Nature Study Q&A: Newbies {NSM!} April LinkUp

Q:

We are new to CM. How do you go about doing a nature study without mommy having to research so much. Between the internet and books there is so much info out there! Is there a self contained book that we could get?

A:

Way back when I started doing nature study, this was my secret (though I didn't realize the genius of it back then) AND actually, it's what I still do...

1) Get Out. 

2) Look at Stuff. 

3) Love it.

It's that simple... and get this... it's contagious.

At first glance this answer may seem to sidestep the question. You might say, the question was about research.... Yet, regardless, I still hold it's the best response. Further down, I'll tell you why. After that, I'll tell you about which book I recommend. But wait, no skipping ahead. ;)

'Kay. I'm about to share some really great news you can relax about... Are you ready? Set. Go.

Nature study is not just about finding names for things. It's not all about making lists or drawing pictures of those things either (though those things are great extensions!). To do nature study, we actually don't need to have very much book knowledge or other materials to get started OR even to keep at it.

You see, nature study is not really an *academic* pursuit. 
It's more than that. WAY more.

Nature study is about seeing. It is building acquaintances over time with the things we see. It's about getting to know something good. Through regular nature walks we build intimacies with divinely crafted wonders, great and small. By doing this we are actually doing so. much. more. for our kids, for ourselves, than we can even imagine.


Many amazing artists, brilliant scientists and regular joes (like me and those smarter than me) have touted the influence that spending time outdoors as a child has had on the inspiration for their field of work. Somehow, I doubt that many would be referring to time spent as a child researching nature study. I suspect, that the majority are referring to time spent being in nature and having loved it for its own sake.

There have been many studies on the life-giving effects of time spent outdoors both for children and adults, which I will leave you to research for yourself if you are interested. My point here being, the benefits of nature study are going to be gained not ONLY by looking stuff up in books or on the internet, doing drawings or making lists. These benefits will be experienced with time. Because of this, I think it is highly important that we try to relax on the research, especially at first, and really just revel.

Now. Obviously, part of what makes nature study feel rewarding (instead of humiliating) is knowing the names for things. Many of us feel ripped off having grown up with no. nature. knowledge. whatsoever. But don't stress and don't rush. Believe me, over time, if you make those 3 easy steps above a priority, you will come to know about things, if you stick with it. What is more, you'll learn a whole lot of things you never expected! You see, books can't tell you how you'll feel about the first hopefully tenacious shoot of the daffodil in the spring or how even though it was your first love of spring, when it shrivels, it's okay because over there are the tulips, and across the way are the bushes and trees with their sweet tiny green buds and the sun and the dew and everything is starting to wake up and there's new life everywhere... The book knowledge, yes, eventually, because it's nice to be able to talk about our new found friends with mutual acquaintances. But first, the intimacies, these are what we really want to nurture. :)

In summary, when just beginning one should spend lots of time (months?!) simply getting outside, with the priority of opening eyes and hearts to nature. After some time (err on the side of too much rather than too little), you and your kids will begin to recognize some birds and plants and whatever other by sight. Next, you'll probably notice those same things in other areas (roadside, friends' houses, etc), and THEN is the time you might look for the names of those new acquaintances in a book or by asking Someone Who Knows.

Of course, there may be no harm done in using books sooner if you really understand the purpose of them! But, I really think it's THAT important to instill a love of nature in you and your kids BEFORE instituting any activity that might give off scent of *schoolwork*.

:)

Still, the question remains. Once one has all their priorities straight as regards nature study, where should one begin when using books and other resources? Is there one go-to resource?

I continue to suggest Handbook of Nature Study by Ann Comstock as the best all-in-one resource. Yes, it's huge. Yes, it's intimidating. Still, it is by far the most comprehensive and helpful resource for parents and teachers that I've seen yet. There are a lot of resources that may be newer and flashier (and smaller), but I will venture to say this is the absolute best go-to reference for beginning to teach (and continuing to teach) nature study. Use it as a teacher reference. Read the Intro and you'll see what I mean. It's rich!

