Learning about things in nature has never come naturally for me. I was not into the outdoors as a little girl. I loved going swimming and boating and doing fun things outside. But, actually spending time in nature and admiring the beauty around was never in my mind. It wasn’t until I became the mother of three VERY active boys that God pressed it upon my heart to spend more time in the great outdoors.
My boys are very observant when it comes to nature. They will notice the tiniest insect, the brightest sun, and the most fragrant flower. I love to pick up books about nature from our library. There are tons to choose from. We can pick a topic such as butterflies and read books all about them. This is probably my favorite part about studying nature.
In the title above, I used the word “observe”. There is a reason for this. Although we do study nature, observing nature is a lot of fun also. It doesn’t involve getting out books or identifying anything. It’s simp
We live in a small neighborhood. There are about 12 houses on our street. We have about an acre of land. You would think there would hardly be any nature to observe. That is wrong. Our neighborhood has tons of trees and wildlife. There is even open sky at the end of our street where we can see the sun set.
Observing nature where you are simply means, you don’t have to have a ton of land to see nature around. It is there. It’s more about opening your eyes and heart and ears to the things around you. For us, that includes sitting at our back sliding-glass doors and watching the backyard come to life.
We put out bird feeders and little treats for the animals to attract them. We even planted butterfly bushes so the butterflies would come closer. We put up birdhouses for the little bird families as well.
So far this year, we have seen in our backyard: several turtles laying eggs (we live close to a small creek and they come every year to lay eggs), bluebirds (in a birdhouse with babies), cardinals, squirrels (we have at least a dozen), rabbits, a groundhog (he comes every summer to raise his family), deer by the dozens, eagles, hawks, mourning doves (made a nest in our cherry tree), several snakes (yuck), lizards and skinks on our porch, tree frogs on the glass door, and so on. That’s only the animals.
We’ve seen way too many different kinds of insects and spiders to even mention. My husband is a wonderful gardener and has done an incredible job with our one acre of land. He has planted lilies, peonies, many different kinds of trees (Yoshino cherry, regular cherry, apple, river birch, Japanese maple, etc), rose of Sharon, crepe myrtles, crab apples, dozens of other varieties of flowers, and a shade garden with a wide variety of plants. He has a small fountain for the birds to bathe in as well.
We love to take a “walk about” around the yard at least once a day on nice weather days. Our boys follow us around and point out all the different plants blooming, insects hiding, and animals climbing about. Although we don’t have a lot of land, we have a lot of nature to observe. Wherever you are, there is always something beautiful to take in. Nature is one of God’s greatest creations. He created it for us to enjoy.
