A New Nature Table a New Era?

So this yr we are changing up how we home educate. At the end of the last school year ( I know I just cannot get away from my teaching roots, LOL) I had a discussion with Noah about what he wanted to learn for the coming year. I always have this discussion so that we can cover topics that interest him as well as the other subjects that have to be done. In light of this I knew we would be doing a more Charlotte Mason year than a Waldorf one, but I wanted to still keep the arty bits of Waldorf as he really enjoys this aspect of learning.  As I have said before we always mash up Charlotte Mason, Waldorf and Montessori but for the past 2 yrs we have largely used Waldorf Essentials as our spine and then done Nature Journalling, read living books and used a mixture of Montessori and Math Mammoth for maths.  This year we would have to switch it around.

A quick scout around the internet and Pinterest helped me find what I was looking for,  Jodi Mockabee’s ‘Notebooking Manual’ and the guidance offered on Salty Tribe.  Seriously these two blogs are amazing.  I bought the Notebooking Manual from the School House of Curiosities shop and read copious amounts of the Salty tribe blog. After this research I knew I had hit upon a method that would suit us, with a few tweaks obviously.  One of the tweaks that we all talked about as a family was should we change the Nature table, to make it more sciencey/observational? (yes sciencey is a word: to make something more scientific)  The children were actually very enthusiastic about this and told me that they still wanted the gnomes and the seasonal stuff but on a smaller scale.

So with much fanfare I bring you the new science/nature table:

Feathers and  Butterfly hanging art I made myself using wrapping paper. 

Microscope: I bought a decent one that would last, I consulted a friend who knows the ways of science, LOL .Kids Microscope 

Slides - make sure your Microscope is suitable for the slides. If you can afford to buy glass, many of the plastic ones have bubbles in them making them unusable. Prepared Microscope Slides with Wooden Box 

Multi compartment tray: WOODEN TRAY

Tuff bag with insect identification cards,magnifying glass,bug catching net. Sorry we have had this little kit so long I do not know where I got it from. I can totally recommend Tuff bags though, they last years and I use them for all sorts.Tuff bag A5 size  

Wooden bowl from a charity shop many years ago

Animals of Europe poster:Wildlife Educational Poster

The Feather and Butterfly wall hangings are from here: Cavallini Butterfly Chart

Cavallini Bird Plumes