Charlotte Mason and Nature

Every so often I read a little more about Charlotte Mason. This is what I found today:

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-mason.htm

Until I read the piece above I hadn't realised that she had suffered from depression/a breakdown. It makes so much sense that she turned to nature and perhaps found solace there. I'm guessing on this. So being in daily contact with nature may help the home educator as well as the children on different levels.

I have 2 indoor children, but we observe the wildlife indoors too, bugs which fly around the lights at night, slug trails sometimes, dead bees, flies and bees needing to be let out of windows, spiders I catch and release outdoors (I am the champion spider catcher). Our visiting cat simply walks in and goes to sit beside H.

Even driving to the station each day means that we check which field the sheep are in, see the seagulls come inland when the weather is bad, look at how the steam from our power station rises right up to form neat clouds when there is no wind or smell the manure if it has just been spread. There is so much nature to look at and talk about briefly. Because I have got into the habit of noting down details in a desk diary each day, I make a point of searching for new things to pay attention to.