Episode 19 Nature as a Classroom

What if spring could do some of the teaching for us? In this episode, we’re talking about using the outdoors as part of your homeschool in simple, meaningful ways. From nature walks and gardening to journaling and observation, we’re sharing ideas for learning that feel alive, seasonal, and way less stressful. If you’ve been craving a homeschool rhythm that feels more natural this spring, this episode is for you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to homeschooling and life unfiltered with Court and Jess, where real talk meets real life. Court and Jess are two friends, fellow moms, and business partners who live in different time zones and juggle homeschooling alongside motherhood and entrepreneurship. Jess is a mom of eight and Court is a mom of seven, and together they're raising 15 kids and navigating the wild, wonderful world of homeschooling, each in completely different ways. Every week we invite you to pull up a chair for honest conversations, practical tips, and uplifting encouragement. You'll hear from moms across the country who are homeschooling in a way that works best for their families. Whether you're a veteran homeschool mom just getting started or somewhere in between, this is your space to feel seen, supported, and inspired. Because no matter how different our past may look, we are all in this together.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Hi, and welcome to uh homeschooling and life unfiltered with Court and Jess. Today we are talking all about kind of keeping in our spring theme, all about uh Mother Nature being our classroom and some of the things that we've done outside with our kids when we're doing school. So we are going to jump in with a series of questions and we will kind of go back and forth and and give some give some thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

All right. Our first question is what does nature as a classroom actually look like in your homeschool?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah. Well, I can start. Nature in our classroom is very seasonal, so we do not do any school, like formal schooling outside unless it's nice out. So really you're looking at April, maybe April through uh with some days scattered in, but April through late October. Um, and we don't school our full days over this the summer. Uh depend, I guess it depends on the season, but typically we don't. And so it's really just a little bit in the spring, more more in the spring, and then a little bit in the fall as well. So um we live on a little hobby farm. So we sometimes do school by the table outside, or we'll go and do a bunch of other activities either off of our property or on our property. Um, so that's kind of what it looks like from a really high 30,000 foot view for us. All right.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

So when I think of nature as a classroom, I don't always think of only outside. So I think about like what do we bring in? Like what are the nature things that we're bringing in? Kind of. So like I have jars um that you know, like pretty glass jars, they're actually like tinted blue. They were something I don't even think you can find them anywhere, but they were like a grandma I'd pass down. But they're full of yeah, mason jars, yeah. Um, seashells like that we've collected at the beach. Or and we use them for math manipulatives. So, like to me, like I like to bring outside things in, like bring nature inside that we can incorporate into our school, right? So we have um one jar full of, I think we actually have a couple jars full of seashells. We have some that are full of like really pretty rocks, or um we have you know, like pieces of coral that we found on the beach or like really big shells that are kind of displayed on the shelves, different seas different times where we found like a bird's nest on the ground and we might bring in and you know lay on, put on the top of the piano. And you know, like to me, I like to kind of bring nature things in because sometimes it's just too darn hot in Arizona to go outside, right? Um, like right now it's 105 outside or 103 is supposed to be today. But when it gets nice, especially honestly, like for us, it's more in the winter time or or you know, springtime, like two weeks ago, springtime. Um, for us when it was a little nicer, is we'll take a blanket out into the front yard in the shade and we'll just take our school stuff out there, or we might go read a book, or they might lay on the trampoline, or um, when the clouds are really pretty. I we love to like look at the clouds and like find the pictures kind of a thing. Um it doesn't always mean to me like let's go to someplace nature-y, like and be surrounded by nature and you know, like go on a hike, which I mean, yes, there's totally things to do, and you might go to places where you're intentionally just gonna be in nature, but I kind of like to find, you know, suburban nature, right? Where things like that. Like, for example, um, right now, like in co-op for a class today, we're doing bird watching, and so we all took our binoculars. I found this great um little handout of all the birds in Arizona that I printed off that we could go find. And then actually, Jessica, your husband told me about the coolest app. It's called Merlin. Yeah, L-I-N, and it's a bird listening app. It is the coolest thing, you guys. You turn it on and you just turn it on, and it will listen to all the birds and it will pop up and tell you what they are. It is so fun. Um, so they had so much fun with it last week. We did it again. So that to me is a great little like nature activity. Let's just go outside, let's explore something we haven't explored before, right? Or even just something that's just someone named birds, like birds are everywhere. Um, and that's something we can even do inside, right? We could look out our window with our binoculars at birds, like do bird watching. Um, so to me, like just little things like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, no, that's super fun. And we we are we have done some like nest collecting too, and like beehives and hornets nests and things that have been abandoned. We're not, you know, killing any bees to get their beehive. Um, and we bring those in, and I guess I didn't even think about that, but we do, and we have um, so our our uh science museum does something really cool. So you can bring in different things. So, like we have some black sand that grandma brought back from Iceland, and you we haven't been, we actually haven't been there since she went. Um, but you can bring it in and then they can you can trade it. So you could trade it in for some shells somebody else brought in from a beach, you know, in in another country or state or whatever. And so that's really cool. It's a trading post, I think they call it a trading post. So we've collected things to be able to take with us to the next trip. Um, or we'll often bring things in from outside to look under the microscope and things like that. So that's a really fun one. I really like to do like make your own slides and look under the microscope. Um, we also have um we got, I don't think we still have it, but we had a microscope that was more of a portable one that you could really zoom in on things and connected to your phone. And so that was kind of cool. Um and then we do a lot of plants inside plants too, and so the kids will help take care of those from side to side. We have a monster crazy aloe vera plant that um we just keep having to repot and repot and repot and give it away. And so they helped us um learn how to um cut it back and then how to transplant it and how to give you know little stems of it away. So that was kind of fun. Um, so yeah, I guess I didn't think when we were preparing, I didn't think about the stuff we bring into our homes. Yeah, even for us, that's still during like a specific season more for us, but um, yeah, I love it. That's such a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

