Nature Study

I am trying to make a better effort to study nature with my children. Even when it is still cold and dreary outside. We've started reading The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock you can see it HERE. It is a wonderfully written "old" book that is great for someone like me that has little science wisdom. We also enjoy visiting THIS blog which has some great tips for using the book.


Here are a few pictures of some of the things we enjoyed on our walk.....








This is a picture of our "curly tree". It's in what I guess you would call the back 40 of our yard, only it's not a back 40 it's a back 10 but who's counting?


We also noticed this interesting bracket fungus on another tree.








We ended our afternoon study by taking some time to write in our nature journals.

Warmer Weather, Finally!!!!

We enjoyed some much needed outdoor time recently. It's been so cold that we haven't spent more than 10 minutes outside in weeks!















As you can see everyone was very happy to see us!

May I have your attention-PLEASE!

As I have been digging to my study of Charlotte Mason and her teaching philosophies I have been convicted to start working on habits. The politically correct name for this would be character traits which if you've been to your local public school lately, or driven by it you know that this is something that over the last few years has become very important there as well. (I wonder why this is?)

Charlotte felt that the their were three very important habits to start your habit training with; attention, obedience, and truthfulness. She believed that when teaching these habits you should make sure that the habit of attention was obtained first. Because if your child can't pay attention then how will you be able to teach them any habits?

So we began our habit venture with attention because if any of you have ever been around children you know getting them to pay attention is HARD!!!!!

Proverbs 4:20 says "My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words". And
Proverbs 12:11 says "He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment."

I always find it comical that when you decide to work on something in your life it starts coming at you from all sides. For instance yesterday my son came to me with three new very complicated creations and began a very detailed explanation of them. Now being the good example that I try to be I dropped everything and listened intently to how they were assembled and what their attack and defense modes were. And let me tell you when you have 5 thousand mommy things that you have to do it is hard to pay attention! And then it seemed that all at once the phone started ringing, the menagerie of animals needed attention, the laundry needed folding, you get the idea. But I just stood there and listened and then it dawned on me....how can I expect my kids to pay attention if I can't even do it myself.

So once again the Lord has impressed on me that He is my only source of strength and if I want to teach attention skills to my kids I have to always pay attention to that still small voice that says let me lead your life and everything will fall into place.

So no matter what season of life you are in think about whether or not you are paying attention to the Lord and the people he is bringing into your life. He may have something really big in store for you and if you aren't paying attention you may miss it.