Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.
- Albert Einstein
Nature Walks & Observations
Dear Parents
As you know fostering a connection with nature is one of the things we are intentional about at Ambleside. Nature Study and Nature Observation are an integral part of what we do. There are a myriad of incredible benefits to the children, if could but know them, and young people who have the opportunity to grow up amidst wild creation are shaped in ways that serve them for the rest of their lives.
This is an area where you as parent can dramatically influence and teach your child. Here are some resources, thoughts and ideas to help you as a parent partner with us in cultivating a love for nature, in the teaching the ability to engage with creation and in enabling your child to get the most out of our nature walks together.
FOR CLARITY:
There is a distinction between what we call Nature Study, and Nature Observation/Nature Walks.
During our school week we have set aside time for a Nature Study Lesson, during which our children are guided in the deeper study of a specific specimen. This might be a plant, a leaf, a bird, insect or animal, or any number of delightful objects given us in Nature. During this lesson the students are taught about the specimen, given the opportunity to observe it deeply and carefully, and then usually afforded the chance to sketch or paint it in their Nature Journal.
Nature Observation Walks are of a different essence - these are times for the children to engage with nature as a whole, to see all these specimens in their context; times to observe and to notice many things rather than to study deeply one object. It is these times that you are parents will be involved in, and so the resources below focus on Nature Observation/Nature Walks more than on nature study. It is only with the help of each parent that we can grow up each child in this space.
"Every child has a natural interest in the living things about him which it is the business of his parents to encourage."
- Charlotte Mason
How can you help your child?
Click Here for
an excerpt from Charlotte Mason on Nature Study
