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Mary Chris
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| Posted: Jan 10 2009 at 7:33am | IP Logged
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In the fall of few of us here in NoVa took inspiration from Alice Gunther's lovely book A Haystack Full of Needles and met over a course of eight weeks for nature study (and a lot of touch football   ) It was wonderful! I can't even begin to tell you how many wonderful blessings came out of the group.
I would like to encourage all of you to try to start a nature club/get together this spring....even if you have to drive a ways. We had moms that drove an hour each way to join us. Here is what we did to get the group started, first we picked a day and location. Next, I sent out an email to all the 4Realers whose emails I have in my address book. (if I missed you, send me your email) We would try to say Grace together as a group and then eat lunch. One day we did birds, we had nature sketching, made bagel bird feeders and read books about John Audubon. We did a nature scavenger hunt, hike to the pond, St. Martin skit and lantern making and did I mention football???
Anyway, I'm telling you, "You have to try and do this!" If you have a group like this, please share how you got it started and what you do.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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MaryM
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| Posted: Jan 10 2009 at 9:56pm | IP Logged
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Oh good - I'd love to see some brainstorming from lots of folks on potential topics to cover in these club sessions. When I first heard the the NOVA ladies were doing this cool nature club, I wanted to know more. After talking to Mary Chris a few months ago I started thinking about the nature centers that were options for us to use here to do something like this. There are some great centers for the nature study part, but none of them have open space for play (no grass fields, etc.). How vital to you think the play (football or whatever) was to the success of the club so far Mary Chris?
Even if we can't add in the play part, we are still going to give this a try this spring. So I would love to see everyone post ideas for topics that you think would be fun in spring for a group and easy to implement. Thanks.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: Jan 12 2009 at 8:27am | IP Logged
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For us, the football was spontaneous, a result of more boys than girls for once. I think the nature center we meet at is one of the only ones in our area with a big, grassy open space.
When picking our location, we tried to chose a spot that is central for all of us. That can be a hard task when you have a large geographical area and a group of folks living in the far flung reaches of that area. Our spot is just off a major highway and near some major mini-highways. It is pretty easy to get to.
The spot we chose has a great grassy area, plus lots of hiking trails, a pond, trees, and a bird feeding station. There is also a small nature center with naturalists on staff, lots of study guides, hands on area, and some snakes, lizards and turtles. There is also a covered pavillon for eating lunch, doing a craft or just to sit and chat. We were also lucky enough to have a stage area for our St. Martin play.
I hope we can do some pond study this spring. Concentrating on turtles, frogs, plant life and birds that visit or live near the pond. The pond unfortunately is very close to a busy road with speedy drivers, so we do worry about safety when we go there.
I am looking forward to doing some brainstorming together on this project.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Rachel May
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| Posted: Jan 12 2009 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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MaryM wrote:
| How vital to you think the play (football or whatever) was to the success of the club so far Mary Chris? |
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I think it's pretty important since the kids we were meeting with were people we only saw because they were at Nature study. We rarely see them otherwise. However, unstructured time as opposed to football would surely answer. I think a hike or fishing might have worked too...
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Lisa R
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| Posted: Jan 12 2009 at 3:05pm | IP Logged
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Oh,this has my attention as we're getting ready to move back to NOVA this summer. I hope we can be part of this!! It's going to be a loooong 7 months of waiting!
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Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Mackfam
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This is an idea I've been rolling around in my mind, Mary Chris and I'm so excited to see you're glowing review of it and how well it went in your area!
There is a local birding/pond/naturalist store here that has a beautiful nature area they've landscaped. It's specifically a nature area and they offer tours. I thought this might be one afternoon for a group.
I was thinking of a birding afternoon as well.
Do you guys meet quarterly, Mary Chris?
Do you offer a book list a few weeks before the nature outing so that children can have some time to research the topic?
Please share any other plans you have, Mary Chris!!! Do you plan a craft for each afternoon outing?
