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This year I decided to take a different tack with our nature studies. In the past we followed the Ambleside Online schedule and attempted to do a different topic each term, but I was never really on top of it so by the time we finished each term we hadn't really studied that topic at all and it was time to move on to the next thing. Well, no more.
This year I decided that we were going to study trees. All year long. This way the kids are bound to learn something new, maybe even something I intentionally taught them and not just what they read in the random assortment of on-topic books I brought home from the library for their browsing pleasure. I made a whole week by week plan and everything combing resources from (mostly) the Handbook of Nature Study, The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown-Ups, and Arabella Buckley's Trees and Shrubs, and John Muir Laws free nature journaling curriculum. I organized our studies based on the seasons and what would be most interesting to study at any given time so naturally September meant apple trees.
Fridays are for nature study walks here so last Friday we went to an apple orchard to pick apples and make observations. We successfully sketched our observations, with some taking more pains than others, and some running away crying because there were too many flies buzzing around the fallen apples. I'm really honing my skills on five minute water color tree paintings, since that's about all the kids will give me. I should be a complete expert by the end of the year :)
In that five minutes the children also loaded up on twenty pounds of not quite ripe Honeycrisps while I was otherwise occupied which I'm hoping will ripen on the counter? Or should I just turn the tart things into apple crumbles and call it a day?
Also, is it not the cutest that David picks out matching outfits for him and his mini-me?