Nature:Up close and personal

JBug is a natural explorer, as many young children are. The other day she decided she wanted to get out our bug collection and look at them with a magnifying glass.

So I pulled out some of the bigger, showier specimens we’ve collected over time and placed them on a mat for her to examine.(Some of you may recognize the mate to my friend, the “Beastie,” top row, third from left.)

She handled them very gently and turned them over and around to look at all sides, exclaiming at this or that feature and frequently calling me over to come “look at this!” She experimented, as she always does, with holding the glass at various distances, close to the bugs, or close to her eye, and noticing the resulting changes in view.

Magnifying glasses are some of the very best investments made in our homeschool. Such a simple thing! Unlike the more complicated ( but also very useful) microscopes, which require a bit more supervision, I can just hand her a glass and and a whole new world opens up to a little girl.
Honestly, JBug could entertain herself for hours with that thing. We have several different kinds of magnifying glasses around the house. This one stays in the schoolroom to look at nature stuff we bring in.

Her favorite one is the cheap-o plastic one because I will let her carry it around wherever she wants. She often takes it outdoors to explore tiny details of nature, including tree bark, tiny ants, leaves, dirt, rocks, you name it! Always ending up with something to share.

We also have a really large one with a light, and one that sits on tiny legs for hands-free viewing. They all get used quite frequently for either planned or on-the-fly exploration. I highly recommend getting a few different kinds and letting children explore. Put them into your nature hike gear, add them to your nature shelf, or just hand them out any old time. It is a great diversion for kids of all ages and they will come back having seen the world in a whole new way.