Guarding our Hearts

    I've just finished reading 'Waking the Dead' by John Eldredge. I really enjoy his books - I seem to really connect with what he's writing about, like it's exactly what my heart and mind are wondering about and are in need of hearing. In 'Waking the Dead' Eldredge tells us that our hearts are good, not sinful and wicked like we think we're supposed to believe. God has given us new hearts. Yes we still have old, sinful habits and the enemy attacks are disguised like the thoughts of our own hearts, but basically we need to believe that our hearts are good, that they matter to God, that they are the treasures of the Kingdom and that we desperately need to look after them if we're going to live out the life of joyful abundance that Jesus came to bring us.
   Eldredge really brought home to me the reality of Satan's attacks on my heart and his desire to steal my joy. I'm going to try to pray through his daily prayer for freedom for the next couple of weeks and try to be more alert for enemy attacks. Recently I've been feeling quite depressed, discourage and depleted. Perhaps life is not meant to be like that! Perhaps having three small children at home doesn't mean inevitable drudgery and an endless succession of mundane, thankless tasks. Perhaps someone is trying to crush my spirit and steal my joy. Perhaps someone is jealous that I reflect the glory of God because I am made in His image. Perhaps someone is trying to make me miss out on the reality of eternal, wonderful, joyful life in Jesus.
   The other day, when I was living out this new understanding, someone commented that I looked more beautiful, more radiant. I want to look like that every day! I like the images Eldredge has in his book taken from Epic stories and films. I too want to be like Eowyn and Arwen in Lord of the Rings - beautiful, warrior princesses, whose lives make a difference for the kingdom. If you're a follower of Jesus and reading this post, perhaps I can encourage you to join me in guarding our hearts and living out the joyful, Spirit-filled lives that were meant to be ours.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Week 4

    Since Autumn has just begun I decided to choose 'Trees' as our focus area. I'm looking forward to watching the leaves turn colour and making collages of sycamore leaves with the girls. There are so many different trees in our local park, and I'd love to be able to identify them better.
   I forgot this week to get the girls to stop and be quiet and tell me what they could hear, see and feel. Sophie reminded me when we got back home - it seems she really enjoys that part of the nature walk.
    Once we got to the park I asked the girls to choose a tree each that interested them. From their chosen tree we looked for leaves on the ground that had fallen nearby, any seeds or berries, and we also did a bark rubbing, as well as jotting down in a notebook any other interesting features.

Sophie's Tree

  
  
    Sophie chose this tree. Its leaves had barely turned at all so we couldn't find any on the ground. We noticed they were growing in groups of five. We thought at first it didn't have any seeds or berries but then we noticed a few long seeds and were able to take some for our nature journal. The bark was fairly smooth and almost orange in colour, with little bits of green moss growing on it. Later on when I looked it up in our tree book I decided it must have been some kind of ash tree, although I'm not sure exactly which type - possibly a Narrow-leaved Ash, although the leaves didn't look that narrow.

Charis's Tree

    Charis chose this tree. The bark was quite rough and there was more moss growing on this trunk. The leaves on this tree had nearly all turned brown and fallen off. There were red berries on the ground that belonged to this tree too. We decided it was probably a Common Hawthorn tree. (By the way, the leaves in the photo are from another type of young tree that was growing right next to the Hawthorn).
   We enjoyed the rest of our nature walk. We found lots of acorns, pine needles, pine cones, conkers and various leaves. Sophie noticed some white 'stuff' on the pine trees, and we discovered it was sticky sap. We scraped some onto our fingers and smelt it. The girls also pointed out mushrooms and clovers and a little squirrel, which got chased up a tree by the stray dog that followed up all the way around the lake.

Playing Pooh Sticks

We stopped to play Pooh sticks on the little bridge, but the water was flowing quite fast from all the rain we've had recently. We didn't see any dead animals this week, although the girls felt very sorry for the stray dog, who was very thin and eagerly gobbled up all the crackers that we threw at it. We talked about how stray dogs and cats have to find their own food from amongst the rubbish or from people's scraps. Unfortunately there are a lot of stray dogs in this part of the world and there's nothing we can do to help.

When we got home I updated our family nature journal, writing up our findings, pasting in the bark rubbings and sealing in the leaves, seeds and berries with clear, sticky film. The girls weren't that interested in helping me. Perhaps they're still too young - neither of them can read yet. I did read the entries to them later and asked them to help me remember what we saw, but I think I just have to model nature journalling to them for now. When they're older I'd love to try doing some sketches together, but Charis and Nathaniel have very short attention spans when we're out and about!