All right. Okay, so what are some simple outdoor activities that really count as school for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah. Well, I guess I'll preface this by saying that I think that lots of things can count as school when you're letting your kids kind of um explore and um and dig into things that interest them. But some of the things that we really count as school. So one of the ones I have on here is bird watching. So we use that app that you were just talking about. Um, and that's a really fun one. We have a lot of bird books as well that we kind of will look at. Um, and then we have done some things. There's a really when the kids were little, we did this fun um, it was a matching game all about animal prints, like trying to memorize what the different what the different um tracks look like of different animals. So like raccoons and deer and all the things that are local to the Midwest. And then so they'd get really familiar with the tracks with that game, and then we'd go outside and try to find different tracks, you know, which animal they belonged to. So that was a really fun, which I would label as like a very school type um activity and the bird watching. Um, we also really enjoy our my we have a couple kids who love rocks, and so we've done like the agate hunting and we've done the rock identification stuff. So we have some bunch of rock identification books. We went to Florida a couple years ago and we bought some um laminated guides from sh of shells, and you know, we kind of looked at what shells we were getting and things like that. The rock one I like a lot is for it as far as like school-related items go, because it opens up all kinds of doors to learning about you know all kinds of science things, volcanoes. I mean, it opens up so many doors just to pick up a handful of rocks and look up what they are and and those kinds of things. So that's pretty fun. Um, we've done some nature journaling before. Uh plant identification. We went to a really cool so we've been to a couple of these where we've gone to either people's farms or we went once and listened to an indigenous woman give us a lesson on how to identify edibles out in nature in the Midwest. So that, and then the other one, we went to uh a hobby farm. It was actually a Christmas tree farm, and they took us and they kind of showed us all like the biomes on the on the farmstead and um showed us the edible plants and things like that, and that was really fun. Um, and so that was another big one. And then I think that's all I have for really kind of school. Oh, and then the other one that we really enjoy. So we're a big history family. I think I've said that before. Um, and we have gone our so a lot of our or several of our state parks have historical centers attached with them too. So, or they'll just be different history sites. And so we'll go out and we'll look at like we went to um a really cool one that talked about some of the uh like the original prairie lands of of the Midwest. We've gone and looked at um there was a really cool uh military base that is now just mostly just the foundations are there, and so you can go and read the different panels about how they excavated the site and found these, you know, the bases of these um these this middle military or military base, and that's not very far, it's like a half hour from here. And we had an opportunity to talk about the the war that happened there uh or the battles that happened there. Um, and it was really interesting, opened up some really good conversation. So we really like going to explore like actual historical sites where there were things that happened. There's a lot of Native American history here in Mankato, a lot of really sad American sad Native American history that we've gone out and participated in, like the local Powell that goes on here and visited the historical sites and um learned about you know what what happened and and how we learn from that and grow from that. And so um, yeah, a lot of a lot of neat opportunities history-wise around here that we've we've done. Oh, you're muted, Corney.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Well, I don't know how I did that. I said, I think that um oftentimes when you think nature is a classroom, you automatically go to science, right? So it's kind of cool to think like, oh, history things. That's and it when you were talking about it reminded me of um anytime we visit a national park, all the national parks have the junior junior ranger program. If your kids have never done that, it's fantastic. It's they give you this entire booklet that they go through. It's a whole booklet of like learning about the animals that are there or the plants that are there, or the history, or whatever. Like it's tons of things. And then when they're done with it, they go back and they swear them in as a little junior ranger and they get a badge and they say this oath about taking care of they it's really neat. I highly recommend it. And every national park does it.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

