by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Oct 25, 2024 | Blog Posts, Creation Education Resources, Getting Kids Moving, Homeschooling, Nutrition and Health
Homeschooling Nature Walks that will Bring the Family Closer and Glorify God
Introduction: A Path to Spiritual and Familial Connection
Imagine your family stepping out the door, greeted by the crisp morning air, the sun's gentle rays filtering through the trees, and the chorus of birds singing their praises. Homeschooling provides the unique freedom to integrate learning with life, and there’s no better way to do this than through nature walks. These moments in creation not only offer an educational experience but also an opportunity to draw closer as a family, all while glorifying God in the process.
In nature, the world becomes your classroom, and every leaf, stream, and mountain declares the majesty of the Creator. Let’s explore how these simple yet profound walks can transform your homeschooling experience, strengthen your family, and elevate your spiritual journey.
The Spiritual Significance of Nature
God's creation is not just a backdrop to our lives—it is an active reflection of His glory. In the book of Romans, we’re reminded that “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20). Nature provides a living, breathing testimony of God’s greatness.
When you step into the outdoors with your family, you’re entering a sacred space where the fingerprints of God are everywhere. Whether you’re gazing at the intricate design of a butterfly's wings or the vastness of the sky, nature reveals layers of divine craftsmanship. These walks invite you to slow down, take notice, and draw nearer to the One who created it all.
Planning Your Homeschool Nature Walks
A successful nature walk begins with intentionality. First, choose a location that aligns with the themes you’re exploring in your homeschool. Is it a botanical garden for a plant study? A woodland trail to study wildlife? Research local spots that will enhance both educational and spiritual growth.
Once you’ve selected your location, prepare with purpose. Equip your children with tools like binoculars, sketchpads, or nature guides, but don’t forget to pack a Bible. Prepare a few scriptures to meditate on during the walk, turning your family adventure into a holistic learning experience where education, faith, and family meet.
Using Nature Walks as a Teaching Tool
Nature walks offer a wealth of educational opportunities, blending subjects like science, art, and Bible study into a single adventure. You can teach your children about God’s intricate design by observing the ecosystems around you—the pollination of flowers, the cycle of seasons, the food chain.
But don’t stop at science. Use these moments to point out the spiritual parallels. Just as a seed must die to grow, we too must grow in faith through sacrifice. Nature becomes a powerful metaphor for life and faith, drawing your children into deeper reflection.
The Role of Gratitude in Nature Walks
As you walk, encourage your children to see the beauty and complexity of God’s creation through the lens of gratitude. Teach them to pause and give thanks for the simple gifts—sunlight, fresh air, the vibrant colors of fall leaves. By fostering a spirit of gratitude, you help them cultivate an appreciation for both the small and grand gestures of God’s provision.
Gratitude can turn an ordinary walk into an act of worship, lifting your family’s hearts and minds to God.
Strengthening Family Bonds Through Outdoor Adventures
There’s something about being in nature that brings families closer together. Perhaps it's the absence of distractions—the technology, the schedules, the noise—or maybe it's the shared experience of discovery. Walking together provides space for meaningful conversation, shared wonder, and collaboration.
These moments in nature create lasting memories and forge deeper connections between parents and children. When you reflect on God’s creation as a family, you strengthen not only your faith but also the bonds that hold you together.
Nature as a Sanctuary for Prayer and Reflection
In a world filled with constant busyness, nature offers a quiet sanctuary. As you walk, encourage your family to take time for individual or collective prayer. The stillness of a forest or the lapping of waves on the shore creates a perfect backdrop for moments of reflection.
Teach your children to listen—to truly listen—not just to the sounds of nature but for the still, small voice of God. As you walk, pause to pray together, acknowledging God’s presence in the beauty around you.
Documenting Your Journey: Nature Journals and Scrapbooks
Encourage your children to document what they see, hear, and feel during these walks. Nature journals are a creative way to capture the beauty of creation while reflecting on God's goodness. Whether it’s sketches of animals, pressed flowers, or written reflections, these journals can become treasured keepsakes.
As a family, you might also consider creating a nature scrapbook, combining photographs, scriptures, and prayers. This tangible record of your journeys can serve as a testament to God’s faithfulness and the growth of your family.
Overcoming Obstacles in Homeschooling Nature Walks
Not every nature walk will go perfectly. Rain might surprise you, or distractions may pull your kids' attention away. That’s okay. These obstacles offer their own lessons in resilience and adaptability—skills you want to instill in your children.
If the weather doesn’t cooperate, use it as an opportunity to discuss the beauty of God’s design in all seasons. Encourage your children to see the adventure in overcoming challenges, whether it’s navigating muddy trails or learning to focus in a noisy environment.
Conclusion: Embracing God’s Creation as a Family
Regular nature walks as a homeschooling family offer long-term benefits that extend far beyond education. They help you instill a deep love for God’s creation, foster gratitude, strengthen family bonds, and enrich your spiritual journey. Each walk becomes a steppingstone toward a deeper connection—with nature, with each other, and with God.
