Review ~ Footprints Nature Quest

Wendy and Shirley, veteran homeschool moms and authors of the amazing South African Little Footprints, Footprints On Our Land and Footprints Into 21st Century curriculums, have launched their latest curriculum called

Footprints Nature Quest

This curriculum covers South Africa’s natural biomes, Geography and Natural Sciences. The focus is on the unique flora, fauna and other natural features of each distinct area. The curriculum takes you on a journey of discovery exploring the depths of the dark kelp forests of the west coast as well as the diverse east coast with its warm ocean and lush vegetation. Your family will uncover the secrets of animals and plants of the Nama Karoo, and meander through the rich floral kingdom of the fynbos biome. You will marvel at South Africa’s forests, rivers, mountains, bushveld, and the vast Kalahari desert.

I was delighted to preview their parent guide when I proofread it, and the content, the flow of the narrative and the details of the background information they provided utterly enchanted me! Here is my review:

What age groups?

Footprints Nature Quest is a literature-based unit study aimed at children between the ages of 8-16 years. Footprints Nature Quest also includes the option to buy a package of beautiful picture book stories for families with children in the 4-8 years age category. These books will include your younger children in the different safaris of each biome, perfect for multi-level home education. Anyone interested in nature will thoroughly enjoy this curriculum!

How long will this curriculum take?

Your family will experience an incredible 2-year+ safari-style adventure through the spectacular nature of South Africa! This is a stand-alone curriculum, but it will dovetail perfectly alongside the Footprints On Our Land curriculum, where it may take a little longer to complete. It is very flexible and parents can include the Nature Quest reading as part of a weekly nature study cycle. I would encourage parents to take it slowly, savour the books, include wide margins to follow “rabbit trails”, take trips and invest in your children’s passions and interests.

How is it written?

Footprints Nature Quest parent guide is written in a gentle conversational style and I really loved that the story flowed as a safari journey following local guides. These guides are men and women of different nature careers, providing children with vocational inspiration, and there are a few adorable animal guides in other biomes. These guides will even take your family travelling back in time using a “time machine” to learn captivating facts about human settlements in South Africa.

What is included in the package?

As with all the other Footprints curriculums, the Footprints Nature Quest curriculum provides a Charlotte Mason-styled education with a collection of great living books, beautiful picture books, exceptional reference books and their in-depth parent guide.

The Footprints Nature Quest parent guide provides useful background information and well-researched facts about the details and complexities of each biome, as well as other enriching resources, lists of videos, movies and documentaries suited to the topics. Their course website includes additional links and references.

They have collected a wonderful selection of “living books” that bring subjects to life through stories, biographies or autobiographies. These authors share their knowledge and passionate insights from their experiences, as well as descriptions of this beautiful country and its natural inhabitants. These living books, unlike textbooks, are alive with details and will draw your family into the story as if you were there! Their picture books for younger readers are so beautiful and well-written, enchanting even the older children and teenagers in their families.

No need for worksheets, tests and exams?

The curriculum guide provides prompts and options for a wide variety of meaningful assignments such as narrations, timeline work, map work, writing assignments, practical activities and hands-on activities that will enrich your children’s learning and experiences. These assignments replace the need for traditional school-type quizzes, busywork and tests. They suggest relevant outings, trips and holidays for family explorations for each region, as well as highlight important environmental issues and voluntary organizations. 

You can read more about Footprints Nature Quest, costs and how to order here: South African Homeschool Curriculum – Footprints Nature Quest 

Footprints Nature Quest literature-based curriculum will stimulate rich family conversations, inspire purposeful work, offer potential career and environmental work opportunities, all in an atmosphere of joy and delight that leads to a love of learning. 

I highly recommend Footprints Nature Quest!

Blessings, Nadene

Don’t Teach Nature Lessons!

Nature walks should be somewhat spontaneous opportunities for discovery. Learn from my early homeschooling mistakes and DO NOT treat nature study like an outdoor class time — it kills the child’s natural curiosity and delight!  My older children eventually refused to participate in nature study.  Instead, look for ways to include regular weekly or daily outings in nature and provide some simple tools and methods to encourage your children to notice, explore, engage and enjoy nature.

Charlotte Mason bemoaned,

“We are awaking to the use of nature-knowledge, but how we spoil things by teaching them!” (Formation of Character, p. 396).

