This week, our theme was water: where it comes from, what are its properties, how it is used in nature. As always, we made plenty of digressions to follow the interests of the children.
One way in which nature study has made the wisdom of Charlotte Mason clear to me is seeing how nothing is too humble for the boys' full attention.
As a jaded adult, I want to see something "amazing" when I go for a hike. I feel let-down if I haven't spotted a fox or bobcat (we never spot a fox a bobcat). Not so with my little Tardigrades. I believe that it is because we have been spending time in nature since they were babies that they now approach the most humble discoveries with wonder.
Water striders, roly-poly bugs, house sparrows, chipmunks, minnows, and/or a wild blueberry bush: all these things hold the same fascination and appeal for them that does the lion at the zoo.
I know that educating one's children is like tending an orchard from which some future generation will harvest fruit - so it is with a grateful heart that I collect and treasure these small signs that what I am doing is working, that seeds are being planting that God will cause to full flower one day.
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