“Several moms in our homeschool group want to start a nature club but we have no idea where to begin with forming a club. Can you tell me a little about yours? Thanks for the help!”

Thank you for your question Lecia and since this is a popular one I decided to write up a blog post entry about it.

This spring and summer will be my second time leading a nature club for our homeschool co-op, and I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am. Our nature club was a huge success last year and I truly loved leading it. As you probably know from my blog, I am very passionate about God’s creation and especially about sharing my love of it with others, and a nature club is an excellent way to do just that!

Here is my list of steps and recommendations for getting a club started:

Determine the interest level in your group. – Poll your group to see if you have a high enough interest level to make it worth officially forming a group. In my opinion, two or more families is great! These things have a tendency to grow quickly anyways once word gets out.

Determine a vision for how you want your nature club to be ran. – Would you like a more structured time including an appointed “leader/teacher” for each meeting and a focus topic for each meeting such as birds, wildflowers, etc? Or would you prefer a more relaxed club where you just meet and freely enjoy nature together? Again, you could poll your group to determine what the majority is looking for in the club. Determine if you want parental involvement to be mandatory at each meeting. I recommend this for a couple of reasons: parents will be responsible for their children and not the leader(s), and I highly believe in parents being involved with and connecting with their children in nature study.

If a more structured time is desired, appoint a leader or leaders who will steer the meetings, being sure the meetings stay on task to what is desired of them. – Perhaps all the members would be willing to take turns leading a meeting; however most often there are a small group of people who are “natural leaders” and/or are more knowledgeable on the subject of nature and will gladly do this. Or perhaps you will determine that having just one leader/teacher works fine too.

Determine the frequency of your meetings and the topics and locations. How many times a month will you meet? Will you meet year round or only in the warmer months? Where are the places you could meet? Make a list of local parks or other locations that your club could meet. After doing all of the previous, make a list of the dates you will be meeting and locations where you will be meeting. Decide what you will do in the case of inclement weather. Will you reschedule?

After determining this, and if you chose to make your meetings a little more structured, make a list of topics your group would like to see covered throughout these meetings. When you are picking topics, match appropriate locations that would work well. For instance, a particular park may have huge wildflower fields that would make it perfect for a wildflower focused meeting. Or another park may have a beautiful creek which would make it perfect for a creek focused meeting. When determining what to teach on the focus subjects that you will be covering keep in mind the NaturExplorers unit studies at Shining Dawn Books each have a section dedicated to giving you ideas of things to do with Nature Clubs and Co-ops. I use these for each of our nature club meetings.

After you have all these details, put the information together coming up with a calendar of dates, meeting topics and locations for your club.

Now you are ready to start implementing your meetings! It is helpful to send out weekly reminders to the group, perhaps via email or another online means. In the reminders it’s helpful to list all the basics (where, what when, etc.) and also any helpful information such as if the children should bring anything special (nets, containers, etc.) or wear anything special (mud boots, long pants, old clothes, etc.).

I have tried to be very thorough in these recommendations for starting a nature club, hopefully I have not left anything out. And hopefully I have not left you feeling overwhelmed. If done correctly a nature club will NOT be overwhelming and tedious to run. It will be well worth the minimal effort! Do not make it too structured and “textbook educational”, keep structured teaching time minimal and hands-on exploring maximal.

Lastly, here is how our nature club looks:

We meet only in the spring and summer, starting in April and going through July. We meet every other Friday morning from 10:00am to 12:00pm, having a total of eight meetings. Some of the families stay after the meetings to have a picnic lunch together. Parental participation is mandatory. We start our meetings with a 10-15 minute teaching session on the chosen focus. Then the remainder of the time is spent exploring and doing fun hands-on activities. I send out reminders at least 5 days in advance giving all the details and recommendations for the meetings.

I will be happy to answer any other questions that you may have. And may God bless you in the study of His creation!

Now, Melissa may differ with me and decide to put up a post about her favorites.  :)  But, for this post, I want to focus on why I like the Audubon guides best overall.

• They’re inexpensive!  At Amazon, most of them are right around $14.00.  That’s very affordable when purchasing one at a time over the span of several years.  (At least that’s the way I’ve done it!)

• They’re durable!  This would be very important to me even if I didn’t have three children who want to handle the books after they’ve romped in the creek or dug a critter out of the dirt!  The cover is vinyl, so dirties can be wiped off and it’s less likely to be bent traveling in a nature bag.  The pages are also tightly bound.  In fact, I’ve never had one of the Audubon guides lose a page or break at the binding.

