Never be within doors when you can rightly be without ~ Charlotte Mason
Author: raisinglittleshoots
A Charlotte Mason inspired home educator, person of faith, knitter, lover of the outdoors. Author of Exploring Nature With Children: A complete, year-long curriculum
Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download. There’s a direct link in my profile.
I have made the decision to remove the reading recommendation for the Story Book of Science for this week. It contained some information that could be quite dangerous if followed, so I have decided it best to remove it from the recommendations.
Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download. There’s a direct link in my profile.
If you’re new to Exploring Nature with Children, jump right in! There’s no need to begin at a certain point in the year. If you began in September, my hope is that you and your child are enjoying your studies, and learning about the natural world around you.
“We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.”
Miss Charlotte Mason
Use these wise words from Miss Mason to both guide and encourage you as you study this month. If you are here reading this post, I am sure that you do care for the “the marvels of plant and animal life“, and indeed you care that your children care! We are each called to be naturalists, each in our own degree. If you do not know the name of something that you find on a nature walk, see it as a gift rather than a hindrance. Observe it closely over the coming weeks, and you will come to be acquainted with this living thing, and will learn to recognise it, and eventually you will discover its name. You will more likely be the richer than if you had just found out the name straight away.
There’s a free 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!
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
Seasonal notes:
5th Nov Guy Fawkes Night is the anniversary of the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. If you’re building a bonfire, then do keep in ming the safety of hedgehog and other small mammals that may see it as the perfect place to hibernate. Ideally, build the bonfire on the afternoon that it will be lit, moving the wood, and/or leaf pile to be certain that no creatures have chosen to settle there.
11th Nov Remembrance Day / Armistice DayMarking the day World War One ended in 1918 at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month. A two-minute silence is held at 11am to remember the people who have died in wars.
24th Nov Stir Up Sunday The traditional day to ‘stir up’ the Christmas pudding, falling at the end of November, the Sunday before Advent begins. The name comes from the collect that is said on that day in the Anglican church: ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people…’.
Exploring Nature With Children is an open and go curriculum. To make it even easier, I have created a free calendar for you to download. There’s a direct link in my profile.
If you’re new to Exploring Nature with Children, jump right in! There’s no need to begin at a certain point in the year. If you began in September, my hope is that you and your child are enjoying your studies, and learning about the natural world around you.
A wonderful quote to keep in mind as you study is as follows:
“The question is not, – how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education – but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”
Miss Charlotte Mason
Nature study lays a wonderful foundation for further scientific study, but it is a worthwhile pursuit and field of study in itself. It is important for our children to care about the world about them, and the natural world presents a veritable feast. Little by little, we can do this! Small step by small step.
There’s a free 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!
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
Seasonal notes:
You may find that you have a glut of apples in the garden at this time of year, or find them cheaply in the shops. Here is a delicious recipe for baked apples.
You may also like to bake ‘Soul cakes‘. Soul cakes are traditional English cake, which date back in some form or other to Medieval times. On All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, children would go ‘souling’ from door to door, asking for soul cakes. This practice is considered to be how trick or treating first began.
If you are not terribly found of spiders, but have noticed them in your home as autumn has drawn near, then you may wish to try the old wives’ tale of popping conkers or walnuts around the home; in corners, mantles, bookshelves, and window sills. I cannot guarantee that it will keep your home spider free, but it may be worth a try!
