In all I am, do, and will write, my aim is to hit God's mark. I will have moments of being misguided as I am not perfect, but know that I serve a God that loves me through it all.
Over the years, I have become interiorially (should I patent that word?) domestisized (I'm sure that's not a word either.) Okay, I don't spend much time outside. Like, none. Especially in the winter. I don't do winter. It was a matter of grave importance that my husband swore before we were married that his most important priority was to make sure I would always be warm. At. All.Times. It must be minimally 75 degrees before I willingly venture outdoors. Doesn't happen but a few short months in my neck of the city.
Mix this with my desire to have a garden of my own, my love of all things nature, and the idea of doing Nature Study with my children and you have...a very mixed up, frozen adult with high ideals and no follow through. What's a gal to do?
Anyway, the challenge is to set wings to my picture of the ideal nature study plans and introduce my children more consistently to God's creation outdoors...no matter what the weather or temperature. (Oh, Barb, I could kiss your feet for jump starting me with this!) She gives a mini weekly assignment; I do it with my children, then pat myself on the back because I did it. And, I get to blog about the adventure if I want.
Challenge #1 started this week.
Part One was easy: Read pages 1-8 of Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study.
Done. No sweat! And, no icicles dripping off my nose! I know how to read, and I already had the book. Have had it for about two years now and never even cracked it open. See, I told you I have good intentions and no follow through.
Part Two stalled me for four days: Go outside with your child/ren for 15 minutes and look around.
Go outside? You mean, in the cold? Then I had a brainstorm...checking out the lunar eclipse last night would work, right? Oops, forgot young Beautiful is terrified of the dark. She took one look up in the night sky, and screamed! I'm sure that went over very well with everyone else in the parking lot of our friendly neighborhood Costco. (That's were we were, we wouldn't have been able to see the moon from our yard.)
Her analysis of the lunar eclipse: "It makes the moon look ugly and scary!" Wow. I'm blown away with her appreciation of nature.
So, after a half hour of bundling all the children, I braved the great outdoors this morning. 15 minutes outside. I did it! My timing was perfect. Figuring they would want to be out longer, we went out just before lunch. To get them back inside, all I had to do was say that it was lunchtime. It worked like a charm.
However, the plan backfired on me. I was the one that actually really wanted to be out longer! Spring is popping up all over my front yard! Buds are showing on the hydrangeas, the roses, and the rhodies. Tulips, crocus, and daffodils are beginning to peek out of the ground. And weeds. Winter is almost over!!!! At first the children scurried back and forth amongst the awakening plants and showed great fascination. We were just about to come in when Handsome turned over a rock...slugs. Two of them. I thought we had found what was going to assist us in part three of our assignment, so thought it a good time to go in and get lunch completed.
Part Three: Ask your child/ren what two things they saw outside that they might want to explore further.
I was pretty excited about this. Were they going to say slugs, or daffodils, or moss, or...?
I served their lunch, sat at the table with them, and breathlessly asked, "What excited you about our walk outside? Is there anything you would like to learn more about?"
"No." Blank stares all around.
Oh, well, it was our first time out. Baby steps, Ladies, baby steps...
Hi! Thanks for coming by my blog! So are we close then?? I have not visited Kathys blog in a while..... hhmmm my ears were burning recently... JK... you can email me at wahineusa@gmail.com if you like.
