What’s your favorite sound from nature?

When I lead my children outdoors to observe nature, my attitude towards the outdoors can be contagious. If I stop suddenly to notice a lone flower or a quirky bird song, my children soon become nature-loving private eyes. Their excitement and curiosity can easily come from my leadership. Sometimes, they even beat me to it and I become infected with the beauty of the nature around me.

Just the other day we were outside and we heard the peckity-peck-peck of a woodpecker. It was like a tom-tom drumming to its own beat. It occurred to me to talk about the sounds of nature that our great composer created for us.

Genesis 1: 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

I want to take some time looking for and listening to the music of nature with my children. I’ve made a list inside my nature journal so I do not forget to listen for the music:

• crunching leaves
• buzzing of bees
• water rushing through a stream
• ocean waves
• grasshoppers
• thunder
• owls hooting
• croaking frogs
• seagulls
• fire crackling
• ducks quacking
• rain falling
• wind blowing leaves
• morning doves

Brenda is a homeschooling mother of 5, who has a wonderful husband encouraging her to be the best woman that God has created her to be. Together they are very intentional about spending time together as a family. She considers her daily life with her children as her ministry and has found many avenues to encourage others to live a lifestyle of learning. She is the founder of an online homeschool community, Our Lifestyle of Learning and a curriculum review site authored by a group of well-known homeschool bloggers, Curriculum Choice. She blogs about their homeschool journey and family traditions at Tie That Binds Us.