Nature Close Up

 Toddlers automatically look at everything up close and personal, then grow up and forget to look closely at a new bud, a tiny spider web with a drop of dew, or the bugs marching along in the dirt.      I want to look closer now.  Hunter (6) got a nice digital camera for Christmas and truth be told, it is better than my camera. I keep mine because I know how to use it and it has an easy button for the “macro” setting.  I can turn the flash on or off easily too.  I use it to take the close up pictures that I post in this blog.  I like that it will automatically darken or fuzz the background while getting a clear, close up picture with a simple push of the button.  Anyone can be a fantastic photographer these days.        

On one of the Charlotte Mason forums where I am a member, mothers will often write in saying they do not have a yard or their yard has only grass or the park is a long drive away.  Phyllis living in the Ukraine in a polluted, desolate city is able to find birds and other signs of nature.  Phyllis wrote, “If you want to know, I can tell you about the nasty weather, ruined ecology (this is the most industrially polluted region of a very polluted country), druggie syringes littering the ground where we walk. . . but I CHOOSE to lift my eyes above that and see the spectacular yellow orioles that migrate through, the sparrow hawk that has been attracted by our bird feeder, the fresh-water jellyfish that we caught in the summer (did you even know that they exist?!?! I didn’t!), two rabbit sightings and two squirrel sightings, and. . . ”         

By setting our viewfinder to the Macro setting we can fuzz out unpleasant surroundings.  In my case, I need to fuzz out the yard work that needs to be done or the boxes that need to be cut up for recycling.  The physical and mental junk can get in the way of a good nature experience.  I take a few deep breaths of the fresh air, clear my mind, and follow my children.        

         

As we all know, children will play for hours with mud, rocks and sticks.  A small patch will do.  Here are my children playing the driveway near our mini-van.  Nevermind the garden or running in the grass, they are playing in the small puddle.   The net is for oranges, attached to a bent twig with bread ties.  They scooped up a slug and made a dam on the tarp.  Water drains quickly in our soil, so the tarp helps make a river or lake.  For young children, this is simply messy play.  Or is it?  I believe it is nature study because of the observations the child is making whether they verbalize them or not.  Hunter (6) dipped a rock in the water and exclaimed, “Look how the color changes!”  Chandler (3), said “These rocks are for my collection!”      Another way to enjoy nature close up is to get small samples and view them under a blister microscope.  This microscope is sturdy.  Another homeschooling family recommended it.  She told me her children have dropped it a few times and it keeps on working.  With young children, durability is a plus.  The blister packs are a rigid clear plastic and self-sealing.  Just pull the backing, put in the sample, re-seal and it is ready to view.   It works with wet or dry material  and even a few drops of water for viewing something like mosquito larvae.  My kids love using big medicine syringes to suck up standing water.  Of course, there are higher powered microscopes on the market but this one is a great starter microscope.  Microscopes are certainly not a necessity and a magnifying glass will do just as well, especially for very young children.          

Hunter with his new camera.

   

Getting back to the camera idea, Hunter (6) loves using his camera to take pictures on our nature hikes or around the yard.  One hundred years ago, Charlotte Mason recommended using a dry brushing technique for nature journals.  It is a beautiful technique and one that I hope to learn soon.  In the meantime, we are enjoying taking photographs. I will print a few for our nature journals.  Then I will get out the easel and paint from the photograph when I do not have time to sit in nature and paint.  Charlotte Mason wanted children to draw or paint too starting at age 5 or 6 (see excerpt below).  If need be, we will drive to a park or nature preserve for nature studies, take photos and paint at home.  This modern technique accomplishes the original intention, especially when the painting is done in the fresh air.         

Hunter said fairies dry this and use it for bedding.

   

Charlotte Mason said that Nature Journals are the child’s creation, their possession.  They can put whatever they like into it. For gentle influence and guidance, a parent can keep a journal too. Younger children can draw what they see or press flowers and leaves to attach to the pages.   A nature notebook is simple to do.  I think often we make Charlotte Mason’s ideas more complicated because of all her talk about perfection.        

Forget perfection, strive for something personal and enjoyable.       ~Cori      

     

Charlotte Mason’s thoughts from Outdoor Life in Volume 1 for children ages 5 or 6 and up:           

Calendars.––It is a capital plan for the children to keep a calendar––the first oak-leaf, the first tadpole, the first cowslip, the first catkin, the first ripe blackberries, where seen, and when. The next year they will know when and where to look out for their favourites, and will, every year, be in a condition to add new observations. Think of the zest and interest, the object, which such a practice will give to daily walks and little excursions. There is hardly a day when some friend may not be expected to hold a first ‘At Home.’            

Nature Diaries.––As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child. Every day’s walk gives him something to enter: three squirrels in a larch tree, a jay flying across such a field, a caterpillar climbing up a nettle, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider dropping suddenly to the ground, where he found ground ivy, how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, how bindweed or ivy manages to climb.            

vol 1 pg 55            

Innumerable matters to record occur to the intelligent child. While he is quite young (five or six), he should begin to illustrate his notes freely with brush drawings; he should have a little help at first in mixing colours, in the way of principles, not directions. He should not be told to use now this and now that, but, ‘we get purple by mixing so and so,’ and then he should be left to himself to get the right tint. As for drawing, instruction has no doubt its time and place; but his nature diary should be left to his own initiative. A child of six will produce a dandelion, poppy, daisy, iris, with its leaves, impelled by the desire to represent what he sees, with surprising vigour and correctness.            

An exercise book with stiff covers serves for a nature diary, but care is necessary in choosing paper that answers both for writing and brush drawing.            

Handbook of Nature Study, Page 13:            

THE FIELD NOTEBOOK
A field notebook may be made a joy
to the pupil and a help to the teacher.
Any kind of blank book will do for this,
except that it should not be too large to
be carried in the pocket, and it should
always have the pencil attached. To make
the notebook a success the following rules
should be observed:
(a) The book should be considered
the personal property of the child and
should never be criticized by the teacher
except as a matter of encouragement; for
the spirit in which the notes are made is
more important than the information
they cover.
(b) The making of drawings to illustrate
what is observed should be encouraged.
A graphic drawing is far better than
a long description of a natural object.
(c) The notebook should not be regarded
as a part of the work in English.
The spelling, language, and writing of the
notes should all be exempt from criticism.
(d) As occasion offers, outlines for observing
certain plants or animals may be
placed in the notebook previous to the
field excursion so as to give definite points
for the work.
(e) No child should be compelled to
have a notebook.
The field notebook is a veritable gold
mine for the nature-study teacher to work.
in securing voluntary and happy observations
from the pupils concerning their
out-of-door interests. It is a friendly gate
which admits the teacher to a knowledge
of what the child sees and cares for.
Through it she may discover where the
child’s attention impinges upon the
realm of nature and thus may know
where to find the starting point for cultivating
larger intelligence and wider interest.
I have examined many field notebooks
kept by pupils in the intermediate grades
and have been surprised at their plenitude
of accurate observation and graphic
illustration. These books ranged from
blank account books furnished by the
family grocer up to a quarto, the pages of
which were adorned with many marginal
illustrations made in passionate admiration
of Thompson Seton’s books and
filled with carefully transcribed text that
showed the direct influence of Thoreau.
These books, of whatever quality, are precious
beyond price to their owners. And
why not? For they represent what cannot
be bought or sold, personal experience in
the happy world of out-of-doors.