About NaturExplorers
We have both dreamed about writing for a long time. Neither of us ever had a clear answer from the Lord about diving in until recently when He gave us so many ideas and resources that we couldn’t say no. What a pleasure it’s been to create this series of nature-based unit studies! Our prayer is that you will not only find the studies useful, but that they will help draw you closer to our Lord and Creator through learning more about His amazing creation.
Within each unit you will find:
- Inspiration for the parent or teacher and inspirational literature suggestions for the children
- Background information concerning the main focus of the nature topic
- Follow-up hands-on activity ideas
- Writing and research ideas that bring in several subject areas
- References for Bible study, artist study, composer study and poetry tie-ins
- Child-friendly internet links and book lists for further study
- Ideas for adapting the material for younger and older children, as well as ideas for groups of children
- Notebooking pages
Any homeschooler using any homeschooling style will find these units useful. In fact, any teacher in any type of school situation will find these useful! Charlotte Mason homeschoolers will love the ideas for tying in poetry and artist and composer studies, as well as the living literature lists to enhance learning. Those who use Unit Studies will be excited that most of what they need for a full unit is already here. Unschoolers will appreciate the ability to find easy to implement ideas at just the right time. Project-Based homeschoolers will be excited at the large amount of project ideas that meet many learning styles. Traditional and Classical homeschoolers will be able to pull as little or as much from the book as they desire. New Homeschoolers will appreciate the thoroughly laid out ideas, while Veteran Homeschoolers will be thankful that the ideas are already pulled together and ready to use.
The beauty of each unit is its adaptability. You can simply take one nature walk and put the book down, or you can take nature walks again and again focusing on the same theme and not run out of new ideas for a very long time. If desired, the nature theme can be used as a full-fledged, science-based unit study. Besides math and phonics, you will find ideas for virtually every other subject. Some of the units even include a hands-on math idea or two!
The units were written with the elementary child in mind, but most ideas are very adaptable for younger and older students. We have personally used our nature studies with children from three to fifteen, with all ages (even adults) draw in almost magically.
May your eyes be opened to His creativity and power as you study nature!
