My Little Robins

Loving and Learning in the Nest

The Indoorsy Mom’s Guide to Getting Outside

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When Miss H was a baby, I was what you might call an “indoorsy” mom. We rarely ventured outside together, unless it was for a quick spin around the neighborhood to get some exercise. My husband was concerned. He thought a child, even a very small baby, should be rescued from artificial lighting and recycled air. Thankfully, a lot has changed in the years since then, including my attitude towards nature. After becoming an Ambleside teacher, my views on getting outside gradually shifted. Then about a year ago, I made the commitment to get my children outdoors (almost!) every day. Getting outside regularly has been a beautiful change in our family!

Our outside adventures are less challenging than they used to be. E only naps once a day now; Miss H has become more independent outside; and for me, getting outside seems more like a pleasure rather than a chore. But I know it isn’t that way for everyone. I have some ideas to share that I think will help make time spent outdoors a little more pleasant and practical. Some of these ideas are tried and true by our family, and some of these are wise insights from other Charlotte Mason moms.

This post contains affiliate links. Read more about these links in my policies.

Getting Outside

When Getting Outside Sounds Horrible to You…

Start Small

Sometimes we hear Charlotte Mason’s advice to get children outside 4-6 hours a day, and we think we have to hit that benchmark immediately. We want to move from 0 hours to 4 hours immediately- so overwhelming! But as with any other big change involving children, slow is good! Make a goal to be outside an hour a day for a month, and once that becomes a habit, move it up to two hours. Keep increasing until you meet your goal.

Of course, grace is a must. I mentioned that we get outside almost everyday. When the weather is bad, I don’t worry too much about getting outside. Being cold and damp is a terrible combination. I’ve learned to set myself free from my outdoor expectations on those days. Also, we don’t get outside for four hours every single day. We do our best, but we also have to honor nap time and other responsibilities to our family and community. In this post, I mentioned that we try to follow this idea from Home Education:

Never be indoors when you can rightly be without.”

Beyond scheduling, you can also start small with other areas. If certain aspects of nature make you uncomfortable, build up to them instead of instantly trying to overcome them.

Make Plans with Others

Accountability is a beautiful thing, even with seemingly small issues like getting outside more regularly. Schedule play dates with friends, go on group hikes or take a class at a nature center or rec center.

Tinkergarten

Tinkergarten is a nationwide program designed to get kids playing and exploring outside. After taking Tinkergarten classes, 85% of families reported that they spend more time outdoors. 93% of parents said that their children were more curious about the natural world. I will be leading Tinkergarten class in Colordado this spring! You can learn more about them here, or sign up for a free trial class near you!

Hike it Baby

Hike it Baby is a group that encourages parents to get their young children outdoors by going on group hikes. There are groups in 48 states. There is a fee to join, and if you have “school-age” children, you’ll have to check with your local chapter on whether or not they can attend.

Meet Up

I always use an abundance of caution with Meetup, but you can check your local site to see if there are any nature meetups in your area. Or, you can always start your own!

Nature Classes

Our area has nature classes available for families, children, and grown-ups. Sometimes they have a very small fee, but then you’re really committed!

Play Dates

Schedule play dates at local parks, gardens, trails, etc. Having a friend or two go with you makes it more enjoyable!

Pack a Basket or Backpack

If you have a good-sized backyard to explore, put a basket packed with essentials at the backdoor. Backpacks are great for keeping in the trunk of your car for nature road trips. Some things to keep in a nature basket or backpack:

  • snacks (seriously, this keeps us outside the longest!)
  • sunscreen
  • bug spray
  • a blanket
  • a nature journal and art supplies
  • tools for exploring nature
  • baby wipes for a quick clean up
  • water bottles
  • anything that will make you more comfortable

Plan to Eat Outside

I’ve realized that it’s much easier to pack a picnic lunch than to come home or inside from explorations and scramble to put food on the table before nap time. Now, I make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pack some sides, and bring lunch with us almost everywhere we go. Instead of rushing home, we stay outside and enjoy a picnic. This adds almost an hour to our outside time!

