We have begun a Charlotte Mason Nature Club. We meet once a month at different places each time. I decided to begin with the basics. At our first meeting we discussed what the aim of our club would be. The intentsion is to meet and spend time observing, hiking, and sketching with time for discussion.

      We met at Bendix Woods Nature Center. There were about 30 of us total. We talked about many great resources for nature study. Our main resource will be The Handbook of Nature Study. We discussed the basic needs for hiking and sketching.

     We spent time observing a red squirrel and juncos at the window feeder. It was snowing and very cold that day. Some decided to stay at the nature center because they had younger children. The rest of us headed out into the frozen tundra that is Northern Indiana in January.

     We spotted Sycamore, Sugar Maples and a Hawthorn tree with it's needles, observed several different evergreen trees and compared their cones and branches, and found a dead tree being consumed by termittes. While hiking we observed several Cardinals and Goldfinches. The kids followed rabbit trails and discovered different mosses and fungi. It was a great start for our club.