Bringing Nature Study Inside with Canvas Factory

This post is sponsored by Canvas Factory! I was given a canvas for free, but not required write a positive review.  I am happy to share these great canvases with you!

My children and I have enjoyed some great nature walks this summer! We have discovered birds that we had never seen before, explored shells in a small local river, and caught a garter snake, in addition to taking in all of the beauty right in our own back yard! Have you made time for lots of outdoor time this summer?  I hope so!

The weather is still fantastic where I live, but with the new school year starting soon I know that means the temperature will start to drop.  My children still enjoy going out in the winter and playing in the snow, but the reality is that they cannot be outside for nearly as long and there just isn't as much nature to explore.

I thought a great way to foster our love of nature during the winter months would be to bring it inside!

Perhaps you collected leaves, insects, or rocks this summer.  Why not display and study them this winter? If your kids were too active to sit and make a nature journal page during your walks, winter time is a great time to really look at the items that you collected or took pictures of and make some great journal pages!

Another idea is to go to the library and check out books on different aspects of nature for your children to peruse during the colder months.  The only problem that I have found with books like this is that even if they look great at the library, unfortunately they are often forgotten once they are home.

Then I came up with a great idea!

About a month ago, the good folks at Canvas Factory contacted me and wondered if I would like to offer you all another canvas.  I jumped at the offer because I am so pleased with the two canvases I have from them (they are still prominently displayed in my family room!) and want you to benefit from them as well!

A canvas holds so many possibilities.  I took the opportunity to create the 5 Solas and Gospel in a Minute prints to fit what is important to my family.  These canvases are obviously also fantastic for printing a family photo.  This time I went a different direction.

I wanted a way to bring our nature study indoors, that wouldn't get hidden away, and that would bring beauty to my home.  I wanted my children to continue to wonder at God's creation even when it is covered in snow =)

I did a little research online and discovered that many old nature prints are now available for free! I fell in love with these Natural History prints by Adolphe Millot.  I also noticed that the Audobon Birds of America prints are now available, which is amazing.  Maybe I'll chose one of those next time!

I also love the idea of deeply looking at one thing over and over.  We live in a culture of many, fast moving things.  Our attention is pulled from one thing to another, never giving one thing adequate attention.  

I chose a print filled with butterflies.  I think it is beautiful and I love looking at it every time I am near it...Noticing something different each time...Remembering something better each time...Each time more excited to get outside and find some of these butterflies on my own.  I will be thrilled if this print is working even just a bit of the same magic in my children's hearts.

Imagine your homeschool room, hallway, or kitchen lined with beautiful Natural History Canvases!  Your child will be growing in their attention to detail and appreciation for beauty without you having to plan it into a lesson!  Let their natural curiosity lead them and their wonder grow deeper. 

Let Canvas Factory Help You!

Practically speaking, these prints are simple to order on CanvasFactory.com, they ship to your home in no time, and are super easy to hang.  I love canvases because I do not need to fuss with the hassle or expense of getting a frame.  Frames can be beautiful additions to your home, but the reality is that for me, the simpler something is, the more likely it is to actually get done!  Once I saw the package on my porch, it was opened and hanging on my wall within just a few minutes.  That works for me!!!

Canvasfactory has so many great options. They even have a huge database of images that you can choose from if you are just looking for pretty art to fit your room.  Check out their website to see all of the options.  Here are a couple of ideas to inspire you:

Would you like to have a canvas for your home?

You will always get a great deal at Canvas Factory, but I've got the best deal for you this week!  Enter below to win your own 16x20" canvas!

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Winner must be 18 years or older and have a mailing address in Canada, or The United States.  Winner has 48 hours from being notified to respond with their mailing address or else another winner will be picked.

 

Summer Scholé - Taking Learning Outside

I'm a big believer in learning in year round learning.  Of course the type of learning and even the setting can look different, but we shouldn't just turn our brains off during the summer!

In the spring and summer months, I love to take learning outside as much as possible.  If you are looking for ideas for how to have a restful, soul enriching time of learning as the weather warms up,  read on!

Gather Your Group and Find Your Setting

We had a great group last year that was comprised of 4 families.  There were 8 actively participating children, ranging in ages 8 down to 3.

