Category Archives: Charlotte Mason Science

5 Year Anniversary!

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On March 11, 2016, five years ago today, I published my first Living Science Study Guide, Form 3-4 Biology. I had spent the previous year preparing a living science curriculum for a public Charlotte Mason-style charter school that needed to satisfy each of its state learning requirements — which was a much bigger job than I could have imagined, but I learned so much. After that immense project, it was suggested that homeschooling parents might be interested in taking advantage of the work I was doing, and the Living Science Guides were born. Since then, I have completed 21 guides! I still have 7 more to go, and then I will be finished with the entire curriculum. It also has been a much bigger job than I expected, but it has been a great joy.

My hope for this curriculum is that children would come to LOVE science! Science is an extension of nature, after all. It’s just a deeper look at God’s created world. So why should we present it to our children in a way that makes them hate it? I want them to look forward to their science lessons. I want them to marvel at God’s handiwork. I want them to practice thinking about what they learn so that they will be adept at thinking and decerning what is right as adults. These might be high hopes, but Charlotte Mason discovered the natural way to learn science, and I think if we follow her methods for teaching it, we can aim for these lofty goals.

Of course, all of this could never be hoped for without all of you! In the last five years, you have purchased more than 12,000 study guides! So it is with sincere thanksgiving that I celebrate this anniversary with you.

To celebrate I am giving away the following bundle:

To enter, fill out this form. Be sure to tell your friends also!

The Lists

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In Form 3 (grades 7-8,) a new Natural History assignment appeared on the PNEU programmes. While in Forms 1 and 2 students were simply told to “Keep a nature notebook,” now in Form 3, they were instructed to keep a “Nature Notebook with flower, bird and insect lists, & make daily notes.”

“The Lists” as they were commonly referred to, were described by G. M. Bernau in this way:

The children should also keep a flower list, i.e., a diary of when each flower has been first seen in the year; a tree list, saying when each tree comes into leaf and flower; a bird list, stating when a bird is first seen, etc. (PR 4, p. 605)

Some students also kept lists of mosses, lichens, fossils, animals, and birds’ nesting dates, such as “the dates when the song was first heard, nest building began, eggs were laid and hatched, nestlings took flight.” (Drury, PR 24, p. 188)

Each list item included the common name of the specimen and also the scientific name. Alfred Thornley, an examiner of the House of Education student-teacher nature notebooks, exclaimed in his 1926 yearly report: “The searching out of the scientific names is a good discipline which helps to promote more exact observations, and to systematise them. Let us have scientific names please!” (PR 37, p. 137) Agnes Drury, Natural History teacher for the House of Education, explained further, that the use of Latin names shows the relationship between species where English names cannot.  Continue reading →

A Brush Drawing Tutorial

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Making a nature notebook painting is easier than making an imaginative painting because it is simply a question of copying what you see before you. Painting from a photograph, however, is not ideal, as photos do not provide an accurate record of true-to-life colors. Therefore, whenever possible, paint specimens that you can look at directly.

To prepare, tape your specimen to a piece of white paper that is preferably the same size as your notebook. Attempt to arrange it in a way that looks natural. Hopefully, you spent time looking at it carefully before you picked it and can now place it in a position that makes sense. Alternatively, you may leave your specimen in a vase. I sometimes use a small espresso cup with a folded paper towel inside to guide the specimen into its most natural position while preventing the flower petals from being pressed into an irregular position. Even with this arrangement, you still need a white background behind your specimen, as its precise color is better seen in this way, and it limits the distraction from other objects.

Next, prop your paper with the specimen against a picture frame or a book or tape it to a wall so that it is a few feet from you. I often place my specimen on the far side of the table I’m sitting at. Take a moment to observe it again. You’ll notice that you cannot see all the details from this distance so you will be forced to focus on the obvious attributes rather than the minute details. Continue reading →