I was recently blessed to preview the upcoming e-book Creative Nature Study that will be available from The Old Schoolhouse Store in the near future.  Thankfully, this isn’t pie-in-the-sky, theoretical ‘perfect’ nature study – this is nitty-gritty, nature study where it hits the road with contributions from real homeschool moms like you and I.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I have found the concept of formal nature study to be somewhat intimidating in the past.  What exactly was it?  Did it require special equipment?  Did you have to go for walks every day?  While some of the contributors certainly do nature study the traditional way – journals art supplies etc. many of the homeschoolers are claiming nature study for themselves, adapting it to their family’s particular needs, locations and access to resources.

Like many homeschooling mothers I often rely upon homeschooling discussion lists to glean useful information.    Creative Nature Study is like asking an email list of confident, experienced homeschooling mothers how they do nature study, multiplied one hundred fold.  These moms dig deep, get details and even wax poetic when contemplating a deeper knowledge of God through His creation.

The ‘creative’ in the title is certainly true – these moms don’t keep their nature studies in a tidy box.  How to study nature when your children suffer from allergies, nighttime campouts at the zoo, outdoor scavenger hunts, bird-watching, statistics gathering, nature study through gardening, foraging and food preservation, how to stock a nature study backpack, co-op nature study and many more are included.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit of a resource junkie.  Thankfully, these moms dig out their treasured resources and share them with us in their essays.  Better yet, the editorial team at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has pulled out the resources for a detailed list of books, websites and studies available through their store that will help to flesh out your nature study.  Eighteen colourful “Scavenger Hunt Pages” include room for drawing and writing  and are also included to help your children focus on one aspect of God’s creation while exploring nature.

Whether you are new to studying our Father’s world intentionally or you are an old hand, the plethora of ideas and approaches to nature study found within this upcoming e-book are enough to keep your children busy outdoors for many days to come. After reading the free-wheeling, nature study as it happens approach of many of these mammas, you might realize you’ve been doing more nature study than you thought!  Maybe you just didn’t call it that because it wasn’t structured enough – I found that to be the case for myself.