I made a flyer to share with others what our group was about.  I printed these out (1 sheet, front and back) and handed them out to a few families that I thought might be interested in joining us.  In case it might be helpful for you, here is what I came up with:

We picked a very large park to meet at.  It was a place where we could always find a place that wasn't being occupied by others so they wouldn't distract us and we wouldn't bother them =)

The year before, I had families over to my backyard for our summer learning, so don't feel limited by your choices of local parks, just be creative and pick any outside setting that will work for you!

Choose Your Subjects

We settled on covering three subjects each week.  You can choose anything that would be conducive to learning in a group and being outside.  We did poetry, nature study (birds), and art.

Poetry

I led the poetry portion, which I absolutely loved!  Each week I planned a new poem to memorize, a fun way to learn about poetry, and made copywork to send the kids home with so they could practice during the week.  

For instance, the first week, I read a poem called Alphabet Stew.  As I was reading it, I had the children reach into a bag of alphabet tiles and 'mix' them (like a pot of stew) while I read the poem.  Then I read a poem called The Ant and pulled letters out of our alphabet stew to make the rhyming words at the end of each line.  

Another week, we read a poem called Talents Differ.  It is a story about a little girl looking out her window and seeing a bird making a nest and getting ready to lay her eggs.  The poem is a conversation going back and forth between the girl and the bird, so I had the children pair up, one being the bird and one being the girl.  They got to act the poem out while saying their lines.

If you are interested, I could write a separate post outlining exactly what I taught each week.  If you want to read more about general ideas for teaching young children poetry, I wrote a post on the iHomeschool Network blog about that, so check it out!

Art

Another one of the moms led the art section.  She picked out a different artist for each week and brought examples of their work for the children to look at.  She would read a picture book about the artist or share information about their life and style.  Then she had an art project that corresponded to the artist for the week.  The project would mimic the artist's style in some way.  

The children used swirls to make a starry night like Van Gogh, they used wild flowers to create blurry nature paintings like Rembrandt, they used chalk on the ground to make BIG, up close flower paintings like O'Keefe, dipped their hands in paint to mimic Worhol's style, and more!

Nature Study

For the last subject of the day, we got to move around and really observe nature.  Another one of the moms led us in our study of birds.  Each week she would come with information to share about a different type of bird.  She would read the children a story about birds, have the children color a picture of the bird of the week, show them what the bird sounds like, etc.

The first week, she had the children make pretend binoculars using two toilet paper tubes and set them each up with a little notebook, pencil, and a simple one page bird guide.  Then each week after she shared about the particular bird of the week, she would send them to different spots to watch for birds and draw what they saw in their notebooks.  The children loved it and it was such a nice way to encourage a love of nature.

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So what are your plans for this summer?  Do you take a full summer break or do you find ways to keep the learning alive?  I would love to hear what you have in mind!  We are getting ready to have another Summer Scholé time like we did last year and I can't wait!

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This week only, you can find amazing resources at a deep discount to help you with your Charlotte Mason plans for this summer and next year!

Expandable Book of Centuries - A FREE Timeline for You!

I am so excited to be sharing this with you today!

Do you use a timeline in your homeschool?  I have seen so many different kinds of timelines offered through curriculum companies, on Pinterest, and on other blogs.  You've got wall charts, timeline cards, notebooks, and so much more!  My problem is that I can never find exactly what I'm looking for.  Since my kids and I are starting back at the beginning of time this year, I thought it would be a good time to get serious about a timeline =)

We have done a timeline before, but even my oldest was too young to really benefit from it and definitely too young to take care in adding events to it.  I am glad we started one before though, because it showed me what I wanted in a timeline.

• I want a L-O-N-G timeline - I love to see the vastness of history.  I love to see proportionally how much time passes between events.  I love a beautiful, long timeline displayed on a wall.

• I don't want to have to put my timeline on a wall - Yes, I love displaying a timeline, but realistically I don't have a wall that is long enough to do this.  Maybe in the basement, but that isn't very handy.

• I want to be able to easily see things from different topics that are happening at the same time - That wasn't a very clear heading =)  What I mean is, I want a timeline that is orderly and easy to read.  I want to be able to see what developments in math are happening during different times in history.  I want a record of what time period fiction books are set in.  I want it all in one place...neatly.

I'll tell ya, I almost found want I wanted.  Have you heard of Add a Century?  They have a really neat system over there, and I almost just went with it, but I decided to customize my own thing instead.  If you want the ease of buying a physical product (instead of downloading, printing, taping, etc.) definitely head over there to see if you like their timeline!

