Relaxed Nature Study

A couple of times I tried to go all Charlotte Mason and make nature study a dedicated thing where everyone had to have supplies and we'd go nature walking at set times, etc.  It never lasted more than twice.  My kids just balked at it and I just didn't feel like making a disciplinary issue out of it.  In truth, they loved nature when I didn't require things.  They liked going to nature centers and learning about animals and plants.  They liked walking on trails through parks where we spotted various things.  They liked looking up things in nature guides.  What they didn't really like was being forced to sketch things when they didn't feel like sketching.  I myself kept it up for periods of time.  I did like feeling like a Victorian lady, a la Beatrix Potter, sketching birds and trees.  But, like most things, I was too overwhelmed to be consistent with it.  But I enjoyed it when I did do it.

A stream where my children loved to play.

But my kids grew up loving to play outdoors.  Behind our backyard is a pond and when we first moved here there was a small farm and an orchard there as well.  They sold the orchard and put up ugly, pretentious McMansions, but we still have a small farm and vegetable stand in walking distance from us.  And beyond the former orchard/new development is a ravine, a flood plain, that my kids loved to play in.  No one else really went back there, so they pretty much free ranged.  When we moved here though, my oldest was 11 so I felt pretty safe that two or three or four kids were out there playing together.  My middle son still reminisces about all the hours spent out there in the 'Deadlands' as they called it.  In fact, his favorite book is Bridge to Terabitha because it reminded him so much of the 'secret' place where they played.  They built dams in the stream, collected leaves and pebbles, deer antlers and old bones. they spied raccoon and fox and rabbits and all kinds of birds and dragon flies and toads and frogs and snakes and wildflowers.  They got mosquito bites and ticks and poison ivy too.

The ravine my children dubbed "The Deadlands."

I'm so glad they had that magical free play in the woods.  I hear about the nature-deprivation that so many kids suffer from today and I think to myself, well, that's one thing we avoided!