The first thing I did after choosing home education for my family was ask myself what sort of atmosphere and lifestyle I wanted to set for my children. What was important to me? What elements of the various methods of education really resonated with me? Did I want to replicate the public school classroom in our home with textbooks and worksheets or was there another way?

Over months and months of scouring blogs, reading books, and observing homeschool families on Instagram I came to a few conclusions. The key elements I wanted to include in our home education were:

• Family-style learning
• Beauty and goodness
• Living books
• Narration and notebooking
• Hands-on learning
• Focus on nature and the rhythm of the seasons

I found myself scrambling to piece each of these elements together to make a cohesive lesson and decided it was time to plan ahead and create what I always wanted but couldn’t find. With these values at the center, I wrote Treehouse Nature Study. I wrote it for my family and am so honored to share it with you. It is with great joy that I introduce to you, Treehouse Nature Study.

In this blog post: 

• Treehouse Nature Study: Charlotte Mason-style nature study curriculum
• Core values of Treehouse Nature Study
• Seasonal themes in Treehouse Nature Study
• Go deeper with Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years

Treehouse Nature Study: Charlotte Mason-style nature study curriculum

Treehouse Nature Study is a seasonal nature study curriculum designed with family-style learning in mind. It is a gentle guide meant to invite various ages to connect with each other and the world around them through living books, nature notebooking, hands-on projects, and beauty subjects such as poetry, picture study, and folk songs.

From preschool through upper middle school, it appeals to every age and is easily used with multiple ages at the same time. It would be a great fit for your preschool or kindergartener’s core curriculum or your whole family’s home education Morning Time and Nature Study. It also provides supplemental work for your children’s language arts through poetry memorization, recitation, copywork, and notebooking.

Core values of Treehouse Nature Study

This Charlotte Mason and Waldorf-inspired seasonal nature study curriculum includes each of these six core elements of home education.

Family-style learning

I want our home to be a place where the excitement of learning and great ideas are shared between siblings and with my husband and me as well. For as many subjects as possible, I wanted to adapt the content to multiple levels so that each child in our family could learn together. This is one of the main features of Treehouse Nature Study. It was developed to use with all of your children at the same time. I have included hand rhymes for the littlest of learners and tips on adapting this guide for every grade level.

Emphasis on nature and the rhythm of the seasons

The idea of studying nature never occurred to me until I was researching methods of education. It was one of my main draws to a Charlotte Mason education. I also learned a lot about helping our children appreciate and connect to the rhythm of the seasons through the Waldorf method of education. Treehouse Nature Study is a seasonal nature study curriculum, introducing children to nature themes in rhythm with the season. 

Beauty and goodness in Treehouse Nature Study

Through my research I discovered that children can engage with beautiful, deep things. We don’t need to give them cartoony illustrations, dumbed-down stories, and watery content.  It is a shame to keep them from the great artists, classical poetry, and great ideas. I wanted my children to be regularly introduced to poems, classical works of art, and excellent music. These subjects are often called “beauty subjects.” Each week of Treehouse Nature Study includes a poem, folksong, and piece of artwork connected to the week’s nature study.

Living books

Textbooks aren’t the only way to teach children facts about the world. I want to offer my children rich stories with memorable plots and interesting non-fiction guides with gorgeous illustrations. I learned that these types of books can really be the core to learning anything. For this reason, Treehouse Nature Study offers an extensive booklist of picture books, non-fiction titles, and relevant reference selections from the most popular books for nature study in home education, including The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock and the books in The Julia Rothman Collection.

Narration and notebooking

I was introduced to narration and notebooking through many homeschool mamas and it captured my heart. I loved the idea of children processing what they learned through words and beautiful illustrations. I love that notebooking covers many skills in a beautiful, life-giving way. Each week of Treehouse Nature Study includes a time of notebooking. I have also included a Notebooking Guide in the introduction to get you started if you are new to this idea and to help adapt this method to all ages.

Hands-on learning in Treehouse Nature Study

Rather than simply reading about mushrooms, I wanted my children to forage for some and create spore prints. I wanted to give them the chance to dissect owl pellets, dip autumn leaves in beeswax, and learn through following a recipe and baking together. I wanted our lessons to include walks in nature to allow my children to learn through seeing, smelling, touching. Treehouse Nature Study includes themed hands-on nature connections each week to provide these things for your children.

Seasonal themes in Treehouse Nature Study

Each week of this 52-week guide is focused on a seasonal nature theme. Here is a list of themes for each season.

Autumn nature study themes

Treehouse Nature Study, Autumn covers the themes of apples, birds of prey, the Autumn Equinox, arachnids, fungi, deciduous trees, moon, pumpkins and corn, stars, woodland creatures, tracks and scat, rocks, minerals, fossils, and changing leaves.

Winter nature study themes

Treehouse Nature Study, Winter looks at themes including winter birds, wind, the Winter Solstice, coniferous trees, seasons, mountains, animals in winter, snow and ice, shadows, nocturnal animals, maple sugaring, weather, moss and lichen.

Spring nature study themes

Treehouse Nature Study, Spring covers seasonal topics such as rainbows, Spring Equinox, snails and worms, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, birds, edible gardening, clouds and rain, bees, snakes, spring flowers, insects, and pond life.

Summer nature study themes

Treehouse Nature Study, Summer covers soil and composting, the sun, the Summer Solstice, bodies of water, marine mammals, sharks and fish, mollusks and crustaceans, seashells, summer flowers, storms, beetles, reptiles, landforms.

Go deeper with Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years

Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years continues the same format of the nature study you love geared towards grades 4th-8th.This nature study invites older children to connect with each other and the world around them through living books, nature notebooking, hands-on projects, poetry, and picture study. Deepen your child’s learning through advanced language arts and scientific experiments. 

Try a free week to see if it is a good fit for your family.