On nice days at home, we eat outside every chance we get. My little ones love having picnics on the grass or just eating at our patio table.

Buy the Right Gear

While I was brainstorming for this post, someone mentioned this Alfred Wainwright quote:

There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.”

Each year we buy a good snowsuit and snow boots for our children. We haven’t quite ventured to rain gear, but I know that investing in high-quality gear would reduce the “damp and cold” feeling that quickly moves us indoors!

Set Up A Washing Station

If you don’t love the grime that comes along with a day spent outdoors, set up a washing station. Bring a gallon jug of soapy water and a gallon jug of clean water. Poor the soapy water on your little ones’ hands and rinse it off with clean water. When you’re at home, try using buckets instead of gallon jugs.

getting outside
This is one of the first times I ventured outside with Miss H. This has to my favorite picture ever 🙂

Don’t Stress About What’s What

When you first start getting outside, don’t worry about identifying plants. This is something that will eventually become a joy to do, but for now, it might seem overwhelming. I laugh at myself because it took me a few years to figure out that the tree in our front yard is a Colorado Blue Spruce: Colorado’s state tree! Start by just observing. Try to classify different types of trees by their buds, leaves, or what their bare branches look like in the winter. When you are ready to start learning about specific plants and trees, all that classifying you did will make it easier to identify them. There is a helpful Facebook group called Plant Identification, filled with helpful people who are eager to help you determine the type of plant you see. Buying a field guide, like Handbook of Nature Study is a good investment when you’re ready to learn more about nature!

Backyard Ideas

If you have a good backyard space to explore, these ideas will help you make the most of it.

Set Up a Tent

This has been wonderful for our backyard outdoor time. A tent gives some shade when it gets hot, offers a place to keep water bottles, and just makes getting outside a little more FUN! My little ones don’t stick around in it for too long: it mostly serves as a home base. That keeps us outside longer!

When we’re on the go, a good picnic blanket serves as our home base. I’m not sure why, but having an established spot makes getting outside more pleasant for everyone! Someday, I’ll invest in a fancy little sunshade that I can pop up at the park.

Grow Your Own Vegetables

Even if you don’t consider yourself to have a green thumb, outdoor gardening can be a great way to get outside on a daily basis. Watering a garden gives us a great reason for getting outside first thing in the morning- often in pajamas and without shoes on. Sprouting seeds and growing plants also offer great opportunities for children to learn and observe. We’ve had a garden for about four years, and it gets better each year! (Although, this is what our garden looked like in the middle of May!) Here are practical tips for starting your garden from Simplify Live Love.

Spruce up Your Space

Last year, we dug out a weed infested area of our backyard, added planters, and built a fire pit. This formerly unused space suddenly has a wonderful, bond-building purpose. While we normally would have headed inside for the night, now we sit by the fire pit until well after dark. Because of this, we’ve seen some beautiful, night-specific things to observe, like the moon and stars, and bats (ok, I’m probably not going to convince an indoorsy mom to get outside to see bats!)

Getting Outside With Infants

Work Around Schedules

If you are a my-child-must-nap Mom like I am, an infant’s schedule might be your biggest hurdle in getting outside. This was our problem last summer. Baby E slept from 8:30-10:00 in the morning, and then again from 1:00-3:00. To get outside for hours during the day, I’d have to blow off one of his nap times. But Charlotte Mason also said that we should keep children on regular schedules, and that includes sleep schedules. She said that the habit of regularity (concerning schedules) should be taught to children during infancy. So do we have to decide which child gets what’s best for them? Who gets their fair share of sleep, and who gets their fair share of the outdoor time?

Some compromise has to come into play here.

Last summer, Miss H and I often headed out to the backyard during Baby E’s nap time. This had a double benefit because it meant the house was nice and quiet. Then, after Baby E got up, we headed to a park or garden nearby, coming home around noon to eat. This didn’t give Miss H four to six hours outside every day, but she had plenty of time outside. Baby E didn’t get as much time outside as he was “supposed” to, but he got a chance to play outside AND to nap.

