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Nature diaries are a well established feature of nature study with adults and older children, but what about using nature diaries for young children who cannot write or draw so well?
Can it be done successfully? The answer is yes and we show you how! We start by showing you how to help your child to make his/her own nature diary and then how to use it.
Make your own nature notebook.
Although it is easy to buy such things, the making of his/her own nature diary by a child is a worthwhile exercise in diligence and the finished article will be so much more cherished because the child made it him or her self. It is simple to do and does not need to be long: for young children it is best if each book lasts no longer than a month as younger children like change. You will need a piece of A4 card for the cover and then 8 pages of good quality cartridge paper of about 170 gsm for the pages. See resources. Fold each piece in half, including the card. Lay the pages in a pile with the card at the bottom, ensuring that all edges are flush and the folds are together. Using a sharp needle make three holes evenly spaced down the centre fold, passing through all sheets. Keeping the pages together, thread the needle with some strong thread and starting with the middle hole (and leaving long end), go down, back to the middle, up, back to the middle, three of four times. On the last time, cut the thread with plenty to spare as you approach the middle for the last time. Tie the two ends together securely. If you have a guillotine you may like to trim the edges of the book to make the pages flush. Decorate the front covers beautifully - this could be an art lesson in and of itself. Encourage the child to take great delight in his/her nature diary.
Keeping the Nature Diary Keeping a nature diary requires patience and persistency. These are good traits to be developed in young children, however the parent will need to encourage and supply with fresh ideas to be recorded. There is a need here for variety, to keep interest alive. Each entry should of course record the date. Sometimes observations will centre around the weather, or clouds, or wind. At other times on plants and others on birds, insects or animals. On other occasions there may be opportunity to study footprints in mud or snow. As each book is completed, it will form a diary of the child’s experiences and adventures in nature. However, although it is good to make such a diary, and should be encouraged, and most children will happily take up the suggestion, especially when they see the enthusiasm of others, there may be some who do not. Be careful of causing a distaste for the subject by compelling those with no real desire to record in this way to do so. These diaries will be individual. Even children within the same family may not all record the same aspect of say a nature ramble. One may have been looking up at the sky, while another studied the ground. Allow for individuality. Entries will not necessarily be works of art at this stage - that is not important. Each entry should have the date, and a simple sentence to say what was found/observed. If desired, a simple sketch/illustration can be added. Obviously the older the child the more they may wish to record. Obviously best work should be encouraged.
If your child enjoys nature studies, you will find plenty more things to learn and do in
Nature Explorers the Christian monthly nature magazine for children aged 4 to 8, all based on a 6 day Creation. Priced at: £8 for a PDF version delivered by e-mail £32 for a high quality print edition delivered to your door. Please see www.natureobservations.weebly.com for further information.
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These are very simple to make, but so effective! My mother made me a bunch for my birthday as she couldn't get out to buy me a real bunch due to the snow.
You will need: 1 sheet A4 green paper 1 sheet A4 yellow paper 1 sheet A4 orange paper Pritt stick (or other glue) scissors What to do: Start by making the leaves. Nothing here needs to be accurate. Fold the piece of green paper in half. Keeping it long ways, fold it again, approximately into thirds.
Then we need a trumpet. Use the orange paper and cut a small rectangle, about 2 inches high and 2.5 inches wide. Draw a line about half a centimetre from the bottom (of a long edge) and cut little snips from the edge to the line - giving it a fringe. Make a tube by rolling it from the short edges, and use a little glue to secure the edges together. Tuck the fringe under and put a little glue on the tabs. This can then be joined at the centre of the flower head.
Find a pretty vase!
Grandmas would love a bunch I'm sure!
