Nature study is such a big part of a Charlotte Mason approach.

And a lot of times we can get bogged down looking at our nature notebooks and focusing on those

rather than looking toward what they are meant to cultivate in our children and in ourselves.

That love of nature, that familiarity with nature, more than just a nodding and naming

acquaintance, as Charlotte put it.

So let's talk about how we can not get so focused on the means to the end, but we can

focus on cultivating that end result, that love of nature in our children.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer.

Joining me today is my daughter, Ruth Smith. Ruth, thanks for joining us.

Of course. This is a topic, nature study that I wanted to discuss with you because I think you cultivated

a love of nature in spite of my efforts when you were young.

It was a perfect case of I was trying to give you something that I did not have myself. And so it was,

I would hand you the nature notebook. Don't anybody do this, okay, by the way, but I would hand you guys

your nature notebooks and I would say, go outside and find something to draw. Remember? And do you

remember the mailbox picture? Yes. I'm not going to say which child drew it, but someone did.

But I was so stuck in the form of we do the nature notebook and somehow a love for nature

will magically appear.

Rather than focusing on nature itself.

And somehow, in the midst of all that, you developed a love for nature.

Yes. In spite of that. And I've seen you pass that on to your own children. They are still young,

but I've seen it come alive there, that you are nurturing that in them. So I wanted to talk a little

bit about how did you do that?

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