Book of the Trees Nature Outing: Cave Creek Botanical Gardens

Our 7th graders at co-op use the classical curriculum Book of the Trees from Memoria Press. As we are approaching the end of the curriculum it wants us to go out and nature journal a tree each week. This is exactly why we formed the Cardinal’s Nature Club – so we could see what we learn in science first hand. The Cave Creek Botanical Gardens is a free outdoor paved nature walk of all kinds of desert type botanicals. We saw lots of really interesting things and learned four new Read More …

What’s that Bird? Nature Outing

classical education homeschool nature walk

In 6th grade, for science, we study birds. In our classically educating co-op we use the curriculum What’s That Bird? from Memoria Press. We learn to identify 30 of the most common birds by sight and by sound. We also learn about the anatomy of birds, how they fly, characteristics of different birds, etc. It’s a fascinating study and the children love it! To make science come alive we went to our local Audobon center (The Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center) and went a free guided bird tour. It Read More …

A Simple Study of Nature

In his prophetic essay The Abolition of Man (1944), C. S. Lewis asked whether the triumphs of modern science “may have been too rapid and purchased at too high a price.” While there is a place for modern biology and sciences, there is still room for the simple study of nature. This is the very essence of natural history. Natural history is the branch of biological science that seeks to provide a descriptive account of plants and animals and the world in which they live. Although this branch of science been neglected in recent Read More …