This goat homeschool nature study is packed with fun from fainting goats to advanced mammal studies! Bring the Handbook of Nature Study to Life in your homeschool! Here’s a peek at what you can expect to enjoy in this Outdoor Hour Challenge for Homeschool Nature Study members.
Goat Homeschool Nature Study
A funny video on fainting goats to catch your children’s attention
Handbook of Nature Study reference pages, Outdoor Hour time and follow up journal suggestions
Printables for your goat study in your Spring Outdoor Hour Challenge Curriculum
Burgess Book of Animals pages to read aloud.
Learn what is a mammal?
Online links to view goats
Advanced students: the history of goats, study on breeds of goats, the digestive system (Goats are ruminant animals – animals with four stomachs)
How to draw a goat
Virtual Field Trip to Learn About Goats
For a fun virtual field trip, be sure to follow all the goat adventures with Accidental Country Folk. Jodi shares more than goats – including a fancy chicken named Ms. Frizzle on Instagram too!
The Ultimate Guide to Mammals Study Using the Outdoor Hour Challenges
You can enjoy a simple mammals homeschool nature study with these resources we have gathered for you to use in your own backyard. It is such a delight to study and learn about these beautiful creatures! Go to The Ultimate Guide to Mammals Study Using the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
NOTE: All of the mammals homeschool nature study resources listed are available as an Outdoor Hour Challenge in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. If you have a membership, you will be able to pull up the Outdoor Hour Challenge curriculum and print any notebook pages, coloring pages, or other printables for your mammals nature study.
Visit our website to find an affordable membership option that suits you. Why not give membership a try for a month and go from there. We would love to have you along for the adventure!
This earthworm homeschool nature study is packed with great learning for all ages and even includes advanced invertebrate studies! Bring the Handbook of Nature Study to Life in your homeschool! Here’s a peek at what you can expect to enjoy in this Outdoor Hour Challenge for Homeschool Nature Study members.
Earthworms Homeschool Nature Study: Invertebrates
“Any garden furnishes abundant material for the study of earthworms. They are nocturnal workers and may be observed by lantern or flashlight….For the study of the individual worm and its movements, each pupil should have a worm with some earth upon his desk.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 424
Take 15 minutes of your outdoor hour time to find a place in your yard to dig for worms. If you have a garden or flower bed, you may be successful in finding earthworms just a few inches down in the soil. Use some of the suggested activities from the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study to carefully observe your earthworms.
This earthworms homeschool nature study for our members includes:
Handbook of Nature Study references and indoor preparation time
Suggestions and questions for your Outdoor Hour Time
A list of questions to ask during your earthworm nature study time
Follow up activity for your nature journal
Members will find the full homeschool nature study in the Spring with Art and Music Appreciation Outdoor Hour course and curriculum.
You can use the notebook page provided with Spring with Art and Music Appreciation course or your own blank nature journal to record you observations and sketches. Don’t forget to sketch and label your earthworm.
Visit our website to find an affordable membership option that suits you. Why not give membership a try for a month and go from there. We would love to have you along for the adventure!
We are excited to get started on this first day of spring with simple ways to study nature and a fresh set of homeschool nature study ideas. It hardly seems possible that we are at the beginning of another spring season but here we go! We look forward to another season of encouraging nature study. Have fun and get outdoors with your children!
First Day of Spring: Simple Ways to Study Naturein Your Homeschool
Inside Preparation Work 1. If you have not read pages 23-24 (How to Use This Book) in the Handbook of Nature Study, please read it now. In addition, read the section on The Field Excursion on page 15. Highlight interesting sections as reminders. 2. Prepare your children for your outdoor time by explaining the purpose. For this challenge, use the ideas from Outdoor Hour Challenge #2—Using Your Words in our FREE Getting Started Homeschool Nature Study Guide which is take a short walk in your yard or neighborhood and then come back inside and record words to describe your experience.
Spring Splendor Nature Walk Ideas
Homeschool Nature Study Members: Before beginning this series of challenges, use the Spring Splendor Notebook Page (Challenge on page 8 of your Spring Nature Study Curriculum and notebook page linked there as well) to build enthusiasm for the spring series of nature study. Keep the page in the front of your nature journal as a reminder of the three questions you hope to answer and the three activities you hope to accomplish.
