The more observant one is, the more one can find in the natural world to inspire awe. Cultivating your child’s powers of observation is like handing that child an antidote against boredom and an inoculation from becoming jaded. I want my children to have what Douglas Wilson calls a Contempt for the Cool, and part […]
Our Nature Journals Lately Read More »
Sometimes in homeschooling, we have to set aside doing school to do school in a different way. Today in Huntington Beach, several Charlotte Mason nature study groups got together for a handicraft fair, a chance to see what other families have been working on and to buy each others’ treasures. Charlotte Mason wrote about the
The Spring Handicraft Fair Read More »
It’s a little funny that I’m writing about the benefits of gardening, seeing how I’m happy if my plants survive the season, my composting hasn’t decomposed at all lately, all my red worms fled their Rubbermaid habitat, and I’m occasionally in danger of getting kicked out of my community garden plot. In order to not
The Things We Learn While Gardening Read More »
One of the concerns I hear a lot when it comes to homeschooling is the fear of their child being socially awkward. They will dress weird, not know how to hold a conversation won’t be street smart and not know how to interact amongst friends. Here are some of my thoughts on the issue: Being
Homeschoolers Being Socially Awkward – My Thoughts Read More »
I am an optimist. I thought my inspiring speech to my boys about all the immediate and long term benefits of learning a second language would keep them energized for the rest of the semester: it lasted two weeks. After two more weeks, my oldest son informed me, “I’m not going to thank you for
Nature study doesn’t have to be far from our own surroundings. While I was making lunch today, the boys went salamander hunting in the backyard. It was a successful search. Mama and baby salamanders under the big rocks scarlet pimpernel growing in the grass Mexican sage Butterfly bush (with pretty bougainvillea in the background) attracting
Botany in the Backyard Read More »
The soil is the sepulcher and the resurrection of all life in the past. The greater the sepulcher the greater the resurrection. The greater the resurrection the greater the growth. The life of yesterday seeks the earth to-day that new life may come from it tomorrow. The soil is composed of stone flour and organic
I really like the old naturalists, John Muir, John Burroughs, and John John James Audubon, who weren’t afraid to approach animals, and who didn’t wait for a government permit to touch a species for the purpose of study. John Muir made his own gun to shoot Sea Gulls. John Burroughs hunted, and he dug up
Death and Nature Study Read More »