E.3 Why Nature Study?
Episode 3 Why Nature Study
Discover the mental, emotional, and academic benefits of adding nature study to your schedule in the Hatching Curiosity Podcast Episode 3. Part 1 of a 3-part nature study series adapted from my nature study conference class.
The 3 Episodes in this series are:
E.4 How to Start a Nature Study
Books mentioned in the podcast:
Last Child in the Woods by Robert Louv
Charlotte Mason Vol 2 The Outdoor life of Children
Some of the benefits covered in more detail in the podcast include:
1. The skill of observation and its applications
2. Exercise
3. Natural Science
4. Benefit of Drawing
5. Memory boost
6. Develop both fine and gross motor skills
7. Handwriting and Brain development
8. Alleviate Stress
9. Increase attention span
10. Think like a scientist
What is your favorite benefit of nature study?
And join the conversation on Instagram @hatching curiosity.
Full Transcript of the Podcast:
Intro. Your listening to episode 2 Why Nature Study, the first in a 3-part intro to nature study series.
I can’t help but start with one of my favorite home school subjects. Nature study encompasses outdoor time, nature journaling, biology, reading the signs of the seasons, gardening and a host of other activities mentioned in the 3rd episode in this series. As I began hiking with my young children in the wilds of Alaska, I fell in love with nature again and decided that being in beautiful places like that was the way I want to raise my kids. As I continued to research about nature study and discovered the depth and beauty of its benefits, I decided that I wanted to share this habit with the world. Nature Journals were one of my first products and every time I see people post pictures of them in use I smile.
“Why be within doors when you can rightly be without” is a favorite quote of us nature-loving homeschools mamas by Charlotte Mason and one of the main draws to a charlotte mason education. It can, however, have a place in nearly every education philosophy, and you’ll see why as we discuss its value.
Why Nature Study? One of the principles of a Montessori Education is “What we discover for ourselves, we own” meaning that much of the work a child does in interacting with their environment is designed to be self-correcting so that a child may discover a principle for themselves. It’s those light bulb moments that stick with someone much longer than being told outright. Another quote I love is by Alexandra K Trenfor “The best teachers are those that show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see”. How powerful is that? Nature study at its core is learning how to see so that when you are directed where to look by a mentor you’ll know how to see and question. Many of the principles that Charlotte Mason and Montessori share is the importance of the environment and what better environment can a child have than the living world outdoors? There is SO Much to discover for yourself by just observing.
Speaking of observation. How might having the skill of observation serve you in your education? Think about. In what discipline is observation NOT important? It’s not a secret that attention spans are shortening in our drive-through, scroll past, YouTube nation. Being able to focus on something long enough to truly see it is becoming a lost art, and important skill. Quieting your mind enough to look closely is really the essence of being teachable.
One of the primary purposes of the practice of observation is to learn to see what you is there, not are expecting to see, but what is physically in front of us. Beatrix Potter- the one who wrote “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” was also a natural scientist who observed mushrooms. She wanted to know how one particular mushroom spread its spores. Through microscopic observation, she discovered that because of the shape of its reproductive organ a water droplet would form and as it slid along the edge it would combine with other droplets until the weight of them would dislodge the spore from the Fungi. A new understanding of Fungal reproduction was made because she paid attention to the mushroom’s structure and function!
I have an exercise for you to do next time you are by a piece of paper or even as a thought experiment. Imagine (or actually pause this podcast and do it if you are able for a more powerful experience) drawing a daisy. Just sketch it out in your mind. -pause- okay, how many petals did it have? or did you just imagine the general shape of it? Is that how many it would have in nature? At what angle did they come of the center of the flower? What was the texture of the stem? What was the vein pattern on the leaves? Was the color the same on the top of the petals as the bottom? Sometimes we are inclined to think of or draw the impression of the thing instead of what it truly is. Now, there isn’t anything innately wrong with this, it is just our brain doing what it does best which is conserving energy and trying to be efficient. However, there is a difference in noticing a daisy and really observing it. I bet next time you come across a daisy you’ll notice more details just from this practice of asking your mind to pull them out alone. When we do observations with our children, we are training them to ask more questions and make better observations.
With nature journaling we do this through natural history or botanical illustration, which is recording a natural subject factually, as it is found in nature. Meaning we don’t take artistic license, we try to accurately represent the visual information in front of us. Think of it like taking notes versus writing poetry. To draw in this way, need to be able to really see it. In order to have eyes to see we need to develop other skills like visual discrimination, attention to detail, how to use our senses, and how to think deeply and ask better questions. You can take any drawing ability and improve on it with closer observation of what you are drawing and how you recorded it. This means that both your children and you can learn from every nature journal entry regardless of ability.
In addition to closer observation drawing has been proven to help you remember experiences and facts more vividly, see things from different angles, deepen understanding (you have to know distances and spatial relationships of the parts to be able to draw the whole), and strengthen the hand mind connection, spatial intelligence, and visual memory. Developing skills in drawing also gives you one more powerful tool for communication. An entire “learning style” is dedicated to visual learners. Drawing makes you bilingual in that you can speak their language to more clearly communicate ideas and concepts. Pre-early 1900’s drawing was a required subject. When cameras came about it slowly became viewed as obsolete or one of the arts only. Field scientists today use both photography and drawing because they know that they can capture more information when observed and recorded 3 dimensionally than they would get from photos alone. If a picture is worth 1000 words, how much is a physically handled and visually, mathematically, and literary recorded observation worth?
By going outside, you also get the health benefits of the fresh air, exercise, fine and gross motor skill development which will later help with handwriting and brain development. Exercising outdoors has been clinically proven to help with depression and can provide a great release for when tensions are high or there seems to be a lot of misbehavior in the day. I swear EVERY time we walk outside it is a restorative breath for my kids (and honestly myself!) It is SO different from being indoors that it can reset your day and how many of us have needed that a time or two? Nature increases empathy and attentiveness while decreasing stress hormones. It helps you stay alert, curious and creative.
THAT many benefits just from going outside...Imagine how many more you’ll get when you do it with intention.
Nature study can be an academic pursuit laying foundations for science and geography. It is one of the easiest ways to study biology. It can also be an aesthetic experience with profound moments of awe and sincere wonder. It can even be a spiritual experience and give context to ancient wisdom from a time when knowledge was revealed through agricultural parables.
In the book “The Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv he referenced how the one common thread for many of the last centuries great scientists and inventors was that they all… had a treehouse. A TREEHOUSE! Why do you suppose that was? Just imagine your self like a child in a treehouse. What would you do, imagine, get into? How do you picture your kids in a space like that?
Problem-solving, hands-on learning, pulling things apart and putting them back together, physically interacting with how things work, and probably (in my opinion) hours of unstructured time where they could follow a problem through to its end or to their satisfaction. Kids are basically little scientists when left to their own devices which is why play is the work of childhood.
When they are comfortable outside and have the habit of turning over rocks, looking closely at plants, watching birds at the feeder and noticing their individual personalities and idiosyncrasies they will form more questions and discover more answers than we would be able to supply them with on our own. It opens the world to them so when they are outside and not chasing each other with swords around the trampoline their thoughts are fed a diet of wonder that will fuel their love of learning.
Nature study and the outdoor life of children is one of the joyful parts of childhood our children are lucky enough to enjoy with our homeschool schedules. If you want to learn more about how to turn outdoor time into nature study, how to start and keep a nature journal and overcome common obstacles to this practice tune in next week for Episode 4 “How to start Nature Study”.
I hope to see you next week, until then- stay curious.