Nature Study Our Way

Nature study is something that has been very organic in our home learning. Over the years I tried to make nature journaling a regular event, where we painted or drew and did focused observations. But it never seemed to work, never felt right. We’d either not keep up with it regularly or I could see that my children weren’t enjoying it. And the last thing I wanted was to turn them off a relationship with nature because I was following some random homeschooling movement that nature study had to be a part of our regular learning.

But what ended up happening when I gave it up was interesting.

As soon as I stopped making nature study a part of our rhythm, I realized it was already natural part of our learning.

We are outside a lot as homeschoolers. We hike, walk, and just hang out in our urban back yard. We are naturally out in nature every day, and while we may not be painting or recording all that we see, we are still studying nature.

It wasn’t until a few years ago I stumbled on our way to record what we see. It is so basic, so simple, I almost missed accepting that it was a legitimate way to record nature! When the children were younger and we were out and about, I would always jot down notes about what the children pointed out. It could have been a sound, a foot print, a feather, fur, anything, and I would write little notes so that we would be able to remember what it was to reference if they wanted to further investigate. Over time, we created a whole system of sound notation and descriptive words that would help us remember our experience. Sometimes we’d take pictures of it, sometimes we’d take a video or sound recording. But most of the time it was just quick jot notes. And when the time was right, usually on a rainy or too-hot afternoon, we’d dig through those notes and see if we could figure out what we saw.

This was our way of nature journaling!

And the thing I loved about it, the thing I STILL love about it, is that we aren’t always looking for answers. We aren’t always looking to identify or solve the mystery. It is very much an exploration, a collection of hints and riddles that slowly unfold into possibilities. Sometimes we stumble upon an answer, but most times we sit and wonder: is that what it was?

We’ve used this method to discover we had both beavers and muskrats up at our cabin. That owls don’t actually hoot. That the fox can scream like a child (that one downright sent chills down my spine each night). The night time observations are my favourite because we are totally dependent on our sense of hearing. When you settle down and really listen, its amazing the details you can pick out of the forest.

It is the wonder in nature that I was looking to foster when I dove head first into structured nature study and journaling. And it is the wonder of nature that I found when I stopped forcing it and allowed it to happen in a way that fits with my family’s learning style.

We don’t have many supplies for nature study, and all that I have we thrifted, except for the binoculars. But this is it! We used to have some older guide books, be we never used them so they got donated ages ago.

The Burgess books are hands down the way my children learned about the specific behaviours and patterns of much of our wildlife. Burgess has such a wonderful way of telling stories while staying true to the animals’ true nature. At 15 and almost 13, my children STILL reference parts of these stories when they see these critters.

I highly suggest getting a pocket sized animal tracks book. Ours is so well used the pages are starting to fall out!

The Bird Song book has been my absolute favourite thrift find! I found it on the donations shelf of our local library for $2 and it has provided hours and hours of entertainment and learning about the different birds in our area.

The simple blank notebook is where we write our findings. A few nights back there was a ruckus in the woods beside our cabin so we listed all the sounds we experienced and think that foxes were playing, an owl caught wind, and the mama fox started screaming for her cubs to come back.

One resource I would love to add is a wildflower guide book, but I haven’t found one I like yet, so we use an app for that.

Based on these observations, we think we also heard some owl courtship happening because at the beginning of the week we definitely heard some back and forth owl calls that got quite intense.

Beyond these tools, we use internet maps and searches to see if we can match up our observations, but we love to try and solve the mystery before we start looking for the actual answer. Sometimes it will be a while before we give up and stop adding follow up observations to specific events. The hunt is more fun than the answers!

Above all, this way keeps the wonder alive in our relationship with nature. We are always in awe of the sounds and sights around us, and not only looking to discover or name. I think it is this shift in perspective, that mystery clue-finding game aspect, that has helped our family develop a love for nature.

Warmly,

Marina