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LaMere Academy
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| Posted: Oct 09 2006 at 7:24pm | IP Logged
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How often do you require your children to make entries? My children really go in spurts and lately no one wants to work in theirs. I even brought mine out the other day to sketch some things in our garden and no one wanted to join me. Even when we take nature hikes, they'd rather run around instead of sit and draw. Any advice? Do you let your children skip entries if they're not in the mood?
Thanks!
~Becky
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Rebecca
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| Posted: Oct 09 2006 at 8:39pm | IP Logged
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Becky, We bring ours along on our more formal nature study outings one afternoon a week. Oftentimes, the kids are too busy exploring to draw or write so they take them home and work on their entries. Sometimes they will briefly sketch a picture while we are out and color it in with paints or pencils when they return home.
I do not require them to enter anything in their books but it is strongly encouraged  . I liked the recommendation in Wild Days to offer food and snacks to those who have sketched in their journals  "There are cookies for those who have drawn simple and compound leaves! " Seems to be pretty good motivation! 
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: Oct 09 2006 at 10:55pm | IP Logged
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Rebecca wrote:
| "There are cookies for those who have drawn simple and compound leaves! " Seems to be pretty good motivation! |
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Rebecca, my boys would be so jealous! I only offer a smiley face next to their names on our dry erase board (for them to show Daddy when he gets home)...cookies would sound much better to them!
I kind of deal with this another way. Since my boys are also more inclined to rush through a sketching so they can go run and play (who wouldn't want to on days like today), I've settled (for now) for just letting the boys find something for our day's nature study and then take photos from several angles with our new digital camera. I don't lug the journals and loose paper and box of colored pencils out with us 'cause I always end up toting them around and trying to coax a toddler and a preschooler and a dog to stay with us at the same time.
I love the vivid descriptions you read of nature studies where a mother spreads out and then sits upon on a lovely blanket while the very disciplined children wander off to find a subject for study. Then said children gradually come back to Mother, ready to sit with her on the blanket and busily sketch their subjects with great enthusiasm while Mother pours from a thermos of hot cocoa for everyone... Ohhhh, heaven, I think!! Reality for me would be a mussed up blanket, covered with dirt, a screaming toddler who won't come near the blanket because the dog is there, excitedly running back and forth over it until the entire width is about 1 foot by between 3 and 4 feet...a mound. The 3yo would be crying because he couldn't get on the blanket since his boots are already caked with mud. The 5 and 6yo would be nowhere in sight, off exploring the barn and causing me to fret so much over their safety that I forget all about nature study and am instead overcome with worry and frustration ...not to mention the fact that I've forgotten the cups for the yummy hot cocoa  ... okay, sorry...I went a little off the deep end there. I guess I just wanted to clarify that Nature Study is not always as simple as it SHOULD be or COULD be, but it can always be fun if I remember to keep it simple and wait for the lovely CM illustration to happen when the littles are not so little.
I usually carry the camera and the older 2 usually carry things to examine their specimens (nets, magnifying glasses, bug boxes, etc). The boys usually find something to study right away. Last week the 6yo chose some interesting mushrooms growing about 20 feet from our front door and the 5yo chose the sky-high drying sunflowers in our garden that we grew from seeds this spring. They both took their own pictures and then ran off to discover new things and play. All said and done in about 10 min. I had set the timer on our doorstep and after 30 min it went off. We went inside and after getting everyone washed up and back into "lesson" mode, we printed out our photos with the new photo lab (it sits right next to the computer and is smaller than my sewing machine!) ...I can't tell you what a huge joy this brings to them, to see their photos right-away. Up until we splurged on it and it was a BIG splurge for us, they had to wait months for their photos to come back to us because I only went into town to get all our rolls of film developed a few times a year. Anyway, before we had a photo lab the boys had to draw their subjects and it really wasn't so bad. We just did our Nature Journals less frequently. We did the nature "study" per se but recorded our findings less because the boys seemed to be more co-operative when they only had to sit and draw every once in a while...they're still so little!)
Anyway, with this new way of managing things, they print off their photos, glue them in their journals, draw their subjects (on the page opposite their photos) while sitting at the table and then we look in the reference guides and do some reading and narrating. The baby plays in her pack-n-play and the 3yo is excited to be back inside, at a center in the schoolroom (so he lets us work in peace). All in all, I find I can focus more on helping the boys with this and that and they are a lot less frustrated than when we were outside and they were distracted and I was off chasing the littles instead of helping them stay focused.
Whew...how's that for a long-winded explanation?!
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Kristine
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Kelly
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| Posted: Oct 09 2006 at 11:56pm | IP Logged
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Kristine, the photo lab has been a HUGE asset to our home school efforts, too. It has really spruced up our notebooks and lapbooks. Now why hadn't I thought of using it for nature journals? Duh. Thanks for the inspiration!
Kelly in FL
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marihalojen
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| Posted: Oct 10 2006 at 7:13am | IP Logged
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We haven't been quite as good this year (as previous years) at sketching in our notebooks, Marianna and I both have a nice thick spiral bound art paper Journal. (Just from the crafty section of WalMart but the thicker paper is sooo much nicer than the computer stuff we were using before)
Last year, I made an effort for Friday to be either Field Trips or Nature Days of which our favorite Nature Sketching days were when we went out for lunch at local cafes on the water and split a sandwich and filled up the ashtray with water and spent the afternoon painting pelicans and mangroves and seashells.
I keep the Journals in the back window of the car so if we ever get stranded out - wrecks on bridges are frequent causes, as is dh in a WestMarine store - we have something to do.
I really like the idea of including photos, CVS is close by, I should print some of our digitals up soon.
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~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Mary G
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| Posted: Oct 10 2006 at 7:47am | IP Logged
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marihalojen wrote:
I keep the Journals in the back window of the car so if we ever get stranded out - wrecks on bridges are frequent causes, as is dh in a WestMarine store - we have something to do.
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Jennifer -- this is a definite "duh" moment (do we have an emoticon for whacking oneself up-side the head?)....keeping them in the car would allow for great downtime journaling....
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Nature journals?
