Bookish Family: nature study

Showing posts with label nature study. Show all posts

Free Nature Books by Alice L. Hopf

I love the surprise of picking up an interesting book at a used book sale and discovering a new favorite writer. Many years ago, when I was buying up all the old-fashioned living nature books I could find for $1 or less, I picked up a copy of Biography of an Ant by Alice L. Hopf.

We started reading it at morning time and everyone was transfixed by this simple and powerful story of an ant's life. Not only was the story exciting, but we all learned so much. And we began to observe the truth of the story in the real world when we took time to notice ants in our backyard.

This was a living book. The ideas inspired us to notice and wonder. There were so many facts in the books, but they all hung on the ideas so they were delightful and palatable instead of dry and forgettable.

While searching archive.org for some new living books to use in our nature studies this year, I came across many of Alice Hopf's titles that are available to be borrowed online for an hour and read through a browser or device or even cast to a tv. I've added them to my Best Free Nature Lore Books List or check them out below.

Unfortunately, Biography of an Ant is not on this list, nor are many other of her books. But I'll just keep her on my book sale hunting list and she will be another author whose books make my heart skip a beat when I finally find one!

Alice L. Hopf

All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

If you haven't visited my Best Free Nature Lore Books List, it is a great place to find wonderful nature lore books to download from Google or the Internet Archive or borrow from the Internet Archive for one hour at a time. If you don't like reading on a device, some can be found inexpensively used and a few are starting to come back into print!

5th Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans, 2020-2021

How do I have a 5th grader? I remember daydreaming about homeschooling when he was still 1-year old. I had so many plans, hopes, and dreams for him. I'm so glad that I held off the bulk of academics until I had time to read books and blogs about all types of homeschooling - unschooling, life-schooling, road-schooling, and more "eclectic" styles that blended what worked from many different styles and traditions.

Now, 10 years after meeting my first baby boy, I feel very settled in a lifestyle of homeschooling that works for us. I like to describe it as two hours or so of old-fashioned tutoring plus unschooling in a rich learning environment . . . aka the Charlotte Mason Method. I haven't found Mason's method to be limiting or rigid, but instead have found it to be an excellent foundation for my children to grow their love and appreciation for many branches of knowledge to inspire their passions, and to force them (gently) out of their comfort zones to experience the interconnectedness of knowledge.

Recap and Review of Kindergarten Homeschool Plans, 2019-2020

For the third time around, I got to enjoy spending meaningful time with my 5-year-old as I created a space for a quiet growing time before starting formal schooling.

Although I didn't faithfully follow all of my plans, we read a lot of new-to-her books that she loved, learned MANY new songs and poems, and also completed more crafts than I would have done without planning it out ahead of time. On to the review . . . .

7 Things I'm Thankful for This Week

It has been a crazy few weeks with a lot of mixed feelings for everyone in the family and not a few sibling conflicts. But we are still finding a lot of things to enjoy and be thankful for amidst all the strangeness.

Here are a few of the things in our own home that I've been thankful for this week:

30+ Poems for Spring with Nature Study Links

When spring is finally in the air I cannot wait to get outside and experience nature on a regular basis again. While we do make an effort to enjoy the outdoors in every season, winter has us inside much more than any other time of the year.

Choosing great poems (and read alouds!) that evoke the pleasures, sounds, smells and wonders of the springtime woods and fields is a great way to prepare and get even more out of our springtime excursions.

I hope you and your family can enjoy some of these poems this spring. May they inspire you (as they do me) to notice the daffodils, skunk cabbage, nesting birds and other joys of the season!

Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Day with ages 9, 8, 5, and 1-year old

There are so many ways to homeschool! It is freeing (and just a tiny bit terrifying) to me that there are so many "right" ways to do this job for our unique situations. That is why I love reading homeschool day-in-the-life posts.

Every year, Simple Homeschool's linkup leaves me inspired and encouraged (and usually with a few more books on my want-to-read list). I hope you enjoy our 2020 day in our homeschooling life! Past years are here: 2019 and 2018.

10+ Living Books to Read Aloud before a Florida Beach Vacation

This winter my family is escaping the ice, cold, and snow of Pennsylvania to road-trip it down to the Sunshine State for the chance to adventure at the beach and enjoy the out-of-doors. I can't wait!

I've always had family--aunts, uncles, cousins, and a grandmother--who has lived in Florida, so I have made the trek down there to visit them and enjoy the beautiful beaches many times. But my kids have never been to Florida before and their only beach experience thus far has been in Delaware, where my husband's extended family lives near the beach.

As a nerdy, bookish homeschooling mother, you better believe that I have been planning for over a year (!?!?!?) how to prepare and enjoy this awesome opportunity to explore a different place--with an ecosystem, coastal geography, and regional history so different from our own home state.

Below I've gathered together the books we have been weaving into the rhythms of our homeschool days to learn about beaches, marine life, and Florida history and people. Some have been our lunchtime read alouds, some have been enjoyed at our daily morning time, and others have formed the basis of our science or history lessons.