Other sources for nature study inspiration may be found reading biographies of naturalists, people who have LOVED studying nature, such as Rachel Carson or John Audubon. There are many others but these are pretty widely accessible.


Also, I highly suggest that everyone visit their local nature centers and talk to real-live nature enthusiasts. They'll most likely be by far the best resource for identifying birds, plants, animals, geology, geography and more for specific regions. They'll also be able to steer one toward the field guides that will serve best in one's specific area.

And yes, as you go along pick up a few field guides relevant to your area. By the time you've done all the above, I doubt you'll have to ask anyone which books are the best ones!

You can do it!!  ;)



Snag a button if you wanna! :)
Come back and share your nature studies with us this month!

The {Nature Study Monday} link up is for ANY nature study-ish blog post written at any time during the current month. Which means, when you submit your link, it will show up in every. single. {NSM} post. during the whole month! Oh, and be not confused, feel free to link up on any day, be it Monday or not! 

MEP. A math story.

This post has been written in response to some questions on the AO forum regarding our process with MEP maths, particularly how to start students in the middle years, or how we've skipped years when needed. I've added some of my general thoughts about teaching math as well. But, you are formally excused from the table if this is excruciatingly boring fare for your palate. You don't even have to feel bad. Just click away. ;)


So. Here goes...

Another realm open to Intellect has an uninviting name, and travelling therein is difficult, what with steep faces of rock to climb and deep ravines to cross. The Principality of Mathematics is a mountainous land, but the air is very fine and health-giving, though some people find it too rare for their breathing. It differs from most mountainous countries in this, that you cannot lose your way, and that every step taken is on firm ground.    v4p39

Once upon a time, we came to a definitive crossroads in our math story. One boy continued to struggle as he always had, and at the very same time, we ran plum out of math books. While I'm not a big fan of curriculum hopping, if it were ever to come to pass, this was the time. Should I stick with the same ol' or go with something new? If something new, should I go with a non-curricular approach, popular at the time with some of my friends, or with a more traditional math program? Hmmmm. Have you ever asked those questions?

Though my boys could *do* math, I realized that there was a serious lack of understanding of the concepts. This was not necessarily the fault of MUS, but most likely due to the fact that I was not really teaching them math. I didn't know how to teach math. With that said, I really don't think your average later elementary kid is just going to 'pick up' on math on his own. Yes, there are kids who like math and catch on quickly, and can work independently, and can make their way through the elementary years without much trouble. This was me years ago and now this is my second-born. Fast forward, start high school math with more abstract concepts, and if one still lacks a deeper understanding, it is by no means easy anymore.

So, we found as we were working through Math-U-See, on the whole, they could do the lessons that were asked of them, but they didn't really understand what they were doing. Read more MEP transition nitty gritty here.

Enter MEP. It was practically love at first sight.

First of all, the entire curriculum is available for free online for one's perusal. That's convenient. It's all in electronic format. That's convenient. And it's the best math curriculum I've ever seen. That's really convenient!

You see, somehow I had never realized that math could be a living subject. MEP takes complex concepts and breaks them down to the point that most are introduced as far back as YEAR ONE, and are continually touched on and subsequently built upon by lots of roundabout ways, concrete activities, and real-to-life approaches, throughout every year, so that at some point, one just kind of already seems to know how to measure volume and solve for an unknown factor, etc. without really ever having had to struggle to learn it. Well, that's been our experience, anyway, with those children with whom I have used MEP from the beginning.

Trouble was, with my older boys, I didn't know how or where to start. You see, it has been said that MEP is difficult to accelerate because of it's richness. Well, it is that same richness that makes it difficult to know where to begin. When all along your other math program hasn't introduced those building block concepts, how far back do you have to go to fill in the holes? You cannot start a fifth grader back at Y1 simply so that he gets the whole scaffolding thing. Because the fifth grader knows LOTS of it already, he needs some foundation repair, that's all. Foundation repair is more difficult when you have an existing structure, you know. However, that's whats we needs. SO, where do we begin then? We are not going to pour a whole new foundation. We're just going to patch up. And that means, we'll fix problems as we come to them. We want math to be challenging without being frustrating.