Handbook of Nature Study Notes 3

Here are my notes from the reading from Challenge number 3:

The Correlation of Nature-Study with Language work (pg 16)

    Comstock observes that using nature journals will naturally encourage writing and spelling skills. However, this should not be overtly part of the purpose of the nature journal or else the child will object: "Nature-study should be so much a part of the child's thought and interest that it will naturally form a thought core for other subjects quite unconsciously on his part.....But there is something in human nature which revolts against doing one thing to accomplish quite another."

The Correlation of Nature-Study an Drawing (pg 17)

    Children love to draw things they are interested in! I've certainly observed this in my children. To quote Comstock: "When the child is interested in studying any object, he enjoys illustrating his observations with drawings; the happy absorption of children thus engaged is a delight to witness. At its best, drawing is a perfectly natural method of self-expression."
    However, as with the danger of forcing writing skills mentioned above, there is a danger in forcing drawing for drawing's sake too: "It is only when the object to be drawn is foreign to the interest of the child that drawing is a task." I guess my task will be to try to make nature journalling something spontaneous, creative and interesting and not a chore or something that has to be done.
    I was interested in Comstock's theory that, when left to their own devices, children will naturally choose the best medium for their drawings depending on the subject they're trying to capture: pencil, crayon or paints.

    Finally, I agreed with the sentiment that children should not be made to feel that they can't draw because they're not good artists: "Too much have we emphasized drawings as an art; it may be an art, if the one who draws is an artist; but if he is not an artist, he still has a right to draw if it pleases him to do so." Again, I need to be willing to let my child include drawings in our nature journal that I might not think are the best - something that troubles my perfectionistic tendencies!

Outdoor Hour Challenge Week 3

I've been wanting for a while to take the kids wading in the local river, so this week I decided to do that as our nature walk. I left the pushchair behind and strapped Nathaniel into the sling, put everyone into wellies and off we went. The girls were quite excited, especially because splashing about in water is something they don't always get to do.

The first thing Sophie and Charis noticed were all the snails. They were everywhere - on the sand, on rocks. They were rather concerned not to step on them. We carefully put two into our 'bug jar' complete with a layer of wet sand and a leaf and put it in the rucksack to take back with us.




The girls enjoyed poking around in the river weed with sticks, and we noticed a few frogs a bit further upstream. We couldn't get very close to them but managed to take a photo before they dived into the water.

Other things we saw: a lizard, lots of oak leaves and acorns and unfortunately lots of rubbish from people's picnics (a common sight in this part of the world where people don't think so much about damage to the environment.

We also saw this rather strange prickly plant.


On the way back to the car we saw about forty or so pond skaters on the lake. It was funny to watch them skating about on top of the water. We tried to take a photo but it didn't come out well.

Back at home we talked about our nature walk and what we might like to draw for our family nature journal (which we started a few months ago. Charis decided she'd like to draw a frog and Sophie drew the snails from our bug jar, which we later deposited near the sand pit in our garden - we hope they'll be all right there.

Oh, and our dead animal this week? A dead worm in one of the rock pools.

Handbook of Nature Study Notes 2

Here are my notes from what I've learned alongside the Outdoor Hour Challenge no. 2:

From page 15, 'The Field Excursion': A very efficient field trip may be make during the ten or fifteen minutes at recess, if it is well planned. The half-hour excursion should be preceded by a talk concerning the purposes of the outing and the pupils must know that certain observations are to be made or they will not be permitted to go again. (Not sure how to carry this threat through when you're homeschooling!!

From pages 23-24, "How to Use This Book":

• The teacher should have at hand the subject of the lesson. She should make herself familiar with the points covered by the questions and read the story before giving the lesson.
• The story should not be read to the pupils. It is given as an assistance to the teacher.
• Make the lesson an investigation and make the pupils feel they are investigators.
• The 'leading thought' embodies some of the points which should be in the teacher's mind while giving the lesson.
• The direct questioning method, if not employed with discretion, becomes tiresome to both pupil and teacher.
• The best teacher will cover the points suggested for observations with few direct questions. 

Restriction by Gretchen Primack

So this is restriction: a thousand tastes
of compassion, the crisp and the dissolving,
the bowl of comfort and the bowl of bracing sour,
what is mashed and crunched, split and whole.
The zippers of wheat, the burst of a mango, the tiny
skin peeling itself from a perfect bean,
a hundred plump grains and a hundred plump
nuts and seeds, the geneses
of tall green stretches and fat green leaves.
That is what becomes my mouth
and body and my heart, and it is
my joy, and kindness, and plenty.

Love This by Gretchen Primack

If you permit

this evil, what is the good

of the good of your life?

     —Stanley Kunitz

The body floods with chemicals saying, Love this,
and she does, and births it; it is a boy
she begins to clean and nose, but he is dragged
away by his back feet. She will never touch him
again, though she hears him howl and calls back
for days.

