2023-2024 Curriculum Picks: Family Style Science + Art
You guys, I am so excited for our science pick this year! When I sat down to start planning out the 2023-2024 school year - one of the very first promptings from the Spirit I had was that we needed to do a deep dive into nature study. I had selected some things to use for our studies, but to be honest, I was a little worried about making nature study the main focus of our science curriculum for the entire year. In year’s past we focus on 3 or 4 different science topics so it just felt like a lot of time in just one area - the natural sciences. Every time I kept coming back to some of the materials I had selected - it just didn’t feel quite right, but I couldn’t figure out why.
One Sunday in late April I was at church and our women’s class was discussing an address given by one of our church leader’s called Our Earthly Stewardship. We were talking about Monet and how he had spent 40 years caring for his garden. It became his painting workspace and hundreds of his magnificent pieces were created in this space. Gerald Causse, the speaker, said in relation to Monet’s paintings,
“..our interactions with the beauties of nature around us can produce some of the most inspiring and delightful experiences in life. The emotions we feel kindle within us a deep sense of gratitude for our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, who created this magnificent earth—with its mountains and streams, plants and animals—and our first parents, Adam and Eve.”
Causse goes onto to outline three principles in our roles for being stewards on the earth. “First, the entire earth, including all life thereon, belongs to God. Second, as stewards of God’s creations, we have a duty to honor and care for them. And third, we are invited to participate in the work of creation.” He ends with another quote that says,
“Among all of man’s achievements, none can equal the experience of becoming cocreators with God in giving life or in helping a child learn, grow, and thrive—whether it be as parents, teachers, or leaders, or in any other role. There is no stewardship more sacred, more fulfilling, and also more demanding than that of partnering with our Creator in providing physical bodies for His spirit children and then helping them reach their divine potential.”
So after hearing these few things - Monet, the principles Causse discusses, and the point that nothing is more important than helping a child learn, grow, and thrive I knew the Lord was telling me that we needed to spend our entire year learning more about His earthly creations. Throughout the whole discussion the thought that kept coming back to me was, you have the time to do this. I felt so validated in living this lifestyle - that this is what He wanted for me - and for my children - to slow down and learn more about Him through His creations. And in the process, He would continue to be my cocreator - one in which when I fall short, His grace would carry us through. I walked out of that class and knew these words and this address would set a foundation for our next school year.
That afternoon I came home and started browsing for another nature study curriculum. While I was browsing a IG acquaintance’s name popped into my head and I remembered she had mentioned she loved the Season’s Afield Nature Study from Beautiful Feet Books. I hadn’t even written down BFB as a science option because usually I connect BFB with history. We used Beautiful Feet Books for our Early American History curriculum and we also used their Teaching Character Through Literature package two years ago. But, I went to check out the curriculum and instantly knew that, once again, the Lord had led me right to what we needed to do.
What You Need To Know About Season’s Afield
Season’s Afield is simply beautiful. In order to understand the curriculum guide, it’s helpful to know it is focused on bringing school, home, and nature together as one. The term they use to do this is a German word called Schullandheim. The parent guide says,
“Schullandheim is place-based in that the student is surrounded by the glory of the natural world, a spot where science is easily absorbed. It is both directed and play-based, tapping into the way a child naturally works and learns…The Schullandheim student engages with beautiful stories, art, and poetry. He experiments and handcrafts. He learns through exploration and discovery, where he lays a foundation and simultaneously develops curiosity. Once the concepts have been introduced and explored, the student can then explain and elaborate on what he has placed in his toolbox. In contrast to many pedagogical approaches, the textbook often comes last in this curriculum, as a useful tool that directs further observation. The evaluation of what the child has learned is beautifully Socratic and internal.”
Further, Season’s Afield is a year-long literature approach to studying nature and comes with an inviting parent guide full of rich lessons and activities. There are 6 units in the guide that cover a study of Autumn, Winter, and Spring (2 units a season). Each unit has 3 subcategories of study. For example, the first unit is called Autumn Story and you will learn about foraging, preserving, and decomposition. Each of these subcategories have 4 mini daily lessons. The daily lessons are one of the following:
A story lesson: For this lesson the book, Brambly Hedge is used as a framework for the study of the seasons.
A fieldwork lesson: Fieldwork days are experiments or handcrafts.
