Tailor Made Nature Study Notes from April 2002

We called this meeting topic "Nature Study:  Resting in God's Arms While Enjoying His Creation" and met at Becca's place out in the country.

Attending members were asked to choose a rock from a basket and think about what God can reveal about Himself through this creation of His.

Some responses were: 

God's thumbprint is on everything!

He has given us numerous layers to learn of knowledge, understanding and wisdom and an order in which to learn.

"Solid as a rock."

The times that we go through can be rough or smooth depending on what God has for us to learn.

God is multi-faceted; three in One.

He's with us everywhere we go and will be there for us to rediscover if we get caught up and wander off from Him for a time.

We move from the darkness of sin to the light of freedom when we are bathed in Jesus' blood.

Various verses were discussed in relation to the word rock....

Psalm 19:14 "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my ROCK and my Redeemer!"

We usually find 2 hindrances to nature study.

Hinderance #1:  IGNORANCE.  WE feel that we don't know enough.  Our children might ask us about something that we can't remember or never learned.

II Corinthians 12:9  "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me."

We begin to study in order to be better prepared for our children's questions.  Then, we start to plan.

Hinderance #2:  TOO MUCH PLANNING!  We steer our children away from a natural investigation toward a lesson planned event.  "Today we will collect leaves."  "But, MOM, we want to look at butterflies."  "No, we're going to study that next week."

Proverbs 19:21  "Many are the plan's in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

With that said...YOU NEED TO SCHEDULE A TIME IN YOUR LIFE FOR NATURE STUDY.  Otherwise, it will be left out.  You might ask yourselves WHY?

How busy does satan keep you?  He knows that we learn about God through nature.  SO, he keeps us busy to keep us from learning about God in a beautiful, natural, relaxing, peaceful, unharried way.

Remember, if you are struggling with a decision or need understanding about a certain area of your life and want to receive a revelation from God as to His position on the matter, PRAY before you head out the door to enjoy His creation.  Ask Him to show you, through His beauty, answers, if even glimpses of the bigger picture and give you that "I see, now" revelation.

Nature is our God given place to pray for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

Mark 6:31  "And He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.' (For there were many good people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat)."

Recall Exodus 16, 17, and 18 when the Israelites were grumbling about HOW HARD IT WOULD BE TO CLAIM THE PROMISED LAND?  Joshua and Caleb took possession of the land.  What percentage is that?  They saw the beauty of God's promises and took hold of them.

Dear Parents, your time is your own.  Claim the promises of peace and rest and take back your lives from the business and come away to enjoy God with your families in His promised land.

Psalm 46:10  "Cease STRIVING and know that I am God; I will be exalted amontg the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

BE STILL!!!!!!  Be still and see, hear, smell, taste, feel and KNOW ("I see!") that I am God.

Charlotte Mason once said, "Never be indoors when you can rightly be without."  Take your bookish learning outside whenever possible.  The backyard, the front porch, the park, or Becca's house with a couple days notice    , are all places you can learn your lessons and also learn about God.  Let Him be your distraction for a change!

Becca shared about a nature retreat that she went on recently with her husband.  She asked God to explain some things about how/why things have happened in history.  She asked that He explain things about her father, husband, and children and how homeschooling relates to it all.  It was amazing the things she learned from nature about the specific understanding she asked to be given.  He brought peace with His beautiful creeks, and cockleburrs, and tree roots, and poison ivey, and stagnant water, and trails, and tracks, and other things.  All this because she asked Him.

This is why it needs to be stressed that we pray before going out into nature.  It's such a blessing.

Luke 10:23-24  "And turning to the disciples, He said privately, 'Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.'"

Various ideas for notebooking, journaling, and scrapbooking were suggested.  We talked about implementing library books to bring in art appreciation, music, poetry, and such into the learning process.

Sing with your children while you enjoy God's creation.

"Hosea"

"Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee!"

"Earth and All Stars"

"Let All Things Now Living"

"Thy Strong Word"

Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Let the holy anthem rise,

and the choirs of heaven chant it in the temple of the skies;

Let the mountains skip with gladness, and the joyful valleys ring

With Hosannas in the highest to our Savior and our King!

We enjoyed a lunch of chicken salad pitas with fresh fruit and chocolate cake.

We hiked all over the place, discovering wonderful flowers, tracks, bugs, plants, and other wonders.  We even had to have a bit of team work to climb up part of the bank.  Pictures were taken, some of them a bit silly of worn out moms with frazzled hair! 

Suggestions for awesome nature study:

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna B. Comstock (Dr. Comstock was the lead instructor in nature studies, etc. at Cornell University)

Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers

Little Bear's Outdoor Adventure Guide for the All-American Boy

For further study on implementing nature study into your life:

A Charlotte Mason Companion:  Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola

Cindy Rushton offers lots of nature study ideas.  Check out her website at

http://www.cindyrushton.com

Lots of the ideas for these nature study notes were found at Cindy's site and on MacBeth's site http://charlottemason.tripod.com/nature.html.