Of course mom, you can set a topic of focus and guide your students to look for something specific, but be sure to give them lots of opportunities to observe closely and carefully for themselves with a minimum of input from you.  May I suggest that the reference books are kept in your nature study bag to be used only when a child asks for additional information? Allow your child’s natural curiosity and let them study elements and objects “off-topic” and follow their lead!

“As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child.  Every day’s walk gives him something to enter …” (Vol 1, p.54-55)

Here are some of my Nature Study posts, practical tips and free downloads from my archives:

Our Theme for the Day and refreshed Daily Themes provides a simple visual reminder to include all the “extras” in our weeks such as Nature Study, Poetry, Fine Arts, Creative Writing, Geography and Science. 

My three Smash This Nature Journals provide loads of fun, simple, unusual and unique nature journal prompts which inspire joyful nature experiences.  Order and print your Smash Nature Journals to encourage fabulous, fun nature activities!

Making time for nature study with free nature photo of the week chart and Ambleside Online Nature Study Schedule.

Free John Muir Nature Quotes & free Copywork pages include about 10 pages of John Muir quotes in either print or cursive using Charlotte Mason’s copywork & dictation principles.(Of course this is only for handwriting practice and not as part of the nature study lesson!)

How to create a Perpetual Nature Journal with explanations and links on how to create your own perpetual nature journal.

How to make a nature study bag and a sewing tutorial with simple ideas of what to include in a nature study bag.

How to create a Nature Study notice board or shelf and a post on how a simple Nature Tray provides a wonderful way to display the week’s nature finds for collection, further study and drawing in nature journals.

John Muir Law encourages how to cultivate curiosity in nature study 3 ways.  He believes that the key to developing a closer connection with nature is by deliberately enhancing your powers of observation and wonder.  He says,“Attention is what the fabric of love is made from.”  This post explains his method.

I trust that these ideas and suggestions inspire you to relax or upgrade your Nature Studies in your homeschooling!

All in grace, for grace, Nadene

Fun Activities For Kids At Home

Here are some creative and fun learning activities links from my blog for your children to enjoy at home as we move into unprecedented changes in our lives with self-isolation and lockdowns due to the global covid-19 outbreak.

May I offer a few practical suggestions with these at-home activities?

• Look for items that your children would enjoy.
• Plan for 1 activity per day.
• Keep things informal.  Don’t try to do school at home!
• Take your time.
• Don’t rush through a list.
• If something sparks joy and delight — stay there and look for other similar activities rather than moving on to the next thing on your list.
• Repeat.  Especially young children love to repeat an enjoyable activity.  Don’t be afraid to print things out and do it again if your child loved it.
• Photograph and video them doing their activities.
• Display their finished work each week on a door or shelf “gallery”.
• Share their activities with grandparents and social groups to stay connected.

So here we go ~

1. Paper dolls and paper men from different historical eras to colour in and cut out.  Use these as puppets for narrations.
2. Narrations are the child “telling back” what he heard in a read-aloud. Narrations are the cornerstone of a Charlotte Mason education.  Children must pay close attention while they listen to the story so that they can make it their own and express what they remember and understood as they narrate.   I have collected over 100 narration ideas for every learning style.  In this Ebook, you will find lists of suggested activities for audio, visual, kinesthetic and creative learners along with templates and printouts.  You can see examples of the templates and ideas in the original post.
3. Letterboxing – a great “treasure hunting” geography game to practice in your house and garden. Letterboxing is an intriguing mix of treasure hunting, art, navigation, and exploring skills.
4. Current Affairs is the study of social, political and important happenings in the world at the present time.  Use this Current Affairs download with calendar pages, maps, flags and symbols to chart the events around the world during the coronavirus crisis.
5. Nature Study and enjoy the great outdoors with fun nature activities in three Smash Nature Journals.  Go to my  Packages page to order your Smash books.  If you order all 3 you get the third book free!
   
