CM Nature Study Question

[momtofive]

I have a question regarding what the HOD guides cover in regard to the Charlotte Mason style nature study. I have been planning on implementing far more structured nature study for my children this coming year and I was wondering if it is included in the guides? I just love the concept of nature study and my children would love it too. I really want to include this in their studies (fun studies I might add!) and am wondering if HOD includes this or not? I had been planning on going with what we did last year for curriculum (Abeka and MFW), however, God had other plans for our school. We had many struggles last year, and that has caused me to really seek what the Lord would have for our family. Through much prayer and careful consideration, He is leading us to HOD and changing many other things. Basically the only thing staying the same for us this year is my son's Saxon Math (which he loves and excells at). So I have very carefully been making plans for this coming year and the only thing I see that might not be included would be nature study. If someone could help me find out if this is covered in the guides, I'd really appreciate it!

P.S. Has anyone used the Christian Light Education math or language? I am considering using it for my younger son's math (grade 3) and for my daughter's math and language (first grade) (We are going with the R&S English for grades 2 and up. And I really like the Saxon Math for fourth grade and up. But we need something for the grades below each of these.)

In Christ,
Lisa

[busybee4]

Lisa,
I noticed that no one has answered your post yet and I don't really like when that happens to me so I will try to answer you. I have only completed Little Hands to Heaven, Little Hearts For His Glory and the Beyond guides so what I say will only be in regards to those three.

There have been no nature study scheduled into any of the guides that we have done. I too have wanted to implement nature study but have had a hard time doing it without having it all "laid out" for me.

We will be using the Bigger manual for our upcoming school year and I was told that one of the Small Square books really lends itself to nature study. She didn't go into any great detail but I assumed that it led into lots of opportunities to jump start little studies of your own. (I belive from looking at the catalog that it is probably the One Small Square - Woods book that she was referring to.)

I will say that the HOD manuals are set up in such way that you should have plenty of time left to incorporate your Nature Study. There is an HOD yahoo group that may be of more help to you. (Link removed per board rules). Maybe some of the ladies on there will be able to be of more help to you.

I will say to continue praying, there is no better advice than that of our Lord!

Blessings!!!

[momtofive]

Thanks Krissy,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I know that it does take time to get answers sometimes. I have been working on some ideas for nature study and would like to hear of any that are working for others. I was thinking I would have to make my own notebooking pages and come up with my own activities. One person has told me about the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, and that it has been very beneficial to their nature studies. I checked it out from the library and it's a very detailed and huge book! I would love to study nature closer with my children and involve all of them. I guess I just need to keep praying about it and keep thinking on ways to accomplish this.

Thank you, again, for taking time to help me.

In Christ,

Lisa

[jenntracy]

Their is a blog about the anna comstock book that a mom uses for "outdoor challenges" http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/
That may be of help.
We are loosely doing nature . We want to, but my kids are so young we mostly observe. No real notetaking. i have gotten lots of ideas just searching the amblesideonline site and others.

Really it seems that nature comes to us. We had a bird make a nest and lay eggs in our homemade milk-jug feeder.
Now we watch the mama feed the 3 little birdies. We just study what is around us.
i would like a little more structure but that will come. I jsut can't put things together as fast as i can think them up.

Jenn d.

[momofgreatones]

I think Nature Study is a very fluid thing because it so depends on your personal climate and the time of year. Hopefully those links will help you the way you need.

I have used part of CLE LA 100 series. I didnt care for it much. There is a lot of stuff that I found just confused my son, like heavy emphasis on diacritcal markings and such. Also, there were times when I wasn't sure what the text wanted my son to do, if that makes sense. It just didnt seem to be terribly helpful.

I don't know what HOD programs you are starting, but I know that LA is covered the way the guides are written. I can't remember which guide starts kids with R&S 2, but the guides before it have LA covered just the way they are written, and it isn't necessary to add another LA program to it. So if you are comfortable just doing your guides as written, I would try it that way at first before you decide to add in a CLE program. What program are you planning for your 1st grader?

I have heard some good things about CLE math, but I have heard even better things about Singapore. I'm starting my youngest son with the Singapore Earlybird math recommended by HOD.

[momtofive]

Hi again,

In answer to your questions about my first grader, she (6) and her older brother (8) will both be in Beyond next year. A friend recommended the CLE program as an option for next year. We've done A Beka up until now. I really don't like the public school feel of A Beka. I know, many others have used it and still do with great success and that's great, if it works for you. My oldest did really well with it, however my next one struggles with math and learns completely differently than the oldest. I am not familiar with CLE or Singapore. I really don't know if I should explore it or not. I have always planned on switching the kids over to Saxon in fourth grade. (I didn't really like the format of the K-3 Saxon, but did like the fourth grade.) We did that with my oldest and all went well. I just need to figure out what to use from now until then. And maybe that plan won't work for the next son like it did for the first.

I am looking for something that really teaches the "why" of math. Something that explains itself well and makes math easier for them to understand. I always found if someone explained something to me in plain english, that it was easier to get. But, if Singapore goes along with the plans, maybe I should look into that more closely. Would I need the textbook and workbooks? Does it have a teachers book as well? I'll do a little investigating on that one!

