Nature Walks, Excursions, and Rambles – part 2

In part one of this article, we began looking at how parents and teachers can lead a nature walk so that “satisfactory intellectual results” are encouraged. (Hart, PR 15, p. 936) One valuable tool toward this end is to have a goal for each nature walk. In the article “Nature Study in the Home,” Alfred Thorney said, “Before the walk commences it is a better plan to have some definite aim to propose to the children; for example, that they should note how many different kinds of flowers they will find in their walk ; how many different kinds of birds they will see, etc.” (PR 19, p. 726)

Having an aim motivates the children by mimicking a treasure hunt. It also prompts them to look more diligently for the object, which may mean covering less ground, but sometimes that is in order. The children must also look more closely at the things they have found. Two little purple flowers may be counted as the same if they don’t look closely enough, especially before we are familiar with each of them. When the goal is to find a quantity of something, such as wildflowers or mushrooms, I frequently use the camera on my phone to track our progress and can later report how many different species we found.

The inspiration for these aims can be found in a variety of places. To start with, you might have noticed something on your last walk or even while you were out running errands, that you want to look for with purpose on your next nature walk. Suppose you saw a few mushrooms on your last nature walk, so next time you instruct the kids to find as many different kinds of mushrooms as possible. Maybe you heard the spring peepers as you drove by the pond, so this week you tell the kids that your nature walk will include a search for frogs’ eggs. Alternatively, that same sound may prompt a ‘listening’ walk where you and your kids note the different sounds you hear. It would be interesting to go to another location the following week to compare the sounds you hear there.

Another place to look for inspiration is in your kids’ nature lore books. At the end of each chapter of Arabella Buckley’s Eye and No Eyes series, the author prompts you to look for something that was mentioned. For example, at the end of Chapter 2 of Plant Life in Fields and Garden, which explains the “Work Done by Leaves,” you are directed to “Gather six plants with different shaped leaves and notice how they grow upon the stem.” (p. 8) This would make an excellent aim for a nature walk.

Other chapters may require some creative adjustment, but they still give ideas for an aim. For instance, Chapter 4 of the same book, tells “How Plants Defend Themselves.” The text explains that grazing animals, such as cows and horses, avoid certain plants. The instruction at the end of the chapter is to “Bring in sun-spurge, campion or catch-fly, wood-sorrel, bracken, teasel, and wild geranium.” (p. 43) Those names may seem foreign to you, and therefore finding them might be a problem, but perhaps you can arrange a walk through a pasture where animals are grazing to notice which plants have been left untouched. Alternately, you may aim to look at a variety of plants on your next walk to consider the different ways they defend themselves. Is it prickly? Do you know to avoid it because it will cause a rash, such as poison oak or poison ivy?

Dallas Lore Sharp’s books, named for the seasons, give similar ideas of things to see, things to hear, and things to do during each season. William Furneaux’s book, A Nature Guide, includes over 200 pages of ideas organized by season and then further by plant life, animal life, and physical studies. With a little research, you may even find a book about your local area, such as the series Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year: A Month by Month Guide to Natural Events.

Joy Cherrick, the author of the Nature Study Hacking series, gives the advice that we “find something to go ‘check on’ each day or each week.” We can check on the back pasture, check on our favorite trail, check on a nearby pond, etc. I love this advice because it makes it less about us. If we decide whether to take a walk based on how we feel that day, it’s likely it won’t happen as often as it should. But if we know some time has passed since we last checked on the pond or our favorite trail, we will be more motivated to get out there. After discovering Solomon’s Lily growing on a trail nearby, I made an effort to go back several times, just to see it as many times as possible before it died back. I’ve also been checking on a trail near my house a couple of times a week lately because I find new spring flowers every time. While I’m there, I have been checking on the Buckeye seedlings. There were many seeds taking root last month, but two weeks of little rain killed most of them.

Lastly, if your kids are making a Special Study about a particular thing, you could take a nature walk with the aim of finding that thing, to observe in its natural environment or to bring it back to put in an aquarium or terrarium.

Of course, a walk with a goal does not mean you will ignore any other interesting thing you and the kids see. Furneaux’s gives a clear example of how this is balanced in A Nature Guide:

Every school ramble must be arranged with some definite object in view, otherwise much valuable time may be lost in aimless wanderings and disconnected observations. Although we lay this down as a fixed rule, we do not, of course, wish it to be understood that objects of interest which lie outside the range of the proposed work are to be ignored. While we have determined on a particular series of observations, all related to some definite portion of our subject matter, we must be careful that we do not suppress the individual enthusiasm of the children; but, at the same time, we must be equally careful that the object of the ramble is properly carried out.

