Nature Study Session: Blooming?

Nature-study does not start out with the classification given in books, but in the end it builds up in the child’s mind a classification which is based on fundamental knowledge; it is a classification like that evolved by the first naturalists, because it is built on careful personal observations of both form and life.

…She (teacher) may be trying to fill the child’s mind with facts when she should be leading him to observe these for himself, which is a most entertaining occupation for the child.

Son took notice of this branch located at the lower  part of the Kalachuchi Tree he’s been studying for 3 months now. It was not there a month ago. We noticed that it was greenish at the base and had various shades of violet and red where it pointed. Are they flowers about to bloom? or more branches? Or are they leaves? We did not search for answers online. We simply observed and documented what we saw. We took notice of color, texture, location. Son noticed that there were already flowers blooming at the top most part of the tree while branches at the lower and shaded part of the tree had these pointed “violets.” He pointed out the top most flowers could have bloomed first because of exposure to the sun. He wondered if these lower branches were merely catching up because of lack of sunlight.

Son will monitor changes of this particular branch, daughter will continue documenting the Papaya Tree, while I will simply lead them to explore, observe, document, and question.

That’s how simple Nature Study can be. It all starts by going out and taking notice of the little things.