Nature Study in MtMM

[Mibellesmom]

My son (13) tells me he does not want to do the nature study and Draw Through History. Being a practical kid, He prefers to build and take things apart. Can you tell me a little bit more about the Nature study?

[Jennymommy]

My first ds wasn't so thrilled with it either...he did it, and it was good for him to spend a bit of time conscientiously observing and recording the world around him I will probably need to do something more mechanical with ds #3...don't know what though

[LynnH]

The nature study was one of the favorite parts of the day for my ds. It was a time for him to sit outside or at least look out the window and observe and draw different things. It also included detailed drawing lesson on how to shade things, how to give things more of a 3-d look and how to use various drawing utensils. I think learning to pay attention to details is an important skill as well as learning to have the patience to slow down and follow the directions for drawing. it is great for eye hand coordination. If he likes to take things apart and put them back together and might be looking at something like engineering in the future then you could present this as good practice for when he has to do design drawings. You can't take something apart unless you have learned to really study it first so that is also a carry over skill. There is also journaling where they reflect on certain things and put it in writing which can be a tough thing for boys. I will say though that I always tell my ds that not everything in life will be something he loves and especially on his job he will have things he likes and things he doesn't and he can't pick and chose, so he isn't allowed to tell me that he doesn't want to do something in the guide. Maybe I'm a mean mom, but my husband sees too many 20 somethings that come in to work these days wanting to dictate what they will and won't do on the job.

[my3sons]

My oldest ds is not a natural artist, and having seen many HOD students' nature journals as parents take them to book fairs to show us, I can confidently say that his nature journal was not nearly as lovely as some of the other students' journals were. However, he learned so much from completing his nature journal! He learned many techniques that have helped him complete his fine arts half-credit in art study for high school beautifully. He also learned to take time and study God's creation - that it is beautiful, and worth slowing down to notice. I agree with LynnH - I have found it important not to let my dc dictate what they will and will not do in their school day based on what their 'favorites' or 'not favorites' happen to be. My dh has made the same comments as Lynn's dh in regard to young people looking for work today. Not every part of school will be thrilling to students, yet I find it is often in the things that are not their natural liking or gifting that they have the opportunity to learn the most from - diligence, hard work, perseverance, appreciating the work of someone else whose gifting that subject happens to be - all of these are worthy things to learn. If you haven't had the opportunity to read about Charlotte Mason and the thinking and results behind her way of educating, I highly recommend it! That is when I began to see things differently and understand how amazing her ways of doing things (like Nature Journals and habit training) are! A few of my favorite first-reads about Charlotte Mason were the books by Catherine Levison. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

I only have a moment to share, but this thread brought to mind a comment my husband made the other day which I found vastly interesting. He said that it is such a blessing our boys are learning to sketch and draw through Draw and Write Through History and their nature journaling, because they will need this skill more in their lives than they think. He said that when doing his lighting layouts (my hubby did lighting layouts for hospitals, parking ramps, commercial office buildings, banks, etc. before moving to run HOD full-time) he always felt challenged to accurately draw what he was seeing, and it would have been so much easier had he been taught to sketch well.

It is amazing to me as I think about this... how often people need to draw as a part of their profession or as a part of their day-to-day. For example, through the years various medical doctors (and just recently my vestibular rehabilitation therapist who drew a picture of my inner ear to explain its function to me) have sketched organs or parts of the body to show medical conditions or problems they were addressing within my kiddos (or myself). Then, I was thinking that tomorrow we are meeting with our building contractor, who will be drawing rough sketches of the building plans for our new warehouse for an architect to interpret.

Last month, when we met with the man from whom we were buying our land for our warehouse, he drew out a quick sketch of the lot for us and labeled its general dimensions (as we were looking). As we're planning how we want our warehouse to look, we had my second oldest son draw a sketch of it to show to the building contractor. Our son could do this quickly (and better than my husband or I could do), as he has gone through HOD's guide line-up through World History and can actually sketch because of it!

When I went this past fall to redo my bedroom (for the first time in over 15 years), I brought a sketch of the room, labeled with dimensions of my existing pieces of furniture. We had my boys make a sketch of this, with measurements, and text it to me on my phone, so I'd have it with me as I was shopping.

When I plan the way I want the guide to lay out, I sketch it out on paper and hand write in the boxes general notes and formatting. I keep this sample layout of a day as a ready reference the entire time I write the guide, so I can see at a glance what each box includes and any rotational items.

When I send my graphic designer the layout of the cover for the each new guide, I draw a sketch of where I want each item I desire on the cover to go. I do the same when I layout the note booking pages for him! My sketching skills are not fabulous, yet my graphic designer can tell what I'm thinking and even the mood I'm wanting to create based on my sketches.

Anyway, these are just a few random ways that drawing has been used in my life lately. So, before you skip the drawing lessons, do your kiddos a favor and look at it as a life skill instead of an art skill. Think of it as an opportunity they may never have again to hone a skill that is much more useful than it appears at first glance. No, we won't all be artists, but yes we will all need the sketching skill at various times in our lives!

P.S. I had to smile as I was just ready to click "Submit" on this post, because my older son just arrived in my room with a sketch of a box with partitions he's measured that he needs to buy to hold electric cars. His beloved brothers have broken the cars accidentally by shoving them in a box to store them, and my oldest son desires a solution for this problem (since the cars are his)! He's found a storage container that will work with the sketch and is off to purchase it. He was just showing me to be sure I was alright with buying this storage container (I'd told him if he came up with a solution, I would fund it if it wasn't very expensive). Anyway, just another quick 3-D sketching moment.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Mibellesmom]

Thanks for sharing more about it! It has definitely given me something to think about!

[Carrie]

By the way, I will share that the nature journaling sketching really fed my boys' desire to be outdoors and was well matched with the teenage years as a time needed for contemplative reflection. It actually was a soothing part of their day that they looked forward to doing, whether they were geared toward it artistically or not! It was almost like a "break" from their regular schoolwork.

Blessings,
Carrie