Outdoor Hour Homeschool Nature Study Time
1. Enjoy some time outdoors this week as part of this challenge, including a few minutes of quiet observation if possible. Observe what early spring looks like in your neighborhood. Use all your senses. If you have young children, taking a walk and enjoying the season is the main point. You can work on adding words as your child gains confidence in nature study. 2. Homeschool Nature Study Members: Use the Spring Nature Walk Worksheet notebook page if you want more structure to your time outdoors. 3. Collect an item to sketch into your nature journal, perhaps a leaf or a flower. 4. Advanced Study: Take photos of spring flowers, birds, trees, leaves, or other objects you see during your outdoor time. Try taking photos from different angles and up close.
Follow-Up Activity
1. Use the Spring Splendor notebook page (Homeschool Nature Study Members) or your nature journal to record your time outdoors, including the prompts for descriptive words. You can brainstorm words with your children if they have trouble. Sketch or watercolor your spring scene in your nature journal or onto your notebook page. 2. Advanced Follow-Up: Make a slideshow with the images you took of your spring splendor walk. You can also print the images and include them in your nature journal. 3. Homeschool Nature Study Members: Optional coloring pages: Spring Woods 1 and Spring Woods 2.
More Spring Homeschool Nature Study
You might also like these simple ways to study nature in your homeschool!
Outdoor Hour Challenges with Homeschool Nature Study
If you enjoy any of these first day of spring nature study ideas, please share with us! Take a photo, share on social media and tag @outdoorhourchallenge on Instagram and use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge – we would love to see and to comment!
Homeschool Nature Study Membership for Year Round Support
Can you believe all of these spring homeschool resources you will find in membership? You will also find a continuing homeschool nature study series plus all the Outdoor Hour Challenges for nature study in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. There are 25+ continuing courses with matching Outdoor Hour curriculum that will bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! In addition, there is an interactive monthly calendar with daily nature study prompt – all at your fingertips!
Just how do you enjoy a Charlotte Mason nature study for your homeschool? Let’s look at some advice from Charlotte Mason herself and apply it in a simple way to our own outdoor times.
“One afternoon a week, the students in our ‘Practicing School’ [taught by the student teachers at Charlotte Mason’s teacher’s college] go for a ‘nature walk’ with their teacher. They notice things by themselves, and the teacher tells them the name or gives other information only if they ask for it.”
“The teachers are careful not to turn these nature walks into an opportunity to give science lessons, because they want the children’s attention to be focused on their own observations.”
“They’re allowed to notice things with very little direction from the teacher. By doing this, children accumulate a good collection of ‘common knowledge.’ ”
-Charlotte Mason
“Even more important, students learn to know and take pleasure in objects from nature like they do in the familiar faces of friends.”
-Charlotte Mason
Nature Study in Your Own Backyard
I have certainly given my share of “science lessons” during our nature walks and nature time. I am getting better about letting the children direct me to what they are curious about. I see the wisdom in allowing them to explore and learn in a way that makes sense to them, but I can be available to assist them with questions they might have. I am pretty comfortable with telling them that I don’t know the answer to their question and then find someone or some resource that does have the answer.
“The nature walk shouldn’t be used as a chance to dispense miscellaneous tidbits of scientific facts.”
-Charlotte Mason
These principles are the same whether your nature study takes place in your backyard, on the trail, or during some other nature study outing. As the parent, you set the mood. If you quietly observe your children, you will see what they are drawn to learn more about without much effort.
Try it the next time you are having your outdoor time.
Charlotte Mason Style Exam Questions for Homeschool High School
Several of the courses included in Homeschool Nature Study membership include Charlotte Mason style exam questions for advanced students. Author Barb McCoy says, “This series has proved to be a huge success in our family, helping to bring nature study up to a level for my teens. Also, I saw families with large age ranges of children completing the challenges together, each on their own level and enjoying it.”
You can feel free to pick and choose which questions you will give your homeschool high school student according to their interest and abilities.