6. 3D models such as the Little House in the Woods.
7. Art appreciation activities of famous artworks and famous artists~
   •  Famous Artists lapbook
   • Famous Impressionist Artists lapbook
   • Tracing Outlines of Famous Art Works
   • Van Gogh “Starry Night” ~ Art Appreciation
   • Van Gogh’s Sunflowers
   • 3D Model of Seurat’s “Bathers at Asnieres”
8. Creative projects ~
   • Morse code bracelets
   • Make a rag doll family
   • Make a Polly Pocket in a soap dish
   • Painted heart rocks
   • Corn starch clay ornaments
   • Toy car travel mat
   • Pretty beaded candle jars 
   • Marshmellow paste cake decorations
9. Bible activities ~
   • Colour in a young man in armour
   • A young woman in armour
   • Easter ~ here is an awesome “Easter pictures and hands-on activities“ download using all  5 senses.
   • Parables lapbook with almost every parable in complete NKJ scripture quotes in a variety of colourful square-fold minibooks with blank pages for the child’s own notes.
   • Book of James Lapbook
10. Sight Words are frequently used words that your child should easily recognize in his reading.  In my Sight Words Ebook, you will have all the word lists, words in sentences, games and activity templates.
11. Handwriting practice with laminated charts and games. I have created a 20-page E-book is packed with practical tips and it includes helpful activities and fun pre-writing games to build up your child’s gross motor strength, develop fine motor control and develop their spatial awareness, correct posture and pencil grip for maximum control and minimum stress while learning to write.   
12. Hands-on activities ~ Here is a list of some of the many hands-on activities and posts on my blog ~
    • Make memories with hands-on activities
    • Easter hands-on activities
    • End of year activities
    • How to fit in hands-on activities
    • Hands-on knots
    • Ancient Egypt Lapbook and hands-on activities
    • Vikings hands-on activities
    • Ancient China hands-on activities
    • Hands-on Sonlight
    • Having fun with maps
    • Action!
    • Tailor-made
    • Around the world mobile

I hope that these posts and links and downloads inspire you in your homeschooling!

Wishing you all health, happiness and precious family times.

Blessings, Nadene

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Free Never-ending Card Butterfly Lifecycle

A butterfly life-cycle is continual, and is often represented in circular fashion, so it makes perfect sense to create a never-ending card to display the connected stages.

Although the never-ending card seems very complicated, it is essentially made from  2 base cards glued together at the top and bottom corners. The cuts and folds on these base cards allow the card to open horizontally or vertically providing 4 different page templates.  Cut and paste all the images for each layout on to the base cards. Viola!  The never-ending card is ready!

I have created a free download of the never-ending card of the butterfly lifecycle for your nature study lessons.

The download contains the instructions, how to connect the 2 base cards, the templates and the images for each layout in both black & white or full color formats.

Never-ending cards are great for kinesthetic learners because the images and notes pasted on the card provide excellent narration and revision prompts.  This activity is ideal for busy hands!

Click here for your free download ~ Never-ending card butterfly lifecycle

Blessings, Nadene

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Calendar of Firsts & free downloads

Charlotte Mason’s encourages the wonderful practice of nature study and keeping records of nature observations in a child’s own nature journal.  In addition to this wonderful outdoor activity, Charlotte Mason encouraged her students to keep what she called a ‘Calendar of Firsts’.

This was a calendar where a child would record the day that they saw any ‘first’ observations seen on their walks to monthly pages, adding to the same page each year.  This way of journaling encourages a child to naturally learn what happens in nature that time of the year. This calendar of firsts would build up year after year, with the child adding their new firsts as they found them.  This is similar to keeping a perpetual nature journal or adding a sketch to a Phenology Wheel.

Lynn of Raising Little Shoots has kept amazing Calendar of Firsts diaries and she  shares her beautiful pages, and she gives tips and examples to set up a diary for this purpose.  Watch her flip-through video to see how creative, colourful, simple and  do-able this practice can be!

What I really love about Lynn’s blog is that you can see how her children have followed her example and how they all create messy, colourful, “non-perfect” diary entries.  If you feel that it is impossible to draw or paint in your nature journal like Lara Gastiger’s, then Lynn and her family’s Calendar of First diaries are a breath of fresh air!

How to use a Calendar of Firsts ~

• Add a small sketch or writes a few notes on the date they found it.
• Note the first day of the four seasons and colour or sketch a picture that symbolizes that season.

How to create your own Calendar of Firsts ~

• I created a Calendar of Firsts download with monthly calendar pages with blocks.  To make it a perpetual calendar you do not need to include the dates or days of the week.  Print the pages of the calendar, double-sided (first print all the odd pages and then the even pages on the back of the months) on cardstock, punch holes so that one side faces the next in the binder.  A simple ring-binder will serve to hold the calendar pages.  Here is my free download ~ Calendar of Firsts Month Calendar Practical Pages
• Look at Joyous Lessons.blogspot.co.za simple Calendar of Firsts and Setting up your Calendar of Firsts.  Use 2 facing blank pages with month headers for each month.   
• Simply Charlotte Mason.com – Calendar of firsts – What do you use
• Sageparnassus.blogspot.co.za – My Calendar of Firsts 
• Click the link “A Calendar of Firsts” on Joy in the home.com’s post  – How to Study the 4 Seasons for a free Calendar of Firsts download.

