Nature Study

I am not an "outdoors person." I remember being a kid and my stepmom getting so disgusted because I could go the whole summer without getting any hint of a tan. Given a choice, I would rather sit inside with a book or some Barbies than play outside. What do you even play outside? I remember being shooed outside and having no idea what to do once I got there. I've gotten better as I've gotten older; I like to go on walks and runs (although I have to say, I'd just as soon be on a treadmill), I like the pool and the park in the summer, and I like to sit on a lawn chair in my backyard. But I hate bugs, I hate wind, I really hate being cold, and I'm a huge fan of climate control. There are windows in my house that have not been opened since I've lived here. But a big part of homeschooling, especially if you use the Charlotte Mason method, is to teach nature appreciation. I found a cool book from 1911 called Handbook of Nature Sutdy, and a blog that offers lessons to go along with the book. And here's a Squidoo page of stuff on Charlotte Mason nature study: http://www.squidoo.com/cmnaturestudy. And another one called "Nature Tales": http://www.squidoo.com/naturetales. Maybe this will help me change my ways?

Something cute and something ugly

This hideous thing is some kind of frog that lives underwater. I picked it out for our aquarium because it's ugly and scary and thinking about touching it gives me the shivers. I named it Yanomamo, after a tribe of people in Brazil that we just learned about in school. Esme thought we should name it "Mom."

This is Gracie's Christmas present (one of several, I'm sure, but this is the coolest, specialest one). It didn't take very long, and I like that the arms move.

Geocaching

Have you ever heard of this? I hadn't either, but it's like a secret society. A secret nerdy society, maybe, but, since I like nerdy things, the kids and I had a blast. You take a GPS device (any that will let you enter manual coordinates) and search for these "geocaches" that other people have hidden - all over the world (there's even one on the international space station, I've been told). Inside the geocache, which can be any kind or size of storage container, are little treasures that you can take and exchange for whatever you've brought with you. Except food, which animals will try to get to and in the process, mangle the geocache.

Go to the geocaching site: http://www.geocaching.com/ to find hidden geocaches in your area and get the coordinates. Enter the coordinates into your GPS, and start looking! Usually, they are hidden in trees or other natural areas, but some are in metro areas too. Once you find the geocache, you can go online and post comments & tips. If you have a smart phone, you can use it to do all of this stuff too (as long as you have the app, which I think was $10 or something like that). You can hide your own geocaches too, but you have to make sure to get permission from the property owners first.

Our curriculum has weekly "nature walks" built in - I'm thinking you could incorporate a nature study into your geocaching and make it even more fun. We haven't been doing the nature walks, and we don't have a GPS, but I'm definitely considering giving this a try. I heard you can snag a cheap GPS device on ebay...