My narrations on Anna Botsford Comstock's "Handbook of nature study". It has been a long time since I have really narrated, or tried to remember most of what I am reading. But, if I am expecting my children to do it, I should be doing it also. I am also going to be patient with myself, as I am with them, in starting out. More details and information will be remembered the more frequently I do this, and hopefully the quality in my narrations will increase. I am looking up the quotes that I really liked so that they will be word for word:

Nature study as a help to health:

 Fresh air and exercise are good for physical health. Mental health is also benifited, "love of nature counts much for sanity in later life". This has been my experience also, being out in nature is so soothing and grounding. Tensions and depression melts away as healing air is inhaled.

What nature study should do for the teacher:

Ms. Comstock next talks about the benifits to the teacher. And although she is talking of teachers in a school setting, the same applies to mothers. Many of the teachers said that they just didn't have time to add in nature study. They were already stessed to the max. "Their nerves were at such a tension that with one more thing to do they must fall apart" I know that I could definately claim to be in such a state. Which is why we need to get outside and revel in nature. It will calm us as it calms our children, increase our health, and bring us closer together. We will be renewed to be able to return and face with energy all of our other responsibilities.

When and Why the teacher should say "I do not know:

It is very important that "I don't know" is replyed to questions that we don't know the answers to. But we need to be cafeful that we are not squelching  interest , that we let them know that we may not know, but that dosen't mean there isn't an answer. We teach the children that there is much to know. Tell them let's see if we can figure it out, ask them what they think. They will see that nature is not all known, there is more to be discovered. This makes it exciting and worth while. I think it is very true what she says about teachers who don't say I don't know, but try to give an answer even if it not correct. These or less educated and less sure of themselves.  People who are really educated have learned enough to know that they don't know anything.

I just recieved my "Handbook of Nature Study" by Anna Botsford Comstock. As I want to make it a 'study', and not just a read, I am going to narate it here as I read.

In the preface, the author explains how the book came to be. In brief, it came from an extension course for young naturalists through Cornell University in the late 1890's. The leaflets which were put out for the classes were expanded and revised to make this book.

Something in the  preface that I wanted to note. The author apologizes for the largeness of the book, and then says, "it does not contain more than any intelligent country child of twelve should know of his enviroment; things that he should know naturally and without effort, although it may take him half his life-time to learn so much if he should not begin before the age of twenty."   How true this is of many things that we learn. If the knowledge is not aquired while our brain is in the formative mode, excited and searching for information, it is so much more of a struggle to learn it later.

Part 1 of the book is: The teaching of nature study.

What nature study is:

Nature study, the author explains, is, quite simply the study of nature. Making truthful observations that lead to understanding. She goes on to explain what nature study should do for  the child, what goals we should be aiming for. Since I am first and foremost concerned with studying nature myself, developing a passion and understanding of it so that I can pass it on to my children, these are the things that I should expect to gain from my study.

What nature study should do for the child:

The first and obvious thing, is a knowledge of the ways of nature. Next, it cultivates the imagination, miraculous and marvelous things are possible in nature, and beyond simply observing, I think that if you  contemplate on God's creation of all these amazing things, you realize that within your own being, you might have some of this ability. And yet, only truth is observed or allowed. I love what she has to say about this, "Perhaps half the falsehood in the world is due to lack of  power to detect the truth and to express it. Nature study aids in discernment and in expression of thingsas they are." A pretty optimistic veiw of man, but she may be right.  Nature study cultivates a love of the beautiful. This I have gained through my time in nature, probably the only one of these things that I have any degree of experience with so far. She waxes quite poetic over this. This is what I love about how authors used to write. This is, really, a textbook. I certainly didn't see any language like this in the science textbooks I had in school. This is literature, I would enjoy reading it simply for the use of  words, let alone for what is being taught. The last and most important thing is that the child be taught a love of the out of doors. If this isn't being taught with your study of nature, then you should cease it.

I would agree, this is definitly the most important thing. A lasting realationship and love for the beauties of the earth is more important than the ability to identify something by the arbitrary name that someone has given it.

I have just started using the book 'Teaching children Joy' by Linda and Richard Eyre. I say using, because I have read, or at least looked through the book before, but recently decided that it was something that I want to add to our lifes. The books premisise is that the primary thing that young children should be taught is joy. That they come with certain joys that we need to preserve, and that there are other joys that we should teach them at this time. As I have read through this book, I am finding that my children are lacking in joy. I have managed to squash out much of the joy that they are instictivly born with, and have not taught them joy in other areas.

The first order of business is to find joy myself. I admit that it is something that I do not let myself feel often, I am too busy, too stressed, too obsorbed in the little details. I used to feel joy most of the time. It bubbled forth from deep inside of me, and spilled out of my eyes and face. I could feel myself shining. Now my face and eyes are dull, my brows drawn down bringing headaches instead of good feelings.

In time past, one of the things I most enjoyed was sitting and looking at the beauties of the earth around me, all seasons and climates I was able to find beauty in, and I could feel it filling up my soul with delight and energy. My first daughter I would watch and play with all day, having fun, being spontaneous, silly and calm. Then sometime when I was pregnant with my second child, this ability left me. When I would sit to bask in the warmth of the sun, I found myself tapping my toes, unable to sit still, tension in my stomach. And since then, as the demands of daily life have increased, I have not been able to relcaim peace and joy. Actually, after having this fourth child, I have been able to feel calm and content, something I haven't felt for some time, so I am hoping that with the return of that feeling, I will be able to teach myself and my children how to find joy in life.

The first joy that the books sets forth is one that children are born with, and this is spontaneous delight. Honestly, I don't quite understand how they differentiate this joy from some of the others that children come with. I am, however, able to see that my two oldest ages 6 and 4 have last much of the ablity to feel this. I have managed to yell it out of them with too many no's, and too many hurries, and too many "don't do that's, you'll get dirty". I see the difference so clearly from my 18 month old, who is still full of this joy. I think that you will naturally lose some of this in life, as you experience it, but I am willing to be optimistic and believe that much of it could be preserved, even into adulthood, and that an adult such as myself could even learn this.

So, as recommended by the author's, we are going to take this month to learn joy form being spontaneous. My goal is to be able to be spontaneous myself, and feel good about it, and not the squelch the little ones when they are being  spontaneous.

It seems a bit funny to me that the books teaches spontaneous joy with a list of activities and books.

Seeking joy,

Lisa