We've gotten the books, but we've not like, and they've done them, but we have not gone back for like the little swearing in.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

So oh yeah, it's really neat. We've done it at Glacier National Park, we've done it at Grand Canyon. I think we've done it at a few, I don't know, those are the two that I remember most recently, but it's they're fantastic. I highly recommend it. So that's a perfect example of kind of an outdoor activity that counts at school. Because to me, that is 100% school. Um, but honestly, like I am also team. We're gonna go to the river and just go explore. Like, what do you see? What do you, you know what I mean? Like that counts as school. That is totally science today. Um, have you ever seen you kept saying things and it reminded me of a bunch of things? It's called Picture This is the app. Yep. Like green lit leaf and it, yeah, you can scan any plant and it will tell you everything about it, everything you'd ever want to know. It's really great for nature journaling. So, like if they're they can take it and they can, you know, draw their nature piece about it, but then go to the app for the facts and like put whatever facts that they found interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

It's one of my favorite apps. Actually, I can't believe I didn't mention it. And we we have a lot of like wild berries and things like that that grow around here, and so it's been really helpful too to like scan it and say, is it edible? And we learned that on this um we have supposedly have an apricot tree and a certain type of apple tree. And the apple tree is actually a different kind of apples than what we were told it was when we bought the property, and the apricot tree is undecided, but it doesn't look like it is one, even with the app. So interesting just to go around your own property and learn about that. Um, and we have I forgot to say we have people that tap maple syrup right across from the street from us, and that's a really fun process to watch from a distance. But yeah, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

You're all from a distance.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Um we've done the tapping, like we've gone where we actually went and took a class, not a class, but like uh if you go out there for the day and they show you how to do it, uh we did that many years ago.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

So a lot of work. It looks like a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Yeah, yeah, a ton of work.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Um, okay, so other things that I count out and honestly like anything we do outside. So sometimes we're gonna take spelling outside and they're gonna use chalk and write their spelling words when the kids are little waste to that all the time. Or if they were doing math problems, they would we'd go outside on a nice day and they would do their math in the driveway. You know, I mean, just for taking your school outside just gives it a different I don't know, it just changes the whole dynamic sometimes. And sometimes when our kids are having like a really rough day, um that's perfect. Like, let's just take it outside. And it just it, I don't know, it just flips this like internal switch. Everybody does better with a little bit of sunshine, some fresh air. Um, you have to go at it with a spot of patience, right? Because you know they're not gonna be they're gonna be a little more distractable right outside. Yeah, like look, there's a butterfly, look, there's a bird, there's a car, there's a you know. Um, but it's just kind of a it's a great way to just get a little bit of different, a little bit of a different classroom, right? Just to take it outside. Um, so to me that you know, it just that's an outdoor activity that totally counts as school. Like just even taking your book outside, it can be as simple as that. Um did you ever I did you ever feel guilty when you um like when learning doesn't happen at the table? Like when I when I was first a homeschooler, because I came from a public school background, right? Like I was a public school teacher. So like I would not count it, right? Like if we took um we we went to the park, right? It was a really nice day. So we went to the park and you know, the kids did all kinds of things and we followed an ant trail and we, you know what I mean? We did school, like it should have counted for school, but in my brain, if we were not sitting at a table with a paper and a pencil, like it didn't count as school back then. I've obviously evolved and come around and like you know, I definitely count everything at school pretty much now. You can empty the dishwasher and that counts as school because you're sorting the silverware, you know what I mean? Um but back then, like I had a really hard time with it and I felt guilty every time we didn't, you know, get our math paper done with paper and pencil that day. So did you ever have a time like that or not really?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

