Artist Study - John James Audubon
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 1:28PM 
I'm learning so much being a homeschooling mother. The past weeks have been spent immersing myself in the writings of Charlotte Mason, doing much research online, and in general educating myself about nature study. It has been such a blessing to take this time to learn, for myself for my children. We are trying to develop units much as she would have. In doing so, I've seen my children's love of learning grow, so much that they are just seeing this as our way of life. God is good.
My first unit in earnest is one on the nineteenth century American artists, John James Audubon. Last week was technically spring break for us, but this gentle study didn't seem like "school". A study of John James Audubon seems appropriate for this time of year, with all of the many birds returning to our area, and so many of them visiting our feeders in the yard. It all started with this sweet book, A Nest for Celeste.
We supplemented with a free reading online, Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, picking out the chapters about Audubon. Looking at pictures painted by Audubon along the way has also been integral to our study.
A bird viewing area was set up on our deck (I placed the feeder on the table, rather than hanging so they could see the birds better!), hopefully spurring the children to think about what Audubon was thinking when he observed and painted birds. At first we had times in the morning to sit and watch the birds, but over the next several days my children would come get me to show me birds they were observing during other times as well. I cannot tell you how happy I was!
Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way. ~Charlotte Mason
This week will include more Audubon resources, and notebooking about birds and the artist. If you study Audubon, your first stop should be this full unit, which includes everything you will need to know - a wonderful resource for free. We will continue to study and learn about Audubon for the next 6-8 weeks, immersing ourselves in a different painting or two each week.
What amazing gifts God has given us, if we just slow down to enjoy them.
Reader Comments (6)
What a great way to combine art and a nature study! I really need to sit down and figure out a good way to start artist studies.
What fun! We will be learning about Audubon this coming week with our FIAR book Grandfather's Journey.
Blessings,
Dawn
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment on my blog. Returning the favor! Love your design here, and it looks like you guys are having a great time bird watching, how fun!
We really enjoyed learning about Audubon when we did our bird study last year. He was fascinating! I too enjoy learning more about Charlotte Mason methods.
I will be doing an end of the week linky on Friday, I would love to have you join in :)
Great post! I will be referring back to it for the links, and the book you mentioned does look so sweet. We love watching birds at our house...it's a favorite winter time activity, actually, to see all the birds at our feeders.
We've just started a study of Audubon too! Only, my school age kids are 7 and 5, so we started with "The Boy Who Drew Birds" and the Homeschool Share unit resources for that book. As we leave that, I think we're going to go into the Burgess Bird Book for stories about different types of birds for the viewing that we're doing. I've been thinking about trying "A Nest for Celeste" as a read-aloud because my 7 year old really relates to animals :)