciation of nature. I used to just look- but now I see. I see the different shades on the petal of a flower, and the shapes that compose a tree’s sprawling branch. The habit of observation has finally struck me. It fills me with joy to think that it most likely won’t take 34 years for my children to develop this habit. I decided to start a family nature journal with them so that we can share and remember these beautiful experiences together.

This post contains affiliate links for products we use and love. You can read more about it in my policies.

What is a Family Nature Journal?

A nature journal is something that Charlotte Mason recommended children keep to beautifully record the intricacies of nature.

As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child.”

Miss H doesn’t seem ready to keep one by herself. She has been begging for more instruction with drawing and painting, so I decided a family nature journal would be perfect for us. I lightly sketch something into the notebook, and then if Miss H wants to, she can as well. Then, I paint my picture, showing her what colors make sense and how to mix them if necessary. She can paint too, if she wants.

This is not a mandatory activity for her. But, so far, every time I add something, she is thrilled to contribute. Some days, sketching something in the journal is her idea in the first place! Last week, she said, “Let’s go paint a flock!” I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. It turns out, she was referring to phlox.

So far, there have been some huge benefits of a family nature journal-

It helps us spend precious time together, working towards something worry
I can model the habits of observation and careful work
Miss H takes pride in her drawings
She learns about mixing colors and the dry brush technique
My own drawing skills are improving as I learn to observe the subject in shapes instead of entirety

Starting a Family Nature Journal

Materials

We bought these sketch pads off of Amazon. It’s a great size, but I wouldn’t recommend it for painting. The description said sketching and watercolor, but I’m learning that I should have been skeptical of those claims 🙂 Watercolor notebooks are so darn expensive! I think we’ll try to use my fancy Prismacolor colored pencils colored pencils more often on thee pages, because water makes it wrinkle up.

The paints that we use are wonderful, though! They’re high quality, but not very expensive, which makes them great for beginners! We’ve used them for our Playful Pet Portraits art course, as well as our family nature journal. I’m teaching Miss H that she doesn’t need to dig into the colors so intensely. Taking care of art supplies is another thing we’re learning through this endeavor!

I haven’t tried this yet, but someone in the Charlotte Mason Nature Journaling Facebook Group recommended this formula dispenser to hold water for paints. Mind blown! When we are on the go, Miss H and I could each have our own container to paint (unless, of course, I decide to use the colored pencils!)

Entries

Decide on a beautiful object to observe. Model how to sketch the object while your child watches. If they want to, allow them to sketch. My sketches are slightly off-centered to allow room for Miss H to draw. Paint or color the sketch in, modeling proper techniques to your child. This is not a blatant teaching time, just a modeling time. I’ve learned that having that perspective is helpful; otherwise I might get a little frustrated by Miss H’s scribbles over my picture or leaky water blobs.

Sometimes we take out journal and paints with us, but honestly, it’s tricky to paint with E(18 months) around. He loves to run off with paint brushes or experiment with closing the lid of the paints. Mostly we’ve been painting outside on our table, either while E happily plays with his sand table, or he’s unhappily taking a nap. If we don’t have our nature notebook with us an spy something beautiful to add to it, I snap a picture and we paint it at home. The specimen is sometimes plucked from its home as well, to my chagrin! (Exhibit A: this Instagram photo )

After we paint the object, I look it up either online or in our Nature Anatomy book by Julia Rothman. This allows me to learn a little more about it, and tell Miss H in a narrative way. Charlotte Mason described a daisy in the most beautiful way, in order to keep a child’s attention and pique their interest.

She said:

Is little Margaret fixing round eyes on a daisy she has plucked? In a second, the daisy will be thrown away, and a pebble or a buttercup will charm the little maid. But the mother seizes the happy moment. She makes Margaret see that the daisy is a bright yellow eye with white eyelashes round it; that all the day long it lies there in the grass and looks up at the great sun, never blinking as Margaret would do, but keeping its eye wide open. And that is why it is called daisy, ‘day’s eye,’ because its eye is always looking at the sun which makes the day. And what does Margaret think it does at night, when there is no sun? It does what little boys and girls do; it just shuts up its eye with its white lashes tipped with pink, and goes to sleep till the sun comes again in the morning. By this time the daisy has become interesting to Margaret; she looks at it with big eyes after her mother has finished speaking, and then, very likely, cuddles it up to her breast or gives it a soft little kiss. Thus the mother will contrive ways to invest every object in the child’s world with interest and delight. Home Education, page 140

This is my attempt at a narrative description about the grape hyacinth:

The grape hyacinth sits underneath the billowy tree, happy to be cast out of its shadow, but equally content when she’s tucked away in the shade. With a zest for live, she thrives almost anywhere- from rocky terrain to fertile soil. Her tepals, shaped and colored like a juicy, purple grape, spiral around the stem, tapering at the top. Instead of closing in a perfect oval, like a real grape, the tepals wait with open mouths, gentle white teeth bared, hoping for nourishment. They work together, like the many members of a body, to form the raceme, the oblong head of the grape hyacinth, which waves in the gentle breeze and stretches towards the light. //Trying my hand at natural journaling and narrative description with Miss H.

