Sparking the Flame for Environmental Learning

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Respecting and protecting the interconnectedness of the natural world is a core value for our family, so when we began homeschooling, we knew that we would devote time and space to examining our role in protecting the environment.

 One of our children is very sensitive and quite prone to anxiety, so anytime we engage in learning that involves a call to action, it's important that I tread carefully and ensure that while she hears the message of urgency, she feels safe and empowered.

 Thus, it was important to me that we focus on stories about activists who saw a need and were successful in their endeavors and that we talk about how we can support our local environment in Kansas.  As we delved into these stories together, we were able to examine cause and effect relationships, how the various parts of our web of existence affects one another, and how we as a part of that web can have positive effects.

 If You're Not From the Prairie by David Bouchard
We started with this book as we live in Kansas, a prairie, and even though we live in an suburban area, we strive to connect to the land and support all efforts to preserve any prairie we can.

 In a poetic tone, the narrator of If You're Not From the Prairie evokes in the reader an appreciation for the ecosystem around us, how it shapes our lives and colors our daily rhythms.  It's an ideal book for reminding us to look about us and appreciate our natural world, to recognize the impact of our environment on who we are. A great way to begin our environmental learning journey.
Plant a Pocket of Prairie by Phyllis Root

 Plant a Pocket of Prairie reinforces the understanding that each part of an ecosystem affects each other part.  Root provides concrete actions that children can take to support animals that depend on prairie vegetation to survive.  This book led us to research plants indigenous to Kansas that we could plant in our own yard to support wildlife.


Jean Craighead George's The Eagles are Back, The Buffalo are Back, and The Wolves are Back
These rich texts are inspiring true stories about how human actions negatively impacted animal species and thus other species and how human actions brought the populations back and restored balance to the ecosystems.

We spent days analyzing the cause and effect trains throughout these books.  Wendell Minor's realistic illustrations serve as a catalyst for inferences about each of the animals and their environments.


Perhaps the greatest value in of these texts for our family lies in the passion they sparked in my children for caring for our environment and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things. 





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