Nature Explorers

Family Nature Study Group

 

"Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

 

Charlotte Mason

Vol.1 Home Education

 

Nature Study is more than going outside: it is the attitude and habits we practice everywhere we go! Our purpose is to explore Nature, and grow in kindness, discipline, and knowledge by practicing the joyful, attentive habits of a naturalist.

 

 

Nature Explorers is a Nature Study group designed for families with students between 11-18 years old. Families with younger children are welcome to bring them to either play in different areas or do easier nature study lessons on their own. Our gatherings meet for a little over an hour and include Nature Lore, Nature Walks, Brush Drawing, and Nature Notebooking. The lessons lead by Rachel are meant for children between 11-18, but we do provide easier reading material and brush drawing lessons for parents who would like to do them with their younger children.

Summer Navigation 2024

 

 

Grab a Map and Compass! We're off to learn about navigating the parks and woods of Houston this summer. We're taking a break from our normal program to spend more time on nature walks and become more knowledgable about navigation.

 

Activities

 

Navigation Lessons / Orienteering

Long Nature Walks

Nature Notebooks

 

Thursday Mornings
8:45 - 10:30 AM
June 13 - August 1


Ages 11+

An Easy Navigation activities guide is provided for parents to do independently with younger children. You can request for a copy of the guide by emailing racheli@rachelteaches.com

 

$20.00 per Explorer

Due June 13 or the first week you attend Summer Navigation. We accept cash, check, and Zelle.

 

 

 

 

 

Required Explorer Materials

 

These materials are not included in the cost of the program. You will need to find these materials for each Explorer and bring them every week. I highly encourage you to coach your students to pack these things for themselves!

 

  • Orienteering Plate Compass

  • Graph Paper Journal for Navigation Notes(8x5 recommended for ease of packing)

  • Nature Notebook

  • Pencil

  • waterbottle

 

 

 

 

 

Navigation Lesson Overview

 

Week 1: Direction and Distance. Introduction to basic compass functions and design, recording pace and estimating distances, and keeping a notebook key ideas.

Week 2: Landmarks and Map reading. Introductions to maps, using a map and compass, practice measuring distance and directions, notebook key ideas.

Week 3: Get your Bearings and Follow a Course I. Introduction to finding bearings and magnetic declination, teams of three follow an orienteering course and keep notes on directions and distances.

Week 4: Get your Bearings and Follow a Course II. Review and practice finding bearings and following a course, and keeping notes on directions and distances.

Week 5: Giving Directions. Teams draw a map and orienteering course for other teams.

Week 6: Navigating on Your Own. Final review, showing notebooks, and final course.

 

 

 

 

Nature Walks

 

 

“How shall one discover such things for himself? how shall we, too, read the secrets of the Wood Folk? There is no space here to answer, to describe the long training, even if one could explain perfectly what is more or less unconscious. I would only suggest that perhaps the real reason why we see so little in the woods is the way we go through them—talking, laughing, rustling, smashing twigs, disturbing the peace of the solitudes by what must seem strange and uncouth noises to the little wild creatures. They, on the other hand, slip with noiseless feet through their native coverts, shy, silent, listening, more concerned to hear than to be heard, loving the silence, hating noise and fearing it, as they fear and hate their natural enemies.”

 

 

John Miller Dow, Secrets of the Woods

 

 

We must be Attentive, Observant, and Curious to get the most from our walk. We’ll walk for 45 minutes around the park or garden and then return to fill our Nature Notebooks with all the marvels we’ve discovered.

 

 

 

 

Nature Notebooks

 

 

 

“We venerate life exceedingly, and are unwilling to destroy it in any form. We prefer that our children should study the flowers of the field, and reproduce, however feebly, their tender grace of gesture, their purity of tint, than that they should be prepared to pass a difficult examination in scientific botany — highly as we value the latter kind of knowledge in its due time, that is, after children have acquired what we may call a personal acquaintance with Nature.”

 

 

Charlotte Mason, 1896

 

 

Notebooks are personal collections of notes and illustrations of the plants, animals, and landscapes that each of us have become acquainted with while outdoors. Notebooks may also contain descriptions of nature walks, special studies, calendars of seasonal observations, and lists of bird and flower sightings.

