Homeschooling One - Nature Study

When you are homeschooling only one student, there can be challenges. To name a few:

• you can feel like there is no one you are accountable to on any given day, so you can slide into a loosey-goosey attitude where your plans are not concrete and the urge to change your plans can win at a moment's notice;
• these whimsical changes in result in you not getting as much done as you had hoped;
• when your student argues to not do something, it is hard to stand firm since you often feel like it really doesn't matter overall;
• there is not "competition" between students, so it can be hard for a student to be motivated to do their best or to do a better job -- it can become an attitude of just getting it done because mom assigned it.

 

 Some methods I employed over the years to combat these tendencies toward malaise:

• Make plans to do group activities so that there are set plans, a set time and date, and other students so that there is good peer pressure for the student to do a good job.
• Blog, and join blog rings where you post certain blog posts on certain days.

Overall, though, most of our days did just slide into slogging through it, just my student and I. So my friend became my daily lesson planner. If I planned it, I tried to make it happen.

For our Nature Study efforts, in the style of Charlotte Mason method studies, we were using the Ambleside Online curriculum. I discovered another blogger, Barb, over at Handbook of Nature Study, and she had a weekly Outdoor Hour Challenge (with a free subscription), and that kept me going for a long time. I loved being able to complete the challenge, write a blog post about it and link up on her blog. And Barb would comment on my blog posts -- a small thing, but it kept me going.

It is fun to look over my nature study posts. My student isn't in every post, but he is in many. It is fun to see his growth through the years. You can visit my nature study posts here:

• Monarch Life Cycle
• Leaf Study 
• Thistles
• Preparation for Winter - Plants
• Silent Walk Challenge
• Winter Bird Study - Chickadee
• Chickadee Study - Part 2
• Twig Study
• Mullein
• Snow! 
• Second Snow 
• Birds
• Nature Walk 1 - 2013
• Nature Study 2 - 2013 
• Nature Study Through a Window
• Slate
• Arizona Grassland Flora
• Arizona Grassland Fauna
• Arizona Sonoran Desert Flora and Fauna
• Reptiles and Amphibians
• Identifying Native Plants (Boy Scouts Requirement)
• Autumn Leaves 
• Bird Feeder
• Clean as New-Fallen Snow
• February Flowers
• How Does Your Garden Grow