Thanks for the insight! (Pardon the rambling!!! )

In Christ,

Lisa

[momofgreatones]

"I am looking for something that really teaches the "why" of math. Something that explains itself well and makes math easier for them to understand. I always found if someone explained something to me in plain english, that it was easier to get. But, if Singapore goes along with the plans, maybe I should look into that more closely. Would I need the textbook and workbooks? Does it have a teachers book as well? I'll do a little investigating on that one!"

This is exactly where Singapore math's strength is at, and why it has such a stellar reputation. It is supposed to teach the "why" and the ability to really understand and do mental math. Also, Carrie has written daily, easy, hands-on activities in the younger guides to go along with the Singapore lessons. We haven't used them yet but I hear they are fantastic and so helpful. Do some research on Singapore and see what you think!

[momtofive]

Okay, so I've done some research on Singapore and it looks great. I've researched the Singapore website, as well as reading every thread I can about what others have thought of it, and have looked at workbook/textbook samples, too. I really like what I'm reading. If it is something that will explain the math well, then I'm all for it. My son(8) is the one I am most concerned about in the math area. He seems to be "turned off math". With the A Beka books we've used in the past, he seems to just hate it. Endless math problems! I want him to enjoy math and to see how wonderfully it can all work together. I want him to be well prepared for whatever God has for him in the future, and let's face it, math is everywhere! He just finished up this years A Beka grade two math book. I printed off a placement test for the Singapore 2B just to see where he is on that one. Singapore's website says that an "average" student would do 2B and 3A in third grade. The HOD guide schedules each levels A and B books together.

The other question/problem I have is to figure out if I should get a language program for my daughter(6). She just finished up language for her kindergarten year and I don't want to lose momentum on that and do nothing this coming year. I have just ordered Beyond for both my daughter(6) and son(8) to do together. Her math (if we go with Singapore) would be scheduled in the guide for Beyond. My sons would not (assuming he places as needing to start 3A in the fall). Would I then just order the textbooks for his and do his math seperately and do my daughters within the Beyond guide? And is language for a first grader just included within the Beyond guide? (I don't see a language book listed-other than reading instruction books-she reads well for her age.)

Carrie-HELP!

Thank you all so much for helping me!

In Christ,

Lisa

[pjdobro]

I think I can answer a couple of your questions. You are correct that you would need the Singapore textbooks and workbooks for 3A and 3B for your son and you would do the math with him separately. For your daughter, you would use the math explorations in Beyond and just the 1A and 1B workbooks.

For language, Beyond has one lesson each week in grammar. The other 4 days are spelling with two lists in the back from which to choose, one a little more difficult than the other. If your daughter still needs to continue with phonics, you would choose one of the Phonics programs that HOD offers or your own. If she is pretty solid in phonics, you would proceed to the emerging readers which is scheduled in the back of the Beyond teacher's manual. You might want to go ahead with R&S 2 for your son.

As far as nature study, it has been my goal to do that as well and I haven't accomplished it as much as I would like. I just came back from a class at our conference about nature study and the biggest thing I brought back from that was to purposefully spend 30 minutes each week outside with your children, observing, and drawing nature. She stressed it didn't have to be a big deal or super formal. If it rains everyday in the week, just study a houseplant or some other object of God's creation. She recommended for my area of the country, the Audubon field guide to the SE US to carry along because it identifies lots of plants, animals, and insects in the area. That way, one can identify something in the field. Then when you get back home, you can use the Nature Handbook by Comstock to delve into the subject more. She recommend just using a 3 ring binder with plastic sleeves to keep entries in to make it simple. That way, all that is needed when you go out is just some paper, a clipboard, and a pencil, or as an easy way to get started she said the book My Nature Journal was good. I loved reading Karen Andreola's book Pocketful of Pinecones. It has some great ideas in story form of how to get out and do more nature study. I hope to be more purposeful and get more nature study done this year. Oh and as mentioned before, I don't think the HOD guides have nature study per se in them. We've only made it through Beyond as well, but it isn't something that I've seen listed for the older guides.

Welcome and enjoy your year with HOD!

[momtofive]

Thank you so much for your detailed answer. That's one thing I just love about this board. Ladies whom are really concerned for each other work together to help one another. About the nature study, I am probably going to do just that. Schedule time each week to go and explore nature, do some drawing of what we find and then spend a little time studying what we've found and writing a little about it with our drawings. I, too, love the book from Karen Andreola (Pocketful of Pinecones).

I will most likely go with the Singapore books for math for the two children I'll have in Beyond. They look like they'll be really good and I've seen a lot of good reviews for them!

For my daughter's language, I guess I'll just go with what is written in the guide for Beyond. I ordered our HOD stuff today and I am looking forword to seeing how it is all laid out. I am just so used to having to go with a lot of books for everything, it will be so nice to have everything all in one place. A few months ago, before we decided on HOD, I purchased the spelling program All About Spelling. I've heard so many wonderful things about it, but now I feel like it will be overkill to couple it with what HOD offers in their guides. It's too late to return it, so I suppose I'll just try to work it in maybe at a slower pace-a couple times a week or so. I am curious what others think of the All About Spelling (if they've used it). I haven't read anything here at all about it.

Thank you ladies for your guidance!

In Christ,
Lisa