I was introduced to the Exploring Nature with Children curriculum early in our homeschool journey by a dear friend, and the yearly calendar of nature based education appealed.
We are a secular, atheist homeschooling family. Exploring Nature with Children (ENWC) is a Christian curriculum but we have found it adapts well to our secular homeschool. It helps that, although we are atheist, we observe some of the holidays – Christmas, Easter – that were around before Christianity and were incorporated into the Christian calendar.
ENWC breaks the year up into 4 weeks for each month, each with their own nature based theme: Seeds, Moss, Butterflies, etc. Each week has a nature walk or field trip based activity on the week’s theme, extension activities, suggested reading, a suggested art study and a related poem or quote. The accompanying Journal gives more activities and copywork. As a curriculum it gives a structure to your weeks, and incorporates science, language arts and art appreciation, whilst being flexible and not onerous.
We followed it for our first year homeschooling and enjoyed it, mostly for the prompts it gives. I could think to go out for a nature walk with the kids every week and look for seeds one week, to watch the Harvest Moon the next week, and to hunt for minibeasts the following week, etc, but I am not that organised on my own!
We are now starting our 3rd year of using ENWC with a light touch. As unschoolers, it works well as a strewing calendar of sorts. There are plenty of wonderful crafters and artists that make resources to go along with the topics in ENWC and I find these make good conversation and interest starters.
But how do we make it work as secular homeschoolers?
Our home education is secular, but I consider learning or education about religions to be important, ensuring to look at multiple religions, not just one, and describing them in a “some people believe(d)…” manner, but positively and with acceptance.
The main adaptation I do with ENWC is to showcase the range of celebrations associated with certain times of the year, often Gaelic or Pagan festivals that were adapted and incorporated into the Christian calendar or are linked to the solar/lunar cycle, as well as the major celebrations of non-Christian religions and different calendars: Mabon and the Autumn Equinox; Hanukkah and Kwanzaa with the Winter Solstice and Christmas; Imbolc or St Brigid’s Day, plus Chinese New Year, and Candlemas; Ostara and the Vernal Equinox. In doing so, I actually bring in more references to religions and beliefs, but more balanced references.
ENWC includes short references to some of the Gaelic/Pagan festivals, but it mainly emphasises the Christian aspect of celebrations. But as I see no reason to read the introductory text of every week to my kids, they just don’t see that side of it on the few weeks that the theme is related to a specific celebration. It is just a little bit more work for me, for example, to find reading materials and activities specific to Hannukkah or Kwanzaa, as well as those for Christmas, but I haven’t found it a problem.
If you wish to avoid all mention of any religion or festival with religious connotations (e.g. Christmas), using this curriculum would mean leaving or swapping out specific weeks and specific poetry or equivalents, but these would still be a small percentage of the whole curriculum.
Where there are poems, songs or quotes with religious meaning, I used to skip these sections (for example, the first, most famous, verse of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ has no religious meaning but the following verses do). As my children get older, I am more likely to include them, as we have had many discussions about some people believing different things to us.
If you wish to swap out the poems, then a calendar based book of nature poetry, such as Sing a Song of Seasons, would make it easy to find relevant alternatives.
There are no passing references to God in the text regarding the nature study aspect of the curriculum, no references to “God’s creatures” that you might see in other places or anything like that.
But what about the science?
With many so-called “faith neutral” American curriculums, it is in the science that they fail to be secular (and Christian American curriculums can be full on creationist).
I have found the science in this to be spot-on, with the caveat that it doesn’t specifically mention evolution.
This isn’t a full-on science curriculum however, and I would expect that certainly older kids would have other exposure to science than just this nature study based curriculum, with its botany, a little zoology, ecology and basic scientific classification. Even just bolstering the resources used with it, and adapting them to the age of your kids (from the picture books more for young kids, to the scientific textbooks for older kids) would provide a more in-depth view. My kids are only 7 and 9, but their exposure to science goes far beyond this curriculum in our lives as unschoolers.
So what does it say about religion?
I have found the references below to the Christian faith in the curriculum. In all, it amounts to 13 references to Christianity over 11 weeks (out of 48), and 10 of those references are from the poem/lyrics/rhyme for that week.
None of the nature study based activities have any relation to Christianity, other than looking for traditional Christmas (and Winter Solstice) plants in December.
If you find more mentions than I could, let me know!
- December – Week One: Christmas Plants
Obviously, this segment includes references to Christmas. It also includes the traditional carol ‘The Holly and the Ivy’, in place of a poem, which contains Christian references to Jesus and Mary after verse 1.
- December – Week 4: The Twelve Days of Christmas
This segment starts with this: “The Twelve Days Of Christmas have been celebrated since Medieval times. A Christian season that celebrates the birth of Jesus, The Twelve Days begin on December 25th and end on the eve of Epiphany on January 5th.”
Other than the introduction above, the activities suggested are all secular. However, the poem included for this week is ‘In the bleak midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti, which, after the well known and non-religious first verse, gets very Christian.
- February – Week One: Candlemas Day.
Candlemas is the Christian festival on the day of Imbolc or (St.) Brigid’s Day, a Gaelic festival relating to the seasons in Britain and Ireland. The introduction to this week say: “The 2nd of February is Candlemas Day. It falls midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox
And takes its name from the blessing of candles for use in church throughout the coming year. Candlemas marks the presentation of the Holy Child in the Temple, where Simeon held Jesus and called him a ‘Light to the World’. In pre-Christian times February 1st was an important festival to celebrate the returning light.”
The activities for this week (as with all the others) are nature study based and secular, as is the poem.
- February – Week Two: Earthworms
The poem for this week is ‘Our Little Kinsmen’ by Emily Dickinson, which includes a brief reference to God in the last verse:
… As I of He, so God of Me
I pondered, may have judged,
And left the little Angle Worm
With Modesties enlarged.
From ‘Our Little Kinsmen’ by Emily Dickinson
- April – Week Two: Plant Lifecycle
The poem for this week is ‘Flower in the Crannied Wall’ by Alfred Tennyson, which includes a brief reference to God in the last line:
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
‘Flower in the Crannied Wall’ by Alfred Tennyson
- May – Week Three: Black Garden Ants
The poem for this week is actually a Bible quote, a proverb titled ‘Go To The Ant’, but it has no reference to God in it.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
Consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide,
Overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer,
And gathereth her food in the harvest
The Bible – Proverbs 6:6-8
- June – Week One: A Museum Visit
The poem for this week is ‘Great, Wide, Beautiful, Wonderful World’
by William Brighty Rands, which contains one reference to saying prayers.
- June – Week Four: The Summer Solstice
The poem for this week is ‘A Day In June’ by James Russell Lowell, which includes a reference to Heaven:
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays…
‘A Day In June’ by James Russell Lowell
- July – Week Two: Weather
The poem for this week is a traditional English rhyme referencing St.Swithin’s day, a day in the Christian calendar:
St. Swithin’s day, if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin’s day, if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain no more.
traditional english rhyme
- July – Week Four: A Field Trip
The poem for this week is the song ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ by Cecil Frances Alexander, which includes references to God.
- August – Week One: Night Time Sky
The poem for this week is ‘Stars’ by Sara Teasdale, which includes a reference to “a heaven full of stars” and “the dome of heaven”.