You know, I I didn't. Uh I also wasn't a public school teacher though, so that could be a big change. But as long as we were doing an act and some sort of act academic um when I was younger, as long as we're doing some sort of school activity that I like deemed school, not just a happy accident, I didn't. Um, but had we just like given up the day and just gone to the park and not done anything, I probably would have felt a little bit guilty, even though now I know that well, they're still gaining you know beneficial skills. Um yeah. So it was never too much of a problem for me though.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah, I feel like I was handicapped in the beginning with coming from that back the school background. Yeah, I it was very it's a different mindset for sure. Okay, so what would be your simplest thing to start? Like, how would you start small? Like if you were asking someone if they want to go outside or they want to do nature as a classroom, what is a subject that's super easy to take outside, or what would you suggest for them?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

So I know that it seems overwhelming, it is really simple, but it feels overwhelming. Is I would it was the microscope thing for me. So it's go outside, gather up like so you have may you could make a scavenger hunt, or you could just go find whatever they want, give them each a little tiny ziploc bag, fill it up, and then come back and look at these things under the microscope. I mean, you can do have you ever the easiest one for you to take outside. Yeah, look at pond water under a microscope, incredible. Like it's so gross. Like, like it's a great thing. Like, hey, this is why we don't drink the water out of the pond, because now you can see all the horrible things that are in it. Um we went to um with venture upward, we went on a field trip to a uh a really cool museum, a natural science museum, a couple of months ago, and they had a really high-powered um microscope that looked at the a huge, huge like aquarium of pond water, and you could kind of move the thing around. It was awful. Like I never wanted to step foot in a pond again. But that's interesting for me, it would be would be science. Um, it's literally happening all around you when you're outside. It's so cool. I just I mean, everything from look at how you know you don't see these type of flowers ever in the shade, they're only in the sun, and all of a sudden you're talking about photosynthesis. And I mean, it's just so many things, you know, the clouds and why are they there? And have you seen those like cloud viewers where pick a cardboard cutout, and then you put pictures of the different types of clouds here, and then you have a cutout so the kids can kind of hold it up and then compare and say, Oh, this is this, this, that. So, I mean, there's just science is so fun outside. It's almost kind of worth doing science inside. Sometimes I feel like, oh, we should just hold off science until we get to the spring, and then we can go out and do it.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

All right. So, my answer to what subjects are easiest to take outside and how to start small, any of them. Like take your bath book outside, grab a blanket, grab your book, do a read aloud. Anything could be done outside. Nothing has to be done sitting at a table. Yep. Like, I mean, I wish I had told my younger self that that that was okay. Because there is like anything can be taken outside. I mean, granted, is a lot of work. Some things, if you're taking, you know, your history book and their workbooks, and you know what I mean? Yeah, whatever. But as your kids get bigger, they can grab their like we have baskets now, like everybody has a basket that has all their school stuff. Like, grab your basket or go to the picnic table outside. So in the summertime, I have a bunch of friends and they call it pool school. And so they'll they'll take their basket and go outside to their picnic table in the shade, and you will do a math lesson, and then you'll go swimming for 15 minutes, and then you come back and you will read a chapter of your book, or you know, like they call it pool school and they do them on Fridays a lot of the times. Some moms do it all the time, but um, that's as easy. I mean, it's really that easy. Just keeping your stuff portable, I think, is probably the easiest. Like not having an entire bookshelf where everything is laid out where you have to like try to take it all. But if you have a little basket or like my morning basket would be the perfect thing to take outside, right? Take it outside. So I don't know. I encourage you just to try.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Absolutely. We um one thing that might be helpful um to some families. So here, like the bugs, the ant and the gnats can get really bad, the mosquitoes get really bad. Um, we've done where we've set up the screen and tent for like a week or more, and then have the table in there, and we'll go out and school out in the tent, out in this big screen and tent. It's like a screen and porch kind of thing. I don't know if you guys have them there, but um, yeah, it's like a tent with mesh walls and the regular roof.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Oh, that's genius because you guys get crazy mosquitoes. I mean, we get mosquitoes, but I think you get worse mosquitoes.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

We get crazy, yeah. That's our our unofficial state bird is the mosquito. Yeah. Have you ever sorry, I know we're a little off track, but have you ever done the I can't think of what it's called, but it's like the photo paper where you take it, you go outside, yeah, and you get so you can get on Amazon, it's like I want to say it's like nine bucks for a pack, and so it's a little white, unlike undeveloped photo paper, basically. And that's really not what it is. Somebody's gonna fact check me. I don't know exactly what it is. I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