You can successfully continue nature study with your teenagers. They may need some encouragement to make the study their own by adjusting your subjects, your methods of follow-up, and your attitude towards what nature study should look like.
More Resources for Charlotte Mason Nature Study Time
Join The Homeschool Nature Study Membership for Year Round Support
You will find hundreds of Charlotte Mason style homeschool nature studies plus all the Outdoor Hour Challenges in our Homeschool Nature Study membership. There are 25+ continuing courses with matching Outdoor Hour curriculum that will bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! In addition, there is an interactive monthly calendar with daily nature study prompt – all at your fingertips!
Here you will find the best nature study resources plus year round support for your homeschool family! With this Ultimate Guide to Nature Study Resources at your fingertips, you will have all the beautiful benefits of nature study in your homeschool plus tips and ideas for getting started.
“Out-of-door life takes a child afield and keeps him in the open air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his mind with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief. It is not only during childhood that this is true, for love of nature counts much forsanity in later life.” -Handbook of Nature Study, page 2
The Benefits Of Nature Study In Your Homeschool
“In studying nature close to home, our children will learn to observe, to write about their experiences, to draw their treasures, to be patient, to imagine, and to explore. You don’t need a special textbook or kit to get started.
A nature walk can stimulate our child’s senses and their inborn desire to ask questions. One bird, one tree, one wildflower or garden flower at a time, our children will learn about their own world and neighborhood.
Whether your “outdoors” is a park, a few square feet of dirt, or an acre of forest, every child has the opportunity to be exposed to some kind of natural environment. If you live in a high-rise apartment or the weather is too frigid or too hot to be outside, bring nature to you in the form of a potted plant, a fish tank, or a collection of natural objects brought in from your time spent outdoors.
Anna Botsford Comstock in her book Handbook of Nature Study puts her thoughts this way, “Nature study is for the comprehension of the individual life of the bird, insect, or plant that is nearest at hand.” My eyes are wide open at all times to find ways to bring nature closer to our family.” – founder Barb McCoy
“The ability to group things together by type and find differences is one of the higher orders of intellect, and every opportunity to use it first-hand should be encouraged.” -Charlotte Mason, vol 1, page 64
Tips For Getting Started With Homeschool Nature Study
“In nature-study the work begins with any plant or creature which chances to interest the pupil.” –Handbook of Nature Study
Enjoy your time outdoors together and don’t spend your time lecturing or even talking very much at all. Here are some encouraging topics to consider:
The Best Resources For Nature Study In Your Homeschool
You truly do not need many resources to enjoy nature study in your homeschool. Here at Homeschool Nature Study we suggest:
Outdoor Hour Challenges
The Handbook of Nature Study book
Homeschool Nature Study Membership
Outdoor Hour Challenges for Your Homeschool
Just how do you get started in homeschool nature study? How do families participate in the Outdoor Hour Challenges? It is so simple to get started and we will show you how. Grab one of our best nature study resources with our free Homeschool Nature Study Guide and discover the joys of nature study in your homeschool.
Get Your Free Getting Started in Homeschool Nature Study Guide
Includes 10 Outdoor Hour Challenges to start with in your homeschool plus:
General Instructions for Getting Started
A list of the very few materials and resources needed
Corresponding custom notebook pages to use in your nature journal for each challenge
Each Outdoor Hour Challenge Has Three Parts:
inside preparation work, outdoor time, and then a follow up activity. You can complete all or part of each challenge as you go along. Each challenge is written so you can adapt it to your own backyard or local area. Use the ideas as a way to get started with simple weekly nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.
“…the mother must not miss the opportunity of being outdoors to train the children to have seeing eyes, hearing ears and seeds of truth deposited into their minds to grow and blossom on their own in the secret chambers of their imaginations.” –Handbook of Nature Study, Page 17
“It is a mistake to think that a half day is necessary for a field lesson, since a very efficient field trip may be made during the ten or fifteen minutes at recess, if it is well planned.”
This is probably the single most useful aspect of this book. In the beginning I was stumbled by the fact that this giant book didn’t have many of the creatures in it that I wanted to study. I was trying to use it as a field guide and then as an encyclopedia….it just isn’t meant to be either of those things.
