Who Am I to Talk About Nature Study?

Tonight we meet to discuss Charlotte Mason's ideas on Nature Study, especially as they apply to Home Education.

Now, Nature Study has never been my strong point, although it is something that I really embrace conceptually. Here's what the debate looks like in my brain:

• Nature Study is a natural first exposure to science education.
• But it's hard to bundle up 3 children, two of whom are quite small still, and get them outside.
• Once they're out they love being there, exploring, looking, listening.
• If I'm going to go to all the effort of getting everyone out, it seems a shame to end Nature Study after just 10 minutes, but longer than that means missing out on too much other school time for the older child.
• It doesn't have to take an hour or even a half hour to have a nice time of Nature Study. It can be done effectively in 10 to 15 minutes segments, even once a week.
• I don't know enough about the trees and plants that grow in our neighbourhood. What happens when the children ask me about them?
• It's better if the parent doesn't have all the answers. This is an opportunity for the children to learn it, to experience the joy of discovering things themselves. Use the questions they ask to spearhead quick searches in simple, well laid out field guides. A little bit of reading on my own in the evening, from the field guide or the Handbook of Nature Study, will provide ample material to talk about with the children over snack the next day.
• But it's so cold in the winter. What is there to see when we're buried in 2 feet of snow?
• Even winter can be an opportunity for observation. Bird feeders will keep birds in the yard through the cold months. Trees' shapes and structures are more easily observed when they aren't covered in leaves.

I could go on. By now you see that, although I know the benefits of and reasons for Nature Study, I'm a reluctant participant. Even as a child, I would rather have curled up and read about nature than go exploring in it. Attribute it to allergies, too many tough hikes forced on me as a small child, or any other thing. I need to look at the now of it, and, quite frankly, the truth for me is that once I'm out there, I love it! It's just the 'getting there' that my mind and body resist.

Given all that, what makes me think I'm qualified to lead a meeting on nature Study? It sure isn't confidence in my own practices. It's something more simple than that. It's that I'm learning: I'm learning that it doesn't have to be complicated; it doesn't have to be long; it doesn't have to result in beautiful Nature Journal entries on each occasion; it doesn't have to be perfect.

That's it. I'm letting go of the perfectionism, because it doesn't have a place in Nature Study. And there's too much beauty to enjoy, too much detail with which to be enthralled, too much of heaven crammed into the earth's creation for me to not get out there because I 'can't do it right'. So I'm just going to do it, however it turns out.

Will you join me outside this week?

Jennifer