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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

wide open spaces...

"...there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October.


Impossible; says an overwrought mother who sees her way to no more for her children than a daily hour or so on the pavements of the neighboring London squares. Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them. A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town dwellers; and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day?"
CM vol.1 pg44

I might have to agree with the overwrought mother, because I think that CM would have been referring to mothers of young children who were not yet in school and so those same mothers wouldn't have had also to be concerned with the training of their older children at home as well.  However,  I've been reading Charlotte Mason's Homeschooling Series, vol. 1 again over the last weeks, especially the last couple of days, and the benefit of outdoor time cannot be overlooked.  We should be outdoors as much as is feasibly possible.  On that point, I absolutely agree.

We like to keep our house open, the doors and windows at least as much as we can bear it with the heat, we all go in and out and through the backyard many times a day.  The younger kids particularly also have obligatory times outside in the backyard every day.  But, our weekly nature walks are WONDERFUL times outside.  I'm going to try harder at making them happen more than once a week.






the family nature walk











...it does a body good.  :)





the irrigation canal is dry except for a slimy moss at the bottom





the coconuts grow attached to this part... way up in the palm tree.





every now and again there was a broken spot where water gathered,
here was a TON of little red larvae... dragonfly? 





See those coconut shells? that's what we used to carry a little fish
we found in a little puddle back home... 
we figured he'd die if we left him there, so we'd watch him for a few days 
and then take him back when there was water again.  
But he jumped out and burnt his head.
"Mama called the doctor, the doctor said, NO more fishies jumping on their heads!"





here's an up close of the larvae, worm thing...





...and the almost dead fish.  
as I was saying, he'd been showing suicidal tendencies from the start, 
as he leaped from the coconut shell I was carrying him home in.  
He seemed to survive the first attempt with little ill effect, 
it was the second attempt that proved fatal. :(




a bat we found hanging from the backdoor frame... 
kinda cute.





I think his tiny little feet are kind of endearing, don't you?





one of the nights last week, we decided to go on a frog hunt... 
actually, somebody went out 
and spotted them, and then we sat and watched them for awhile.  
They were as still as statues with the lights on.





these guys are like my best friends. they eat cockroaches...
need I say more?

7 comments:

Ms Eva said...

I agree ... as much time outdoors as possible. Perfection! :D

Phyllis said...

I must say you are tops in having the most unusual nature study experiences!

Sarah said...

Hey Amy...wow you have five children, that is awesome and they are all just beautiful. What an incredible nature walk and I would love to have some of those frogs around my joint to eat up those disgusting cockroaches! Have a great day! xxx

Silvia said...

Oh, always the BEST posts. I agree with you on the benefits of outdoor time...and I'm reading bits from volume 3 and 6, I'm always AMAZED by this woman.
BTW, if you have Comstock book, the Nature Study Guide, read about bats...they are sooo cute. They can be tamed and be pets, but my dh disagrees with me on that. Anyway, I showed yours to my girls and they like to see the pics.

Deedee said...

Now....did you disect Mr. fishy when he was dead? My guys went fishing a few years ago while we were in the states one summer. We disected one of the fish before cutting him up to eat.

It was the coolest thing that they still talk about because when we opened the fish's stomach - out popped a little fish!!! He had obviously just eaten it before he was caught because it was still whole!

Talk about a full understanding of the food chain!! LOL! I printed some sheets from online sources to direct us in identifying the body parts. It was a great activity!

Melissa said...

"...there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October." that is one of my favorite quotes from her...she is brilliant and so very RiGhT!

Richele said...

Thanks for the romp around Peru :)

I hope I don't have bat dreams like last time.

Those red worms look like midge fly larvae. Are you keeping track of them?

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