I know what you're talking about though.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yeah, so you get this paper, and then you go out and grab like leaves and rocks and all kinds of cool new things you can make designs, then you go set out in the paper and out in the sun and expose it. You have to like cover it up on the walkout to outside, like put under your shirt or cover it up, because it will it will like start exposure, will start right away. And then you quickly put your rocks on there, um, or get it all uh designed inside and then put like a blanket over it or a tissue or something. Then you take it out and you leave it out there for I don't remember if it's 15 minutes or half hour what it is, and then you bring it back in and it's kind of set and then the sun has made this picture. It's it's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Yeah. I don't remember what it's called, but I totally know what you're talking about. Yeah, um, it's really fun, it's just a fun little thing, and it's a really short little, it's kind of like art and science all in one together, right? Yep. Um okay, so how can moms use things like nature walks, gardening, or journaling without overcomplicating them?

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Yes. Um, I think let moms' passion drive it too. It's not just we have to remember too, we always talk about how we want our kids, you know, their passion to lead things and we want to follow their lead and all these things, and that's great. But if you find something that you're excited about, like if you love to garden, turn that into a school activity, right? Like have the kids research how much sun does it need? Well, how do you know if that part of your gets that enough, you know, if it gets enough sun while all of a sudden you know you're doing observations and you're keeping a log? And um, so I would argue.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

you to let whoever the the educator is mom probably um drive some of those things and um because when she is happy and filled with joy and excited the kids are gonna be happy and excited to learn so one of my favorite books is little men have you read that book uh no but you sock it all you it's like you're you gotta read it anyways Empire Little Men she does this thing with her school of boys and she has all these garden plots and she gives each one a garden plot and they can plant whatever they want in it and so some of them plant you know vegetables that then they resell to the house for the kitchen right some plant flowers some plant I don't even know I can't remember what they planted so one year I did that and actually you say in this goes oh I should do that again we should do that this weekend um I gave everybody a section of our I have like raised planters and everybody got to plant something and it was so fun to see because like I had one daughter that planted all flowers and then I had another one that planted zucchini because I love like zucchini bread and I had another that planted way too many things one that planted carrots and then they overflooded them and then they were really sad because they're carrots like you know they just didn't really grow. And one that was like well I'm just gonna plant the easiest thing there is to plant and so they planted radishes which no one in our family eats radishes because they're gross. I mean they might not be gross to you but they're gross to meat but they got a really good harvest because it was a really it's a really easy thing to grow. So it's just super fun to just kind of do things like that, right? Where old meat would have been like that's not school that's just like plain whatever. But it's totally school like they learned all kinds of things they learned what would actually grow and they had to look and see what could we plant now we can't plant you know rhubarb in March because that's a winter vegetable or um anyways that was super fun and I should totally do that again because it's been a really long time. So that's one thing. Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

That one so we we do that too every year the kids well we didn't do a garden last year because um the baby but we what's that?

SPEAKER_02 23:52

That's what I totally didn't do one last year either.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

What was a year? But we've done the same thing. So then are your kids responsible for like weeding their own plots and everything like that.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Yeah good they're in charge of it. And we do have like a watering system so it gets watered.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah we don't have to water it but I will say by the end of July everybody was just done with it because it was so hot outside they're like eh whatever that happens with us too was usually not the hot it's the bugs like oh I can't go for another mosquito session of weeding.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Yeah. Okay so one of my my tips for making like nature journaling super easy would be I keep a bag packed with um their nature notebooks and we have um I have the um what do you call those like watercolor pencils have you ever tried those? So you color it like a like a color pencil and then you get it wet and it turns into watercolor.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

I don't think I've ever seen that.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

They're so nice. And so then we have like the little water paint pens like that you put water in them and then it's like a paintbrush. Yeah I've seen those in there and I keep just a couple bottles of water like just a couple whatever so there it's always there. So literally we can just take it with us whenever we go so if we're gonna go to usury park and go on a hike or we're just gonna go to the front yard or we're gonna go to the park and meet friends or we go to the cabin like up north I just take it with us. Like it's always packed and ready to go. So that has been a really great way to just make it easy right because I'm all about like I'm not gonna do it. If I have to go look through 17 drawers and find paintbrushes and find like I'm just not gonna do it. Yeah but if I can keep it and it literally just hangs in my entryway on our coat racks and just there's our nature club our nature book. We haven't done it in a really long time I should probably get that back out but we go through seasons. Do you ever go through seasons where like sometimes you do things all the time and then sometimes it's been a really long time. I was like oh I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Like you said you're the same way about this like I get bored easy. It's like oh well we've done that now for a couple months it's time to swim house but we do the keeping the pack thing with um we keep a tote of swimming stuff in our vehicle all summer long so that if we decide we're gonna stop at a park and there's a splash pad or someone invites us to go swimming last minute or something like that, we've always got our swim stuff in our totes in our tote in the vehicle. So we do I need to start thinking about putting that together. Yeah no I love that idea about having like a a nature activity kind of always packed and ready.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