• They’re small enough to fit in a nature bag, but big enough to have very clear pictures.

• They’re thorough.  It’s hard to be thorough in the world of nature because God is so awesome and creative!  But, even though the books can’t cover everything, I’ve found them to be quite helpful for identifying most things.

• They’re organized.  I’m a Martha Stewart at heart.  (My kids aren’t, but that’s another post for another day.)  I like when books are organized in a reasonable manner.  It doesn’t take us any time to figure out where to look in the book for a certain colored nature object or a certain size.  Pictures are categorized in the front half of the book with a very clear system that makes it so easy that children can locate things without much help.  In the back of the book you find detailed descriptions about each nature object such as – size, color, texture, range, season and much more.

So there you have it.  The “why” behind my general recommendation.  When I come across a field guide that stands out from Audubon, I’ll be sure to share it!  Which are your favorites?

~Cindy

This is my preschooler walking along a wooded trail at a local park.

This past few weeks we have been busily studying deciduous trees in our homeschool. Here are some of the things, specifically, that I have been doing with my preschooler: 

We looked up high to see what we could see and found this bird's nest. We talked about whether there would be any birds in it right now.

We also talked about any fruits that we saw and what size and color they were.

We looked down low to see what we could find and found things like this fallen hickory nut and mushrooms.

We collected many leaves on our walks to take back home and press in books.

We noted all the different colors, such as orange, green, red, yellow and purple!

We also talked about the different shapes leaves, such as these star-shaped ones.

We talked about the different colors and textures of bark.

On our walks we always stop to notice a little fuzzy critter or two!

Keep in mind that older siblings are also a great help on nature walks with little ones. Sometimes they even love to get in on the teaching!

 Anytime of year is a great time for nature study with preschoolers and toddlers. Each season has it’s wonder in it; such as the Autumn is so full of vibrant colors! Do not miss out on this priceless opportunity to connect up with your young children amongst God’s beautiful creation!

In each unit, there’s a section written specifically for little ones with ideas for sensory skills, motor skills, broadening vocabulary skills and several hands-on explorations.  There are also fun crafts, cooking and dramatic play ideas for little hands.

At the same time, most of the outdoor activities in the main section of the units can be used with young children, too!

Here are a few examples of how my two-year-old son has tagged along during our recent nature studies.  And maybe I shouldn’t even use the words “tagged along” because he was learning just as much as us on his own level!

He's probably more serious about finding things in nature than his big brother and sister!

Throwing and hitting help him learn about the world around him.

We touch a lot of things and I use descriptive words.

I never force nature on him, I let him make his own discoveries - and his finds are often better than mine!

I always let him take part in what the big kids are doing if he wants.

God reveals Himself through nature to our little ones as well as us!  Don’t leave little guys and gals out!

~Cindy

In our grandest dreams, we envisioned including:

• thumbnail pictures of all the literature books suggested
• full text of all the poems we recommend
• sample pictures of all the artwork we suggest for art/artist study
• photos or paintings of the artists and composers we recommend

Unfortunately for us, copyright covers a broad spectrum.  We weren’t able to legally include any of the above ideas without receiving explicit permission from copyright holders.  Each and every one of them.  Not only was that task overwhelming, but in many instances, way too costly since many people expect some sort of royalty for use of their material.

On the other hand, copyright is a wonderful safeguard for our own work.  How great to know that the hard work we’ve put into these units is protected from someone who might like to make it their own!

Even though our hopes were dashed from those grandiose ideas in the beginning, we have tried hard to make finding particular poetry or artwork, for instance, easy for you.  The internet is a wonderful resource, and although one extra step to take, you are still able to find each and every reference quickly, easily and FREE by typing in a quick search of our suggestions!

We believe we’ve come up with a great alternative for you, too.  It may take us just a little while, but we plan to provide links for each and every artist, artwork, composer, composition and poem we’ve referenced.  Once it’s completed, you should be able to come here and click just a time or two to find exactly what you need.  We’ll be sure to let you know once this new tool is available!

We sincerely hope we’ve helped you understand our reasons for some of the behind the scenes decisions of our units.  More importantly, we encourage you to ask questions and make suggestions!  It’s the best way for us to learn the questions and concerns you might have.  Many blessings and thank you SO much for the overwhelming support and kind words you all have given us so far!