Thus, if we go out, on a certain day in spring, for the express purpose of studying the bursting of the buds and the folding and unfolding of the young leaves, we ramble from tree to tree in the course of our work; but as we pass from point to point in our journey, neither teacher nor child will close his eyes to the many interesting objects that thrust themselves on their view. During these intervals we note the early spring flowers—how and where they grow, observe the first butterfly of the season as it flies across our path, watch the queen bumble-bee as she searches out a suitable spot for her nest after a long winter’s sleep, and pause to look at the little lizard as it basks in the warm rays of the sun. So, at the end of the ramble we shall have carried out our object as regards the bursting buds, and also learnt much concerning other interesting things. (Ch 3)

Notice that while we must provide direction, this is still all very casual and flexible. You may cover a great distance on one walk, and then only go 100-yards on another. Sometimes your goal will be definite, such as looking for caterpillars, and other times you will be just checking out what is new in an area. Periodically you will take a moment to direct your children’s attention by way of a few questions, such as how is this purple flower different from the one we saw earlier, how many petals does it have, and how are the leaves organized. But most often you will simply join your children as a fellow interested observer.

In my last article, I said that there is not a right way or a wrong way to lead; however, there are a few boundaries that you must respect. First, it is vital to recognize how you should handle your new found knowledge of natural things. Miss Downton explained in her paper, “The Approach to Nature Study”:

The part of the parent or teacher in the actual teaching to children of Nature Study is a very difficult and delicate one. The position is more that of a guide than of an actual teacher, for she must be so careful not to impose her personality on that of the child. This is, of course, important in all branches of teaching, but especially in Nature Study, because I am convinced that each child, once brought into contact with the natural world, adopts his or her individual method of study. An enthusiastic teacher bursting with ideas and suggestions, unless she is very careful, will interrupt or break this train of study, with perhaps fatal results. At the same time, indifference or repugnance on the part of either parent or teacher may kill a child’s newly-awakened interest just as surely as love and enthusiasm will stimulate and arouse interest where perhaps very little or none is in the child. (PR 42, pp. 334-335, emphasis mine.)

The natural world can be fascinating, and I often meet moms whose enthusiasm is bubbling over. But we must find just the right balance between arousing wonder and curiosity and getting in the way of our kids’ personal connection to nature. We must heed Charlotte Mason’s warning: “The teachers are careful not to make these nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction, as we wish the children’s attention to be given to observation with very little direction.” (vol. 3, p. 237) There is an art to directing and inspiring while still allowing the children to make discoveries for themselves. It will take practice, and it will look different for every family, but I trust that you will find the right balance.

Another limit is one that you might take issue with…OR you might find it a great relief as many parents have reported to me! Charlotte Mason’s students did not carry their notebooks into the field. It’s important to remember the purpose and focus of a nature walk. If we set off with a goal, as my daughter and I did yesterday, to find out how many new wildflowers are in bloom since our walk last week, (ten by the way!), we will generally need to keep moving. A nature walk, by definition, will keep you in motion. Of course, most of us have experienced a nature walk that barely moved beyond the parking lot because so many interesting things were found, but the keynote there is that ‘so many interesting things were found’! A nature walk means that we continue to look at many things, rather than spending our time looking at one thing to the neglect of the rest.

Let me be clear, painting nature is something I do as a hobby, so occasionally I can be found outside with my nature notebook. (I will admit, however, that the last time included a fiasco with a dog and sand and a certain number of paints that were lost forever.) Being an amateur field naturalist or artist who works en plein air, is not a bad thing, of course. However, I firmly believe that this is not something we should impose on our children. Not only is it strategically challenging, but it causes them to lose focus on the goal of a nature walk. V. C. Curry said in her article “The Teaching of Nature Study”:

Nature Walks, these are the great times of finding out. One must use them to point out leaf mosaic, plant association, bird song, habitats of plants, habits of growth, but they should also be regarded as times when the children seek for themselves and should be encouraged to go and observe by themselves. (PR 36, p. 534)

I will talk more about nature notebooks in several forthcoming articles, but for now, I want you to understand that having all of your children pack up their nature notebooks and find something to paint alongside the trail wasn’t the norm for Charlotte Mason’s students. Instead, later that day, or even the next, they wrote a narration of what they had seen and sometimes painted a picture of a specimen they had brought back.