The other thing for like nature walks especially in the summertime or when it gets really warm here you can't really just you don't go outside during the day but you can go on an evening nature walk like go on a listening walk or go on a stargazing walk or there's just so many ways to I I just not cut and dry like it's not just you have to go out when it's suddenly in like two in the afternoon kind of a thing. You can do it anytime like your morning in your morning walk is going to be a whole lot different than like an evening walk. And so just kind of taking the kids out and seeing it the different times or like listening for the birds because you hear different birds in the morning than you do in the evening um it's just kind of fun to explore nature at different times.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Absolutely um so we've done a couple night nature walks so we have a couple um you guys if you guys have and it's it's always I promise you there's probably things out there that you aren't no that you don't know about yet. So there are nature centers all over the country little nature centers or um like the library the local libraries they have so many pro they have so much programming with this kind of stuff and so I encourage you to go and look and see what your community has or maybe a neighboring community. We have a really cool um nature center within half an hour from our house and they do that's where we saw the maple syrup tapping and they do um one of the state parks coming up has a um uh a night walk where they've lit all the forest candles with or um forest paths with candles I don't know if they're like fake I'm sure they're fake candles I'm sure they're not real candles but like luminaries all through the paths and you can go um we've done quite a few there's a place where we love to go camp and we've done quite a few night hikes there and it's so true when you go on a night hike you are hearing totally different sounds than you ever would hear during the day and kids and you give and right like I don't know what it is with kids and flashlights but it just makes their entire year. If you give a kid a flashlight in the dark they're like in heaven and obviously you have to have like good ground rules to keep everybody safe because you're going in the dark and you probably shouldn't go somewhere you haven't been in the daylight. Um but I I would say that's that would be such a fun first step for the mom who hasn't really taken things outside yet. And at night usually right there's a second parent available as well to go with so I encourage everybody to schedule a night hike in the next couple of months they are so fun. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

So I think the takeaway is nature school can be anything right yeah in your living room with the bird's nest that you found or the wild honestly I've just bought flowers from like Trader Dose like a really good thing of flowers and that's our nature study and we they dissect them and take them apart and you find all the different pieces um that's a great way to do a nature study inside if you can't go outside.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

