Science Corner: How does nature study fit in?

So where does nature study fit into a science education? Easy, nature study can be the core of your science education or it can just be the icing on the cake. Either way, there is so much to learn from the outdoors (and the indoors).

What is nature study?

It's the study of the plants and animals around you, which can be found both inside and outside your home. This makes nature study very accessible!

How do I do nature study?

Nature study can be as simple as, "Hey kids look at this caterpillar I just found on the driveway. You see the way he walks along my hand. What does he feel like to you? Do you want to put him in a jar and go look him up on the internet to find out what kind of caterpillar he is?" You can take it a step further and try to "hatch" you caterpillar into a butterfly or moth. The idea is to introduce your children to the nature around them and spark their desire to learn more. Your kids will learn so much from this type of study.

You can also use the Handbook of Nature Study to help guide your nature study time. This valuable resource has information that is written to the parent, so keep that in mind! It provides backround information about a topic and some relevant questions to use to guide the nature study time. Barb at Harmony Art Mom has put together a wonderful guide on how to get started with this book. She has also hosts the outdoor hour challenge which give you topics to focus on and how to go about doing accomplishing those nature studies. You can access all this information at her blog. I highly reccommend that you take a look as it will be well worth your time!

When do I do nature study?

Nature study can be a scheduled part of your week. In the past we have set aside one day for nature study and a library trip, that way we have plenty of time to explore both! You can also make nature study a part of your life. Take the time to take advantage of the crazy things you run across, like snails in a house plant, carrots sprouting in your fridge or the bugs crawling on the milkweed pod you pass while out on a walk.

Some of our best memories of our study of science have been during our nature study time. So, whether you chose for nature study to enhance your science curriculum or whether you choose nature study to be the core of your science education, you can't go wrong!

Hopefully I'm back up and running again :)

We are here and have found a place, so school is once again being taught. I was able to see my doctor's here and they were quite puzzled because they found no evidence of the incisional hernia, PTL! However there is some nerve damage and the scar is not fully healed, so the risk of another hernia is quite high. I will have to get injections every other week or so until things heal up better, so for now we'll stay put. Hopefully things will settle down and I will have the time to be blogging again! Thanks to all of you who are thinking about me, hope that you and yours are doing well :).

Here we go again...

The last month or so has been quite a roller coaster for our family. In my weekly report I said that it had been a difficult week for me health wise. Well I wasn't sick with a cold or the flu, instead I've developed a quite painful incisional hernia where my appendix was removed several weeks ago. This is probably due to my expanding belly :) and it most likely won't get better on it's own. Needless to say that this now puts my pregnancy in the high risk category and after a great deal of thinking we have decided to temporarily relocate to a place where I will have access to the medical care I need. So my posting may be spotty for the next few weeks until we get settled again. Hopefully we'll be back to a routine soon; I really miss it :)!

Weekly Report-Week 10

It's been a rough week for me health wise, but we did manage to get some school done. Except for today, which was kinda a wash-sigh...

Here's a rundown of what we did accomplish...

Language Arts: Princess began reading an abridged version of Black Beauty. So far she's doing well and enjoying the book. We began reading The Little Duke together. It took awhile for princess to get into the book, but the last two days she's been asking for more and more. We didn't complete a full week of Writing with Ease and we did no Dictation Day by Day.

Math: We wrapped up the unit on fractions and began working on clocks. Princess is doing well as usual.

Science: We continued our study of the planets with Neptune. It turns out that Neptune made it around the corner of the wall. Princess did go alittle overboard with the storms that were on Neptune, but really this has been such a fun project!History: We studied Clovis and the Franks and added them to our timeline. We also discussed the Islamic invasion. I had no idea that Spain was part of the Islamic empire, learn something new everyday!

Other: Didn't make it to any of the extras this week.

Education of Me: I didn't read anything this week, my mind was elsewhere :).

Hope you had a great week, you can read other Weekly Wrap-up here.

Weekly Report-Week 9

Ok, so there are no pictures from this week, but we did get Shakespeare done :). Here's a look at our week...

Language Arts-Princess finished reading Little Pear this week and I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to assign her for next week, oh well :). We finished read White Stallions of Lipizza and I was surprised at how much princess loved this book! She now rides her own White Stallion around the house and it's teaching her to ride properly, absolutely hilarious! We also completed a week of Writing with Ease and Dictation Day by Day.

Math-We spent the first half of the week reviewing the first half of the 2B book and then princess took a mid-book test. She passed with flying colors, so that means that we kept moving. We finished out the week with learning fractions. Princess has declared that this is her new favorite math concept! I have a feeling that will change when we get around to graphs again :).

Science-We spent the week with Uranus. Princess was quite perturbed when we added it to our wall model of the Solar System because she feels it's too far away from the other planets. I explained that's because it really is that far away. To which she replied, Ok, but it's probably pretty lonely. Just wait till we get to Pluto :)!

History-We spent the week in the East. We read about Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. I have to admit that alot of what we read about this week was totally new information to me. It also helped me to connect a few dots about Asian cultures. It's pretty cool to learn from your second graders curriculum :).

Other-We looked at another painting by Jan Van Eyck and listened to another piece by Corelli, who by the way is one of my favorite composers! I'm so glad that princess is enjoying him, but I have to say that neither of us are going to be big fans of medieval painting. We also got back to reading Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare "As You Like It". My plan of doing two plays a term is probably not going to happen, but we are enjoying reading through the play and I'm surprised how much princess remembered from the last time we read.

Education of Me-I finished reading Otto of the Silver Hand and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. What a great book, it will definately be on our list for the next go around. I'm hoping to write a more in depth review later this week. Next up Piers Plowman, only because the idea of reading Dante right now doesn't sound so appealing :).

Hope you had a great week, see what others are up to at the Weekly Wrap-up.

Give Away

Want to win a copy of the Elemental Science program of your choice? Check out this give-away for more information.

While you are there be sure to check out the rest of her blog. There is a recent review of Chemistry for the Grammar Stage and so much more. She also has another blog where all her reviews of classical curriculum can be found. I have really enjoyed poking around over there and getting to know this great homeschooling mom :)!

Weekly Report-Week 8

I'm alittle late in writing this because over the weekend I couldn't get access to blogger, but better late than never, here's a look at our week...

Language Arts: Princess read A Grain of Rice and began to read Little Pear. The cool thing is that because it's a holiday week here we were actually able to buy one of the tang hu lur's that Little Pear ate in the book. It's always fun to tie a book to reality! We also completed another week of Writing with Ease and a Dictation Day by Day.

Math: We finished studying subtracting money and then spent the rest of the week reviewing money. Next week will be our mid-book review and then onto the beginnings of fractions!

Science: We spent the week studying Saturn. Princess really liked this planet because it was big and light, plus it had pretty rings! We added it to our wall solar system and we also expanded our Sun to make it a bit more realistic.

While we were working on our Saturn, princess told me that she loved big projects like this and that I was a great teacher because I let her do them (gotta love it!).

History: We spent the week talking about the Sui and Tang dynasties. We are still really enjoying Story of the World, it makes learning history easy!

Other: We did do our artist and composer studies this week, but we didn't get to many other extras.

Education of Me: I continued to read Otto of the Silver Hand and I can see why this book is so popular for middle age studies. It's definately going to be on our list. Hopefully I can review it more thoroughly after I finish it next week.

Hope you had a great week, read reports over at the Weekly Wrap-up!