Today is the final episode of our Nature Study Q&A series.
Karen Smith has been so good about sharing her experiences and great ideas with us, and
I'm sure she'll have some more good ideas for us today.
Let's dive into the question [Gentle music]
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.
I'm Sonya Shafer.
Today, Karen Smith is joining me here in the studio.
Karen, this is our last episode on the Nature Study Q&A, and it's a really good question
that basically centers around, "Am I doing enough?"
So let me read it to you, so you get all the details.
"I've always wanted to 'do' nature study, but every time I try to formally add it to
our schedule, it flops.
There are times where it happens naturally, such as when we collect monarch eggs in the
spring.
These are times we enjoy, and they don't feel forced at all.
We've learned so much about monarchs by observing them year after year.
We also notice when certain trees around our home bloom, when specific insects emerge for
the year, etc. but I really want to start recording what we learn.
Is this enough?
Or should I make a greater effort to have my children (and maybe myself!) record our
observations?
How should I do this without making it feel like a chore for them?"
So, is this mama doing enough?
—She's doing plenty.
—Talk about that.
What do you mean?
—Well, her children are informally and naturally connecting with nature, and that is one of
the hardest things to achieve in our children for nature study, is that love for being out
in nature.
—That's true.
I mean you could schedule it, and drag them out there, kicking and screaming every week,
and that's not going to do nearly as much as what this mama is enjoying with her children.
—Correct.
Her children are doing it naturally, and so that puts them way ahead of other children,
who maybe it's just not something they enjoy at this time.
So enjoying being out in nature is a is a huge, huge step.
—Yes, yes.
—To nature study.
If her children are doing regular, informal, natural nature study, there may not be any
need to make a scheduled time.
It's natural for them; they're making the connections.
—Now you said if they're doing, you used like three adjectives, I want to make sure
we got those.
If they're doing, —Regular.
—I think that's very important.
—Yes, it's not just every now and then, and it doesn't have to be every day, or every
week, but regularly.
—It could be twice a month there are opportunities.
But they're naturally drawn to it; I think that's the key.
—And probably the frequency is going to change depending on the season.
—Yes.
—According to where you live, potentially.
—Yes.
—Okay, so regular.
What was the second adjective?
—Informal.
—Meaning it wasn't scheduled for them to go out and look at something.
—It was just, "Look at these monarch eggs, look at these caterpillars."
Okay.
And what was the third adjective?
—Natural.
Naturally.
So they they seem to be doing that.
—It's just a part of their life.
—Yes.
—Really, and that's what we wanted, that's the goal.
—That is.
—Yeah, so okay, all right, good.
—So that's good.
Now if you feel a need to schedule, there may be some reasons for doing that.
Maybe she has one or more children that do need to have nature study scheduled.
Maybe some are naturally drawn to it, and they do it whether it's scheduled or not,
but there's another child who needs it on the schedule.
—That's a good point.
—It's okay to do that.
—Okay.
—Sometimes we are drawn to the same things over and over again.
So you might have a child who's only interested in watching the insects, or one who is enjoying
just the flowers that are planted, and that's the only things that they look at.
Sometimes you might want to schedule it so that you broaden what they are looking at.
There are so many nature study topics out there, so make sure that they are getting
more than just a few of them.
—Yeah, wide variety.
—Yes.
—It's good, and that might be a good reason to schedule in addition to the regular informal,
natural stuff they're doing.
—Yes.
—You might want to schedule something to branch out.
I like that idea.
—Give them a little nudge into an area they might not have thought of.
—Yes.
Now, you don't always have to record what you have seen in nature, or heard, or touched,
or experienced in any way.
I was never taught to do that.
Most of my nature knowledge has not been recorded in a book.
—Wow.
That's something, because you have so much knowledge, and you've been doing this for
so many years, but it's not necessarily, you don't have like 25 nature notebooks.
—No, I do not.
Two reasons.
First, I was taught to take the time to make the connections, and those connections stay
with you, and second, I don't like to journal.
—So it was more of a hindrance than a help to you, if you had to record.
—Yes.
—But what, when you say make a connection, explain what you mean: a mental connection?
Or an emotional connection with this thing?
Or what do you mean by connection?
—Either of those, or both.
Usually it's something that we observe that we hadn't noticed before, and, for me, that
kind of gets filed away with the other information that I know.
And it's hard to explain how that happens, but children who are naturally drawn to nature
don't have a problem with making those connections on their own.
