The Nature Notebook, A Treasury of Memories

"As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child. Every day's walk gives him something to enter: three squirrels in a larch tree, a jay flying across such a field, a caterpillar climbing up a nettle, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider dropping suddenly to the ground, where he found ground ivy, how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, how bindweed or ivy manages to climb.  Innumerable matters to record occur to the intelligent child."

The plants and trees have gone to sleep for the winter, but there was still such beauty to see on our nature walk.  A Hawthorn tree devoid of leaves revealed its long sharp thorns and bright red berries hanging from every branch.  It brought our minds to the crown of thorns our Savior wore as he hung on the cross and the berries a reminder of the blood shed for the sins of the world.  We were enchanted by the Spanish moss hanging from the leafless branches on a Live Oak tree.  On closer inspection we found Oakmoss lichen with its stringy hairs and blue green flakes covering many of the branches.  It was delightful sharing this nature study with friends as we explored the river under the bridge. We brought home a specimen, a piece of a branch from the Live Oak tree and plenty of memories of all we did and saw together.

On another day we pulled out our nature notebooks from the bookcase with all of our paints and brushes to record our nature walk.  Our jeweler's loupe allows us to see our specimen magnified 5x's.  I referred to my Handbook of Nature Study (HONS) by Anna Comstock to see what I could find about Spanish Moss, Lichen, and Hawthorn trees. It is a wonderful source of information, but on occasion our Texas flora and fauna are not found within its pages, so I go to the internet where I am able to identify our specimens. Did you know that Spanish moss is not a moss or a lichen? It gets all of its nutrients from sun and rainwater. On occasion a poem can be found in HONS relating to what we are studying and if we feel so inclined, add it to our nature notebook entry, but mostly it is a treasure of our memories and observations in nature.

I have chosen high quality spiral bound nature notebooks for us with heavy watercolor paper as most of our entries are painted with our paints.  Watercolor color paper seems to take the color very well allowing the colors to stand out without bleeding through to the other side of the page.  You are creating a keepsake to last a lifetime so quality is important.  We have used colored pencils, sketching pencils, watercolor crayons, and markers, but we continue to come back to the watercolor paints.  Why?  Because it allows you to take the time to really see your specimen.  You touch it with your eyes and mind in order to see every nuance of shape and hue.  You begin to know what you are painting in a way that is unique to any other observation.

The classic eight color Prang semi-moist watercolor set in the white box has been a perennial favorite and has produced beautiful colors in the paintings.  This year my sister gave me the Sakura Koi assorted water colors field sketch set for my birthday, which I have really enjoyed.  The variation in colors has allowed me a wider range to better capture the colors in nature.  It is important to have a variety of brush sizes, especially very fine tipped brushes, in order to paint fine detail.  Lately, we have experimented with aqua brushes that have the water in the handle. My boy used one in the picture above, but it was harder for him to control the amount of water.  What often results from excess water is a very washed out picture with little detail.  Below, I used conventional brushes, blending the colors in the pallet, and was able to paint a much more detailed picture.

Each year marches on with rapidly increasing speed, but these precious moments shared in the exploration and observation of God's beautiful creation with each other, will remain in your nature notebooks, captured and preserved.

Shouldn’t a child’s education include lots of science experiments?

“No-eyes come home bored; he has seen nothing, been interested in nothing: while Eyes is all agog to discuss a hundred things that have interested him. As I have already tried to point out, to get this sort of instruction for himself is simply the nature of a child: the business of the parent is to afford him abundant and varied opportunities, and to direct his observations, so that, knowing little of the principles of scientific classification, he is, unconsciously, furnishing himself with the materials for such classification. It is needless to repeat what has already been said on this subject; but, indeed, the future of the man or woman depends very largely on the store of real knowledge gathered, and the habits of intelligent observation acquired, by the child. ” Charlotte Mason vol 1 pg 265

I loved my high school chemistry class with all of its experiments and chemical formulas.  I knew this was the career path I wanted to take.  I entered my university with the intention of getting a degree in Chemistry.  What I found out midway through was that I loved teaching more.  I graduated with a Bachelors of Science and a teaching degree with a science major and math minor.  I did lots of experiments with my students…or so I thought.

All of us were taught the scientific method whether we remember it or not.

Scientific Method
Observation/Research
Hypothesis
Prediction
Experimentation
Conclusion

Did you notice where the scientific method begins?  It starts with observation and research of the natural world, nature study!  It is the foundation.  This is the missing link in traditional education.  The rest of the method flows from that.  You cannot have a scientific method if you do not have its starting point.  In my previous post “Is nature study enough in the younger years?” I explained that nature study is the starting point of all real science.  If you haven’t read it, please do.

You probably have at least one experiment book on your shelf.  You can thumb through it to pick out an experiment for your study of sound or motion.  The experiment would then provide the hypothesis, the steps for the experiment and then it will draw the conclusion for you or tell the student why it works.  This is somebody else using the scientific method to create an experiment.  Somebody else has already drawn the conclusions for the child. The student is just copying somebody else’s preprocessed information, very much like following a recipe.  This is not a science experiment.  What your child has learned to do is follow directions but there is very little real science in this, it is instead another form of dispensing knowledge.