Have you started nature journaling or used a Calendar of Firsts?  Please share your experiences with us.  Mom’s,  I encourage you to start this practice as part of your Mother Culture and wonderful way to continue a lifetime of learning.

Blessings, Nadene

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Phenology Wheel

Updated! Using a Phenology Wheel for nature journaling is a wonderful visual way to record nature and seasons!  A phenology wheel is basically a visual, artistic summary of an entire year on a circular chart. Each month, sketch and paint something significant experienced in nature  on the wheel.

Here is my phenology wheel as part of my perpetual nature journal. open here at January Week 2.  The center circle of the wheel is for a spiritual symbol or something personal.

I first saw a beautiful phenology wheel in progress by Lynn of Raising Little Shoots  who creates the most wonderful phenology wheels and encourages her children to capture their nature ‘moment’ for each month on theirs .  She sells a starting guide eBook.

Because I live in the Southern Hemisphere here in South Africa, I changed the corresponding months and seasons on the downloaded wheels. Here is an updated Southern Hemisphere phenology wheel templates (one with months & seasons and 2nd blank template) for seasons and lunar cycles ~ Southern Hemisphere Seasons & Lunar Phenology Wheel

As the moon phases are blank circles, use the lunar cycle information from Time & Date.com to colour in your moon cycles in the little lunar circles.

Here is my Southern Hemisphere 2018 Phenology wheel with the moon cycle or without, download by clicking the image below ~ Visit Partners in Place to download their wheels of Time and Place and view their gallery of  phenology wheel examples.  

Seasonal Rounds reproduced from p. 19 of All Around the Year (1994) by Jack Santino.

Sign up for access to The Lily & Thistle Resource Library for a blank phenology circle template and add your own seasons, months, or topics.

Sign up to download the free Weather Tracker and Lunar Cycle circle templates at Outdoor Explorer Nature Journal Nitty Gritty Science

Colour-in the circles to illustrate monthly lunar cycles templates found at Paper Wool Yarn.

Here is another beautiful example of a phenology wheel used as a perpetual day-month-season-calendar display ~

Here’s some more inspiration on Pinterest circular calendar examples

Blessings, Nadene

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Make your own perpetual nature journal

Previously, I shared Lara Gastiger’s perpetual nature journal.  Today I want to share how to make your own frugal perpetual nature journal.

This journal I made is very cheap!  I used 2x A5-sized blank paper exercise books; one with 72 pages and the second with 48 pages.   But you may prefer a spiral-bound journal or sketchbook instead.  Just check that it has least a 120-pages.

Start on the first right-hand page of your journal and label your first month.  Now turn over and allocate 4 pages for each week.  These facing-pages provide a double-page spread for each week.    Now label the main month page and label the top left corners of each double-page with the month and the week number, e.g.: January Week 1, flip the facing page and label January Week 2 on the next left-hand page, etc until you have labeled all 4 weeks. Continue this pattern for all the months of the year.

The first 1-month page can be used as a “Calendar of Firsts” for each month with either numbered a list from 1-31 or calendar blocks or decorate it with poems or season-inspired quotes or Scriptures.  (I’ll share more on Calendar of Firsts in another blog post.)

Perhaps you may create a blank lined or column page to keep lists such as your Bird lists for the year at the front or the back of your nature journal.

I removed the original soft thin cardboard exercise book covers and joined my 2 exercise books with journal stitching.(You can see a very clear tutorial here.)  I made a new cover that wraps around the journal using an old cereal box which I covered with fabric using Modge Podge.  I attached a tie to wrap around the journal to keep it neatly closed.

And there you are!  A frugal perpetual nature journal.

You can start right away by making your first entry in the week you are currently in, drawing a sketch, writing some notes or adding some details of nature finds or firsts.

You can read how I made a frugal Frugal Timeline Book also using cheap exercise books.

Blessings, Nadene

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Perpetual Nature Journal Joys

Last year I introduced you to Lara Gastiger and her inspiring nature journals and beautiful botanical artwork.