—It sounds like what we encourage our children to do, and what Charlotte encouraged us to
do, is the education is the science of relations.
—Yes.
—That you're making a personal relation with this thing.
It's not just, "Oh I know the name of that," but "It's like a part of me now.
It's my own possession now."
—Yes, exactly.
—Okay.
—And that can be done in different ways.
Maybe it's a mental one, maybe it's emotional, maybe it's both.
Maybe you're just very interested in it, and you had questions when you started observing
it, so just all of those things can come together for anybody.
—So they may be making connections and forming relations, even if they aren't recording those.
—Yes.
Now, there are ways that you can enjoy capturing those connections in a tangible way.
As an adult, I started keeping a Calendar of Firsts, and I really enjoy that.
—Now explain what that is for people who don't know.
—Yeah, a Calendar of Firsts is when you record the first time that you see something.
Let me give you an example: the first time that we pick asparagus in our garden.
What day did that happen this year?
I will write that on the calendar.
What was the first day that we had a frost in the fall?
I'll write that on the calendar.
So things like that.
When did the hummingbirds return?
Those types of things, and I keep, keep the ones that interest you.
What interests me, picking asparagus, when the hummingbirds return, might not be things
that you are watching.
But then I get a wall calendar.
I like to have the picture on my wall, and I record those on that calendar.
—So just in that little square.
—In the little square.
—This isn't an elaborate thing.
—Oh no.
All I will write is "first asparagus 2023" when we pick it this spring and that's it.
When I get the new calendar for the next year, I take my old calendar and I transfer all
of those dates.
I pencil them in.
—From previous years.
—New ones are in ink, previous years are in pencil.
—Okay.
—And so I keep a record from year to year, and I transfer them to the new calendar.
So asparagus, we might have picked, you know, I'm just going to pull some dates, okay, May
5th in 2019.
And then in 2020 we picked it on May 7th.
When are we going to pick it this year?
Well that will go on the calendar in ink.
The others are in pencil, so as you keep this Calendar of Firsts, year after year after
year, and you transfer those dates, you can see when these things are going to start to
happen, and you can look for them.
I have a pretty good idea now when hummingbirds are going to return to my area, when we're
going to pick that first asparagus, when we're going to have our first frost, or our first
snowfall, all those types of things, because I've kept a record over years and it takes
very little of my time to write that on the calendar.
—When you first started talking about every year you transfer all the previous years onto
this one, my efficiency side kind of went, "Oh, isn't there a more efficient way to do
that so I don't have to recopy it every year?" but the more I listen to you describe it,
the more it's like "No, there's a purpose in the recopying."
—Yes.
—It makes you look for relations and notice it more closely when those events are happening.
—Yes.
—So that's a brilliant idea.
I love that.
—And it's very simple, and it's a way to make a connection.
Now, there are creative ways that you can record things.
There is the standard.
Let your children pick out a sketchbook or a blank journal, and allow them to record
in it, like you would a nature journal.
I mean the usual way.
If they pick it out, maybe they will record in it, but there are other ways.
Some children enjoy making videos of what they're seeing.
The monarch butterflies, the eggs to butterfly that they have observed year after year, have
you tried filming those parts?
—That would be interesting.
Especially if you could end up with a time lapse of your own making.
—Yes, so there's that.
They can take photos.
Maybe a child likes to scrapbook; they could scrapbook about the life cycle of the butterfly
or a favorite tree in the different seasons.
So just different ideas of how you can be creative in capturing those experiences in
a more tangible way than just in your head.
—And we've talked about the butterflies throughout this episode, but I know we did
a previous episode with some other projects, if you will.
Nature study project ideas.
So we'll leave a link to that in the show notes.
—Yes.
In case other ideas need to be shared.
—We did do an episode on a review of a naturalist's notebook.
That has good information on nature study, some good tips, and also has a Calendar of
Firsts in it.
—Oh yes, yes.
—And that's a multi-year calendar.
—Yes.
—I believe it's five years.
—Yeah.
—Nice, so we'll leave a link to that as well.
Great.
Any other ideas for this parent?
And for other parents who are wondering if they're doing enough?
—Enjoy watching your children in nature and the connections that they're making, and
continue encouraging them to make those natural connections.
—Thank you.
That wraps up our series on Nature Study Q&A.
I hope it's been as helpful and encouraging to you as it has been to me.
If you've missed any of the episodes, check the show notes for links, and I'll see you
next time.
[Gentle music]