How to Study Nature in the Spring

 

 

 

Spring is here!

I love this time of the year so much because nature is coming alive everywhere, after a long cold winter. This can be such a special time for a family to literally take time to stop and smell the flowers, listen to birds, notice new buds growing and more.

If you have never been one to enjoy nature, you may not know how to begin to study nature and make it part of a gentle way of learning. I have included some affiliate links to some ‘good things‘ that I have used with my family when we study nature.

Here is how to study nature in the spring:

• Go outside and just observe what you see – Take 15-30 minutes once or a few times a week to just explore and see what can be discovered. During the spring, you can see so many changes that even an untrained eye encouraged to be ‘nature detectives’ can find much to get excited about.  Look down, up and at eye level, because discoveries are everywhere.
• Plan your discoveries – If your family is new to the idea to study nature, you may want to plan some things to discover.  During the active spring, you may want to look at budding trees and plants, flowers, busy insects, place a bird feeder on your window or go looking for tadpoles to raise (use the water they are growing in).
• Invest in some great reference books – Having some good field guides or the Handbook of Nature Study to use as reference when finding new discoveries is a great way to turn a nature time into learning time.  When my sons were early readers they have loved the Fun With Nature: Take Along Guide  and More Fun with Nature books for easier to read field guides.
• Journal your discoveries – My children have always had a journal to work within and enter their nature discoveries.  What a treasure to see their art work develop and improve with practice and over time.

If you use these easy to implement steps to study nature, you will quickly find that your children will be discovering things on their own and God’s creation will become exciting to them in a way that books just can never really do on their own.

What will be your first spring discovery?