You ARE an Artist!
Fresh with visions of roadside lace in our heads, Nana led us in a very quick pastel lesson. We’d brought our Audubon First Field Guide: Wildflowers with all its photos plus the Handbook of Nature Study with all its narrative. Queen Anne’s Lace: A Pastels Tutorial Nana first sketched the flower herself, so the children would have a guide. Then she passed out colors. Showed
Small spurts of outdoor time frame our days. It’s simple and works for us. “I just need to go outside and swing for a few minutes before I start my math.” “I finished my math, can I go outside for a few minutes?” If we notice something, we pause to take a look… “Oh, there’s a slug at the bottom of the back door!” “Mama,
(Praying Mantis Egg Case) “Nature study has a purpose that is deeper than some of us may realize. I encourage you to take advantage of nature study and use it as a tool to teach children to behold the face of their Creator. “~~HUFI What do the children do? The children are to be “let alone, left to themselves a great deal to take in
“Happiness is a quiet, perpetual rejoicing in small events.” ~ author unknown We’re putting the pause button on summer. One of the ways we are hanging on to summer is to savor nature. Gathering flowers from the yard and making arrangements. I’ve been using my phone camera to capture blooms when we venture outside into the green of summer… Growing things in our yard. 1.
This robin pastels tutorial is hosted by me and the children. A direct result of the confidence we’ve built in following Nana’s instructions. See, we pulled out the chalk pastels during a nature study as we often do. And we sketched robins to complement our studies. Here is what we did. We watched robins in the backyard. Then we opened our favorite bird field guide.
Both my grandfathers planted their gardens on Good Friday. We’ve adopted this tradition as well. And while it’s a good practice to wait until Good Friday because all danger of frost has past, we’ve discovered another significance. We talk about Easter. We pour that fresh soil into a flower bed. And a little finger makes a little hole for a sunflower seed. It’s then that
It’s virtually impossible not to notice the beauty of spring. Early flowers push up through the chilly earth and cheer us in February. By March, in our part of the country, trees are flowering too: white blossoms on ornamental pears, buds promising green leaves and the pretty pink of our red bud. But when you have practiced this study of nature, noticing spring is a
I asked my mother if I could use her camera to take some pictures outside. This is what I found: Flowers Trees and Seeds Clouds and Sky Anoles Siblings I had a really fun time finding nature in our backyard. Thank you Handbook of Nature Study! See you next time!
