My five-year-old came in from the porch with an acorn cap in each fist and set them on the nature shelf before he had even taken off his shoes. Nobody told him to. That is the whole secret of a nature table, and it is also the answer to the question I keep getting in my messages: "Show me your fall nature table."
So here it is, mama. It is smaller and plainer than you might think.
What is on our fall nature shelf
In our homeschool classroom the nature shelf sits low, right beside the woven cubbies, so a three-year-old can reach every single thing on it. Right now it holds:
- A shallow wooden tray of fallen leaves, sorted loosely by color
- A lidded basket of acorn caps and small seed pods, because my three-year-old still tests things with his mouth and I like the lid
- One pinecone, one smooth rock and one feather, each in its own little dish
- A small pumpkin and a gourd the boys picked out themselves
- A magnifying glass on a string
- A picture book about autumn, turned face out
That is it. No fabric swags, no matching baskets I had to hunt down. The shelf looks good because it is sparse, and because the boys fill it. When the tray gets crowded, something goes back outside.
Let the children do the gathering
The first year I tried a nature table I arranged everything myself, and it was lovely, and the boys ignored it. Now I set out the empty tray and let them stock it. A table they built is a table they visit.
We keep a basket by the door for our walks. If you want a list to carry along, members get the nature-walk basket list among the 22 free printables when they join free. Membership costs nothing, ever, and it also takes 50% off every worksheet in the shop.
A five-minute morning with the nature table
Here is the thing I would do tomorrow if I were you. It works for a two-year-old and a seven-year-old at once.
Sort and name
Tip the leaves out onto the table. Say, "Let's find the biggest leaf and the smallest leaf." Then, "Which one is the reddest?" Your younger child points and your older child gives the word. Ask the five-year-old to line them up from smallest to largest and let the three-year-old be the one who says "that one" and puts a finger on the winner.
Look closely
Hand over the magnifying glass and ask one question: "What do you notice that you did not see from far away?" Then stop talking. Wait. I have learned that the quiet after the question is where the noticing happens. Whatever they say, answer with, "Tell me more."
Say thank you out loud
We finish by naming one thing and thanking the Maker for it. "Thank you, God, for the stripe on this feather." It takes ten seconds and it is the best part of the morning.
Where the nature table meets the worksheet
I do not want the shelf to turn into one more lesson, so I let it feed the work rather than become the work. A few ways it has paired up for us:
After a leaf-collecting walk, the Fall Colors leaves worksheet is a gentle way to match the real leaves in the tray to the red, yellow, orange and brown labels. The Fall Leaf Stamping activity pack gives you a leaf tree, leaf animals and a wreath, and the real leaves are the stamps. When the little pumpkin comes off the shelf for the day, the pumpkin size sort turns the same biggest-to-smallest game into a cut-and-paste page for a preschooler. You will find all of them, and more, in the worksheet shop. Each is a print-at-home PDF, $4.00 or $2.00 for members.
If you teach at a kitchen table
For two years we did all of this at the kitchen table, so please hear me: you do not need a classroom or a shelf. Our first nature table was a baking sheet on the windowsill. Put a tray, a basket or even a shoebox lid at child height, and when lessons are done, slide it to the end of the counter. The nature table is a habit of noticing, not a piece of furniture.
If you want to see how other mamas are doing theirs, the members' forum has a room for each season, and fall is full of photographs of trays and windowsills.
Keep it simple, keep it theirs
Rotate things when your children lose interest, not on a schedule. Let a boy move the feather to the wrong dish. Let the acorns go back to the yard in November. I am not trying to build something beautiful for a photograph. I am trying to give two small boys a place to stop and look at what God made.
If you have been wondering whether you are doing enough, I would say a child holding a leaf up to the window light and saying "look" is a good deal of education already. As the psalmist says, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches." Put a little of those riches on a shelf where small hands can reach them.