It's wet, it's cold and all you want to do is hibernate... while the children are running around the house with boundless energy. You try directing them to a quiet activity, but after a few minutes they grow restless and enthusiasm fades. They keep looking out of the window,
'It's still raining', says one. 'Look at the massive puddles!' says another. Why is it children love water, and MUD? The thought of taking them out, and having wet coats and muddy boots to cope with on return fills you with dread.... know the scenario? It can be all too frequent an occurrence for us home-schooling mums. We seem to feel the 'tiredness' of home-educating when the weather is bad and the days are short. Somehow in summer it's a lot easier - as if the sun gives us energy. I know I used to hive off to an indoor play area once a week... I could sit and have an (indulgent) hot chocolate, while they crawled endlessly. However the pay-off was frequent bad colds and flu! It seemed to be a breeding place for germs and after we stopped going we never had so many colds again. So today I want to encourage you to look beyond your fatigue. To embrace winter, and the rain and the mud, for actually, it's good for you (the exercise that is!)! How can I say that? Well exercise does us all good, as does fresh air. Dare I say it, but you may even feel less tired on return. Now wouldn't that be a reason to go out if no other came to mind. Which of us doesn't wish to have more energy? Plus the fact that exercise helps us to feel less stressed. Nothing worse than sitting inside stressing and fretting - trying to get the children to be quiet, because you don't want to take them out. Better to be out giving ourselves some benefit too! Throw in the added benefit of exercise helping to keep colds at bay... now which of us enjoys having a house full of snivelling, coughing people? Then what about the benefits of everyone sleeping better for having had a 'blow through'? It can be very educational (see below). It can banish feelings of isolation. Last but not least, it burns calories...ok, we'll say no more! When you start to add it all up, there are lots of reasons to get out. The only thing I can't guarantee is that the children will be calmer when they return, but they might be! The baby may well have a nap and give you a wee break! So lets think how we can make this a regular occurrence, with the least hassle. A little organisation comes into play here. First make sure every one has the right clothes. I love Muddy Puddles waterproofs and have used them since the boys were toddlers until they grew out of them. They are so well made, truly waterproof and could be handed down. A pair of wellingtons for everyone is good too, plus waterproof gloves if you can ..Lidl have good priced ones, keep your eyes open for them.
Then think about the mud on return, Perhaps spread some newspaper down before you go. Or you could invest in a Wellington boot tray. These help to keep the mud on the tray and off your carpet. Either way, if you aren't fortunate enough to have a big porch ~ (like us) then think how to protect your hallway carpet. We were given an old rug that we put down. It doesn't look glamorous, but I am happy for them to walk in and land on it, so that we are not waiting in the rain for everyone to take off boots on the door step.
Where shall we go?
Where to go for the walk is often a problem as we are not all blessed with an open space round the corner. We certainly weren't when ours were small. What I found was that they never minded tramping the streets. Somehow, as long as there were some puddles, every one was happy! Now we have moved we do have a small area of woodland that we can walk to, round and back. This has streams they can jump in and dam up. In addition the wildlife here changes with the seasons and there is always something to see.. a new bird to hear, or a new wild flower, or the first signs of spring. Round the streets there is plenty to see too. We watched a new plot of houses being built and each day we would check their progress and got excited the day the people finally moved in. There were trains to spot and we waved to the drivers from the bridge. There was the postman to greet, neighbours to smile at, and other workmen to watch, which led to all sorts of qestions and then we would have to look up the answers when we got back home. So make it an education too. There's never a dull moment!
A hot chocolate on return is a great treat (we only treated ourselves on Friday). So come on... what's stopping you? Let's get out there! P.s. Yesterday we got saturated crossing Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on a bird watching expedition with our son. My husband and I wondered if were mad, with the wind and rain lashing in our faces. But it was worth it. We (us parents) saw many different kinds of birds and learnt much from our son and a group of fellow birdwatchers who joined us in the hide and we went home feeling great! The best reward was seeing a Kingfisher, which conveniently flew towards us and perched nearby as we crossed a river. It was my first ever sighting! Click picture for templates shown. Click the picture above and download and print the autumn templates (or make your own). Cut them out, preferably from card. There is no need to draw the detail, just the outline. Draw around the templates on an A3 piece of paper (preferably sugar paper or something firm) . You can choose just some or all the shapes. You can choose how you arrange them - random, or in a pattern. Having drawn them, with a pencil, lightly draw divisions around the shapes so that each shape is in its own section. These sections do not have to be rigid - let them flow around the shapes, but each should tesselate with the one next to it so there are no blank pieces of paper. See the picture above. With paint, first colour the shapes, then use a contrasting autumnal colour to block the spaces around them. I chose to use shades of yellow/green, but anything is possible. Once the paint is dry, use a black felt tip pen to draw around the autumn shapes, and to draw on the details (see the templates). Hang your pictures on the wall to brighten winter! A child's interpretation. Have you seen?A 70 page downloadable resources for the home-school (ages 4-7), packed with ideas for every subject! Only £2! (inc. a free copy of Autumn Maths Activities worth £1.50).
Autumn is another lovely season that inspires much creativity and opportunities for art, writing and reading and nature study. Here I give only a few ideas but maybe they will spark your imagination!