Her breast milk is banked for others. Her son
is pulled away to lie in his box.
He will be packed for slaughter. How ingenious
we are! To make product from byproduct.
To make use of the child,
kill and pack and truck him to plates.

And when the gallons slow, we start over,
and her body says, Love this! And she does,
though in a moment she will never touch
him again. His milk is not for him.

And when the milk slows too slow,
she will join him on the line, pounds
of ground. And how we will dine!
And talk of our glossy dogs! And her body
will break up on our forks, as mothers
beg us for the grain we stuffed her with,
and children beg us for the water
scouring her blood from the factory walls.

And when her wastes and gases and panic
heat our air so hot our world stops
breathing-then will we stop? Then
will we grow kind, let the air cool
and mothers breathe?

Outdoor Hour Challenge Week 2

We reached a suitable bench in the park on our nature study morning and sat down. I asked the children to be still and quiet.

What did they see?

• trees, grass, people, benches, leaves fallen from the trees

What did they hear?

• birds singing, the wind gently blowing through the branches, people talking, cars driving along the road nearby, a lion roaring (OK, that's because the local town zoo is quite near!) 

How did they feel?

• a little cold today 

Red squirrel

We looked out for interesting things as we continued on our walk. Sophie started collecting acorns and we talked about how the squirrels were storing them up for the winter. Then we heard a noise and saw three squirrels chasing each other through the trees - one was red, one was black and one was grey. We tried to take pictures but they were too fast.

Crab apple tree

We saw lots more crab apples on the ground and collected some fallen crab apples leaves for our nature notebook.







We also saw an interesting tree we hadn't seen before. There were lots of oak leaves on the ground and Charis found a huge one that we took home.

Green moss on tree stump

We noticed lots of clumps of mushrooms around old tree stumps, and lots of trees had green moss on. Sophie pointed out a tree that had 'yellow moss' instead, which I guessed was lichen (need to check that). There were lots of 'soldier bugs' around, and we saw how some had climbed quite high up the tree trunks. We wondered if perhaps they liked the moss.

Yellow lichen?

Chicory

The chicory flowers were still out, but not many other flowers.

On the way back we saw a dead mouse. Last week it was a dead dog. I wonder what dead animal we'll see next week!

Handbook of Nature Study Notes

In combination with the first outdoor hour challenge, here are some of the interesting points that I noted down from pages 1 to 8 of the Handbook of Nature Study:

• The object of the nature-study teacher should be to cultivate in the children powers of accurate observation and to build up within them understanding.
• What nature-study should do for the child:
• give practical and helpful knowledge
• cultivate his/her imagination
• cultivate a perception and a regard for what is true and the power to express it
• cultivate a love of the beautiful
• give a sense of companionship with life out-of-doors and an abiding love of nature

• If nature-study as taught does not make the child love nature and the out-of-doors then it should cease (!!)
• Out-of-doors life takes the child afield and keeps him in the open air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his mind with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief.
• Out in this, God's beautiful world, there is everything waiting to heal lacerated nerves, to strengthen tired muscles, to please and content the soul that is torn to shreds with duty and care.
• In nature-study any teacher can with honour say, "I do not know; let us see if we cannot together find out this mysterious thing. Maybe no one knows it as yet, and I wonder if you will discover it before I do."
• In nature-study the work begins with any plant or creature which chances to interest the pupil.
• Nature-study does not start out with the classification given in books, but in the end it builds up in the child's mind a classification which is based on fundamental knowledge.
• The nature-study lesson should be short and sharp and may vary from ten minutes to half an hour in length. There should be no dawdling; if it is an observation lesson, only a few points should be noted and the meaning for the observation made clear.
• The lesson should not be repeated unless the pupils demand it. It should be done so well the first time that there is no need of repetition.
• In nature-study, the observation of form is for the purpose of better understanding life.

I like the last point. Nature study is not just about identifying and naming things. We identify them so that we can better understand their life and purpose.

Starting the Outdoor Hour Challenge - Week 1

We've just completed our first week of homeschooling for this new academic year (yippee!). Friday mornings are going to be our nature study mornings, and I'm planning to base them around the Outdoor Hour Challenges found on the Handbook of Nature Study blog.

Today we were supposed to just find a couple of things that interested the children that we could investigate further. Charis (3) said she liked the pretty blue flowers we saw. I think they were chicory - I've looked them up before. Sophie (5) liked all the tiny crab apples we came across on the path.

I forgot to take our camera with us, so there are no photos, unfortunately. I'll try to remember next time!

We did also see a dead dog in the lake, which led to a conversation about how dangerous water is and how important it is to learn how to swim, but I'm not sure that that comes under 'Nature Study' per se!