Wouldn’t it be better for the child to actually do the scientific investigation himself?  How does this look?  Let’s look at example of a child directed experiment that took place in my home.

Observation and Research
Caleb noticed a potato in the pantry had sprouted eyes and he wanted to know what they were and why they were there.  I explained what the eyes of the potato were and that if you cut them off with some of the potato they would grow.

Hypothesis
“I am going to plant it in the pot,” he said.
“If you plant one in the garden as well, which one do you think would grow better?” I asked.

Prediction
“I think the one in the garden will because it has more space for the roots and better soil to grow in,” he predicted.  

Experimentation
He planted potato eyes in both places.  He kept his potatoes well watered and watched them grow.

Conclusion
He found that the potted potato, although it grew faster, did not get very big. The potatoes from this plant were small.  His garden plant took longer to grow and yielded a much bigger plant with bigger potatoes.

Nothing was written down and no display board was made.  It was very natural and informal, but each step in the method was there.  Not all of his investigations include every step in the scientific method and that is acceptable.  We have also done experiments out of one of our experiment books in the past.  Do you think he remembers them?  No, because there was nothing for him to connect to the information.  A fun experiment copied from a book is not enough for a child to connect to the ideas and concepts.  In contrast, he will always remember his potato experiment.  Later, when he learns about plant adaptations, he will have an experiential understanding to the concept.

God has created a beautiful world for us to live in.  He has also created us in His image, special in His creation.  He has given us a desire to know Him.  The study and investigation of His creation gives us a peak into the nature and character of our Creator.  A child’s education should include scientific investigation but not in the way we have been conditioned to think of science experiments.  Let his investigations be an expression of the child’s own observations of nature and his natural curiosity.  Then he will be furnished with a storehouse of real knowledge gathered, and the habits of intelligent observation acquired.

Nature Study Comes Knocking on the Window

Nature study can happen in the most unexpected ways.  A snail oozing across the window sparked questions and investigation.  We pull out our jewelers loupes to look at it under 5x magnification.  Did you know the eyes are on their retractable antennae?  "Are snails born with shells?" he asks.  A quick internet search turns up the surprising answer, "Yes," and gives us more fascinating information.

Is nature study enough science in the younger years?

"Of the teaching of Natural Philosophy, I will only remind the reader of what was said in an earlier chapter––that there is no part of a child's education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future. He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant. He must be accustomed to ask why––Why does the wind blow? Why does the river flow? Why is a leaf-bud sticky? And do not hurry to answer his questions for him; let him think his difficulties out so far as his small experience will carry him. Above all, when you come to the rescue, let it not be in the 'cut and dried' formula of some miserable little text-book; let him have all the insight available and you will find that on many scientific questions the child may be brought at once to the level of modern thought." Charlotte Mason-vol 1 pg 265

Do you remember when you were in 4th grade?  Do you remember your fourth grade science textbook with fond memories because you gleaned so much knowledge from it?  Most likely you do not remember any of your textbooks fondly because they dryly dispensed facts the curriculum writers thought you should know at each grade level.  So when we ask, “Is nature study enough?’  what we are really asking is, “Is the real study of the biological world in its actual context enough science?”  We have been so conditioned to think that learning is what is done in a classroom at a desk with text books, that when we are faced with the simplicity of really doing science, it does not seem adequate or real.

Charlotte Mason encourages a paradigm shift from using the abstract dry form of dispensing filtered knowledge in a textbook and children dutifully memorizing this information to experiencing the real thing through the actual study of nature where children learn from their own observations.   Nature study IS the foundation of science.  It is what drives the child toward a curious investigation of the world God created and it gives children a passion for science in the later years.  A child that has never observed a frog first hand or studied fungus in its natural environment will never wonder why frogs are found in or near ponds or why fungus grows in our yards?  There will be no further passion to experiment to find out how things work or why they do.  They won’t be driven by their curiosity to seek out those answers.

Living books that bring the natural world alive by writers that are passionate about their subject, undergird the study of nature.  James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot, The Burgess Bird Book for Children or The Burgess Animal Book by Thornton Burgess, Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long, Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley are read in the younger years.   These writers draw their readers into the natural world in such a way that the reader connects with it on a personal level.  Later, the children read biographies of the people who have made a significant impact in the field of science such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Alexander Graham Bell, and George Washington, Carver.

The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock is a necessity for the teacher.  This resource will help you in girding up your knowledge and it gives great nature study ideas.  Include some field guides to help identify what you find on your nature walks.

Nature Notebooks allow the child to hone his observation skills as he attempts to reproduce a subject from nature that has been studied, through drawing or painting.  As the child gets older he will include narrations of the study as well.  The nature notebook is not a field guide with dry facts about the subject.  It is a living expression of the nature study itself in which the child recounts what happened or what was seen on the nature walk.

To answer the question, “Is nature study enough in the younger years,” I would say no.  Round out your study with living books about nature, field guides, The Hand book of nature for the teacher, and sufficient time working in a nature notebook every week.  Get them outdoors often, every day if possible.  This is the solid foundation to build a science education on which will give your child the passion and tools for a lifelong love of science and learning!