A Nature Walk Alternative: a Nature Sit

Last week’s nature study was pushed a day back from our regular schedule. I was really tempted to just neglect it altogether. Sprite was under the weather — coughing and sluggish. But instead I got creative and used an alternative to a nature walk.

A Nature Sit

Instead of our nature walk, we had a nature sit, right outside our apartment building. I knew that Sprite would not enjoy walking about, but she should be able to handle sitting in the sunshine and quietly observing nature.

I asked her to cut a piece of yarn that could form a 12″ square. (Math!) Then we took our yarn outside to mark small areas of the ground.

Her assignment was to study that area until she could tell me all about it. Amazingly, we both found around 20 different living things in our respective spots! At first she said, “It’s just grass!” But with some prodding and encouragement, she was soon exclaiming, “Oh, there’s a bug in here! Oh, there’s moss under these clover plants!”

Taking the time to study a small area intently was a profitable nature study experience. Don’t ever think that a “nature walk” has to include a lot of walking. Just being outdoors provides chances to study nature.

And even if you don’t have children who are under the weather, a nature sit is a good nature study option just for adding some variety. There is no reason to ever get into a rut with your outdoor explorations.

Nature Journals from the Nature Sit

Here is a page from her sketching that day:

When we had finished what I considered the bare minimum for this sick day nature sit, she surprised me by wanting to sketch the small pine tree behind us. We found some very tiny, immature pine cones on it.

And here are my two journal pages. I sketched in pencil. Then later at home colored them in and added more notes.