For us, this meant, I needed to start the boys about a year behind where I thought they should be in MEP. Get this, NOT where they should have been according to MEP standardized levels. They were approximately 2-3 years behind that schedule. Students taught with MEP are in standardized schools and are started at 5 years old and are given an entire schoolyear to work steadily through each year of the curriculum. In standardized schools students don't have the luxury of skipping up a year or working on a personalized plan. They do MEPy__ because they are __ years old, and are in __th grade. Period. Not so, with my childrens. Almost everything around here is custom built. Including the garden gate and my closet shelves. Custom can sometimes mean makeshift. But not always. In the case of educational plans for my eldest children, they are almost always makeshift because often I have no idea what I'm doing. I learn from them, and hopefully the second batch will turn out better as a result. :)

So, we put them back in MEPy4. With daily one-on-one lesson time, one child picked up quickly and was actually up to speed within that year, I believe. The other, who had been struggling with MUS, now struggled with MEP. It's not magic, after all. Math struggles seemed to run in his veins (he's now built up an immunity!). But, math is a subject that needs teaching. And in 30min/day per lesson, we made the transition. I admit that MEP requires teacher time. But as a homeschooling mom, that's what I'm here for, right? :) Now, wait a second, I totally get the whole 'I have lots of kids though!' thing. I am not saying it's easy. It's not. I was sort of rebellious at first. But I'm SO glad we stuck through.

I had my struggler take a term to do a Life of Fred book. We plowed on with MEP. There were days. Let me tell you there were days. Little by little we worked through the new concepts and the new way of looking at math. I resigned myself to the idea that he might always be a year behind his younger brother. And he would probably never love math. Some people are built for math and others are not. That's absolutely okay. But, they must be disciplined to DO math, to take the time, even if it isn't their strong point. And we learned this.

We are so made that truth, absolute and certain truth, is a perfect joy to us; and that is the joy that mathematics afford. Also, there is great joy in standing by, as it were, and watching our own thought work out an intricate problem.   v4p63

Last year, miracles happened. Or it finally clicked. Whatever. In AmblesideOnline's y7, Javen was in y6 and Cullen in y7. Everything was going fine. Most days. Except for my anxiety that they would only finish junior high math in high school. Uh, slight problem. WAY back when I was researching MEP, I came on a homeschool conversion chart. I don't know who made it, or how true it is, but it says, that since MEP years 7 & 8 have a lot of repetition, they might be skipped. I was pretty much banking on it. So, when we got to the end of that year, I hesitatingly went forward and put them both straight into y9. It worked. And guess what?! I'm not sure when the pivot turned but, struggler, struggles no more.

Can I hear a big “Hallelujah”, please? :)

SO. whether or not MEP was meant to do just that, we've found that it is possible. I think it is a workaround for kids who don't start off in MEP, and I would still recommend going through the years in order, at the regular speed. I think that's best. But, if you didn't start way back at the beginning as did my younger children, there is still hope!

Now. An important note.
I have seen success with my boys and now with my younger kids using MEP, not because it is a miracle math curriculum. Though I am quite infatuated with it. :) I am confident our success is because of time spent every. single. day. with. each. student., working through the lessons, not verbatim mind you, but usually covering 50-80% of the lesson plan. I have learned the hard way, that I must take the time to check their work (this is how to check for comprehension), and go over problem areas (this is how to ensure mastery). As I postulated at the beginning of this post, for 90% of kids, it isn't going to be enough to send them off to teach themselves math. And though it is a significant chunk of my time, at the end of the day, I really believe it to be worth it! :)

I hope this has been helpful!
Please feel free to add your thoughts and experiences in the comments! ;)

Q&A: Book Organization

Q:
"I would like to know how you organize your AO books. I've put colored stickers on the spines for year we need the books. Do you sort them more than that?"

