Nature Walk

-
Nature study is an important part of Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education. It doesn't really feel like nature study to talk a walk around a city block though. We love the opportunity to escape the city and enjoy a more rural setting. Today we took the chance to visit the Hassayampa Nature Preserve. A guide took us through a couple of trails and encouraged the kids to make notes in their nature journals.


One exercise that I will use in the future was to divide blank page into four sections by drawing a cross in the middle of the page. Then devote each section to four senses: touch, hearing, seeing, and smell. Our guide asked the kids to sit for 1-2 minutes, concentrating on one sense and then to write or draw.


We came across this little fellow. His scales shone iridescent and yet he still blended in well with the tree.

"Hassayampa" comes from a Yavapai word meaning "upside down river." Most of the Hassayampa River flows underground. It is an unexpected surprise in the middle of the Sonoran Desert!

Comments

mshel333 said…
Great idea! (I'm still trying to find the "hidden" creature in that photo - lol!)
May 23, 2011 at 8:12 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weekly Report 4

-
Image
I've missed a report so I'll combine two weeks here. I have to say that our school days are fairly boring! I need to come up with some interesting projects for the kids to do. One thing I have done to help day go more smoothly is to make an assignment book for my 9 yo son. He likes knowing before the day starts what is expected of him. He is usually ready to be done with school after two subjects. Now he know before we start what subjects we are covering that day and I don't hear the sighs when I ask him to get his history notebook. I write out that week's schedule on Saturday or Sunday morning. This is our plan for next week. As we finish a task, he crosses it out. I keep track of all our work through the online organizer at Simply Charlotte Mason . Our 9 yo son is reading the book Brighty of the Grand Canyon. After our trip through Oatman back in August, I thought he would be interested in reading about a burro living in the Grand Canyon. Reading is not his...
Read more

Missouri State Dinner

-
Image
I have started a new blog at https://creativeinstinct.blog/ and moved my State Dinner and information there. Come visit my new site! Finally resuming our state dinners and state studies! This was our Missouri state dinner: St. Louis-style ribs Toasted ravioli Corn on the cob Green salad Ice cream cones Dr. Pepper In 1904, St. Louis, Missouri, hosted the World's Fair.  Introduced at that fair were ice cream cones and Dr. Pepper.  Toasted ravioli is a dish unique to Missouri and was also introduced at the fair.  It is ravioli that is breaded and deep fried.  You can eat it plain or serve it with marinara sauce for dipping.  Corn is an important crop for Missouri.  The only state that produces corn cob pipes is Missouri. 
Read more

Loop Scheduling

-
Image
I wish I had heard of loop scheduling earlier in our home schooling journey. It makes so much sense that I'm amazed I've gone this long without figuring it out! The basics: make a list of all the subjects you want to cover during your school year. Then determine how often you want to cover them. This is what our community loop schedule looks like. The community loop is for the subjects that all (or some) of the kids do together. We start each day with Bible reading and prayer so I put that at the top of the list. Our state study is done irregularly (2-3 times a month) so I put that in the middle. My aim was to get through the schedule once a week. (It doesn't always work out that way but that is the great thing about loop scheduling. We quit missing subjects!) You can see that I've scheduled Zoology twice on the loop since we need to do that more often to cover the material. Our day works like this: We start at 8 a.m. We all meet at the table at do our Bible re...
Read more