Thursday, June 20, 2013
I’m headed to the CHEK Conference this weekend! Because I love homeschooling conferences so much, I’ve decided to pass on my conference special to EVERYONE through July 2013!
My big kids were busy with other commitments not too long ago, so hubby and I set off on a nature walk with our 6 year old, Eli. I love taking nature walks with little people! They are so inquisitive and find wonder in everything.
We didn’t have a specific purpose in mind for this nature walk, except to visit the pond. We let Eli lead the way and made more nature discoveries because of it! So, here’s a glimpse into a child-led pond habitat nature walk.
Eli had tons of fun simply learning about the water – its depth, movements and features.
In the pond and around the pond, we found all sorts of plant life. Of course, the coolest were plants that were ooey and gooey.
The pond is a great place to find animal prints! On this day, we found prints from racoons, turkeys and herons. There must have been a million snails, too.
Central KY is a treasure box of rocks with fossils! And, on our farm, there is no shortage of animal bones to find either.
Nature study should be fun! Eli learned so much about the way God’s world works by having fun and jumping from one thing to another (literally.)
Think about the topics he discovered and we talked about in this one nature walk to the pond:
Nothing overly academic. Gentle discussions that fed his inquisitive mind have made lasting learning connections in his mind. Family time, fun and learning all in one!
The NaturExplorer series gives you more ideas for nature walks and follow-up activities than you can imagine! Peaceful Ponds is one of my top-sellers.
From Peaceful Ponds, I have shared a simple pond nature walk idea with you in this post: Nature Study Series – Ponds. Enjoy!!
(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business, Shining Dawn Books.)
Yes, it can be. I’ve found so many wonderful resources to make it easier, though!
We now have two years under our belt using Exploring Creation with Biology
I am so very pleased our homeschool co-op offered a biology lab and chemistry lab over the past two years, both of which followed along with Apologia. It was so nice having experienced biology and chemistry teachers leading the experiments. Not to mention, we saved a ton of money sharing the cost of supplies!
Besides co-op, we took advantage of several other classroom/lesson opportunities – especially having to do with biology. Our 4-H leader and horticulture extension agent both went out of their way to offer in depth botany classes when they heard there was a need in the homeschooling community.
Of course, we never give up on nature study. It fit perfectly with many of the biology concepts my high school girlie was learning. You might be surprised to know how many chemistry concepts fit with nature study, too! Besides that, now that she’s older, it’s way cool to really explore deeply some of the things we come across on our nature walks.
When the opportunity presents itself, I continue to do multi-age learning with all the kiddos. It’s a bit harder when high school textbook lessons are expected, but I include the younger ones in as many things as I can. Nature study is super-easy to include everyone!
Field trips are VERY important in our homeschool – especially as my children get older. My goodness, there are so many wonderful, deep, intriguing, hands-on, minds-on, expert-driven trips to find! Over the past couple of years, to go along with our biology and chemistry studies, we visited traveling exhibits, factories, farms, science museums, zoos, arboretums – and of course, took tons of nature walks.
Sometimes, we needed to complete experiments from the Apologia textbooks that weren’t covered in the co-op labs. I always encouraged Mahayla to include her younger brothers and explain the experiments to them. (We all learn better when teaching!) There were even some days I asked Mahayla to find fun experiments to do with her brothers just for the “fun” of it.
Mahayla has always had a love for animals. As she studied biology during her freshman year, we started to realize that God has an animal related future planned for her. We also studied economics that year and soon began to encourage her to use her love and talent with animals to consider starting a small business. Currently, she raises chickens (for no money yet), is breeding border collies with plans to sell the puppies, is breeding her horse with plans to sell the baby at some point, is bottle feeding a calf to raise and sell, and wants to think about boarding horses in the near future.
Besides the money side of things, she has decided to talk with a local abused women’s shelter to see if they might like her to bring her horse for a little “animal therapy” once a month. Horse therapy is a field she is seriously considering.
She hasn’t made money yet, but to watch her passions grow as she hones in on the Lord’s calling has been nothing short of amazing.
Because of her love for animals and farming, we are going to develop our own agricultural science curriculum for next year. She is utterly excited to dive deeper and more practically into the area of her passion. Stay tuned…I’m sure I’ll be sharing about ag science before long!
This post has been linked to the Apologia Year-End Wrap-Up.
Stacey Farrell from Home School Adventures is finally ready to release her much-labored, much-awaited high school philosophy course from a Biblical worldview!
I will be writing a full review in August, but you’ll be excited to know Philosophy Adventure can be a full credit course as titled, or you can dole out 1/4 credits for English Composition, World History/Geography, Speech/Communications AND Logic Critical Thinking!
Yes, it covers quite a lot while exploring age-old philosophical questions, gaining an understanding of the godless views from so many popular philosophers, and revealing where the true answers are found. Oh, you’ll wanna check this out!
Suicide.
Rape.
Drugs.
Alcohol.
Beatings.
Sex trafficking.
Demon/Ghost Hunting.
We’ve walked beside teens and families dealing with each of these in the last few months.
It hasn’t been easy talking with our children (16, 13) about such enormous topics. Especially one right after the other. Honestly, it hasn’t been our choice to have these conversations, but circumstances required diving deep and searching the Scriptures for answers. And, in each conversation, God has been gracious.
It’s almost as if we hear God saying, “You have protected them, loved them, taught them and given them a firm foundation. Now, it’s time for each of you to see satan’s work in this world more clearly. And, I’m calling you to do something about it for the sake of my lost sheep.”
What is He calling us to do? We have no idea. Our hearts and minds are stirring. We are watching God work in beautiful ways and wonder when and where He will open the door for us to step in.
Hug your children today. Love them. Teach them God’s Word. Give them God’s grace. Know there will be a day when God says it’s time to open their eyes so they can be used by Him in this imperfect, hurting world. Thank Him deeply for the opportunity to homeschool – to bring them up in His precious nurture and admonition.
And pray for this world. He is our only hope.