A:
Something about books affects me. Certainly, when it comes to thinking about books AND organizing them, I get a little bit weak. A warm fuzzy kind of feeling creeps pleasantly over me. I may fall into a sort of daze. On the other hand, when there are books to buy (think childlightusa or library sale), these are the moments I dream about, I get completely befuddled and can think of nothing else 'til I can look through and buy as many as I can possibly carry (this is often severely limited by ever stricter baggage limits. such a sadness.) Scheming and rescheming about how I will arrange my books so I can look at them, is something I would like to do more often. Daily, in fact. But then again that's impractical. I do sometimes sit and gaze at my bookshelves though.

Happiness, yes. Idolatry... Lord have mercy, no.

So, when it comes to actually placing them on the bookshelves, I sort mine loosely thus:

* When at all possible, I have a bookshelf or three purely for all the books we could possibly use for school. My husband's books take up another bookshelf or two, mine another, books for lending on another, etc. the more the merrier. :) These are spread throughout the house.

* My own books go in a combination of places - they have a shelf all their own, but the ones I'm currently reading, or planning to be currently reading, or wish I could be currently reading go somewhere close to my bed. in a precarious pile. The book I am actually reading at the moment goes everywhere with me. and I really mean, everywhere.

...these are just the school books!

On the school bookshelf, then:

* by the working AO years we're in (this year there's a shelf for y3 & also for y8)
* by theme (nature study - field guides, etc.; history; languages; poetry; music; art, etc.)
* picture books & those for my blessed y0 child (on a shelf low down, easy to grab)
* free reads and other living books, alongside all other AO books from previous
years.

* I do this every. time. we. move. (and we move frequently :)

* I actually did do the whole color-stickers-w/-printed-labels elaborate scheme at one point, but have since found that i've pretty much memorized which books are where, and otherwise rely heavily on a printed booklist which has all the AO/HEO books listed (and database software, thanks dad!) .

* I do NOT however keep the books for the immediate upcoming years/terms out and accessible. those stay hidden (yep, hidden) until the week before a new year or new term begins. that way the kids are super excited to look over their new books :)

* I have been known to sort my shelves by color, which is an absolutely constant source of delight to my very eyeballs every time I walk into the room. honestly.

The Value of Home Base

Q:
With life's constant change and flux and a pulling desire to balance between school work/habits and outside opportunities to see friends & get out of the house, how do you set boundaries? How many activities do you fit in each week, while also managing the full AO curriculum?!

~Anonymous Ambler

A:
Dear Fellow Ambler,
I used to be a very able multi-tasker but I've never been able to figure out how to be out running around all day most days and still get school done! ;) Your question made me think back to when I had a very real struggle with my own priorities and my role as teacher. What follows may or may not apply to your situation, it's just what came to mind as a result of your thoughts and questions. :)

While my kids were still pretty small, I had to come to the painful realization that if we didn't commit several hours (the same time every day) to only do school, we were rarely able to accomplish everything we wanted to do (either the basics or the extras were left behind - this left us always trying to 'catch up'). Before that time, we often spent our school hours in the car, outside, sometimes we took our work on vacation, but this mobile kind of school was always when the kids were pretty young and only for short interim periods. I only had two boys in AOy1&2 in those days, and their schedule was way less demanding. I liked to be going, going, yet still, I found it exhausting! (I am still all for carefully selected outings and/or activities... but when they begin to pull the focus away from family and home life... well, that's another thing)

However, for school, I've found that the commitment of certain limited hours out of every day is a bare minimum at best. If that was all we ever did, it would not be enough to accomplish an education truly based on CM philosophy. A CM education is truly MUCH more. More delightful, more fulfilling, more comprehensive than a couple of hours a day officially 'doing school' could encompass.
Education is a life.

Time is the prime ingredient to a non-rushed, delightful education. The child needs time to be absorbed in nature, to think, to create, to be... This will not happen when rushed around from place to place. And I will risk much to say, I don't think it can happen often even at HOME with a mom always with her own agenda rushing around in the background!