Sometimes, if we had a place we wanted to visit that was a little bit of a drive, I planned the drive right around nap time. That allowed E to get at least a little nap.

Charlotte Mason said that babies can sleep outside on blankets. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?! This has not worked for my children. Maybe our third little guy will be different 🙂

Buy a Good Baby Carrier

We have two baby carriers: one is great for everyday use, and one is good for actual hikes. For everyday use, I love my Ergobaby Carrier. When we went to local gardens and parks last summer, wearing Baby E made it easier to stay longer. He enjoyed being close to me, and sometimes he even took a little snooze.

For hiking, we have (an older model of) this Osprey pack. Miss H used it until she was about three, and it has allowed us to go on hikes that we wouldn’t have been able to without it.

If you’re feeling like you’re the hurdle to your child’s outdoor education, first of all, give yourself some grace. This is just one area out of many! But any step you take towards increasing your child’s time outdoors will benefit them- and maybe even you.

If you’re an indoorsy mom, what’s the hardest part about getting outside?

Getting Outside

How to Start A Family Nature Journal

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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.

family nature journal

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.

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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.

How to Start a Family Nature Journal- Involve young children in nature observations by keeping a journal with them.

 

 

 

 

 

The Complete Charlotte Mason Preschool Guide

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When I first started implementing the Charlotte Mason philosophy, I thought I could just use what I had learned as a Charlotte Mason teacher and apply it to the early years. But I was oh-so wrong! A Charlotte Mason “preschool” is very far removed from school. Over the past several years,  I’ve taken the time to dig into Charlotte Mason’s writings and learn just what she thought this “quiet growing time” should look like. She had some very specific recommendations for a child’s early education. While she didn’t intend to include formal lessons, children would still be surrounded with rich learning opportunities: through play, through observation, and through real-life experiences.

In this complete guide, I’ve included quotes from Charlotte Mason as well as links to help explain each of these topics. I hope that this will encourage you to start using Charlotte Mason’s methods in your home as soon as possible!

A Principle to Remember

The principle that I think is most important to the early years is Charlotte Mason’s very first one:

Children are Born Persons

I think that sometimes during our children’s first years, we’re waiting for something else. Maybe for them to sleep through the night, or for them to start communicating. We think, “I can’t wait until he/she is old enough for…” I’m not going to say that these thoughts are wrong, but I think that they can distract us from the amazing people our children are right now!

Another aspect of this principle is that these amazing people, whom God has put in our care, want to learn. They don’t need us to cloak information up in Pinterest crafts, or tell them every little detail that they’re observing. Even hours-old infants are capable of learning on their own!

"We believe that children are human beings at their best and sweetest, but also at their weakest and least wise. We are careful not to dilute life for them, but to present such portions to them in such quantities as they can readily receive.” Parents and Children, page 232


Personally, I think this is the most important early years principle because we need to view our children as capable learners during this time. We will feel more comfortable having an unstructured “preschool” if we understand that our children are constantly learning through play, observation, conversation, and from the Divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. 

Resources

31 Days of Charlotte Mason: Children are Born Persons from Afterthoughts Blog

The Case Against the Pinterest Preschool

Habit Training

"Such habits as these, good, bad, or indifferent, are they natural to the children? No, but they are what their mothers have brought them up to: and as a matter of fact, there is nothing which a mother cannot bring her child up to…” Home Education, page 105

Habit training is so important during the early years! This is based on another one of Charlotte Mason’s principles: Education is a discipline. In order to establish positive learning habits and attitudes for the future, we need to work on habits during the early years. Our children will develop habits, either good, or bad! If we don’t work on good habits, the bad ones will take over!

Early Years Habit Training How-to’s

Resources

The Stages of Habit Formation

Habits for the Early Years: A Mother’s Journal


Habits for Your Young Child

Habits for The Early Years: A Mother's Journal digs into habits to work on with young children, but I want to share Charlotte Mason’s “big three” habits. She wrote about these the most in-depth, and I see them as being the most beneficial for the early years. These habits are attention, obedience, and truthfulness.

