• I use Anna Botsford Comstock's 'Handbook of Nature Study', written in 1911, with many subsequent publications.   I haven't always loved this book. I purchased it a number of years ago and couldn't wrap my mind around it. It was too big and bulky and I just didn't know how to tackle it. I was mistakenly thinking it was a field guide. About a year ago I pulled it down off the shelf and decided I wanted to figure out how to use it in our family for a more focused system of nature study. My son was completing a course in high school biology and as a Charlotte Mason homeschooler at heart, I wanted his biology to be something he could connect to nature study. I found lots of ways to do this using the HNS. Here is a link to how I did that exactly: http://www.squidoo.com/apologiabiology   I am pretty proud of how it all came together actually. My son *loved* biology and he loved it so much we are continuing with marine biology this year. Anyway, what I love about the HNS is that Comstock writes to the teacher...the book teaches us how to direct and teach our children's nature study. I love the freedom that gives me to pick and choose what activities to include and it gives me flexibility to go as far as we want with each topic. We can apply the study to our local area and find ways to adapt it when the subject is not included in the book. I love the way it doesn't talk down to the reader and it includes lots of interesting ideas and thoughts. It inspires me to be a better teacher and guide. I took that feeling and along with some urging from a blog reader, I started the Outdoor Hour Challenges on my blog. It has far and away surpassed my expectations as far as what I set out to achieve. There are participants from all over the world-Brazil, Scotland, UK, New Zealand, Spain, Netherlands, and just about ever region of the US. I have received back more than I ever expected.
  
• The Handbook for Nature Study is meaty but yet it doesn't overwhelm. It has a little bit of everything that I have not found in any more modern books on nature study. We use other resources when we can't find something in the HNS but as a basic "how to" for nature study, you can't beat the no nonsense approach that Anna Botsford Comstock takes in the opening pages of her handbook. Nature study in a few minutes can be done if you have a focus and then children know what the focus is. The nature journal ideas she gives are easy to use with children which I haven't found in the more popular "how to" nature journal books, which focus on fancy, pretty, girly journals whereas the HNS encourages a more scientific approach which works better, in my opinion.
  
• Charlotte Mason seems to understand how children learn best and most naturally. Her methods show us how to give our children exposure to lots of great ideas by reading what has been termed "living books". She bases her whole idea on training children with good habits and feeding them lots of great literature, hours and hours outside, and free time to explore interests such as handicrafts and music. Her methods are not overwhelming to mothers or to their children and have made me realize that my children are not blank slates that I need to write on. I need to expose them to lots of ideas and then let them narrate those ideas back either in words or in writing. This is a topic I write a lot about on my Harmony Art Mom blog.
  
• How do I inspire people to get out and study nature?  I try to make goals in the Outdoor Hour Challenges that are reasonable. I encourage only 10-15 minutes a week outdoors in nature study to start with. This is a reachable goal for most families. I also encourage the parents to be participants in the nature study with a goal or focus. The focus is something they can prepare for and look for during their outdoor time but I always make sure that the families know they can shift gears at any time if the child is interested in something else that comes along during the 10-15 minutes of outdoor time. I wrote a blog entry about this topic: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/2008/05/nature-study-gentle-way.html Here I talk about just taking it one tree, one bird, and one insect at a time.
  
• Many people are very intimidated with art and their perceived lack of skills. I gave you the link above to my Drawing With Children page and that book is probably the best as far as learning to draw alongside your child. The preface in that book is the best explanation of how to get started with art that I have found so far. Getting families to *look* at art is much easier that getting them to make art. Children are less intimidated with their art skills.
  

My favorite quote from the Handbook of Nature Study has sort of become my motto: