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We've never done much nature study, and it's something I've wanted to get into for a long time. I know how to do it, but making it happen is hard. We are also new to HOD, with a 7th grader who will be doing Res to Ref, including Shakespeare. (We have done other curriculum that is more book-based, less notebook-y.)

To keep topics similar to my high schooler's studies, next year, we will skip over to MMM. I think I have read that there is nature study in MMM. I know I have read that adding a bit here and a bit there winds quickly becoming too much, and we are not used to long homeschooling days nor to teacher-intensive days.

Would we be better off to simply not worry about it this year, to just wait for next year, and go to the park this year when we feel like it without the extra concern of trying to do "nature study"? Should I just put it off a year?

Are you skipping two guides Rev2Rev and MTMM? Does that mean your 8th grader will skip these two guides and go into WG high school guide? That would be a huge leap in skills. Doing a nature study would be the easier part of a challenging high school guide. It would be a hard year and tough to add to an already full guide. If you took out something and put the nature study in it's place it would have more balance.
My son is doing MTMM in the fall. He started the nature journal over the summer for ease of our schedule and the chance to see nature. Minnesota winters can be void of nature or desire to view it.
The MTMM guide has a nice schedule for the nature journal and includes poetry. The schedule is nice because it has child complete only part of a lesson. This allows the schedule to have more balance of their time. It is done twice a week.

We will skip Rev to Rev but not MtMM. (I couldn't remember the exact acronym so I just put in the Ms. )

We just did a lot of US history this past year, and I really want her to be able to do 20th century history alongside her big sister who will be doing it in 2 years with a different program, so I don't think it will be a problem to skip Rev to Rev.

I think she will be ok to do MtMM in 8th grade, but I wouldn't push her past that.

Hi there! The nature study is fun! Years's back, before MTMM had ever been written, I went on a nature walk with my dc each day weather permitted. We just bought bird and plant books, as well as picked up pamphlets from our state parks, that focused on the birds and plants we'd find in our state, and we looked up things we saw along the way on enature.com. We also tried to draw in blank sketch books, but that didn't go so well (my kids were young and not as artistically inclined ). However, once MTMM was written, I just decided to stop and wait to enjoy it then. It made that year special. So, those are a few thoughts on the nature study subject! I did want to link you to a few thoughts to ponder in placement, as choosing which guide to place your child has many things to consider, and nature study and matching content to an older sibling's placement are not as key to placement as other things, and proper placement is wonderful to have in HOD! It helps you and your dc have the best year ever!

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HTH!
In Christ,
Julie