Science, writing, poetry, and art.

Discover how Charlotte Mason brilliantly combined all these subjects and passions into a single activity.

Keeping a Nature Notebook.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Rochelle Baborina. The day was warm and bright as my children and I walked the long lane to our rural mailbox when our neighbors stopped us to share that a fox had captured one of a pair of geese living on the mountain pond.

My son asked if she'd witnessed the fox, take the goose.

And when she replied that she hadn't, he smiled wide and excitedly exclaimed

that the goose wasn't gone, but her babies must have hatched, and she was with them.

Sure enough, the next day saw the return of the new mother but her babies must have hatched, and she was with them.

Sure enough, the next day saw the return of the new mother with five downing goslings trailing behind.

Now, on our little mountaintop, the Canada geese were always a topic of conversation,

as everyone in our rural neighborhood welcomed their arrival

as the harbinger of spring. My boys had taken a more active interest in carefully observing

their behavior and habits, though, gathering information firsthand to learn what nature had

to teach them.

These weren't formally staged science lessons.

Rather, my children had formed a relationship with the geese

that resulted in gladness of the acquaintances made

and a desire to learn more about their feathered friends.

Charlotte Mason tells us that education is the science of relations.

By this she means our children have a natural desire to know about everything

that moves and lives, about people and places.

I wish to handle material things, and to make, to run, and ride, and row,

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