This is a difficult thing. I am not speaking to anyone in particular other than myself. I have a tendency to try to do WAY too many things at once. I used to think I could get lots of other things done while my kids did school. Not true. It is NOT a waste of time to commit all of my attention to my kids while doing certain hours of school (much of which will be spent in 'masterly inactivity')... there will undoubtedly be things that come up for our kids, that if we're doing 'other things', their questions will seem an interruption to our lives. If we make ourselves fully available to them, WE will be less frustrated and THEY will be able to learn in peace and confidence before moving on to other activities.

As for which outside activities we choose, we don't have a hard fast rule.
Here's some things we consider:

• When we feel tired, overwhelmed and harried... often it's because we're trying to do too much. I've found it's easier to add one thing in at a time than to have taken on too much and then to decide where to cut back.
• We like doing as many things together as a family as possible, this automatically rules out lots of activities. One idea that I've had is to organize a youth soccer night at our house, all of us could be involved in some way with that... we shall see once we get our yard in working order.
• Many times 'school-related' activities can be made into fun family activities to which we can invite other families or friends too, ie., nature walks, concerts, art museums, historical reenactments, etc. We usually slot this type of thing in once a week at most, in an afternoon.
• For the things we do as individuals, we have it a little bit simpler here in Peru, as the options are more limited (which I consider a HUGE blessing on the one hand, and extremely frustrating on the other). I have this loose idea that one lesson a week per child would suffice whether that be musical or sport-related. With five, that adds up to something every weekday! Since we've just moved back to the jungle, I have yet to find opportunities for everyone's selected activity (or a substitute). We're currently only integrating one guitar lesson a week. We're still looking for drum, ballet and art lessons. The ideal would be that they would all be scheduled during the same time slot on one of two afternoon/evenings each week.
• If the lesson/activity can't be scheduled in the afternoon, it's next to impossible logistically. One term we had swimming lessons in the morning - but we had the first hour @8am, and all the kids went, so we started school a little later on those days.  
• Activities that are scheduled too late at night on a school night, pretty much get nixed (at least for me and my littlest). This is a personal issue as I am NOT a morning person, and if I'm wiped out it throws our whole day off. Here in Peru as many meetings/gatherings begin after 8pm. As missionaries, this takes wisdom to figure out. I do have to make some exceptions in this point. 

Overall, after years of trying different things, I personally have found I like being home best.
I'm less hurried and life is simpler. Considering our family the primary unit and home the starting place, we can easily then branch out into areas of ministry and of interest as the Lord leads.

PS.
I read this, this morning from Sally Clarkson and my heart sang...

"If a woman chooses to stay at home with her children, she has the opportunity of nursing her baby in the peacefulness of her own home, caressing her precious little one, singing sweet lullabies to comfort and please the child's deepest emotional desires. She can offer them the restfulness of long quiet naps in their own bedrooms. She has time to enrich the home environment with beautiful sights and smells- from the aromas of homemade soup bubbling on the stove to the beautiful pictures in books- and arrange outings that foster budding intellects and awaken curiosity. And she has the flexibility to change her schedule to respond to teachable moments - those times when children's natural curiosity leads them to question and learn."

The Undivided Heart (ch3), Mission of Motherhood, Sally Clarkson

Current Events: Q&A

image courtesy of lusi

Q:
I love this. I've been trying to figure out how to introduce current events to my children without overwhelming them with all the negativity in the news. They are just little kids; it seems wrong somehow to burden them with things that are too much for them to handle emotionally yet. How do you decide?

A:
@Stephanie,
I'm in the same boat. I think it's good to shelter our kids from a good deal of negativity in the world when they're very little, but at the same time, as they grow, we don't want to continue by over-incubating and in so doing make it difficult for our children to adjust to life outside any protective shell we've created for them. ;)

This is why when the kids are very young, we read fairy tales and fables (the real kind with a moral, not just the prettified versions we have nowadays via disney). They learn about the stark realities of life from story. Read more about the role of fairy tales in the education of the young, here.