Resources

Attention

Obedience

Truthfulness

Modeling Habits

During these years, we model habits for our little ones. I think it’s important to not only work on our children’s habits, but to make sure that we are appropriately modeling habits we want them to develop.

"Nine times out of ten we begin to do a thing because we see some one else do it; we go on doing it, and—there is the habit!” Charlotte Mason

Resources

Positive Habits for Mom

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (affiliate link)

What to Do During the Early Years

This is the section you’ve probably been waiting for: what should we spend our time doing with our children during these early years? I first thought that we should just spend lots of time outside, and while that makes up a big portion of it, Charlotte Mason did have other learning suggestions for the early years.

Delay Formal Lessons

First thing’s first: in the early years, according to Charlotte Mason, you don’t have to teach formal lessons to your child. Charlotte Mason recommended delaying lessons until a child’s sixth birthday. But, she also presented the possibility of starting lessons earlier than that.

"No, let us be content to be the handmaids of Nature for the first five or six years, remembering that enormous as are the tasks she sets the children, she guides them into the performance of each so that it is done with unfailing delight; for gaiety, delight, mirth, belong to her method. If a child chooses to read and write before he is six, let him, but do not make him; and when he does begin, there is no occasion to hurry; let him have a couple of years for the task.” The Parents Review, Volume XXIII

“We begin the definite ‘school’ education of children when they are six; they are no doubt capable of beginning a year or two earlier but the fact is that nature and circumstances have provided such a wide field of education for young children that it seems better to abstain from requiring direct intellectual efforts until they have arrived at that age.” A Philosophy of Education, page 159

This isn’t to say that your child shouldn’t learn things like the alphabet and counting. Notice how she italicized the word “direct” in the passage above? She said that a child can learn these things through play.

Resources

Phonics, Whole Language, and Charlotte Mason Reading Lessons

Early Years Math By-the-Way

Spend Time Outdoors

"Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” Charlotte Mason

Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” Charlotte Mason

The majority of your child’s learning time should be spent outside. Children learn so much from nature. This outdoor time is crucial to their development and serves as a foundation for their future learning.

What Children Learn Outside

Although spending hours outside each day (Charlotte Mason recommended 4-6 hours!) can seem daunting to the modern mom, they are so meaningful to a young child. Children learn:

  • Observation skills
  • How to use their five senses
  • Control over their bodies
  • Refined fine motor skills
  • Appreciation of nature and its Creator
  • Understanding of plants and animals around them

Resources

Making the Most Out of Outdoor Play During the Early Years– This post explains Charlotte Mason’s recommendations for outdoor play during the early years.

Amazon Must-Haves for Nature Study

Schemas of Play in the Great Outdoors

Help Them Learn Geography

Even without formal lessons, your child can learn to understand directions, distances, and the land formations around them during their time outside.

"By the time they have got somewhat familiar with the idea of distance, that of direction should be introduced. The first step is to make children observant of the progress of the sun. The child who observes the sun for a year and notes down for himself, or dictates, the times of his rising and setting for the greater part of the year, and the points of his rising and setting, will have secured a basis for a good deal of definite knowledge.” Home Education, page 73


Charlotte Mason explained that children should learn about these things before they are 9:

  • weather
  • directions
  • distances
  • where the wind is coming from
  • compass skills
  • maps

Resources

Charlotte Mason Geography: Imagination Required

Have Object Lessons

In Parents and Children, Charlotte Mason spent a lot of time discussing object lessons. These are unstructured lessons that encourage children to observe everyday objects, both indoors and out. This is something that you can do when the weather is iffy, or when you just need a little down time.

Resources

How to Use Object Lessons to Teach Observation Skills

Sensory Bins that Engage ALL The Senses

#CharlotteMason #Preschool guide

Play!

Play is so important during the early years! Preschools full of worksheets, over-scheduling, and over-testing are thought to have increased the onset of Sensory Processing Disorder and have caused children to become clumsier and more stressed.  Charlotte Mason said that organized play is not the same as free, unstructured play, and modern research agrees. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for sports, organized games of tag, or board games. Charlotte Mason mentioned all of these things in her writings! It means that your child needs plenty of child-led play time to practice using their imagination and to bond with others.

