Keeping Company :: Our Nature Study Collection and Display

I was excited when I saw Celeste's prompt for this month's Keeping Company link-up because I am really pleased with our nature study collection and display.  Our display has lived in a few different places, and at one point moved to a temporary location on the hutch by our dining room table.  Well, this location ended up being not so temporary, because we all decided we liked it in this prominent place.

Yes, there it is, centered under that south facing window on our dining room hutch.

And here's a closer look of our display.  I got this wooden case from a homeschooler who was "retiring" because her kids were heading off to high school.  I'm not sure what she used it for, but when I saw it, it screamed "Nature Study Display!" to me.  My father-in-law informed me that it was a packing crate for soda bottles once upon a time, back in the days before plastic.  When we got it some of the smaller dividers were already missing, which has worked well for our purposes.

We keep bones, leaves, interesting rocks, pine cones, acorns, seed hulls, little things made of natural materials like a few pine needle baskets, dead insects and insect molts, dried lichen and moss, and sea shells on our shelves. We have a repurposed strawberry basket on the left that we use for holding feathers, and another basket on the right for bigger shells.  The wooden box on the right holds my rock, fossil and shell collection from when I was a child (I guess I've always been a keeper!)  My collection is a combination of bought and found, and I take it out periodically to show the kids some rocks, fossils and other things things we wouldn't find around here.

I've tried taking pictures at different times of day but the lighting is always difficult.  I wish I could share better pictures with you!

I lightly dust our display every six weeks or so, and twice a year - generally spring and late fall - I take it all off, dust, rearrange, and together sort through the accumulated treasures, deciding what needs to return outside and what is going to stay.  

Yes, it looks like a mushroom, but it is actually a growth we found on an oak branch several years ago.

The process of deciding what goes and stays has gotten easier as the kids have gotten older and more experienced.  We started this when my oldest was six or so, and it seemed like we had to keep everything forever back then!  But now they are generally a little more selective about what they want to see displayed, and about what they want to keep.  The youngers are a little less discerning, but they are generally willing to listen to their older siblings.  And I've been known to toss a few leaves and rocks outside periodically to keep the display from getting too overwhelming in between the big reorganizations.  I do try to ask first, and generally after something has been displayed for a couple weeks the child won't mind it getting put back outside.