I was reading the Economist the other day and was struck by a couple of articles discussing education. One thing stood out to me; the quality of the teacher was the number one determining factor of success in education. I was wondering how much time do homeschooling parents invest in themselves as teachers. How often do they attend teacher trainings? I am not talking about going to a local conference and listening to a motivational speaker but, real teacher training where you are required to participate and are evaluated and critiqued.
For Nature Study, I try to pick out one or two specific trees that we will study throughout the year. We will study them at various times, observing their changes with the seasons. One of the trees we will be following this year is a Southern Magnolia living in the park across the street.
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.
-Proverbs 24:27
I read this proverb this morning, and was reminded how important it is to be prepared. There is such a difference in my school days between when I am prepared and when I am just “winging it”. I was struck by the phrases “Prepare your work” and “get everything ready”.
My husband and I recently came across these Four Agreements written by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz. Although he comes from a different spiritual background than me, these agreements hold a lot of truth in relating to oneself and others. Why didn’t I know about this kind of stuff 30 years ago?
We began studying the night sky in our astronomy class this year. We learned how to read a star map. We focused on where in the sky to look for the Big and Little Dippers at this time of year in our location, and how to use them to find the North Star. We stayed up past bedtime and headed out to the open field in the park across the street. We looked up and saw... three stars. Three.
As I wrote about before, our attempt to study the stars near our home in the city was a little disappointing. However, I was excited to discover that our local astronomy club was holding their annual "Star Party" only a few days later.
We kicked off nature study this year by studying the fruit of the Southern Magnolia tree. We had the opportunity to observe the transformation of the fruit as it opens to reveal its cache of seeds.
While ripening, the fruit remains closed up tight and firmly attached to the tree.
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