Sweet Blessings

I have begun reading Pocketful of Pine Cones by Karen Andreola. It is a fabulous book of a homeschooling mother's diary as she begins homeschooling them for the first year and is using Charlotte Mason's ideas. It is wrote as a fictional story set in the depression times and is focused mostly on Nature Study. It has been a wonderful blessing to me as I was struggling with how to begin nature study and implement it into our school day. It seemed overwhelming how to keep the notebook and go about it in my own mind, but this book gives such an simple approach that is not only a releif to me, but also a joy to see embraced.

We did our first nature walk just around our apartments and found a little bird to draw. We came inside after drawing it, and looked it up online to see what type it was. We were delighted to see that it was a Black-Capped Chicadee. We got to hear a clip of its song and practice it. Then I had her dictate to me about the Chicadee and what she had observed and learned from our research. Then once I had it written out with correct spelling and punctuation. I had her copy it into her notebook. We cut out the drawing at pasted it inside on the adjacent page and we were done! It was a wonderful time. This week we are drawing baby geese that we saw at the park over the weekend. Can't wait to research them together and see what she comes up with for her journal entry.

I am so thankful for the book and being able to have a simple and sweet way to learn together.