Welcome to Our Nature and Outdoors Homeschool Science Course

Course Sample for Our Nature and Outdoors Homeschool Science Course

Hello and welcome to these lessons for the family, and all ages, on exploring the outdoors!

For this first month, we’re going to look at Evergreens (if you live in a colder climate) or Sand (if you live somewhere warm). And we will also get our nature journals ready for all the things we’ll be putting in them.

A few books you might like to take out of the library for inspiration:

Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie
How to Keep a Naturalist’s Notebook by Susan Leigh Tomlinson
Draw Real Animals! by Lee Hammond
Drawing From Nature by Jim Arnosky

The first thing you need to do, if you don’t already have a nature journal, is to think about what kind of journal you want. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it’s a very personal choice.

Some people like to get a sketchbook and draw or write directly into it. Some people like a composition book with a blank space above and lines to write below. I use a three-ring binder. I always have a sketchbook and camera with me, but when I get home I like to punch holes in the sketch page, print the photos, and add them into my binder. You might even (with a parent’s permission and supervision) post your photos and observations on a blog instead, and have the whole thing printed at the end of the year.

A nature journal does not have to be full of drawings. I can’t draw very well, but I love to take photos. So I always try my hand at a sketch for practice, but I like to add in photos, poems, maps, comments, and information about what I saw.

More About Our Nature and Outdoors Homeschool Science Course

The Nature and Outdoors homeschool science course is a favorite among nature lovers! This wonderful homeschool science course by Erin Dean encourages students to explore nature and the outdoors through instruction, videos, informative websites, and hands-on activities. Erin has created Nature and Outdoors lessons to be enjoyable for all students, no matter where they call home. Most lessons have two tracks, e.g., bears and ants simultaneously, so that homeschool students may choose one or the other. They can, of course, do both tracks each month, depending on their interest level and location. Erin has provided engaging activities to learn about the animals or the habitats she covers in this course. Where safety might be an issue, such as the lessons on bears and snakes, she provides ample warning to watch from afar or simply watch the videos provided.

All ages, from preschool through adult, are sure to enjoy this homeschool science course. Erin asks a variety of questions related to each topic to encourage detailed observation, and she includes science experiments, art, crafts, journaling, photography, and more.