May Nature Note

Book : : The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden

I hope that this May Nature Note finds you & your loved ones well during these extremely challenging times.

If you are new to Exploring Nature with Children, and are joining us for the first time this month, please jump right in. You can begin ENWC at any point in the year, and there’s no better time to get started than the present!

If you began back in 2019, my hope is that you and your child are enjoying your studies, and learning about the natural world around you.

A quote to carry with you this May:

Miss Mason certainly knew the potential of a single valuable idea., versus heaps of dry facts. Here’s an excellent definition from Sonya Shafer:

“The facts are just something that happened to someone else. The factual account takes all the emotional and human experience aspects out of the equation. But the ideas are common human experiences and emotions that we can relate to and learn from.”

Isn’t this quite transformative for the education of the child! “common human experiences and emotions that we can relate to and learn from.” These ideas with speak to not only the mind of the child, but also to their heart. When given an idea, the child can spend time thinking deeply about it & turning it over in their mind. They get to digest the idea, make it their very own, ask questions, and ultimately form their own opinion as opposed to just reciting, and later forgetting, dry facts.

For those of you who are using Exploring Nature With Children, the weeks for May fall as follows:

4th ~ 10th Week 1: Caterpillars Week One

11th ~ 17th Week 2: Caterpillars Week Two

18th ~ 24th Week 3 Black Garden Ants Week

25th ~ 31st Week 4: Butterflies Week

There’s a free ENWC calendar for the year to download here.

As always, please work the weeks to suit your own circumstances best; these are just my own suggestions!

Please keep in mind social distancing, and your own government’s guidelines during these difficult times.

If you’re over on Instagram, do pop over and say hello! The Instagram page is very much about community; think of it as your virtual home school co op! Our community uses the #exploringnaturewithchildren hashtag, & also specific weekly hashtags to enable you to connect with other families working through ENWC this year.