Just Outside Your Door: Ants and Trees and Worms! Oh, My!

When I talk to moms about doing nature study, about using it as the foundation of their homeschooling, I often encounter that "deer in the headlight" look.  It is one of both awe and terror.  I hear things like, "I don't know enough."  "I don't have time to add anything." "I don't have your experience."  

Let me share a little secret with you.  I didn't either when I started.  I knew very little.  There was a certain animosity between myself and most all six legged creatures.   It's been many years in the making.  I started out exactly where most of you are, not sure where to start.  

So this morning, I'm going to take you on a bit of an adventure, through the last couple of days at my house.  I no longer have littles who are interested, but I still go and do my own thing, so that I continue to gain knowledge and experience to share with all of you.  

This past week has been a very difficult one for me.  Personal relationships have been strained.  There have been major life event changes in my extended family.  Most difficult though, was the human impact on one of my favorite wild spaces.  It was the place where I would go to escape and get alone with God.  It is now being manicured for human enjoyment. 

On Monday, I began to seek out a new wild space.  I picked a spot high above the pond in our field, just beyond the house.  First, I just sat, bare feet pressed to the ground, connecting.  Then I noticed a scurry of activity to my left on the ground and trees.  

Ants!  Everywhere, hustling and bustling, up and down the tree and along the ground.  Hundreds of ants!  

Interestingly, they seemed to have very little interest in me.  They were focused!  They were intent.  

This immediately brought a memory to the surface.  When I was young - under 10 - there was a large pine tree in our yard in front of the house on The Avenue.  I use to sit and watch the ants, mesmerized by them.  Interesting in this is the fact that at that point, my relationship with all creatures of the six legged variety was tense at best.

A I watched the ants I began to wonder, "What is it with ants and pine trees?"  

And thus began my nature study.  Curiosity was piqued.  

When I was done sitting, when I felt recharged, I came inside.  I grabbed a bunch of children's books and field guides on ants and insects (some left over from our early homeschool days, some I've collected since).  i grabbed my journal and my pencil bag and I began to search the internet.

I looked up ants, their symbolism, the lessons they have to teach us.  I remembered Bible verses about the ant and looked those up and wrote them in my journal.  

Wait, library/research skills, language arts (reading/writing), and religion all just happened in a very short span.  Did you see that?

Then I got distracted by grown-up responsibilities.  I left my stuff, sitting in a pile on the floor by my spot on the couch.  (Yes, homeschooling is a messy business.)

On Tuesday afternoon, when I was able to return to my pile and my new spot, I grabbed my journal and my brown Crayola crayon (next time I'll use black) and headed for the tree.  I did a rubbing of the bark in my journal.  

Art, just happened.  Did you see that?

Inside, I identified the tree as a Pinus strobus.  It's sometimes called Eastern White Pine, or just White Pine or Northern Pine.  It all depends on where you are.  Think about it, it's kind of like you.  Sometimes you're called "sweetheart" or "Mommy" or "Mrs. X".  It all depends on where you are. You are still you and the Pinus strobus is still the Pinus strobus.

Latin and science just happened.  Older children might look at classifications further.  For me, the Latin name was enough for the day.

I also sat and read something I'd printed off from the internet about the mutualism of ants and trees.  Did you know that earthworms are not native to most of North America?  Prior to that it was the ants who were the decomposers and the ones who airated the soil and nourished it.  (I sense another rabbit trail of a study happening here ....worms?)

Today, I am writing a blog post, culminating my nature study, or at least two days worth of it, which by the way, entailed a grand total of 20 minutes outside.

Please stop and notice that during this whole process, I was not instructing anyone.  If children had been here, I would have done exactly the same thing that I did.  Only they would have been doing it along side me.  They would have gleaned what was most interesting to them.  There was no expensive curriculum, no fancy tools and I didn't go anywhere special.  I was literally, just outside my front door.

You can do this!  If you have questions or need help getting started, please email me at maggieraye@gmail.com.