A notebooking lesson: Watercolor with Me in the Forest is used as a guide for learning a variety of watercolor techniques through out the course. There is a Fieldnotes and Watercolor Cards Package that is a must-have with the curriculum. These coordinate with Watercolor with Me in the Forest. (These are the watercolors and notebooks we use.)
A slow down and wander lesson: This is the day to get outside and learn, explore, and play. The book Slow Down is used during these days.
In addition to these lessons, there are additional special lessons full of art, poetry, handcrafts, and recipes related to the nature study topic. With each season you study, there are 4 additional picture books that coordinate with the season you’ll use as well. Additional book lists are also given with each unit. Each child also keeps a logbook to record their lessons, observations, and store their field notes.
How We Will Use Season’s Afield
Last week I shared our morning time materials - Morning Time & 5th Grade. I added the All That He Had Made Nature Card (Discount Code: HCL10 for 10% off) set knowing nature study was going to be a prominent theme in our studies next year. I think they compliment this curriculum so nicely.
Even though this curriculum says it’s for the primary grades K-3, I feel like it will still be appealing to my older girls who will be in 5th grade this year. They’re very excited to read Brambly Hedge and I think my younger boys will also like it. I picked up The Story-book of Science for my older girls to narrate and I am just going to play it be ear to see if I feel like I need to add in anything extra for them as we work through the units since notebooking is already included in our study. Obviously their notebooks and logbooks will be done more advanced than my younger boys.
With many of the curriculums we use I jump off the curriculum guide and make it our own. However, flipping through the teacher/parent guide, I honestly don’t see us trailing much from it. I am planning to take these units slow and really enjoy them. The guide does say you would need to do two lessons a week in order to finish it within a typical school year. Since we take a unit style approach - and we are only studying science for about 4-6 weeks. Then we switch over to history for 4-6 weeks - I am planning to do one unit, like Autumn Story, and then switch and do history for a few weeks, and then move into the next unit, which, in this case, would be The High Hills. I bet we will take about 4 weeks per unit and include some of the special lessons. In August, when we go back to our normal homeschool rhythm, we will be starting with Autumn Story as our first unit study.
I don’t think I will always follow the study topics in order. I may need to adjust our rhythm a bit to make sure we catch certain lessons during certain times of the seasons. For some of the topics, it won’t matter as much when you study them, but for others, it definitely will. For example, there is a topic called Senescence which will work best when the leaves turn for the fall. Here in Utah, that only lasts a few weeks so that is something I know I’ll need to adjust when the time comes. Our weather patterns have been very unusual this year so I’m already anticipating the need to be flexible.
One last thing I’ll mention is that I am leaning into is studying The Secret Staircase unit as our entire Christmas School between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I won’t make any final decisions on that until it gets a little closer.
What You Need To Get Started
Season’s Afield Nature Study Pack
First, I researched what books my library had for this study and they only had one. So, I checked what it would cost to buy the books used off Amazon or Thrift Books. When I shopped, there was only a $10 difference so I bought the package from Beautiful Feet. You are able to remove 3 books in case you already own some of the books in the package.
Field Notes & Watercolor Cards Packet
Since we are doing this study family style, I bought one packet for each of my four children.
Notebooks for Logbooks/Notebooking
This lined notebook is what BFB recommends to utilize as a logbook and I am assuming to also glue the field notes and watercolor cards in. I didn’t buy the notebook because I didn’t realize what they were originally for. At this point, I am learning toward just using the Canson Notebooks we have used for notebooking in the past. I love that it already has watercolor paper in it and it’ll be easy to glue or tape in our field notes and watercolor cards.
Art Bindle
The parent book prompts you to set up an outdoor office and prepare an art bindle with supplies you’ll need. We have a table right outside our school room that we’ll be using for our outdoor office so I don’t think we will prep anything extra. It’s recommended to have a drawstring backpack, watercolors, logbooks, washi tape, glue, pencils and crayons. Like I mentioned, we have used this travel friendly watercolor set for years now and love it. Each one of my kids has their own.
So this is a wrap for our curriculum picks for 2023-2024! If you missed it, I went over our 5th grade picks, 1st grade and Pre-K picks, and family style history picks last week.
Let me know if you have any questions!
September 2023 - Edited to Add: After we started this unit we added in these nature journals to use for our logs. We’ve used our Canton notebooks (mentioned above) when we do extra art projects and glue them into our nature journals. We also started using Nature’s Art Club for art tutorials for my older kids. It has coordinated really well with Season’s Afield.
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