After children spend some years learning to observe nature closely and identify it in an enjoyable environment they are ready to move on
to the next stage of journaling. By this time, they should be proficient at
handwriting. For most children, this
will be during the ages of 10 to 14 years. I call this 2nd stage Taxonomy
and Description.
Introduce Basic Taxonomy
“Latin names, and
names of families are a great help in classification and Latin names for
flowers are invaluable, especially in cases where a single flower has a
different name in practically every county.” CM’s Parents Review
Charlotte Mason instructed children at this age to write
down the scientific Latin name along side the English name of plants and
animals they observed on their walks. Now,
adding the Latin name is absolutely meaningless to a child unless you give him
a reason for doing it. This is a good time to introduce the basics of Taxonomy.
All the scientific information about a living thing is called its “taxonomy.”
In Our Home…
My son is now in the fifth grade. He has finally mastered
basic cursive and can write short narrations. He loves the natural world and
this is evident from the endless stream of animals he finds and feeds to the
nature table overflowing with his treasures. He has filled several nature journals
with paintings of his discoveries and simple labels. I realized a few weeks ago
that he is ready to move on to a more complex stage of nature journaling. So, I
wrote the following on a dry erase board and gave him a copy to glue into the
back of his journal in a section we reserved for plant and animal lists.
TAXONOMY
2 Kingdoms- Plant, Animal
2 Phylums- Vertebrates, Invertebrates
5 Classes- Mammals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles, Amphibians,
Arthropods
Many Orders
Many, many Families
Many, many, many Genus
Many, many, many, many Species
I explained that scientists identify plants and animals by
naming the Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species they each
belong to. He was already familiar with these words from reading some science
books, but he didn’t know much about them. Next, I wrote down an example using
the Trumpeter Swan:
TRUMPETER SWAN TAXONOMY
Kingdom- animal (scientific name: Regnum animale)
Phylum- animals with a backbone (scientific name: Chordata)
Class-Bird (scientific name: Aves)
Order-Water fowl (scientific name: Anseriformes)
Family- Anatidae
Genus- Cygnus (notice
it is capitalized and in italics)
Species- buccinators (notice
it is not capitalized and in italics)
I explained that field guides contain taxonomy information
for living things and then I showed this information in an actual field guide
to my son. I told him that he would
begin adding the genus and species to his journal. However,
sometimes he wouldn’t be able to find the genus and species and would just have
to put down the name of the family
because field guides don’t contain every living thing but a great many of them.
I went on to explain the reason the taxonomy is in Latin. It is the language
scientists chose to use many years ago so that no matter what language a
scientist spoke, they would all have a common language they could understand
for identification. After explaining all of this, he practiced identifying the
taxonomy of a few specimens that we had brought inside from our nature walk
that morning with his field guide. Lesson over.
Keep Specimen Lists
“A flower and bird
list should always be kept, and also any other lists which interest the
individual-fungi, birds' nests, insects, animals, fossils, etc. These lists
work best kept in columns, with the name, number, and date of finding all on
one line, and the next underneath and so on.” CM’s Parents Review
Charlotte Mason encouraged the ten year old child to begin
making lists in the back of the nature journal of specimens identified. I think
this is a good idea because children cannot possibly draw every flower and
creature they notice but they can at least keep an ongoing list of their
discoveries made throughout the week. This encourages them to write in their nature
journals even when Mom is not around.
They can quickly jot down something without getting out the art materials.
It has also enabled us to go back to a list from previous years and remind us
of the name of something we discovered again but can’t remember its name.
In our Home…
During our next nature lesson, I told my son that he should
continue to paint a specimen at least once a week but he can begin adding many
of his discoveries to the back of his journal without painting them. I directed
my son to the last several pages of his journal and we labeled it Specimen
Lists. With a ruler, I helped him draw some columns and label the top of his
pages. I looked at actual examples from Miss Mason’s schools to get a good idea
as to how to do this.
Finally, I walked him through the process of recording a
few specimens he had found that week but didn’t have time to draw. I explained
that he could do this whenever he liked and as often as he wished.
Record Observations and Descriptions
“Notes, perhaps,
present even a larger field for study than paintings, but they must always be
the result of personal observation and knowledge.”
In Our Home...
On the following week, after we had a brief nature walk
together and were recording the taxonomy in English and Latin of a garden
spider we had found, I encouraged my son to describe in writing what the spider
was doing when he found it. I didn't tell him what to write, I am only a guide. Up
until this time, from the ages of six to nine years, he had labeled his finds,
and only added descriptions of animal behavior and habitats occasionally
because writing was difficult for his young years. Sometimes he would describe
out loud to me and I would record it for him. Now that he is able to write on
his own, my latest goal is to help him develop the habit of written description
in his journaling. It is important that the child’s personality be allowed to
dictate the arrangement of a nature notebook rather than the teacher’s.
“Special time is
allowed for Nature Books on the time table of all form in the P.U.S.; but this
is only a foundation, as one might say, for a child can, and is encouraged to
paint or write notes in her book at any time. This set time is a good
opportunity for the teacher to keep her eye on the books as a whole, to prevent
the continuance of any series mistakes, to provide Latin or English names that
the children have been unable to find for themselves, and to give practical
hints about paintings, notes, or general arrangement. But here again emphasis
must be laid upon the importance of hints and suggestions only being given with
the greatest care and discretion so that the child may keep her book in her own
way as far as possible.”
Older children in this second stage may want to include some
poetry or well known quotes in the margins or quotes. This should be encouraged and is actually part
of the transition to the last stage of nature journaling. We’ll talk about that
next…
Conclusion
My son is now enjoying this second stage of nature
journaling immensely. The Latin of taxonomy makes perfect sense to him
and he likes the challenge. Keeping lists has motivated him to work
more independently and to record more often in his journal. It is also building
a knowledge bank of the natural world for him. Writing more descriptive
entries of his plants and animal specimens is also enjoyable because
developmentally, he is ready for the task. It is also teaching him to pay more
attention to natural habitats and animal behaviors.
