Field Trip Tuesday: Discovering Nature

It is never too late or too early to get out and enjoy the world God made. Kids absolutely thrive on nature field trips, nature walks, and backyard adventures. Lately I have been considering adding a new element to my homeschooling – a nature JOURNAL. We have done odd things with nature journaling in the past, but never gave it our “all”. After studying about Lewis and Clark and purchasing Anna Botsford Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study… we are hearing the call of the wild again. This time, I think we’ll answer… and start making some new “field” trip memories.

Enjoy my review of a local nature center near Houston, Texas…

Have you had some nature adventures of your own lately? Be sure to share a field trip of interest with us that you have blogged about in the Mr. Linky below.

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Armand Bayou Nature Center
By Sprittibee ~ Feb 3, 2006

From the Armand Bayou Nature Center’s Website:

The Armand Bayou Nature Center is part of the Texas Gulf Coast. It is less than an hour from Houston, Texas. It has many wonderful opportunities for homeschoolers. They have stewardship programs, educational programs, special events, and wonderful hiking trails. The 1800′s farm is worth the trip all in itself. You can ride the bayou on a pontoon boat or take a guided tour on a canoe as well. Visit the Bayou Nature Center’s website for a virtual tour!

We took this field trip near the end of our school year in our 2001-2002. Our co-op friends had a birthday party at the center and we got to experience a living history demonstration on the turn-of-the-century farm. They made cheese and let us sample it on crackers. We spun rope on a wheel, walked through the old-time flower and herb gardens, and toured the farmhouses. Of course, at five years old, my eldest student at the time who had just finished Kindergarten at home was more interested in the bayou waters and cattails. I hope we can go back to the ABNC in the future when they are older and can remember the trip like I did.

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That was my second field trip for my Friday series that I posted on my blog. Notice how the little boy in the photo seems to be lost in a world all his own? It is amazing how sometimes we see a child playing quietly outside and feel guilty that we are not “teaching” more. We forget that nature is one of God’s own teaching tools – so, then – could it be that we have just gone on break and allowed the true Teacher to begin lessons?

“… And he wandered away and away, with Nature the old dear nurse,
Who sang to him night and day, the rhymes of the universe.
And when the way seemed long, and his heart began to fail,
She sang a more wonderful song, or told a more wonderful tale.”

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From my Heart to Yours,