The idea of incorporating nature walks in your homeschool is making a comeback. Thanks to blogs like 1000 Hours Outside and others, parents are realizing the important role outdoor play has in children’s lives. My kids love playing outside. Our whole family enjoys bike rides, walks, and snow sports. Even so, I knew we could do more to incorporate nature into our homeschool life. The big question – how to do it?!
There are many nature study curriculums available. I own several – some I have used and some I had good intentions of using but…you know how that goes. Enter Cindy West at Our Westward Journey. I first heard Cindy speak during an online conference. I loved her practical approach to nature study. It felt so doable for a mom like me, someone with 4 kids including little ones. After hearing her speak I knew I wanted to buy one of her “open and go” nature study curriculum resources. Spoiler – I did and I love it!!
Here is what I am loving about the open and go – 40 Nature Walks Vol 1.
- It is affordable. Everything is less than $20 (note – there is a subscription option that is $18 a month)
- All Cindy’s products are digital. This means you can print as much or as little as you want. No wasting paper!
- It is truly open and go. Occasionally we watch a YouTube video or read a book to help the kids have a better understanding of the subject but most of the time we can grab our notebooks and head outside with no prep.
- It requires few extras. We use colored pencils every lesson. I keep them in a small pencil box that is easy to carry with us. A few lessons require a tape measure but there is nothing major that you need for this curriculum. (note: I have not used her other options so this may not be the case with all her curriculum)
- This nature study works well for a variety of ages. I share a notebook with my 4 year old and she participates as she likes. Sometimes that is a lot and sometimes not so much. Either way she is learning and having fun at the same time as my older two. If you have teenagers, they will easily be able to enjoy this and use it at a higher level. In my opinion, even a child with special needs could enjoy this curriculum with a few modifications.
- You don’t have to live in the country to utilize this resource. We did one study in an apartment complex – utilizing the landscaping as our study. We live in a neighborhood and 95% of the lessons we can do while staying within 1/2 mile of our house. If you have a local park with a body of water you will be able to do 100% of the lessons. If you live in the country you will love the lessons too.
There are not many cons to this curriculum but here are a few.
- Printing can be expensive. I know I listed the digital aspect as a pro above but if you don’t have a good printing option and have to outsource for multiple kids it can get expensive. I still think it is very affordable compared to other curriculum options.
- There are a few lessons that are season or weather dependent. This is not exclusive to this curriculum but it is something to note when you are planning your study. Personally, I don’t plan our nature walks specifically, I just allot time in our schedule and then choose which one we will do on that day a few hours (or maybe even minutes) before we go out. This allows me to choose the lesson that needs to be done after it rains on a day when it has just rained etc. For those that like to pre-plan their schedule in detail, this may be frustrating.
Now for the details. How is the curriculum set up? It is a series of nature study work pages. I can see those of you who have workbook averse kids beginning to get discouraged – have no fear! I have son who HATES work pages and he has loved this curriculum. There is no busy work. Each page is interesting and well laid out. It adds to your study and makes learning self guided in a sense. Here are some examples of a few pages we have done…
We discovered we didn’t have a purple colored pencil so that space isn’t complete. Just being real 🙂
One of my children is more artistic and takes time to do detailed drawings, one of them doesn’t – this works for both. It allows my artistic child to enjoy what they love and my less artistic kid can practice.
There are more examples on Cindy’s website. You can check them out here. I can’t wait to try another one of her studies. I have already purchased her advent study. Be watching for a review in the future.
-Thara
