Home Education - Nature Study
- Blog, Home Education, Home Education - Charlotte Mason, Home Education - Nature Study, Living, Rural Life
Exploring With “Small Boys”
“It is infinitely well worth of the mother’s while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation.” Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, pg 71 I can have a tendency to become consumed with the ‘busyness of life’, the ‘to do’ lists, the mundane and then forget to make the time to see the world through the eyes of my children Today I consciously stepped into the world of our younger boys, we headed down to our…
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Australian Native Wildlife On Our Property
A couple of nights ago Michelangelo spied an echidna in the bush. He rushed back inside for the camera. Thought it timely to showcase some other wildlife on our property, I’ve shared most of these shots before but bringing them all together. 1. Echidna 2. Kangaroos 3. Koala 4. Kookaburra 5. Micro Bat 6. Possum 7. Eastern Rosella 8. Australian Wood Ducks
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Koala Sighting!
Huge excitement at our house this afternoon, Princess discovered a Koala in a gum tree!!! only 25 metres (82 feet) from the house. Investigating extremely loud grunting noises, she was rewarded with the rare sighting of one of our Australian mammals. Koalas are ‘vulnerable‘ in NSW, I certainly haven’t sighted one since a child over 30 years ago. Memorable moment!!
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Nature Walk (2)
Joining Elisa Loves in a Nature Walk Early one morning at dawn Through the lenses I finally capture a kookaburra, a shy bird my success was only due to shooting through the glass door, he flew away as soon as I ventured out.
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Nature Walk (1)
Joining Elisa Loves in a Nature Walk Standing on my verandah I see two roos sizing each other up Deciding who is King of the Bush Mock fighting for the title Using tails for balance Kicking and clawing We realise anew how blessed we are to live in the bush.
- Blog, Home Education, Home Education - Charlotte Mason, Home Education - Nature Study, Home Education - Our Journey, Living
Nature Study Failure? – The Adventurous Years
One day we invited another ‘town’ friend to join us at the natural ponding on the edge of the hockey fields. In amongst ensuring my toddler didn’t fall in, sketching the ducks on the pond, finding a bird’s nest and discussing the pond’s flora an idea was born. An idea that was to change our nature experience, one that was to introduce our children to a whole new dimension, to throw two intrepid mothers into a series of wild nature adventures….. (Part 1) Part 2 – The Adventurous Years Inspired to expose our children to God’s natural world yet limited by the constraints of town living, my friend Margaret and I decided…
- Blog, Home Education, Home Education - Charlotte Mason, Home Education - Nature Study, Home Education - Our Journey, Living
Nature Study Failure? – The Earliest Years
Upon introduction to Charlotte Mason her wisdom resonated with me in most subjects, however there were a few that were ‘stumbling blocks’ and we have ‘tackled them’ with varying degrees of success. When Pam was so bold as to publicly admit she was a Nature Study Drop Out I immediately ‘yelled’, “me too”, but over time I began to ponder, was I really? We haven’t excelled at formal studies and have abysmally flopped at nature journalling, however we have succeeded in imparting to our children a respect for, and an interest in nature itself simply by much exposure. Reflecting upon our nature journey that covers more than a decade I began to see a pattern and decided to share…
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The Adams Family
We have a resident bat, occasionally he annoys me when he swoops up the hall and startles me, or when he swoops too low over my bed. Then I take to petitioning St Francis to take pity on me and evict Batty, all to no avail. Other family members plead his case, he is a great mosquito hunter, this mollifys me somewhat. This time however the bat goes too far. This season I have totally lost my sang-froid. Batty seems to have lost all sense of healthy boundaries and is flying TOO CLOSE, right up in our faces. Entering the house at all odd times, flying into every room of the house.…
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Creating a Nature Collage
Yesterday evolved into a nature theme. After our nature challenge Jem was keen to enjoy another activity. We decided on making a nature collage. We selected various items from the gardens; flowers, seeds, bark, grass, anything that appealed to him. Once he had his collection gathered we headed inside to create a masterpiece. All was needed was a pot of glue, his collection and we had one happy boy.