 

 

 

Safety Rules

 

Stay With The Group

Always Be In Sight Of Two Adults

Do Not Touch OR Go Near Dangerous Animals And Insects

Do Not Swim Without Two Adults Present

Do Not Eat Nature

 

 

Volunteer Guide Program

 

This year we are training high school students to step up and guide the younger students. Volunteer Guides will be  trained in leadership and navigation so they can guide a small group of Explorers in some of our navigation activities. The program allows high school students be Guides while still enjoying navigation for themselves and studying nature during our walk and journaling time. To be a volunteer you must:

 

  • Be a Nature Explorers member.
  • Complete a 2-hour Training Session (this will be scheduled before Summer Navigation starts).
  • Arrive 10 minutes early to the Summer Navigation meetings.
  • Guide a small group of students in 10-15 minute navigation activities.

 

To join the Volunteer Guides, fill out the Volunteer Guide Agreement and send it to racheli@rachelteaches.com.

Our Values

 

 

Habits of Kindness

 

 

At all times, Nature Explorers practice the habit of treating others with kindness according to the biblical principle:

 

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,

 

for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

 

 

Matthew 7:12, NIV

 

 

 

Explorers also understand the importance of treating all living things with kindness.

 

 

“Reverence for life, as a wonderful and awful gift, which a ruthless child may destroy but never can restore, is a lesson of first importance to the child:

 

 

‘Let knowledge grow from more to more;

But more of reverence in us dwell.’”

 

Charlotte Mason, Home Education

 

 

 

Habits of Discipline

 

 

We treasure Attention, Observation, and Curiosity!

 

 

“Besides appreciating the world, observing nature develops other mental powers--

 

ability to focus, to tell things apart, to patiently seek answers. These things are useful in every facet of life.”

 

 

Charlotte Mason, Home Education

 

 

Knowledge of Nature

 

 

“Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.”

 

Charlotte Mason, Home Education

Membership Cost

 

 

The Membership Fee depends on the Nature Explorers group and program you apply for. Please see the available groups and programs below for specific fees. Membership does not include materials such as a Nature Notebook, Watercolor Set, Orienteering Set, or Nature Lore Books.

 

 

Explorers will need a watercolor journal for all programs to use as their nature notebook and watercolor supplies.We offer a nature notebook and watercolor set for $20 per set. The set includes a Prang Semi-Moist Watercolor tray with 16 colors, two brushes, a water dropper, and an 8x5 watercolor book. You're welcome to bring your own nature notebook and supplies.

 

 

 

Attendence

 

 

Come as you can! Attendence is flexible to allow families to come enjoy nature and still do other activities.

 

 

 

Age Range

 

 

Adults and children 11+ are welcome to sign up as participating Explorers. Children must be 12+ to come without a parent. Children under the age of 11 may come with a participating parent for free.

 

 

 

Available Programs

 

Summer Navigation 2024

- $20.00 per Student, not including materials

 

Nature Explorers Fall 2024 - Spring 2025

-Program details will be published on this page in June 2024

 

 

 

Available Groups

 

Cypress Nature Explorers

 

-Meets monthly on 4th Thursdays in Cypress, TX

 

 

Northeast Nature Explorers

 

-Meets Monthly on 2nd Thursdays in New Caney, TX

 

If you are interested in starting a new Nature Explorers Group, please email racheli@rachelteaches.com

Application Details

 

What you will need to apply:

 

 

1. Participant Application Form

 

2. Outdoor Liability Waiver

 

 

Once you have filled out these forms, please send it to racheli@rachelteaches.com. Please specify which Nature Explorers group you are applying to! You will recieve a confirmation email as soon as your Participant Application Form and the Outdoor Liability Waiver have been recieved.

 

If you do not already know someone who is a member of Nature Explorers, we also ask for a reference and an online interview.

 

 

Membership fee and any other material fees will be due on the first meeting that you attend.

 

We currently accept cash, check, and Zelle.

 

 

 

New families may join at any time during the year.