“A love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour.”
Charlotte Mason; Home Education, vol.1, 71.
Click here to join the group!
We're even starting out with birds... what could be better?! We are studying birds right now! Don't tell my kids that though, I don't even think they know it! :) We do the directed study of nature VERY loosely. I like to teach them without them knowing it... it's fun!
All this discussion is for us mommies who need help! Some of the recent discussion includes, "What is a pin feather and where can I find one?" "Why are the female birds so drab and the males so important and flashy?" "How to identify the different kinds of feathers?" This is my favorite post today. And here's a link someone posted on soaring that will be really neat information for me since we have TONS of vultures around here...
Read this just posted this last week... Nature Study: An Integration of Disciplines by Deborah and HollyAnne Dobbins, on the ChildlightUSA Weblog: Supporting a Charlotte Mason Education Worldwide
*Ambleside Online year 0 is for kids before they are officially of-age to start an official AO year. CM suggests that in the first six years that the child should be free to explore, imagine and observe the world... even apart from formal schooling there is so much to learn!
“. . . the chief function of the child--his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life--is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses; that he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge got in this way; and that, therefore, the endeavour of his parents should be to put him in the way of making acquaintance freely with Nature and natural objects.”
Charlotte Mason (Volume 1, Home Education, pg. 96)
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10 comments:
After reading this post, I KNOW you guys will like My Side of the Mountain. It's about Peregrine falcons - I learned sooo much throughout the trilogy about birds of prey. I wish you had a library you could check it out from! The books are chock-full of nature stuff. Some day, you'll have to get your hands on a copy.
Enjoy discovering, er - I mean schooling!
Amy,
Are you leading these discussions? This group looks great. Perhaps I'll go ahead and sign up and just glean since Little Man will be here soon. I'm so glad you've profiled this, though, because I'm not so good at nature study, and I'd love to be infused with some ideas and enthusiasm. :)
@Ginger,
sounds good. I love having book recommendations! it used to be so hard to go into a library with all those books not knowing which ones were good! though after this many years I think I'd have a much better idea... I MISS the library!!!
@Trisha,
I'm not the leader... but the discussion is always great! Sometimes I participate, and other times I just read since LOTS of perspectives are presented and I don't feel my contribution would add anything new. Sometimes I'm just too busy! ;)
I think the group's summer discussion would be great for anyone doing nature study!! You could always unsubscribe once it's over... ;)
amy in peru
Glad you posted on this. I loved the AO discussion. I am eager to join the discussion. I've kept myself on a HNS reading schedule, but I get behind and forget to use it as a resource when we discover great nature finds. We found a dead cliff swallow yesterday, and the first thing I thought was PIN feathers! Glad to have the motivation. And Jeannie Fulbright's book on flying creatures explains the soaring so well. Maybe I'll dig that out and share in the list. Great pics, btw.
Are those YOUR baby chicks???? And, I have wished I could see an owl in real life. Is that your "real life" picture?
@Kristine,
Please do share... so far on the list I've just been listening... but definitely will add if I feel I can contribute ;)
Ooh. I had a blast over at your blog today :) I loved your Confessions post and the first reading lesson! Great job! :)
@Hammy,
yep... all photos taken by yours truly. :) the hen and chicks were at a farm we visited, the owl at an orphanage, the social fly catcher (grey and yellow) and baby birds and nest in our lemon tree, and the soaring vulture in the sky from our backyard. one of my favorite bird pictures though is one you took here in our backyard... 2 yellow birds. do you remember it?
Hi! This is my first visit to your blog. I must say that I love your pictures. I envy you and your children for having all those birds to study around your area.
God bless you!
Michelle
We love Ambleside! Great photos in your post!
What a good idea to have a HNS discussion group!
-Phyllis
Found your blog via the CM Carnival and just wanted to say I really enjoyed this post. We'll be studying birds this coming year and my kiddos have already been getting into it, just noticing what is around them.
I loved the top quote by CM about teaching them to love nature because it will be with them forever.
(I'm your visitor from Nepal.)
Joy
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