(A gentle reminder: It's not intended that you do everything listed here. Choose whatever appeals to you and what you have time for...you'll be back around next year.)

As I've read the lives of many of the great men and women of history, I see a common pattern of drawing inspiration and strength from nature. For example, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie's husband and fellow scientist, wrote about spending time along in nature: "Oh! What a good time that was, in grateful solitude, far from the thousand irritating little things which tortured me in Paris ... I went off in the evening, up the valley, and came back with dozens of ideas in my head."

Nature is God's University.

Speak to the Children, Little Book,
And bring to them happy hours;
Teach them to find in every verse
God's message in the flowers.
His loving care of beast and bird,
His wonders in the deep,
His patience in His perfect work, 
His care o'er all who sleep;
And learn from all His teachings true
How much a little child can do.
-Mary Lovejoy

The purpose of Nature Study is to help a child feel at home there. Nature Study is emotional -- Science is intellectual. They're two completely different approaches. In time, heart and mind will work together, but heart work comes first.

Unfortunately, in our excitement over science, we've left the study of nature behind. Children are taught the scientific method in kindergarten, but they have no awareness of the miracles of nature that surround them. The job of the mother is to open their eyes and especially their hearts so they can 'feel' all the lessons Mother Nature teaches.

First, take a few minutes and enjoy the 'classroom'

Here's 3 hours of calming background music and scenes from nature

Listen to the audio below from Well-Educated Heart audio library

• Nature: God's University

Read: 

• Three Days to See by Helen Keller
  
• Well-Educated Mother's Learning Library Book 2: Nature Study  (The hard copy will be in this month's bundle package for those who have purchased it, or you can buy a hard copy here.) -- Don't panic when you see it!  The book has nearly 500 pages. But about 300 of those pages are an ongoing resource that I expect you'll draw upon for years to come. It's organized by season is loaded with poetry, stories, and ideas for helping children see things in nature they may not see on their own. Eventually, they'll do their own 'seeing.'

From the Forgotten Classics Library: 
Stories of Nature in the Story Hour Series gives you a good sampling of nature stories you can expect to find in the pre-1923 children's books. They told stories of nature without personifying it. You just need to experience them to appreciate them. And then you'll find more stories like these in the Story Hour Nature (S7) online library.

For your youngest children, familiarize yourself with the Thornton Burgess nature books as well as Clara Dillingham Pierce's books found in the Story Hour (S7) online library. Children will be given impressions of nature while being instilled with great moral truths.

There are 8 books devoted to different topics in nature in our Nature, Art, and Music Series: Stars, Ocean, Rocks, Plants, Insects, Birds, and Animals. There is also a book devoted to gardening for children. It teaches children how to grow a flower garden, starting with a little plot of dirt and a few simple tools. It also includes year-round activities. Tending a little flower garden of their own will teach them more than all the books in the library when children are young. The book will help them start planning their garden in January so they'll be ready to go when the ground warms up.

When I could find them and it applied, I opened the books with stories of mothers caring for their babies -- building their homes, feeding them, etc., which is a great place to start with little children in the Familiar years. Then I tried to find a  story that would appeal to a child around 6 or 7 years old and then included something for a little older child.

As they hear these stories, they will have all kinds of things to watch for while they're out exploring nature. The stories will help give them 'eyes to see.'

I love these old books because they almost always tie the stories back to a sense of reverence for the Creator and include gems of wisdom.

Classic reads:

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Gifts From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (This reading is especially for moms.)

Movie: The Secret Garden

Drawing from Nature:

Learning to draw from nature is extremely important in learning to 'see.' As was said in an 1880 art text for children, "Why do we wish to learn to draw? ... In order to develop in us those nobler faculties which God has given for the appreciation of His works in nature..."

"Drawing produces an exactness of thought."

I hear a lot of moms say they can't draw. But that's not true. Everyone who can write can be taught to draw and in the process of drawing, we retain much more of what we can see. We notice details and colors that we may have been completely unaware of before.

I'm hoping there will be suggestions in our group this month of drawing programs you have liked. Drawing starts with noticing shapes. The Draw Write Series is simple enough to use with very young children.

Use the highest quality of drawing and painting materials you can afford. Prismacolor colored pencils are vibrant and have a wide range of colors. But learning to paint with watercolors will enable you to capture all the subtle differences of hues of what you are seeing in nature.

Draw Write Now Series

John Muir Laws -- He has a lot of free videos online and uses watercolor. Not only does he break it all down into manageable steps, you can tell he loves what he does.

Here are some free online drawing books from a more advanced point of view:

• Draw Fifty Flowers, Trees and Other Plants 1
• Pencil Sketching From Nature
• Handbook of Drawing by William Walker (1880) -- You may not have time to go through the whole book yet, but I recommend taking time to read the first pages discussion of why learning to draw matters.
• How Children Learn to Draw

Prismacolor colored pencils

Portable watercolor set with water in the brush handle

Notebooking and Journals:

The suggestions I make for nature notebooking and journaling, etc., are merely suggestions. They're what are working for me right now. They may not work for you.

The Nature Journal is portable. It's emotional. I'm trying to capture what I see. It may be a detailed drawing of a leaf or an entire scene. It's sprinkle with quotes and scriptures and poetry.

Although I'm nowhere near it, here's what I'm aiming for ... someday!: The Country Diary of and Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. If you google it, you can see some online images. Or you can buy the book on Amazon or view a 'borrowed' copy at Internet Archive.

I'm sure mine will end up being something that looks much differently, but for now, it inspires me.

Don't force your kids to keep a nature journal!! Let them watch you. And then have the materials conveniently ready for them when the inspiration strikes.

Create an 'Our Beautiful World' notebook.

Divider tabs: Stars, Ocean, Rocks, Plants, Insects, Birds, Animals, Human Body

While the Nature Journal is pure emotion and will include sketches from my walks in nature, sprinkled with quotes and poetry (which means it's a portable pad). I'm using my 'Our Beautiful World' notebook to bridge into science. For example, I'm diagramming parts of flowers and drawing constellations and planets of the solar system. I'm also watching for 'gems' of understanding that I'm learning from nature and my reading as wee as fascinating facts or features I want to remember and to watch for when I'm out in Nature.

In my Mother's Notebook section on Nature, I jot down ideas of how to study Nature with kids as well as a place to jot down ideas for resources I come across.