Rescources

We Have Play-Based Learning All Wrong 

Read Books

So this is not exactly Charlotte Mason’s advice for the early years (I wrote about how she recommended that young children avoid books here) but I think most of us agree that reading to little ones is SO very important. But, equally important, is choosing good books for our little ones.

"They must grow upon the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read of listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told. Let Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ represent their standard in poetry; De For and Stevenson, in prose; and we shall train a race of readers who will demand literature- that is, the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life.” Parents and Children, page 263


The word “best” shows us that this area is subjective rather than objective, even though Charlotte Mason preferred things to be the other way around! There are plenty of book lists out there that can help you pick living books, but since there are so many books available today, you be the judge of what you want your child to feast upon!

Resources

How to Choose Living Books

Classic Children’s Literature Isn’t all Rainbows and Butterflies

Focus on Building an Idea-Rich Atmosphere

Charlotte Mason’s principle “Education is an atmosphere” is very important to the early years. Not only do we want to build a positive environment for our children, but we want to establish a learning atmosphere. We can do this by presenting them with worthy spiritual ideas to consider, beautiful music to listen to, speaking rich vocabulary words on a regular basis, and encouraging an interest in a wide range of things.

Music

Let your child listen to classical music and beautiful hymns.

"It has been proved that only three per cent of children are what is called ‘tone-deaf’; and if the are taken at an early age it is astonishing how children who appear to be without ear, develop it and are able to enjoy listening to music with understanding.” Towards a Philosophy of Education, page 218


Art

"It would be hard to estimate the refining, elevating influence of one or two well-chosen works of art, in however cheap a reproduction.” Home Education, page 131.


Foreign Language

Charlotte Mason thought that young children should learn a foreign language just as they had learned their first language. We do this through The Cultured Kid and Talkbox Mom. Use the code REFVH6Y7G4ITQ to get $15 off of your first Talkbox Mom box and book. 

"What is more, he has learned a language, two languages, if he has had the opportunity, and the writer has known of three languages being mastered by a child of three, an one of them was Arabic; mastered, that is, so far that child can say all that he needs to say in any one of the three- the sort of mastery most of us wish for when we are travelling in foreign countries. ” Towards a Philosophy of Education, page 35.

Resources:

Foreign Languages During the Early Years

How to Teach A Foreign Language When You Don’t Speak One from Rooted Childhood

Vocabulary

"Come and see the puff-puff, dear.” ‘Do you mean the locomotive, grandmamma?’ As a matter of fact, the child of four and five has a wider, more exact vocabulary in everyday use than that employed by his elders and betters, and is constantly adding to this vocabulary with surprising quickness; ergo, to give a child of this class a vocabulary is no part of his education. Again, we know that nothing escapes the keen scrutiny of the little people. It is not their perceptive powers we have to train, but the habits of methodical observation and accurate record.” Parents and Children, page 226.

Divine Life

The parent must not make blundering, witless efforts; as this is the highest duty imposed upon him, it is also the most delicate; and he will have infinite need of faith and prayer, tact and discretion, humility, gentleness, love, and sound judgment, if he would present his child to God, and the thought of God to the soul of his child.” Home Education, page 345

Scheduling

While your days don’t need to be planned out to the minute, structure is good for young children. Charlotte Mason referred to the habit of regularity, getting children used to the same things at the same time.

Resources

Toddler Schedule for a Charlotte Mason Home

Peaceful Schedule

To me, Charlotte Mason’s ideas for the early years sounds like a beautiful childhood. You can find Charlotte Mason style ideas for the early years in My Little Robins' preschool guide, Idea Nest. You'll find scripture memory, hymns, book suggestions, habit training ideas, play scenarios, handicrafts, and more. A free month is available through the sign up below, and a more colorful, expanded book is available in both print and digital download in My Little Robins' shop.


Nature Tools for Little Explorers (From Amazon)

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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 !

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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