However, you must remember that the purpose of a nature walk is not the collection of specimens to paint. Agnes Drury, who was always direct, sometimes painfully so, wrote in her article “Nature Study”: “But we do not go for a nature walk in order to ‘find something to paint.’.” (PR 24, p. 189) That is not to say that you and your children will never bring home something to paint. In fact, one of my favorite lines in the Parents’ Review is from Miss O’Ferrall, an ex-student of the House of Education: “You have no difficulty in recognising a Scale How student if you happen to be staying up at Ambleside, for you are sure to meet her carrying, what may seem to you a few uninteresting looking specimens of flowers or fungi, or examining a weed in a ditch.” (PR 33, p. 785-786) Just be sure that the object of a nature walk remains at the forefront, and that the picking up or plucking of any specimen be done with attention to local laws and thoughtful consideration for the next person passing that way.

I used to think the best nature walks took me in a circle, so I wasn’t covering the same ground twice, but I’ve changed my mind about that for two reasons. First, if I find something I would like to take home to paint, I don’t have to carry it the whole way. Instead, I can choose a specimen on the way home and keep my hands free for the majority of my walk. Second, I don’t always see everything on my first pass through. If you can believe it, I tend to look to my left as I walk down a trail. Because of this, I need to pass by in both directions to see everything! A short time ago, I walked right past the second wildflower of the spring season on my way out and only noticed it on the way back. And I’m telling you, it was brightly colored and not hard to see.

I left it there because it was the only one I saw, but I took careful note of everything I knew to look at. I even photographed it from several angles. When I returned home, I identified it as a Shooting Star, but to know which particular kind it was, meant I needed to know if its basal leaves were hairy. My photographs didn’t help me with this detail, so the next day I marched back down the trail to take a closer look and even to touch the leaves. The return trip enabled me to identify it as a Henderson’s Shooting Star. Thankfully, more than a hundred of them were in bloom the following week, and I felt comfortable taking one home to paint.

There is so much to learn while we are in nature, so much to really know. Downton explained the importance of the knowledge our children gain directly from nature:

In Nature Study we want to ensure that the children are gaining knowledge, not merely acquiring information, for the difference between the two is fundamental. Information might be described as the record of facts, whether in books or the mind of the individual, and it may be received rather passively and without much effort; whereas knowledge implies the result of the voluntary action of the mind to the material presented to it. It is something vital and personal, and presupposes an increase of intellectual aptitude in new directions and, as knowledge is never stationary, a new point of departure. The best way to ensure the child’s gaining of knowledge is to leave him very largely to learn from Nature herself. (PR 47, p. 334)

I hope you will work a nature walk into your weekly agenda — one or maybe even two. Decide on a goal for most of them and watch it increase your children’s interest, motivation, and knowledge. Also, as you walk along with your kids start to notice whether you lean towards being a guide or a teacher and adjust accordingly. I’ll leave you with a beautiful thought from Mr. Thornley:

But I plead most of all for the country walk. The walk’s the thing. In these days of rush typified by cycle and motor car, the country side has become a thing more for measuring the terrific rate we can progress at by means of the engines which we have invented, instead of a glorious opportunity and the priceless privilege of studying the works of the Great Creator, the garments of the Invisible, which fill his beautiful temple the world. (PR 19, p. 729)

Further Resources:

Does Nature Seem Like a Foreign Language to You?
Opening Their Eyes
ADE Episode 20: Nature Study
Nature Study Hacking by Joy Cherrick
Insect Life, Birds of the Air, By Pond and River, Wild Life in Woods and Fields, Plant Life in Field and Garden, Trees and Shrubs by Arabella B. Buckley
Winter, Spring of the Year, Summer, and Fall of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp
A Nature Guide by William Furneaux
Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year: A Month by Month Guide to Natural Events

References:

Buckley, Arabella. Plant Life in Fields and Garden. Yesterday’s Classics, 2008.
Cherrick, Joy. Nature Study Hacking, naturestudyhacking.com.
Curry, V. C. “Teaching of Nature Study.” Parents’ Review, vol. 36, 1925, pp. 529-537.
Downton, M. G. “The Approach to Nature Study.” Parents’ Review, vol. 47, 1936, pp. 333-339.
Drury, Agnes C. “Nature Study.” Parents’ Review, vol. 24, 1913, pp. 187-190.
Mason, Charlotte M. School Education, Vol. 3, 1904.
O’Ferrall, S. M. “The Work and Aims of the Parents’ Union School.” Parents’ Review, vol. 33, 1922, pp. 777-787.
Thornley, Alfred. “Nature Study in the Home.” Parents’ Review, vol. 19, 1908, pp. 721-729

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