We’ll be visiting four home educators to observe how nature is studied within their homes. We start with the home of Nicola from The World is Their Classroom in the UK.
We don’t follow a particular curriculum for Nature Study, rather we make time throughout the week to explore nature and take part in various awards and challenges such as The John Muir Award and 30 Days Wild.
The John Muir Award is an environmental award scheme which allows children to discover, explore and conserve a place which they feel passionately about protecting and preserving.
My children decided to complete their award in our local park and started planning the activities they wanted to carry out. They helped clear streams, identified pond life, recording the birds using the bird boxes, went on scavenger hunts, as well as making wooden duck huts for the island in the lake during the winter months. The award took over a year to complete, but they learnt so much and it tied in nicely with their other subjects.
Every June we take part in 30 Days Wild
We are sent a great pack of cards, one for each day of the month, and we complete the nature challenge. Last year the kiddies had a great time creating Art with nature, listening for wild sounds, sketching up close and spotting mammals. They were so excited when a hedgehog finally decided to visit our garden! Follow us on Instagram @theworldistheirclassroom to see what we get up to this year!
We also take part in surveys, which is another great activity, especially for the older kiddies to connect with nature. We recently took part in Clean Water for Wildlife
Hi there, I’m Nicola from the UK. I decided to Home Educate back in 2003 when I had my first child, and now I home educate all my five children. There were so many reasons which influenced my decision but the main reason was to enjoy watching my children learn, develop and bond with each other and I didn’t feel I needed any external help to do that. Now in 2018 I am happy I made those decisions and my eldest in now studying for her IGCSES. Home education is on the rise here in the UK and I set up my IG and blog in order to help and inspire others to teach their children at home too. Please follow us on Instagram @theworldistheirclassroom and on our blog at theworldistheirclassroom.
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Nicola Braund
The World is Their Classroom