So here is what I created for me...and you!

It is a 65 page download (62 of which are the actual timeline).  Print out the whole thing, or just enough to cover the time period you are currently studying.

I printed mine on card stock for durability.

Tape the pages together (on the back) with a strong tape (I used packing tape).  This allows the pages to fold together like an accordion and be stored in a binder.

Insert the cover page into a plastic sleeve (hole punch the sleeve if it doesn't already have holes) and fold the rest of the pages behind it accordion style.  This allows you to be able to flip through your timeline like a book, or S-T-R-E-T-C-H it out across your table/floor/wall.

Now look closely at the pages.  Across the top you will find dates.  They start at 4000 BC and have 100 years of time on each page.  Down the sides you will find labels.  These are so that you can keep an orderly account of what was happening in different segments of history.  The labels are:

• People - record the life spans of specific individuals
• People Groups - record the rise and fall of empires
• Historical Events - record important events in history
• Science/Math - record advancements in these categories
• Arts - record the creation of famous paintings, the writing of beautiful music, or just the types of art that were prevalent in different time periods 
• Literature - record when books were written
• Fiction - record when your favorite fictional stories took place

Seeing all of these types of categories together helps your student have a holistic view of the world and it's history.   Of course if you want to change any of these categories to suit your needs, feel free.

There is a little space at the bottom of each page for you to write anything you might want to add.  I am thinking of color coding the different people groups, so I might use that space as a legend (anything having to do with the Egyptians - orange, anything from the Bible - blue, etc.)

You can have your child write information on this timeline, draw pictures, paste pictures that you have printed out, or a mix of all those things!  My kids are pretty young, so I am sure that there will be many pictures in their books!

Would you like to download this Book of Centuries for FREE?

I am thrilled to be able to offer this 65 page timeline to my email subscribers for free!  If you are already a subscriber, it will be coming to you in an email later today.  If you are not yet a subscriber, you can sign up now and receive this timeline and other freebies as soon as you confirm your subscription!

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Don't want to print your own?  Check out the ready made Add-A-Century Timeline!

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Don't miss out on lots of other printables today from some of the bloggers at the iHomeschool Network!

Charlotte Mason Quotes

This post has an affiliate link to the book that the quotes are from. 

I had a really nice time reading through Home Education by Charlotte Mason this summer with all of you!  I loved underlining quotes and then sharing them with you on the blog.  I thought it would be neat to gather all of my favorites quotes from the book into one place.  So here you go!  I hope you enjoy them and find yourself encouraged =)

"Do not let the children pass a day without distinct efforts, intellectual, moral, volitional; let them brace themselves to understand, let them compel themselves to do and to bear; and let them do what is right at the sacrifices of ease and pleasure."  Charlotte Mason

"There is no knowledge so appropriate to the early years of a child as that of the name and look and behavior in situ of every natural object he can get at."  Charlotte Mason

"The parent's chief care is, that that which they supply shall be wholesome and nourishing whether in the way of picture books, lessons, playmates, bread and milk, or mother's love."  Charlotte Mason

"Never be within doors when you can rightly be without."  Charlotte Mason

"Mothers work wonders once they are convinced wonders are demanded of them."  Charlotte Mason

"Habit is Ten Natures."  Charlotte Mason

 "Let children have tales of the imagination, scenes laid in other lands and other times; heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales, even where it is all impossible, and they know it, and yet they believe."  Charlotte Mason

"Whatever the natural gifts of the child, it is only so far as the habit of attention is cultivated in him that he is able to make use of them."  Charlotte Mason

"Thinking comes by practice."  Charlotte Mason

"Whatever be the advantages of kindergarten or other schools for little children, the home schoolroom ought to be the best growing-ground for them."  Charlotte Mason

"A morning in which a child receives no new ideas is a morning wasted."  Charlotte Mason

"All children have it in them to recite."  Charlotte Mason

 "Composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books."  Charlotte Mason

 "It is a delightful thing to have the memory stored with beautiful, comforting, and inspiring passages."  Charlotte Mason

"Let him linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man."  Charlotte Mason

"Give the children one thought at a time, and every time some lovely example of loving-kindness that will fire their hearts with the desire to do likewise."  Charlotte Mason

This week only, you can find amazing resources at a deep discount to help you with your Charlotte Mason plans for this summer and next year!

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