Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer. I am really excited about our

episode today. Karen Smith is joining us to discuss how do you go about observing in nature study?

We often say, you know, observe all you can, But you shared in a session at our retreat recently

some real practical tools to help us walk through that observation time, questions we can ask

and steps we can take. So I really wanted you to share that with everybody, if you will.

There are four steps to helping your children and yourself

learn how to observe better in nature.

And those are notice, think about it, ask questions,

and then reflect on what you have observed. And so let's take those one at a time.

Notice, think, ask, reflect. Okay, notice. Notice. Notice what you can about whatever object you're

looking at in nature. And that could be a leaf, it could be a tree, it could be a flower, it could be

maybe a bird at your bird feeder, anything. It could be an insect. Tell what you notice

out loud so that you remember that. I noticed a robin at my bird feeder eating bird seed. And this noticing and observing,

because to me, this step number one is almost as far as we often get, just noticing.

But I remember in another session you talked about using all the senses you possibly can for that noticing.

So that's where the senses come into play.

This can come into play there.

The other thing is if it's an object you can hold or you can move around, so maybe it's an insect on a plant or it's a rock you're holding in your hand,

look at it from different perspectives underneath or above or from the other side so that you see more of it than just that one observation that you see it there.

Sometimes turning it can...

You could even do that with something that is larger, like a tree.

You could move to look from a different perspective as well.

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