I can't wait to discuss this more!!! And, I'm so encouraged to hear how well it went in your group!!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Rachel May
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Mackfam wrote:
| Please share any other plans you have, Mary Chris!!! |
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I'm fervently hoping this season will include a bluebell walk. Since we move, I always think it's neat to do the things we can't do anywhere else. (Lisa, I'm sorry we'll miss you!)
I think the idea of planning ahead is a great one. Maybe there should be one teachers' planning meeting at the beginning of the study to come up with a general theme or some resources or crafts....
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Rachel
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Lisa R
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Rachel May wrote:
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Oh, me too, Rachel! 
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Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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MaryM
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| Posted: Jan 20 2009 at 1:09am | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
Do you guys meet quarterly, Mary Chris?
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I think the NOVA group is meeting monthly (but not through the winter). Monthly is what we will probably do though I have considered a weekly one here - like weekly for 4 weeks, then a longer break. Sometimes a theme that is specific to a season/specific time of year might be better accomplished with closer intervals. It might be more like a co-op then. Still thinking here.
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Mary M. in Denver
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Rachel May
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I've been doing an art co-op with one friend with the timing similar to waht you are describing, Mary. We did a few weeks before Christmas and I think we have 5 left now. Having it weekly helps us keep on task and remembering our theme. What theme do you think you'll choose in the spring?
The fall nature study in NOVA was weekly since MC had read the book and that was what Alice suggested. I really liked that although I think it was hard for any of us to really commit to all 6 Mondays in a row. Still we had a good turn out every week, and the weeks I couldn't go I would have gone if I could have, iykwim. 
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Rachel
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Mary Chris
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Jennifer, I am sorry I left your question hanging like that, thank you Rachel and Mary for answering.
We met over a period of seven weeks, St. Michael to Martinmas, at least one Monday was a holiday. We had good weather for the most part. One cold, rainy, Monday it was just Irene, Jenn and I plus children huddling under the pavillion. Actually, I think the girls were huddled in our van.
My vision was getting together with other catholic families and sharing a day in nature. I want to give my children (and myself) the oppurtunity to get together with other like minded friends as often a possible. I did not have a real set plan to the group. There was no committment about attending, if you could come, you did.
We came up with the plans for each get together on the fly. Truthfully, my life was to crazy at the time to think about book suggestions or anything else. The group evolved each week as suggestions were made and responsibilities taken on.
We did not do a craft each week. We tried to make lanterns, but did I mention that we did most of this on the fly????? We also made the bagel bird feeders. One week we printed off a bunch of bird coloring sheets.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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MaryM
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Thanks for jogging my memory - I do recall you said it was weekly. That's probably why I was leaning toward being able to do it like that.
For late winter early spring I was considering a focus on tracking - looking for tracks and traces of animals, identification, seasonal behaviors, etc. With the possiblity of snow until quite late into the spring for us and the fact that it's often damp that time of year makes it a good time for tracks.
Another thought was to try using this homeschool birding curriculum from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Splitting the cost with other families would make it more of an option for us.
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Mary M. in Denver
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TRoddy
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Hi,
I am new to the forums here. Saw this topic and thought I would post about my St Francis Nature Club.
Last Fall, I started a St Francis Nature Club in SE VA at the local Botanical Garden (inspiration from Alice's book, of course!). We meet 1x/week during the nice months (mostly May-Oct). We have lunch together at the garden's picnic shelter. Before lunch, we say the Angelus and meal Blessing. After lunch, we say the Prayer of St Francis and then take a nature walk to our designated area for that week (we do nature study at different areas of the garden each week). I bring nature guides, sketch pads, pencils, camera, etc and encourage others to do the same. The kids play and explore the area for about 1-2 hours and then we walk back to the parking lot. It is a nice relaxing time. Since the ages vary so greatly, we do not usually plan anything structured. The kids are free to do as they choose with a little encouragement. We also have a special potluck lunch and cake during the week of St Francis' feast day. And each family brings something to donate to the local SPCA.
Nature clubs are easy to plan and a nice way to get together with other HSing Catholics in the area! I am especially grateful to Alice for writing that wonderful book!
God bless,
Traci, VA
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Nature Study Clubs, A How to
