"It would be well if all we persons in authority, parents and all who act for parents, could make up our minds that there is no sort of knowledge to be got in these early years so valuable to children as that which they get for themselves of the world they live in. Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of pant and animal life and to care for none of these things" (Vol. 1, p. 61).
As we were waving goodbye to Daddy this morning Man-Man looked up at me with an excited grin on his face, eyes wide with anticipation. "Mommy, when can we go into the back-back and study our nature study?" The "back-back" as the kids have so named it, is the large free space that exists behind our back gate. Daddy put a gate into the fence so that we could go into the wonderful wooded area behind our house and explore all that God has for us. There is even a little creek back there.
I told Man-Man to go get his shoes on and tell his sisters we're going to do our nature study. The sleepy house was suddenly alive and jumping! In no time we were out of the doors, with Gidgi (my mom) and Lucy (our dog) in tow.
"Wow, Mom! The leaves are all gone! And our favorite hiding tree has no leaves on it either!" Man-Man was the first to notice the drastic change in our trees from two weeks ago. No longer are the beautiful yellow, red, orange, and brown leaves hanging from the trees. Instead they are piled up in a mound under the trees from which they fell. The kids love one tree in particular. It has large limbs which bend under the weight of the leaves to form a canopy of sorts. It's a club house, or secret hiding place for them. But now, it's bare and empty. We found a wonderful treasure on their tree though. Large, green, oval shaped things hung from the branches. Some of these green things were split open to reveal a pecan hanging inside. What a fun discovery! They ran around the tree finding other green capsules to open up and even began gathering the pecans they found on the ground.
I asked if they could tell which leaves used to be on the tree. There were many many different types of leaves on the ground under this tree. The wind had been working it's magic and all of the leaves were mixed up. Tink found one little lone stalk still hanging onto the special tree though. She ran and picked it, proudly proclaiming that THIS must be the leaf since it came from the tree itself. We matched it with some of the leaves on the ground.
"The child has truly a great deal to do before he is in a condition to 'believe his own eyes'; but Nature teaches so gently, so gradually, so persistently, that he is never overdone, but goes on gathering little stores of knowledge about whatever comes before him" (Vol. 1, p. 66).
Man-Man made another discovery. Over in the distance was a tree that still had many green leaves on it. As a matter of fact, though some leaves had fallen, most were still as green as ever. I picked up a leaf from our Pecan tree off of the ground and took it over to the new mystery tree. I picked a "leaf" from this tree and held the two together. We discussed the fact that this new tree was actually a pine tree and noted the differences in the leaves' shape and color. We also found other evergreen trees in our back-back and compared those leaves. Now, the children made these connections on their own. All I did was guide their discovery. How proud I was that they noticed and wanted to know more about these spiky pine needles I held in my hand.
"That the child should be taken daily, if possible, to scenes-moor or meadow, park, common, or shore-where he may find new things to examine, and so add to his store of real knowledge. That the child's observation should be directed to flower or boulder, bird or tree; that, in fact, he should be employed in gathering the common information which is the basis of scientific knowledge" (Vol. 1, p. 177).
After spending over an hour in the beautiful Fall weather we returned to the indoors to put together all that we'd discovered. Tink drew a picture of the new evergreen needles she and Man-man had discovered. She also wrote a wonderful "essay" detailing many of our facts and adventures outside. This has been one of the most surprising benefits of our Nature studies. Tink really loves to write about what she's seen or done. She writes it once and we go through it together correcting spelling and punctuation. She then recopies it onto a clean sheet to put into her nature journal. There we go...science, spelling, grammar, copywork all rolled into one!
"Of the teaching of Natural Philosophy, I will only remind the reader of what was said in an earlier chapter- that there is no part of a child's education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts torwards scientific knowledge in the future. he must live hours in the open air, and as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, ever peculiarity of habit or structure, in beast, bird, or insect; the manner of growth and fructification of every plant" (Vol. 1, p. 264).
"And this is the process the child shoudl continue for the first few years of his life. Now is the storing time which sould be spent in laying up images of things familiar" (Vol. 1, p. 66).
Jill