As to the way I think we go about introducing our younger children to what's going on in the world, without scaring the living daylights out of them, ;) is through natural family conversation, or as CM called it, "table talk". We might choose a current article from World Magazine for example and read it aloud at the dinner table, or just discuss what's happening in the world at a family meal. When the children are small, I imagine much of this would take place between parents as children grow into the conversations. Here's how CM describes it:

"Allowing that it rests with the parents to give their children grounds for sound opinions on men and movements, books and events, when are they to get opportunity for this sort of culture? Whenever they fall into talk with, or in the presence of, their children; but especially at table––other opportunities come by chance, but this is to be relied on...

This is the opportunity to keep the young people informed upon the topics of the day,––who has made a weighty speech; who has written a book, what its merits and defects; what wars and rumours of wars are there; who has painted a good picture, and what are the characteristics of his style. The Times newspaper and a good weekly or monthly review will furnish material for talk every day in the week. The father who opens the talk need not be afraid he will have to sustain a monologue; indeed, he had better avoid prosing; and nothing is more delightful than the eager way the children toss the ball to and fro. They want to know the ins and outs of everything, recollect something which illustrates the point, and inevitably corner the thing talked about for investigation––is it "right," or "wrong," "good," or "bad"; while the parents display their tact in leading their children to form just opinions without laying down the law for them. The boys and girls are engaged with the past, both in their school-work and their home reading, and any effort to bring them abreast of the times is gratifying to them; and it has a vivifying effect on their studies."
v5p231

As for school studies, CM didn't have students reading current events (it seems) until grades 7-9.
Here's what grades 7-9 (form III & IV) were doing, quoted from here:
-Read on Tuesdays some subject in "Literature" or on the news of the week or on some historical or allegorical subject, etc. Write on Thursdays a resume.
-Verses (note metre of poems set for this term) on current events and on characters in the term's reading, upon heroic deeds, or, on autumn and winter scenes.
-Narrative poems on striking events.

Grades 10-12 (forms V & VI) did the following, quoted from vol 6 pg 194...

"Here is an example of a programme set for a term's work in these two Forms,––"A good précis; Letters to The Times on topics of the day; subjects taken from the term's work in history and literature; or notes on a picture study; dialogues between characters occurring in your literature and history studies; ballads on current events; (VI) essays on events and questions of the day; a patriotic play in verse or prose." Here are questions set for another term,––"Write a paean, rhymed or in blank verse, on the Prince of Wales's tour in the Dominions." "An essay, dated 1930, on the imagined work of the League of Nations." Form V, "Write a woeful ballad touching the condition of Ireland, or, a poem on the King's garden party to the V.C.'s." "An essay on the present condition of England, or, on President Wilson."

 The aforementioned literary assignments (patriotic play, poem, essay, woeful ballad, etc) would have been composed in response to their reading of current events on the League of Nations, Ireland, King's garden party, present condition of England or President Wilson. 



image courtesy of vlambi

In conclusion:
My current events posts are for my older boys who are studying AOy7. They read through 2-3 current events articles and document them in their narration notebooks as, "This Week in History". In the next year or so, I'll have them transition into writing more creatively about what they read of the world today and the related issues they are thinking through.

At the dinner table, we often discuss what the boys have been reading when my husband is home. This has been so much fun! In hindsight, I wish I'd done this more often, in an informal, conversational way with the kids even when they were smaller, as is mentioned above in the "table talk" quote. I'm currently aiming for at least one dinner time conversation a week with the family about current events (thursdays?). I'll bring this up very informally, and should hopefully not ever seem contrived. I've realized how easy it can be, now that I'm looking through the headlines for my boys, to pick out a weekly theme for conversation. Most often though, it usually comes about because the boys are interested in what they've just read and naturally bring it up as the hot topic at dinner time! :)

Stephanie, I hope these ideas will help you to formulate your own thoughts and plans for working with your family! :)