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hereinantwerp
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| Posted: Dec 17 2005 at 4:51am | IP Logged
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Ijust thought I'd ask for advice.
I am very, very frustrated with our nature study efforts. So frustrated I've given up, really. Not sure if I should try again or just let it go.
Our situation: We live in a small European apartment with no yard. There are large parks nearby, but they're just NOT NICE. The soil smells. We did that experiment where you take soil samples and stir them into water then let them settle, and the whole kitchen reeked like something died by the end of the day. Which made me paranoid about taking any more samples! The ponds are full of goo and clogged with litter. Stinging nettle grows everywhere. Honestly, I go and I just feel discouraged. And as these are the largest, nicest parks in town, I can't think driving somewhere else would be much better. OK, Europe has it's good points. The history and art and architecture ARE wonderful. I don't want to just complain. I'm hoping soon we could move to a place with a garden and I could control the litter factor . . .
Furthermore, my older ds is just not into nature. Despite my efforts for years (more efforts when we lived back in America), there's never been a "spark" lit for him. He likes robots and computers. His head is up in the clouds, never paying attention to his surroundings. My younger son shows more interest.
I want my children to have this wonderful, outdoor, CM childhood experience, but I'm feeling totally disillusioned right now!
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MacBeth
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Probably at the beach...
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| Posted: Dec 17 2005 at 7:23pm | IP Logged
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Emergency Nature Study fix:
*Find natural history museum
*Just go for a walk; forget about nature...just enjoy all the scenery
*Put bird feeder in window
*Hike somewhere (Antwerp is a major port...can you just walk docks somewhere?)
*Look for sea birds feeding
*Would ds be interested in mineralogy? See http://www.minerant.org/
*Is there a botanical garden? I see there is a Royal Botanical Society, but they don't seem to be very active. 
*Is there an astronomy club in Antwerp? The Catholic University at Leuven has Astronomy lectures for the public. Can you get to the Netherlands? (I have a hard time with distances in Europe--It all looks so close, but I was thinking that the Flemish regions would all be fairly close. It's a little tricky reading the websites from the region. I'm happily reading in French, when it switches to Dutch, and I'm lost  Maybe a lecture in Dutch would be a problem...unless it had pictures and telescopes!!) .
*If everything is polluted and smelly (typical city), would ds be interested in microscopy? I bet he'd be able to catalogue many things. Perhaps he could hook up an optic camera to a 'scope for his younger siblings...right up his alley, and fun for them!
*I hate to encourage the young to take an interest in beer, but perhaps a study of the natural yeasts of lambic country would be of interest to all. Can you visit an active brewing monastery? See this link for tour info.
Overall, I think you could use the pollution situation to your advantage, and discuss the problems that plague cities, historically and presently. Keep getting out, as you can, and even if you are walking on city streets, enjoy the sights. You don't have to ask the kids to get involved, but if you are enjoying yourself, you can narrate the scene to them...maybe they'll pick up on the enthusiasm.
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
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Sarah
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| Posted: Dec 18 2005 at 10:32am | IP Logged
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MacBeth-
I think these are good suggestions for all of us who feel this way about nature study. Having a bunch of babies/toddlers with you all the time seems to limit my nature studies. Although our area isn't all polluted parks, I have a husband who works a ton and therefore I'm usually on my own with my adventures.
Thanks for reminding us of some more simple things that can be done. Its easy to feel guilty that our kids aren't hanging out in gorgeous nature scenes!
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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hereinantwerp
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| Posted: Dec 19 2005 at 9:44am | IP Logged
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MacBeth wrote:
Emergency Nature Study fix:
*Find natural history museum
*Just go for a walk; forget about nature...just enjoy all the scenery
*Put bird feeder in window
*Hike somewhere (Antwerp is a major port...can you just walk docks somewhere?)
*Look for sea birds feeding
*Would ds be interested in mineralogy? See http://www.minerant.org/
*Is there a botanical garden? I see there is a Royal Botanical Society, but they don't seem to be very active.
*Is there an astronomy club in Antwerp? The Catholic University at Leuven has Astronomy lectures for the public. Can you get to the Netherlands? (I have a hard time with distances in Europe--It all looks so close, but I was thinking that the Flemish regions would all be fairly close. It's a little tricky reading the websites from the region. I'm happily reading in French, when it switches to Dutch, and I'm lost Maybe a lecture in Dutch would be a problem...unless it had pictures and telescopes!!) .
*If everything is polluted and smelly (typical city), would ds be interested in microscopy? I bet he'd be able to catalogue many things. Perhaps he could hook up an optic camera to a 'scope for his younger siblings...right up his alley, and fun for them!
*I hate to encourage the young to take an interest in beer, but perhaps a study of the natural yeasts of lambic country would be of interest to all. Can you visit an active brewing monastery? See this link for tour info.
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Thank you for the different ideas!
Shows me that I need to be creative & "think outside the box"--my brain's been a bit numb lately since the baby.
Maybe the microscope idea would appeal to my son. He's more into "science science".
There is a botanical garden but it's not real nice (not sure why they don't keep things up here, parks are the same). And the river--NOTHING lives in that river. Not even algae! So there are no birds or anything. Pitiful, huh!
Part of it may be my own attitude. I was soooo spoiled growing up in the beautiful Northwest US--! I grew up in Idaho, and camped every summer right on the Lewis-Clark trail . . .. I also had the thought, after I typed this, that maybe we could do nature study in doses, like when we visit the states this summer, or if we go on vacation someplace "wild" in Europe (the Alps?  ). Both dh and I prefer that kind of vacation to the city, even though there's all this stuff we *should* see.
For now it is hard for us to get around. We haven't had a car for a few years, I hope this will be remedied soon. We hope to buy one soon after xmas, then taking field trips will be much easier. Things look close here but going places is so expensive! I expected we would do all these neat "field trips" living here but it hasn't been that way. Though there is a lot to experience right in this city.
Thank you again!!
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Sarah
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| Posted: Dec 19 2005 at 10:58am | IP Logged
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hereinantwerp wrote:
| I was soooo spoiled growing up in the beautiful Northwest US--! I grew up in Idaho, and camped every summer right on the Lewis-Clark trail . . .. ! |
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I know what you mean. . .I grew up in Salt Lake City where you could be in God's country hiking, fishing, etc. within minutes/ no more than an hour for beautiful campsites. Now I live in the armpit on the US (it has a different advantage-nice Catholic folk). It is a nature culture shock, however.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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MaryM
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| Posted: Dec 19 2005 at 3:24pm | IP Logged
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Sarah wrote:
hereinantwerp wrote:
| I was soooo spoiled growing up in the beautiful Northwest US--! I grew up in Idaho, and camped every summer right on the Lewis-Clark trail . . .. ! |
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I know what you mean. . .I grew up in Salt Lake City where you could be in God's country |
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I grew up in Idaho also - southeastern, about 100 miles from Yellowstone! Beautiful - yes.
BTW, I think your idea of getting nature study in doses is a good idea and is workable. You also could create your own smaller in-home environments to focus on in between time - like planter boxes, aquarium, terrarium, etc.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Is Nature Study just not for me?
