Samples of all my books can be seen by clicking through to purchase: a preview button is available top right.
- HOW DO I RECEIVE MY FILES?
The Raising Little Shoots system is automated, so you will receive an email containing your download link as soon as you check out. It will come to you from Payhip, the company that hosts my books online. This link is not time sensitive, but is limited to five download attempts. Simply download and save to your desktop. Please keep in mind that the files are too large to download directly to a mobile device.
Please follow the instructions here if you wish to download to a mobile device.
As the books are digital downloads, I am not able to offer refunds. Please be sure to email me directly with any questions before making your purchase. I’m here to help you:
lynn@raisinglittleshoots.com
- HELP! I HAVE LOST MY FILE / DOWNLOAD LINK
I suggest searching your inbox for ” Payhip”, this should help you to find your download link. If you have inadvertently deleted it, please feel free to write to me at: lynn@raisinglittleshoots letting me know the email address that you used to purchase.
- WHAT AGE RANGES ARE YOUR CURRICULA SUITABLE FOR?
Exploring Nature With Children is as family friendly, and multi-age as possible. It gives you the necessary scientific information for each week’s nature theme, then the parent can present those facts as they see fit, to each individual child. A child that is old enough to keep a nature journal will get the most out of it, but I have included suggestions for using the book with much younger children, too. ENWC is written to equip you as a parent, to talk with your child about nature, without having to go through a pile of different books first! The extension activities included vary; venn diagrams, writing poetry, making models, amongst many others. I have been very careful to use only relevant, authentic activities, with absolutely no busy work. Some will suit younger children, others are for the older child.
Exploring Nature Around The Year is most suitable for a child that is old enough to keep a nature journal. It’s all about developing your nature journaling skills and keeping a Nature Journal in the Charlotte Mason style. You may, however, choose to work through the curriculum orally, in which case it can be adapted for a much younger child.
Take a look at the sample pages to see which curriculum will be most suitable for your own family.
Exploring Nature Around the Year
Exploring Nature With Children
- WHAT CLIMATE ARE YOUR CURRICULA WRITTEN FOR?
Exploring Nature With Children is written to be as accessible as possible to all families, however, it has a definite northern hemisphere, four season slant. Other families will need to adapt the book slightly to fit with either their climate or location. There are thousands of families who happily use ENWC around the world, but they do have to adjust to suit what is happening in the natural world around them. Take a look at the preview. Here you can see a complete week’s lessons and the table of contents, which shows the theme for each week. This should help you decide if this curriculum will work for your family.
Exploring Nature Around The Year is written to be used within a northern hemisphere, four season climate.
- HOW DOES EXPLORING NATURE WITH CHILDREN DIFFER FROM EXPLORING NATURE AROUND THE YEAR?
Exploring Nature With Children and Exploring Nature Around The Year are very different!
Exploring Nature With Children is a complete curriculum with 48 weekly themes. Each week contains a guided nature walk, a poetry and art selection, a themed booklist, references to the Handbook of Nature Study, and relevant, authentic extension activities for your child.
Exploring Nature Around The Year gives an authentic nature journaling prompt for each day of the year, and has major and minor nature study themes woven throughout. No planning is required, and you can dip in and out as you please.
Click through to see samples of each curriculum. This should help you to decide which curriculum will be best for your own family.
Exploring Nature Around the Year
Exploring Nature With Children
- CAN I BEGIN YOUR CURRICULA AT ANY POINT IN THE YEAR?
Absolutely!
- ARE YOUR CURRICULA RELIGIOUS OR SECULAR
The following weeks of Exploring Nature With Children contain Christian themes:
Christmas plants: Discusses ‘traditional’ Christmas plants (Poinsettia etc) Contains ‘The Holly & The Ivy’ – Traditional, as the week’s poem. One of the activities is to make Christmas tree decorations.
The Twelve Days of Christmas: The introduction explains that this is the Christian season that celebrates the birth of Jesus, and The poem for this week is: In the bleak midwinter by Christina Rossetti
Candlemas: The introduction explains that Candlemas marks the presentation of the Holy Child in the Temple, where Simeon held Jesus and called him a ‘Light to the World’, and that in pre-Christian times it was an important festival to celebrate the returning light.
July: Weather discusses the legend of St. Swinthin and one of the activities that week is to track the weather to see if the legend is correct.
Black Garden Ants: Contains Proverbs 6:6-8 as the week’s poem.
The Solstice and equinox weeks discuss the changes that are happening in the natural world.
Some of the poetry contains religious themes, as do some of the recommended books in the weekly booklists.
Within Exploring Nature Around The Year, the December journal prompts focus on the theme of Advent and Christmastide. Some of the suggested poetry may contain religious themes.
My curricula are used by Christian families, secular families, and families of different faith backgrounds. I understand that this is a very important matter to us parents, so please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions.
- DO YOU HAVE PHYSICAL COPIES FOR SALE?
My books are available as PDF downloads only.
Many of my UK customers use Pingles Publishing for printing and binding.
US customers have recommended the Homeschool Printing Company, Humble Hearts Press, & Hard Copy HQ,
Canada: Homeschool Print & Prep & Blurb
- MAY I USE YOUR CURRICULA WITH MY HOMESCHOOL CO-OP OR SCHOOL?
Schools and co-ops are welcome to use my curricula, I would be honoured! However, you may not copy any portion of the ebooks. Photocopying the pages so that the book can then be shared or resold is a violation of copyright.
It is a violation of copyright to share this ebook electronically.
To receive a discount for additional copies, please contact me directly at: lynn@raisinglittleshoots.com