The Great Outdoors

Helping your children connect with nature is a wonderful way to incorporate language arts, mathematics, science and social studies into one study unit. After all, c hildren love to walk and investigate outside. Use the simple discoveries made during the daily walk to make comparison and contrasting charts, classify insects, identify and press flowers, count wildlife and keep a nature journal.

If you have the time, incorporate art into the unit by giving each child colored pencils and a sketchbook. Grades two and three often study seeds and plants in the public school curriculum, but as a homeschool teacher, you can choose to include these life skills in your curriculum at any time and extend your outdoor study unit into yet another direction.

When teaching your children about seeds and plants, you can teach them the term “hypothesis" and show them how to create observing and recording charts to use as they monitor the growth of their potted seeds.

If your family is planning on planting a garden in the spring, have your children work on creating a garden blue print. Prior to buying any garden seeds or supplies, have the children research “companion planting” so that they can determine which plants grow better next to one another and which should be on opposite ends of the garden. Once the blueprint for the garden is done, use mathematics to determine its actual size and the width and lenghth of rows. Giving your children a real life situation is a lesson they won’t forget.