So, take that first step outside. With every walk, you’ll find your family growing closer, and your hearts lifted higher, glorifying the Creator who made it all.
Want an awesome journal to help your family not only get in tune with God and nature, but will make it way easier to record the evidence they find as well as plenty of pages to draw, color, and write their thoughts down?
Click here to check out my Bible-Based Creation Journal.
by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Oct 22, 2024 | Blog Posts, Getting Kids Moving, Homeschooling, Nutrition and Health
The Ultimate Guide to Family-Bonding Through Home Upgrades
In a world where family time often competes with screen time, what better way to strengthen family ties than engaging in home improvement activities? In this guide, I’ll share several thrilling home projects suitable for all ages. These ventures revamp your home, promote teamwork, and develop practical skills. Excited yet? Let's dig in!
Floral Harmony: The Family Garden Project
Gardening is therapeutic and educational. Allow each family member to pick out plants they’d like to see grow. Whether it's roses, tulips, or even small shrubs, involve everyone in planting and caring for them. This teaches responsibility and the basics of gardening, not to mention the satisfaction that comes with seeing something flourish because of your collective care.
Making Home Interior Improvements
Tackling small home repair projects with your children offers a great opportunity to bond while teaching valuable life skills. These activities help children develop problem-solving abilities, practical knowledge of tools, and a sense of responsibility. Working together on repairs fosters teamwork and communication, while also boosting their confidence as they contribute to maintaining the home. You can also use a home repair app to find trustworthy professionals if the project is a little too difficult. This one provides options to chat with a plumber, for instance.
Create Your Own Hideaway: The Treehouse Adventure
Remember the magic of a treehouse from your own childhood? Why not pass that on? Involve everyone in the design, discussing options for windows, doors, and perhaps even furniture. Collectively purchase the materials and construct the treehouse as a family mission. This project helps kids learn about basic carpentry and planning while enhancing teamwork.
The Sandbox Kingdom: A Kid’s Paradise
Constructing a sandbox can be a fantastic weekend project. Sketch the design together, decide on the dimensions, and get to work. Once it’s built, filling it with sand can be another fun activity for the little ones. This project isn't just for kids; it helps everyone learn about basic building techniques and project planning.
Garage Makeover: The Ultimate Cleanup Challenge
A cluttered garage can be transformed into an organized haven with a family effort. Create a game plan, designate zones for different categories of items, and then dive into the task of sorting. It's a good way for the family to learn about organizing, decluttering, and perhaps rediscovering long-forgotten treasures.
Mailbox Art: A Dash of Curb Appeal
If you’re looking for a simple yet impactful project, consider giving your mailbox a creative makeover. Assign each family member a section of the mailbox to paint or decorate. This activity gives you a reason to spend time outside and improves your home's curb appeal. And who knows? The colorful mailbox might make the mail carrier’s day a bit brighter!
The joy of these family-centric home improvement projects lies in the tangible results and the shared experiences and skills gained. Whether it’s crafting a personal sanctuary up a tree or embarking on a family business venture, the sense of accomplishment and unity that comes from these activities is priceless. So don't delay! Gather your family and tools and get ready to turn home improvement into a bonding experience like no other.
Emily Graham is the creator of Mightymoms.net. She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family.
Homeschooling Dietitian Mom is here to share homeschooling, nutrition, educational, and lifestyle tips. If you have any questions, please email debbiesuerd@homeschoolingdietitianmom.com.
Cover Image from Pexels
by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Oct 20, 2024 | Cooking Tips, Holidays and Special Events, Homeschooling
I knew that by naming my new fall product, “Halloween Math and Food Science,” I'd be getting controversial because of the word “Halloween.” However, let me just say up front, this is not truly a “Halloween” project in the sense of the word “scary,” dressing up or any of that. (Post may contain affiliate links). This is Halloween Food Science Experiments with a twist.
My intention when creating this fun project was to give your kids something they could play with that would help them wrap their minds around the reality of what the candy of the season is all about. And also to work in some fun (and challenging) math and food science into the mix.
In order to help you know what is in it, and also, if you have already purchased this Halloween Food Science Experiments unit study, I wanted to give you a better idea of how to use it. I've decided to post about our own experiences the past couple of weeks in using this awesome (even if I do say so myself) Halloween Food Science Experiments Unit Study.
Halloween Food Science Experiments
I created this Unit Study to be as hands-on as possible. There are a few questions that have to be answered, however. For example, I required my son to fill out the first page on his own. (If you know my son, you would know this in itself is a major accomplishment).
Moving on, Nathan had to choose 3 of his favorite candies from the list at the bottom of the worksheet. He also had to purchase them at the local grocery store. His favorites are candy corn, Sour Patch Kids, and Peeps.
My son was also required to research if any of his chosen candies contained ingredients suspected of causing allergies or behavioral problems in children.
So, Nathan purchased the candies, brought them home, and read the ingredient list. He was surprised to discover that two out of the three candies (Sour Patch Kids and Peeps) contained Red Dye Number 40. This particular artificial color is associated with allergies and behavioral problems in sensitive children. Red 40 is also associated with cancer.
