Last week I wrote a blog for Charlotte Mason Institute called Natural History: Implementing Special Studies.
My goal was to show how special studies can make your nature walks so much more fruitful, without the need to “teach” during them.
“So, how do we balance these two ends of the spectrum? On one side we are advised to aim for a relaxed, child-led nature study time, but on the other end, we need to know that they actually are amassing a store of natural history knowledge. Thankfully, special studies bring the two into balance beautifully.“
In the post I included guidelines for how to pick a special study, and then how to follow through with it. I hope you will take a few minutes to read it, and I hope you are encouraged.
Related:
To Use the Scientific Method is Natural
To Experiment is Natural
Anticipation of Nature
Out-Of-Door Life – An Outline (for your under 10 crowd)
This was so helpful, Nicole! I've come back to it several times. Thank you so much—Betty (using my daughter's Google account).
100 % agree with that special studies can make my nature walks so much more fruitful and I hope most of the preschooler, homeschool get advantages from this blog. Thanks and hope will come again to know something new about nature.
The link to the blog post no longer works. Can I access the article somewhere else? Thank you.
I couldn’t find it anywhere, even on Way Back Machine or in my own documents! So I wrote a new article. Two actually. Nature Study: Special Study is everything you need to know about special studies, and A Special Study: Let’s Learn About Mushrooms is a look at my first Special Study.
The link is no longer working.
Sorry, just noticed the above comment and reply.