A post shared by Leah (@mylittlerobins) on Apr 10, 2017 at 12:10pm PDT

If you have more than one child, and you have a big old notebook like we do, it might be nice to give each child a page. Of course, if one of your children is a good independent worker, they might be ready for their own journal!

Things to Add to your Journal

I was tempted to keep everything simple so I didn’t have to test my own artistic abilities, but I’m glad that we’ve aimed high. So far, we’ve only added flowers because seeing a new one bloom truly makes Miss H’s day! But there are plenty of things to add to a nature journal:

tree branches
pine cones
leaves
rocks
blades of grass
portions of plants
insects
animals
animal tracks
water
clouds
ice
snow
hail
bark
fruit
vegetables

I do think it’s a good idea to put a portion of an object in your journal, rather than trying to tackle an entire tree. You’ll miss out on a lot of the lovely details.

nature journal entry — Grape hyacinth entry

Daffodil nature journal entry — Daffodil entry

If You Don’t Know What it is

Don’t let not knowing something’s name prevent you from adding it into your journal. You can add it, and then write the name in later. When I’m not sure about the species, I usually Google something vague like, “Colorado purple flower.” This brings up lots of different images that I can sift through to find the one I’m looking for. There are also apps like My Garden Answers that allow you to take a picture of the object, and then it searches a plant database. It’s probably user error, but I haven’t been really successful with that app yet.

I hope this encourages you to try something beautiful and different with your little ones! This has been such an enjoyable process for us, and we both look forward to adding more entries in the future.

As much as I love decluttering and striving for less stuff in my home, I’m realizing that offering kids items to explore with outside adds value to their nature play. Our backyard is strewed with toys and nature tools. Often, when I decide that our home no longer has room for a certain toy or item, it becomes a backyard toy. My children can tinker in their mud kitchen for hours, piling mud into bowls that formerly sat on our kitchen shelves, or peering through magnifying glasses. I wanted to share some of our favorite outdoor gadgets with you. They are from Amazon because let’s face it, they are by far the most convenient e-commerce site out there. They also have wonderful customer support in case you have any issues which I really appreciate. You can find more information here on why this is integral. Luckily, we had no issues to report with these items though! Some of them are toys, and some of them are tools to help your little ones dig in and really observe the beautiful world around them.

I’ve used affiliate links in this post to share some great products with you. Please my policies page for more information. This post was updated November 2018.

Stocking the Mud Kitchen

Full disclosure here: we don’t actually have a mud kitchen, per se. We have an old bench pulled over an old slab of concrete that is surrounded by dirt, or, in wetter weather, mud. This non-fancy set-up calls for some non-fancy tools. Here’s what we have:

Green Toys Tea Set

This was a favorite indoor tea set for years, and now it’s a favorite outdoor tea set. Many mud tea parties have been held with these cute little cups!

Aluminum Foil Muffin Tins

These muffin tins can be used again and again when mud is the main ingredient.

Large Soup Pot

Thanks to Tinkergarten, we’ve learned just how much fun can be had with a big old soup pot! In the warm months, we have lots of fun with water play in a big soup pot. In the colder months, it’s perfect to make imaginary, warming soups. I’ve included the link just for reference, because you can most likely find something similar at your local thrift store.

Tools For Observing Nature Treasures

Metal Buckets

As adults, a metal bucket probably is not that exciting. But nothing could be more fun for kids! If you get a high-quality bucket, the opportunities are endless. My little ones love filling their buckets with acorns, leaves, and mud, allowing them to practice observation and classification. My baby’s favorite thing to do is “stir” the imaginary contents of his bucket with a stick. This keeps him happy for at least 20 minutes! They can also be used as stepping stones, musical instruments, and goals for tossing games.

Magnifying Glass

I personally believe that just the act of having a magnifying glass in hand makes little ones attend more closely. We have this Learning Resources magnifying glass, and it’s great because there’s a little stand that allows children to prop it up and look at something without their hand bouncing around.

