A Charlotte Mason education is rooted in Nature Study. Charlotte tells us that children should be familiar with the wildflowers, crops, trees, insects, birds, and small mammals that populate their community.
To make this work for us, in our small urban yard, we have hung bird feeders. And we are blessed to live next door to two avid gardeners, whose beautiful shrubs, flowers, and trees attract birds as well.
For the second spring in a row there is a pair of cardinals nesting in the cedar shrub adjacent to our back deck. We can watch the male travel to and from the nest, invariably following the same pattern: land in a barely leaved tree at the far end of the yard, look carefully around, flit to the lilac bush halfway across the yard, quickly look around again, hop to the bare shrub next to the cedar where the nest is, and, after one last check, disappear into the centre of the cedar to visit the nest. (He follows the same route inversely when leaving the nest.)
By watching his movements thus, my Little Man was able to determine the exact location of the nest. He watched carefully and saw the female moving around in the nest, while the male travelled into the cedar, perched on a nearby branch, and flew out again. The Little Man was enthralled! We have looked for weeks to find that exact spot, to be able to pinpoint the nest itself, up til yesterday only hoping that we would actually be able to find it.
I wonder if God will grace us with the gift of seeing the little ones shortly after they've hatched? Wouldn't that be a wonderful gift!
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