Nature Study In The Ugly Places

I saw an article this week - Nature Study In Suburbia at the Afterthoughts Blog - and I love it!  Yes, yes!  Here is someone saying what I feel!  To not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, to embrace where you are, where God has placed you, and to see the beauty that He has prepared for you there!  So of course then I Googled something like 'Charlotte Mason Nature Study in the Inner City' or something like that, and I ended up finding two more great posts along the same lines.  How We Find Nature In The City at Mercer Homeschooling and 7 Ideas for Nature Study When You're Stuck in the Suburbs by Blossom and Root.  I don't want to just repeat all the same fantastic ideas these bloggers have, so I won't, but I'll add my two cents to the conversation.  And I suggest if this is a topic of interest to you that you check these posts out, because they are worth the read.

1)  One of my favourite literary exploration methods is the 'close reading', which is probably the secular kin to the Catholic Lectio Divina.  Essentially, a focused dedicated look at a small (sometimes just a word long) section of literature.  And this is a method that can be used for nature study as well, because if you don't have big nature, perhaps you have small nature?  And small nature can be really cool, too!  Forget the majestic trees - can you look at a leaf under a magnifying glass?  Can you look at a drop of water under a microscope?  We found our school microscope for under $10 at a second hand store and I have seen at least one other in the past few months.  And look at this!

Link

It's not just for children!  Haskell spent a year documenting the changes in one square metre of old growth forest and then he wrote a book about it!

2)  The sky!  Recording the weather was mentioned but if you can see stars at all, or even the moon, or clouds...  We have a basic telescope and I love Terence Dickinson's books on the sky.

3)  Forgotten nature is nature too.  That ugly bush over there - that's still a bush.  What kind of bush is it?  Those marigolds at the grocery store - those are flowers to look at and watch and examine.  Why are there bulbs for sale in the fall?  We forget that pigeons and gulls, ants and spiders in the bathroom, these are also nature, they can ALSO be interesting.  It's in how you approach the topic.

4)  The children have really gotten excited about their recent acquisition of old baby food jars filled with grass seed and dirt.  They picked them up at an event and the 9yo, at least, has run with the idea fully and gives his grass 'haircuts' and insists it smells like summer.  I mean, sure!  Why not!  You don't have a lawn, grow a lawn in a baby food jar.

5) Insects!  Listen, wherever you are, there are bugs and worms and flies and something, somewhere.  Look at them.


Oh I find this whole topic very exciting.