I love nature study, and I have loved doing it with my kids over the years. However, I’ll be honest, it’s one of those subjects that I have the most guilt about. I love it, but it doesn’t always fit into our week. I love it, but I don’t always know how to actually get it done. And, as my kids have gotten older, a lot of the nature study resources haven’t “grown with them.” A lot of what is out there for homeschool nature study is geared toward the younger kids. The result is that our love for nature study, particularly my teenagers’ love for nature study, has kind of fizzled out. I wanted to find something that would appeal to my older kids, or at least my fifth grader, and would help me pursue nature study successfully for myself.
So when I was given the opportunity to review the Homeschool Nature Club membership, I was absolutely thrilled. First, because it looked like the perfect solution for providing whole-family nature study courses, with “mature” nature study resources for my older kids. And second, it felt like coming full circle, as this membership website is the new and improved platform for the nature studies (originally written by Barbara McCoy) that were our very first introduction to nature study 10 or more years ago.
And let me just say at the start here, I have loved this nature study membership as much for myself as for my kids.
Homeschool Nature Club membership: features and resources
Disclaimer: I received a one-year membership for free in exchange for a review. However, I was not compensated in any way to provide a favorable review, and all opinions are entirely my own.
The Homeschool Nature Club membership is a website resource with complete nature study courses (including printable worksheets and coloring pages) that work for a variety of ages. There are options for every season, and several special studies on particular topics. These courses are available to download and print, a tremendous resource all by themselves.
The emails are another really helpful resource. My email box is absolutely packed with emails that I don’t read, but I keep an eye out for Tricia’s emails and open them for the latest nature study focus and ideas posted on the blog. These often include art project ideas as well as links to relevant nature studies for that particular month or season. I get excited when I scroll through my inbox and see these emails.
But perhaps my favorite part of this membership is the monthly nature study calendar. Each month, the website calendar is updated with a simple activity, craft, or nature study for each day of the month. Each day links to one of the courses mentioned above. After clicking on the day’s topic, you click on the download to search and prepare the specific idea. (So several days may actually link to the same course download, but with the intention of doing a different activity within that course.)
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I love that these ideas are organized for me. I love that I can do a quick skim of the month and choose ideas that will appeal to my kids (okay, mostly my fifth grader at this point). It has really helped to vary our nature study and given us ideas for topics to pursue further on days when the weather isn’t really conducive to a walk at our favorite nature park.
For instance, one idea has been to track a tree in front of our window through each of the seasons and record the changes we see. Another has been to study winter weeds and identify them or to study winter twigs up close to see the different parts. Because I have that handy monthly calendar and have those ideas fresh in my mind, I will collect items or take pictures of certain plants that we can study more closely on those bad weather days.
I know we won’t have the opportunity for nature study every day, and I know that all 30 of those ideas won’t appeal to us anyway. But having someone break down the course into a lesson plan of sorts and organize the studies and ideas for me is such a joy! I mean it, scanning that calendar is pure joy for me. I get so excited at the beginning of each month! And while we still don’t get to nature study every day or even every week, we’ve definitely gotten to do it more in the last three months than we have in a long time.
The activities within the courses often provide suggested pages to read in the Handbook for Nature Study for further reading, as an optional resource. This has been another huge help. Without these page numbers, I just get too intimidated to actually open and use that huge Handbook. I know where to start and how to get straight to the specific information relevant to us, rather than being paralyzed by how much is there.
Also, I love the Discover Nature series books, the other optional resource referenced in some of the plans. I was first introduced to this series early in our homeschool days with our first nature study that Barbara McCoy had created. I loved that particular book in the series so much that I spent my birthday money over the next few years collecting the rest of the series. While it’s not necessarily at a child’s reading level, I find them extremely helpful and interesting, and I love the sketches and diagrams. However, both of these resources are optional and you can definitely benefit from the Homeschool Nature Club membership without these books.
Included in the courses on the membership site are printable nature study charts and logs, scavenger hunts for each season, coloring pages on specific topics, and a variety of other resources. Sometimes we printed these and used them just the way they were. Sometimes, I took the idea, and we incorporated it by hand into our nature journals. My son absolutely loved the winter scavenger hunt and thanked me over and over for printing it. We are chomping at the bit for the weather to cooperate so that we can start our spring scavenger hunt.
Homeschool Nature Club recommendations
I highly recommend this membership if you find nature study intimidating and struggle with planning it successfully. And honestly, I am just as excited about this resource for myself as I am for my kids. I really think I would probably use this even if it were just me. I love nature study. I love keeping my own nature journal and observation lists. And I love having just that little bit of structure that the Homeschool Nature Club provides to get me started.
The Homeschool Nature Club membership is, essentially, a loose structure with accompanying resources. You can use as much or as little as you like. There is no deadline or due date, no getting behind. You can mark off what you have completed or revisit courses again and again. And while I found it useful and appealing for my older child and for myself, it can definitely be used with all ages. In fact, it is probably one of the best nature study products I’ve seen that appeals to all ages, truly a whole-family nature study resource. (Remember, we used one of these courses as our first introduction to nature study when my kids were just preschool and kindergarten, over ten years ago!)
The membership is $20 a month or $145 for a year. The individual homeschool nature study courses are also available for $30 each (but they don’t come with that cool monthly calendar—just saying). Visit the website to download a free sample “Getting Started with Nature Study” course or scroll through all of the courses available with a membership. You can also scroll for hours through the blog and find tons of nature study ideas.
If you are looking for homeschool nature study resource for all ages, or just a little extra direction and inspiration to keep your nature study fresh, I highly recommend checking out the Homeschool Nature Club website and membership. My son and I are having a great time remembering just how much we love studying nature, which is a treasure all by itself.