The Handbook of Nature Study does have many specific creatures to study, broken down into categories. You can look them up either in the table of contents or in the index. If you find that the specific creature you are looking for is not listed, you can turn to the introductory pages for the category.
Homeschool Nature Study Year Round Support with Membership
Bring the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool! We invite you to join us in nature study with the Outdoor Hour Challenges and Homeschool Nature Study Membership.
“Adults should realize that the most valuable thing children can learn is what they discover themselves about the world they live in. Once they experience first-hand the wonder of nature, they will want to make nature observation a life-long habit. All people are supposed to be observers of nature and there’s no excuse for living in a world so full of amazing plants and animals and not be interested in them.” -Charlotte Mason, vol 1, page 61
This winter homeschool nature study curriculum contains all the nature study Outdoor Hour Challenges, custom notebook pages for nature study as well as art and music appreciation, and three months’ worth of art and music appreciation.
Writing this winter homeschool nature study curriculum has helped us appreciate the winter season more than we ever have before. Part of our enthusiasm has come from spending more time outdoors bundled up with our families exploring the winter landscape.
Winter changes our normal view of things by emptying the trees of their leaves and covering the ground in thin or thick blankets of snow. The colors of winter are more vivid and the sky seems more brilliantly blue at times with its puffs of white clouds dotting the horizon.
The season of cold can bring surprising nature study subjects your way and if you are open and aware of these opportunities, you will soon find yourself loving or at least appreciating this winter season.
Our sincere wish is that this book will help your family find some joy in winter homeschool nature study. In addition to nature study, this curriculum offers you a chance to include some winter artist study and music appreciation as well. Give everything a chance and see what happens!
With much joy,
Homeschool Nature Study Team, Home of the Outdoor Hour Challenge
Winter Homeschool Nature with Art and Music Appreciation is available in membership, along with access to 26+ Outdoor Hour Challenge Homeschool Curriculum and courses, weekly Outdoor Hour Challenges, a monthly nature calendar with daily nature study prompts and more!
The Winter Homeschool Nature Study for Members Includes:
You will have a complete plan at your fingertips for your spring nature study, art appreciation, and music study. You will need to have the Handbook of Nature Study in order to complete the nature study challenges. All of the art prints are included in the curriculum and there are links to viewing them online as well.
10 Outdoor Hour Challenges – All the Outdoor Hour Challenges in this curriculum are based on the Handbook of Nature Study and include page numbers and suggested learning observations. More about the Handbook of Nature Study, here.
10 Outdoor Hour Challenge notebook pages and nature journal suggestions.
3 months’ worth of art and music appreciation- 3 composers and 3 artists with links, prints to view, coordinating projects, a coloring page, and notebook pages. More on our sister site and the Homeschool Fine Arts curriculum, here.
Links for further enrichment for each Outdoor Hour Challenge, artist study, and composer study.
Complete list of resources and instructions to get started with your winter study.
Topics Include: winter cattail study, tree study, sky, weather, pine tree, salt study, winter bird, small square study, early spring flower, signs of spring walk
Nature Study Outdoor Hour Challenge Homeschool Curriculum Included
Each challenge has three parts: inside preparation work, outdoor time, and then a follow up activity. You can complete all or part of each challenge as you go along. Each challenge is written so you can adapt it to your own backyard or local area. Use the ideas as a way to get started with simple weekly nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study. Some of the challenges include pages to read from the Discover Nature in Winter book.
Winter Series Art Appreciation Curriculum Included
Each month there is a suggested piece of artwork to study with your family. You can view the print on your computer, print out the page from the curriculum, or you can follow the provided link to see the artwork in a larger format. Plans for viewing, studying, and then completing a follow up piece of artwork are included with each painting.
Music Appreciation Homeschool Curriculum Included
To enhance your winter nature study, this curriculum includes a suggested piece of music for your family to listen to each month. The plans for each composer include links to biographies, links to listen to the music online, suggestions for CDs to purchase, and plans for completing your music appreciation studies. Each month has a suggested art activity to go along with the musical selection as well.
We have aimed to keep these challenges and studies as simple as possible with very few additional resources needed.