ART Leaf prints were another of our 'annual' rites of autumn. The boys loved it so much we did it until they quite old. Something about going out to find those lovely autumnal smelling leaves, picking the best specimens from as many different kinds of trees as we could, bringing them home, spreading the table with newspaper and getting out the paint. The technique is simple. Start by mixing some ready mix paint - red, brown, yellow, orange, in different shades - or if your children are older they can enjoy mixing their own shades. Get some nice thick brushes. Have some paper ready. A3 size is great, and some small pieces of newspaper. Then paint the back of the leaf (the rough side). As you do this, look at the leaves with your children: name the stalk, the veins. Talk about their purpose to carry goodness and nutrients through the plant, like our veins carry blood around our body. Feel the smooth side and turn it over and feel the veins sticking out. It's this side you will apply paint to. Having painted the leaf, place the painted side onto your paper and place a piece of newspaper on top. Press down on the newspaper firmly all over the leaf. Take off the newspaper and then gently and carefully lift of the leaf being careful not to drag it and smudge it. repeat this using different leaves and different colours. display your work. Collage work - making pictures of trees from different materials is fun too if you can. Collect old bits of paper, fabric, packaging and have some strong PVA glue to use. It's best to stick onto card as it is stiffer. ENGLISH Having been out to pick your leaves and waded through piles of crispy, fresh smelling leaves, you have the perfect setting to do some descriptive writing. Write the word 'Autumn' in the middle of a piece of paper or white board. Then together brainstorm words associated with autumn. Words like: chilly, crunchy leaves, red, brown, orange, piles of leaves, leaves falling off trees, damp, spiders - I sure your children can think of many better than these! I like to read the children autumn poems and find some words and phrases from the poems to add to our list. This helps extend their vocabulary and gives them a model to aspire to. I used to love reading my classes this one and we would learn to recite it from memory: Note the metaphor, 'the sunshine spread a carpet'. Can they think of metaphors, similes of their own? October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came - The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band. Author: George Cooper Encourage your child to use these words to write about Autumn. It doesn't have to be a long piece of writing. It might be a poem, though I always find poetry writing doesn't suit all children and If I sense it isn't appropriate I don't push it. I always emphasise quality over quantity. Having written it, then edit with your child and then let them write it our neatly, or even type it our on the computer. Display their writing alongside the leaf prints. It right cheers the home! READING AND NATURE STUDY A good trip to the library should furnish you with plenty of material for studying autumn. best of all, aim to turn your house into your own good library, filled with good quality books. There is so much to learn from the biology of trees and plants and what happens to them in autumn - why do trees lose their leaves? Why do the plants die back? Then there are animals: studying squirrels - why do they bury their nuts? and spiders - why are they so obvious in autumn? Can children learn to identify trees by their leaves/fruit? Do they know that not all fruit is edible? What is the purpose of fruit? From here can spring more writing, and lots of reading - but don't make everything into a 'lesson' - let it just be natural finding out. You don't need to do a worksheet on everything. Just feed in questions and encourage them to find answers by going to look for them, with them.
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Six weeks of autumnal activtities for your home-school covering Scripture, Maths and English (to supplement your exisiting curriculum), Science, Geogrphy, Art and History. Only £2 plus a FREE copy of 'Autumn Maths Activities for ages 4-6'.
Useful Resources from this site:
Two pictures of squirrels with some questions to answer.
Acorn poem handwriting sheet
Four sheets: Copy underneath and colour the pictures and turn them into a little book tracing a tree through a year.
For older children there is mushroom identification, the study of the seasons and lengthening days and the studying migration of birds, for starters.
For a general science book that covers weather and seasons I reccomend Apologia:
If you have enjoyed these activities, you will find plenty more in
Nature Explorers the Christian monthly nature magazine for children aged 4 to 8, all based on a 6 day Creation. Priced at: £8 for a PDF version delivered by e-mail £30 for a high quality print edition delivered to your door. Please see www.natureobservations.weebly.com for further information. Advert Just £5 for a fun filled educational Spring! Over 60 pages bursting with nature study and craft ideas that you can do without expensive outings or equipment/materials. Read more information. If you have enjoyed these activities, you will find plenty more in
Nature Explorers the Christian monthly nature magazine for children aged 4 to 8, all based on a 6 day Creation. Priced at: £8 for a PDF version delivered by e-mail £30 for a high quality print edition delivered to your door. Please see www.natureobservations.weebly.com for further information. Egg box daffodils: http://www.freekidscrafts.com/egg-carton-daffodils/ Keeping tadpoles: http://natureobservationswithdafydd.weebly.com/nature-notes/archives/02-2016 Nature Dairy: http://goexplorenature.com/2014/02/nature-journals-for-beginners.html I have to say from a professional point of view the standard of this example is not very high. Encourage your children to produce neater work. |
Welcome!After studying for an Early Years Specialism degree (B.Ed. Hons), and teaching in mainstream education, I home-educated my own children, after my husband and I were persuaded of the need to take responsibility for bringing up our children 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' (Ephesians 6:4) We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
This costs the purchaser nothing extra. In this way I can continue to provide free resources. Thank you for your support. Looking for a read-aloud?
Here's one I heartlily reccomend for ages 10 +. Search
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