I love it have you guys done the owl pellets oh yeah oh that is such a fun one so for the moms that don't know um owl pellets are literally just what like owl vomit it's really gross but they you know all the all the animals and then they throw up the things that they can't digest but and I know it sounds terrible and gross and it is in a lot of ways but it's so cool because you can give the kids they get like a couple tweezers and different things and then a magnifying glass and they dissect these owl pellets and you can literally rebuild the little animals with their skeletons whole little rodents it's crazy. Yes it's so so gross but so cool. And the kids little boys and girls alike love it we've done it with every single one of our kids except for obviously the baby although she was present at the last time we did it but we do it once a year. Oh really yep it's been a couple years I think since we've done it.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yeah and they're so cheap you can buy but they're not expensive and you can even get them on Amazon I think.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yeah we have this fantastic homeschooling store called Heppner's legacy store in Elk River Minnesota is so fantastic. Anyways they sell owl pellets right there the last time I was there I saw there you go I'm like I've only ever ordered them online.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Maybe Rainbow Resource I think I got some at Rainbow Resource maybe for sure yeah so that's a fun one too another science y activity but yeah I don't know I just think there's no there's no there's no right there's no wrong and and and also here's my other thing like you might be listening to this and being like I have three kids under the age of three and a six year old like that is not my season and that's okay it's not your season and your season might just be putting a blanket on the ground in the grass in your yard yeah and and reading a book or just staring at the sky or doing nothing singing happy songs. You know what I mean like it doesn't there is no right or wrong and I promise that everyone has a season right that it will get easier or even in hard seasons and honestly babies do so good outside.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Oh they do just like taking them outside makes them so happy yeah no absolutely I was gonna throw two more things out there um for the moms who um are in a season where they have busy little kids um like those mud kitchens you see people all talking about where you're just literally like going outside and letting your kids play with mud and building pretend clay things out of the mud and different things. I promise you that it is worth all of the muddy boots and all of the dirty clothes and the extra baths that are needed. Some of my favorite pictures and memories to look back at are all of our muddy boots lined up on the deck after we've been out playing in like this type of weather the early spring and you're covered in everybody's covered in mud right the baby the kids you everybody um and you don't have to leave anywhere just go let your kids dig in the backyard right or you know um it sounds terrible but let them rip up one of the plants right and look at the little roots and all of the things or a dandelion or whatever it is um so it doesn't have to be really school esque right like what we're talking about. It can just be fun too um we did like I have a picture I wish I could find it and I'll try to maybe find it and we can maybe we can post it with some um some things but we had our our now 11 year old she was under two and she got goggles on she's got goggles on in this picture and a hammer yes a hammer for my I think she was almost 20 month old and she was trying to get geodes open on the on the sidewalk right like smashing them trying to get open and um the other thing I was going to say is don't underestimate the power of a tour. People are really excited to give tours right like we went to um a Christmas tree tree farm and did a tour um we went to a sawmill and we watched how like they took in this huge tree and we got to watch how they used their big saws to cut it in half and um like I was saying earlier the nature centers and state parks do tours um you can call up a local alpaca farm or a dairy farm and just ask if they'd be willing to give your family a tour um you would be shocked at how many people are like oh absolutely we'd love to host your family out and give a tour right um send them a nice thank you card afterwards but it is really or um tour like a fish hatchery all kinds of cool things where it takes the pressure off you also to plan everything because you don't need to plan everything. You can just call and go on some neat tours as well and get your get your kids and yourself outside.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yeah all of our state parks that I'm probably I think this is probably everywhere do all kinds of cool things like that. Like they do you know um like owl walks like at night to see owls or we do in Arizona you get to go on scorpion walks your black lights looking for scorpions. You know there's all kinds of cool and honestly I've have not taken advantage of it but there's zero reason they're all free you guys like most of the I mean there's a lot of really cool things out there that next year we're gonna do a year of field trips. We're gonna do field trip Fridays. And so this has given me so many ideas of like oh I need to you know I I can do these things. We actually have a um a nature preserve here like in the middle of the city we have a nature preserve and they have a huge um telescope and they once a month will bring in more telescopes and you can go do like stargazing from it because it's in the middle of the city but it's this huge dark area um that you can see stars from which we've never done we've said we were going to do it every when it's we've looked here for nine years.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

So we've done that um we did it at our local university they have um a huge telescope and and um so they we just called and asked for a tour and they said yes and it I just I mean don't underestimate the power of just a kind phone call.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

So many people are willing to be like yeah of course you can come out and see our giant telescope and look through it you know and yeah bring some friends or yeah come out and tour our our um lamb farm or whatever it is so yeah or and if you don't if you want to garden and you don't know how there's so many people in your area or you know friends a little old lady at church that would just love for you to come over and see how she grows her tomatoes you know um anyways don't everestimate that as getting outside in nature like it doesn't have to be something you don't have to know it like but I guarantee there's somebody around you that probably does and community gardens those are great like most towns have those where you can for free take a little plot and then also Courtney I just found this out for the first time our library has a seed library.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

We do two I've never I've never done it but I know it's there. I didn't even know such a thing existed. Somebody just told us oh my daughter she went there to study and she told me and then we went there and it was closed the seed library part was closed but we're gonna go again unlimited free seeds like that's crazy I never knew such a thing existed so you can do these things really inexpensively too that's one thing that I love about um like nature and school outside is that almost all of it is just completely free.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Yeah I love it. All right so there you go your takeaway is go outside read a book get your kids outside what do you I say get yourself outside too not just your kids this is good for the homeschool mom to get outside um even if you don't homeschool and you're listening to this there's absolutely no reason that just because your kids are in public school doesn't mean you can't do anything educational with them.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

You know of course you are you're still invested in education even if you send your kid to public school of course so take them outside and like Courtney said follow the ant trail and do something fun.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Yeah because it's just good it's self care right there and getting that vitamin D and right I love it. All right see you everybody next week have a great day