Spring is a wonderful beginning, so take advantage of the opportunity and season with this guide to spring nature study in your homeschool.
Getting outside with our children can be the sanity saving activity we all need. As spring approaches, have you considered adding a little nature study into your weekly routine? I’ve heard from families that they were reluctant to start a nature study plan, stating that they thought it would restrict their freedom to focus on one topic. But, they found that having a focus each week actually helped them to stay regular at getting outside and it helped them be better at taking a few minutes to learn about an object they encountered, even if it wasn’t the original aim for getting outdoors.
Guide to Spring Nature Study in YourHomeschool
Here are some ideas from year-long nature study topics that we have hosted with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. All of these are available in Homeschool Nature Study Membership.
Spring Weather Observations
Spring Splendor Walk – spring nature walk scavenger hunt
Signs of Spring – Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Bird Observations
Seasonal Cattail Study
Seasonal Milkweed Study
Year-Long Pond Study
Year-Long Queen Anne’s Lace Study
Burdock Study – start a year-long study
You may wish to start a new year-long study this spring using some of the ideas above.
Spring is a fantastic time to start a season of nature study. Please see the offerings listed below along with their specific topics. Consider working through a course in our membership or you can pick and choose subjects from any of the courses. Without a lot of extra effort, you can customize your spring nature study by picking your favorite topics from any of the courses listed. Or you can follow the wonderful Nature Study Plan that your Outdoor Hour Challenge hostess, Shirley Ann Vels, has put together for you. There is a brand new Outdoor Hour Challenge for our members each Friday!
Spring With Handbook of Nature Study Curriculum
Did you know this course also contains art and music appreciation? Here is a sampling of the Outdoor Hour Challenges you will find.
Spring Peepers
Jack in the Pulpit
Yellow Ladies Slipper/Yellow Adder’s Tongue
Trillium
Bluets
May Apple
Newt
Petunias
Geranium
Nasturtiums
Black Swallowtail
Crayfish
Mountain Laurel
More Nature Study Outdoor Hour Challenges – Spring SplendorHandbook of Nature Study Curriculum
Spring Series Course and Outdoor Hour Challengesfor Your Homeschool
Signs of Spring-Bonus challenge
Maple Tree Observation Sheet
#1 Year-Long Tree Study
#2 Spring Weather Observations
#3 Spring Bird Study
#4 Spring Wildflower Study-Dandelions
#5 Spring Cattail Observations
#6 Apple Tree Study
#7 Cats
#8 Snakes
#9 Earthworms
#10 Ants
The Garden Flower and Plant Course and Handbook of Nature Study Curriculumfor Homeschool
#12 Focus on Garden Flowers – Seeds
#13 Garden Flowers – Flower Parts
#14 Garden Flowers – Pressing Flowers
#15 Garden Flowers – How To Draw A Flower
#16 Garden Flowers – Sunflowers
#17 Garden Flowers – Collecting Leaves
#18 Garden Flowers – Pollen
#19 Garden Flowers – Seeds and Germination
#29 Sunflowers
#30 Weeds and Seeds
How To Create a Spring Nature Table
Spring is slowly making itself known in our barren gardens, so let’s celebrate this new life by setting up a spring nature table. Pull out your favourite nature study books, clear some space on a table and gather together your collected nature items.
Creating a nature table is very simple and allows so much room for creativity as you are able to add whatever you want to it. You could switch it up weekly inline with what you are studying that week or dedicate it to each season and fill it as we progress through the months. The possibilities are truly endless!
A fun way to expand your homeschool nature studies is with art! You will love this Spring Art Celebration with a theme of All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small. Our sister site has a host of lovely spring art activities for you!
Spring Nature Study With Art and Music Appreciation
You will have a complete plan at your fingertips for your spring nature study, art appreciation, and music study. You will need to have the Handbook of Nature Study in order to complete the nature study challenges. All of the art prints are included in the ebook and there are links to viewing them online as well. There are three featured composers and their music are offered on one CD: Classical Music Start-Up Kit Volume Two. You can choose to purchase this CD for convenience or use the online links to listen to the music suggested in the music appreciation plans. We have aimed to keep these challenges and studies as simple as possible with very few additional resources needed.