Duct Tape

You’re going to think I’m weird for this one, but duct tape is actually a great way for little ones to explore outside! Again, thanks to Tinkergarten, we’ve turned tape inside out and secured it around our wrists, making nature treasure bracelets. We’ve also wrapped it around trees so we could stick interesting parts and pieces of nature to it.

Bug Viewing Jar

A jar like this, or with a magnifying lid built into it, allows little ones to observe insects without them crawling away. This is a great way to teach them to appreciate insects without fearing them.

Microscope

We bought this for H’s birthday one year, and sometimes she gets it out of the drawer on her own so she can get to work observing things. The magnification isn’t very strong, but it’s enough to let young children get in the habit of correctly using a microscope. Maybe in the future they can move on to more powerful microscopes and get to grips with more professional hardware if they end up taking an interest in science.

Tools for Studying Birds

Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder

We have some audacious squirrels living in our backyard! The antagonistic little guys sit on our fence, wag their tails, and taunt our 100-pound dog in any way that they can. I thought a bird feeder would be unrealistic for us because I knew the sneaky little things would get into it. This one is perfect though, because the squirrels literally cannot get the bird seed from it. Their weight pulls the springs down, and closes off access to the food. We have this bird feeder in front of our kitchen window, and I love watching the birds have a little snack while I’m washing the dishes. It’s a great way to attract birds so that we can observe them!

Monocular

On a bird watching expedition last year, a wise mom told me that using a monocular with young children instead of a binocular is a wise move. My children struggled to adjust both lenses of their binoculars into one view. A monocular requires none of that adjustment. While companies that make kids’ nature tools haven’t picked up on this yet, their are some relatively inexpensive monoculars available on Amazon.

Fancy Binoculars

“Fancy binoculars” aren’t the official name of this nature tool, but earlier this year, my family got me a good pair of these for bird watching. When we’re out exploring, I often find the view for my kids, and let them look through. Like I mentioned above, this works sometimes, and sometimes it just frustrates everyone involved.

The Backyard Birdsong Guides

I used these books as a teacher, and they were my absolute favorite! Learning the songs of birds makes identifying them so much easier, and Charlotte Mason said that knowing their songs is the key to knowledge of birds. There are two versions of this book: one for the eastern and central regions of the US, and one for the western and central regions. My area, the Rocky Mountains, are covered in both books.

Garden Tools

Flower Press

Pressing flowers is so delightful! It teaches patience, and allows children to transform something fleeting into a keepsake. Of course, you can press flowers in a book, but children love the process they use with flower presses!

Fairy Garden

Miss H got this fairy garden last year for her birthday. It looked lovely all summer (although I killed the seeds and replanted pansies in it!) This doesn’t necessarily qualify as a nature tool, but we will use the pot again and again!

Gardener Tool Set

Garden tools like these inspire children to get digging and working alongside you. These gloves are kind of flimsy (speaking from experience here!) but the tools and little bag are great for little ones!

Work Gloves

We wanted E (Three) to have a good pair of gloves to work in the yard with Dad. We liked this because they look just like Daddy’s gloves. They say they are for ages four to six, and I believe it, because these are currently much too big for E.

Nature Reference Books

Nature Anatomy

I love books that are appropriate for all ages. This book is beautiful, but toddlers and grownups alike can appreciate it. We also have two others in this series, Food Anatomy and Farm Anatomy.

Handbook of Nature Study

Many Charlotte Mason curricula use this book for nature study. The descriptions are thorough and beautiful, and it includes so many different things that you could observe outside. It even includes ice, which is a great thing to study in the winter. One downside: the pictures are very grainy, because they’re very old!

Fun With Nature: Take Along Guide

Take Along guides are great for little ones. We like this one specifically because it combines many of the guides into one book.

Other Tools

Compass

Charlotte Mason said that children should learn their cardinal directions and how to read a compass in the elementary years. We haven’t started working on this yet, but it’s probably something I should brush up on before trying to teach it! There’s also an iPhone Compass app, but I think it takes away some of the skill required for compass reading.

And of course, all of this wonderful exploring can be recorded in nature journals! You can see my post about starting a nature journal here.

What’s your favorite tool for exploring nature?

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Tell me about your favorite nature study resources!

Nature Worth Observing: Charlotte Mason Nature Curriculum

What it is

Using Nature Worth Observing with Little Ones

Like this:

Froebel’s Alphabet Sticks: ABC’s Outdoors