The candy corn was purchased at a specialty store, and was more expensive. Though it wasn't declared to be natural only, it was Jelly Belly brand. It's interesting to note that the Jelly Belly brand candy corn did not contain Red 40. It did have other artificial colors, however.
Natural Versus Artificially Colored Candies
The artificial colors in the three regular candies also include Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Red 3, Yellow 5, Blue 1 Lake, Blue 1, and Blue 2 Lake. (List not exhaustive). Some of these colors are in the Skittles and M&Ms we also purchased for the math part of the unit study.
There are four factors most people consider when they purchase candy: Availability, Cost, Look, and Taste. . The first thing we came across was how difficult it was to find a natural version of just one candy: Candy Corn.
Availability
My husband first brought my son to the regular grocery store where we shop. We live in an Urban Metropolitan area, so this will drive the point of how difficult it can be to find a natural substitute product such as candy.
So, the regular grocery store, despite that it has a natural foods section, did not carry naturally colored candy corn. As a result of this, my husband and Nathan went to a nearby store called, “Natural Grocers.” They did not have natural candy corn in stock either. However, we did discover that Natural Grocers carries the Yum Earth candy corn in some of its stores throughout the U.S.
Halloween Math
Before I compare cost, I would like to provide a short economics lesson. (That's right, economics is math)!
You may have noticed that candy is less expensive at this time of year. This is a basic law in economics: The Law of Supply and Demand.
Here's how it works. First of all, candy manufacturers expect that people will buy larger amounts of candy. As a result, they manufacture larger amounts of candy in anticipation of the greater demand for candy. Second of all, grocery stores also anticipate a greater demand. As a result of this, most grocery stores purchase candy in larger quantities. The grocery stores get a better deal when they purchase larger quantities from the food manufacturers. The food manufacturers have a large enough supply to offer them a larger amount and a better price. Thus, the savings is passed down to the consumer (customer).
This can be seen at many other times of the year as well. For example, during the summer, picnic items such as paper plates, napkins, ketchup, mustard, and soda pop are usually available at a much lower price. Also, Super Bowl Sunday is another time when you can stock up on cheap snacks. And you can probably think of a lot of other examples.
Cost
The second factor we came up against was the cost. For comparison, we priced the regular “Brach” candy corn at our grocery store. For 8 ounces, the price was $3.00. The specialty candy corn that didn't have the RED 40 was $3.69 for 3 ounces.
Natural Grocers was selling its Yum Earth Product for $5.49 for 5 ounces. I ended up purchasing the same brand from an online natural candy website: https://www.naturalcandystore.com/.
The cost of the candy corn at the Natural Candy Store was $5.99 for 5 ounces.
I got a 15% discount. However, I had to pay for shipping, which was about $6.00. Because I really needed this candy for the experiment, I bought a few extra things, including a few suckers and some natural food dye, to make it worth my while. At any rate, if all you bought was the one package of candy, it would cost about $12.00. OH BROTHER!
So, that's $3.00 for 8 ounces of regular Brach candy corn versus $12.00 for 5 ounces of Yum Earth natural candy corn. If you want to compare cost for cost, take the total amount of the package and divide it up by the number of ounces. For example, 3.00 divided by 8 = 37.5 cents an ounce for the regular candy corn. For the Yum Earth, including shipping, $11.99 divided by 5 = $2.40 per ounce! If you can find it at a Natural Grocers near you, the cost is $5.49 for 5 ounces. 5.49 divided by 5 = $1.10 per ounce. Obviously, that's a HUGE cost difference!
Unfortunately, part of the problem is related to the economic law of supply and demand as well. Because there are so few people who are either educated, motivated, or even interested in natural candy, the demand is low. Not only that, but it is apparently a lot harder to make a satisfactory tasting and looking product using only natural ingredients. Plus it is more expensive to do this as well.
So, as the consumer, we can become more educated on the cost and benefits of buying natural versus artificial colored candies. Unfortunately, the natural candies are still candy, and still have lots of sugar. So, there's also that, right?
But at least when you make your decisions, they are informed decisions! For example, if you have children who have allergies, it might be worth it once or twice a year, to splurge and buy the healthier alternatives. But that is a personal decision that each family must make.
Taste and Look
We just got the natural candy corn in the mail on Saturday. So we taste tested them. Personally, I liked the regular candy corn better, though they were both acceptable. However, Nathan didn't notice a difference. The look was slightly different however. See picture to the right. Can you tell which one is the natural version? Hint: there are two regular and three natural. 😉
This coming week, Nathan will be researching the parsnips he purchased this weekend. This is the unfamiliar vegetable he chose to learn more about.
The fruit or vegetable research project is also part of the “Halloween Food Science Experiments and Math” unit study. Click here to learn more.
Paleontology Dinosaurs Kids Unit Study
Turkey Recipe and Cooking Time
Nutrition Fun for Kids
declared to be natural only, it was Jelly Belly brand. It's interesting to note that the Jelly Belly brand candy corn did not contain Red 40. It did have other artificial colors, however.