Recently I read Anne’s interview with Lara Gastiger on My Giant Strawberry  – A Sketchbook Conversation.  Here’s how Lara describes her perpetual nature journal ~

“I encourage everyone to obtain a blank journal that is a portable size and proceed to date the pages so that each spread represents a week. All you need is to write or draw an observation each week. This could be as elaborate as a full drawing or just a note. Be sure to include all relevant information (date, weather, who you are with, what do you hear/see) and then next year on that week, you will return to the same page and add something else. It becomes so rich as the years build up upon each other and you will become so knowledgable about the plants around you!

“What an inspiration, but what is a perpetual nature journal?” you may ask.

A perpetual journal is nature journal that you keep coming back to, year after year, adding new sketches and notes to the same week and month’s pages until you have the most wonderful collection of nature entries spanning all the seasons over several years!

As I pondered this, I realized that there are several joys to working in a perpetual journal ~

• A perpetual journal makes such a lot of sense!  This gradual approach reveals your personal, accumulative journey of nature study over the years, displaying all the details you noticed in each season.  (Just remember that the photo above is Lara’s perpetual nature journal pages after adding to them for 16 years!)
• What is even better is that you don’t have to fill a full nature journal page!  Each week, just add a small sketch or some field notes or observations noted for that week, and your entry is done.  Simple and doable, don’t you agree?
• Instead of spending a long time trying to fill a whole page, by devoting the same time to a journal entry, you can create very intricate sketches and detailed, accurate observations, like Lara!
• When you return to the same week’s page spread the next year, your pages will already have some evidence of things you journaled in the previous year at the same time.  These permanent records, along with your new entries, further highlight and emphasize what happens in that season, at that time of the year.  (I suppose though, that if you moved to a completely different zone or region, you would have to consider starting a new perpetual journal to keep track of nature in this new area.)
• This approach is very similar to Charlotte Mason‘s practice of keeping a “Calendar of Firsts“. ( I hope to share more on this in an upcoming post.)
• This practice fits perfectly in with Barb of Handbook of Nature Study’s  Outdoor Mom Journal nature journal prompts each month.  Again, small weekly sketches and notes to the same journal pages give you the freedom to create a wonderful, detailed nature journal through the years.
• Moms, I really encourage you to keep your own perpetual nature journal and purpose to spend time each week making your own nature journal entries as a part of developing “Mother Culture®“.  It may not seem like it now, when you are deep in the homeschool trenches with littlies underfoot, but in a flash, your children will be in high school and your time will open up for more personal growth, and this practice may well become a fulfilling lifestyle even when your children have graduated and moved on.
• Your nature journal eventually becomes a marvellous, rich collection that will amaze and please you every time you come back to that page spread.

Please join me next time as I plan to share on how to make your own perpetual nature journal.

Blessings, Nadene

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John Muir Nature Quotes & free Copywork pages

Previously I introduced the famous naturalist John Muir.  Today I would love to share a wonderful collection of his beautiful and inspirational nature quotes.

Here are 15 of John Muir’s famous nature quotes  ~

I was struck by John Muir’s real passion and love for nature and the Creator which he expressed so beautifully in his quotes, all taken from AZ Quotes.com ~

I collected several short quotes, some slightly longer quotes, as well as several long quotes.  These would suit children from junior primary all the way to high school.

You can use these quotes ~

• in your nature journalling
• displayed in your nature study centre
• copied or dictated for Copywork
• for handwriting practice
• for debate topics
• as creative writing prompts
• for nature causes and ideals

Here are your free downloads which include Charlotte Mason’s copywork & dictation principles, about 10 pages of quotes, as well as lined copywork pages ~

• John Muir Nature Quotes Cursive
• John Muir Nature Quotes Print

May these pages inspire you and your children in your nature journalling and handwriting practice.

Blessings, Nadene

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Introducing John Muir

Recently I introduced wildlife biologist, naturalist, artist and modern educator, John Muir Laws. But there is another more famous, much older John Muir.

Here’s an abbreviated Wikipedia biography ~

“John Muir (1838 – 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books describing his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada, have been read by millions. His activism has helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and many other wilderness areas.He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite National Park.

The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings has inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. 

John Muir’s writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and his books became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name “almost ubiquitous” in the modern environmental consciousness.”

Watch his biography Part 1 ~

And John Muir’s biography Part 2

His writings are inspirational, and I found them to be very similar to Charlotte Mason in his love for time spent outdoors, and its restorative qualities.  

Join me for my next post where I will share a wonderful collection of John Muir Nature Quotes for Copywork and nature journaling inspiration.

Until next time, be blessed, Nadene

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