Why God’s Creation Is Your Homeschool’s Best Classroom
There’s a reason children are drawn to tide pools, captivated by caterpillars, and endlessly fascinated by the insects living beneath the surface of a backyard creek. Nature has always been one of God’s most generous teaching tools, and Eryn Lynum has built her work around helping families recognize that.
Eryn is the author of “Rooted in Wonder” and the host of “NatTheo”, a podcast dedicated to nature lessons rooted in the Bible. She joined Rachael Carman on “Let’s Talk Homeschool” to talk about why getting outside with your kids isn’t just good for them, it’s a spiritual practice.
The Wonder That Gets Buried
Eryn grew up exploring ponds, hiking, and camping, but somewhere between childhood and adulthood, that natural curiosity faded. What reignited it wasn’t a book or a course, but her own kids. That’s the encouragement she wants to pass on. She says, “You don’t have to be a biologist. You don’t have to go to Bible school. It really comes down to just going outside with your kids.”
Not a Walk, an Exploration
Erin is careful to distinguish between sending kids outside and actually going with them. Recently, she and her children were flipping rocks in a creek when they discovered tiny creatures clinging to the undersides. Her son began sketching them in detail before they later identified them as mayfly nymphs. Nobody had planned that lesson. Nobody needed to.
“Not having an agenda, this is key,” she says. Rather than choreographing the perfect lesson, follow the child’s curiosity. Educator Charlotte Mason’s benchmark is a helpful starting place: spend at least a half day in nature every week. As for what to bring, tools that invite close observation make all the difference: magnifying lenses, binoculars, a jewelry loupe, insect nets, field guides from the local library, and rubber boots.
Learning to See
One of Eryn’s most meaningful practices is asking her kids to describe what they’ve found before she goes to look. She has them describe the shape, color, movement, and texture. The description comes first, and seeing it becomes the reward. It builds vocabulary, and it trains children to see the world as it actually is. “This beetle is this, and it’s not this over here,” she notes. “They are seeing these fine lines of nature, that God created things as He created them, and not as we want to interpret them.”
Bringing God Into the Conversation
For parents unsure how to connect nature to faith, Eryn offers a simple starting point: change the language. “Let’s talk about creation rather than nature. And let’s talk about God as the master artist.”
One of her favorite questions to ask kids in the field is, “What do you think God was thinking when He created this?”
The connections can go deeper than aesthetics. The inchworm, named for the way it appears to measure what it traverses, points to Isaiah 40:12: “Who has measured the oceans in the palm of His hand?” The same God who designed that tiny creature knows every inch of creation and every person by name. “He sees you,” Erin says, “and you are not a number to Him.”
That familiar earthy scent of spring offers its own connection. Fallen rain, on dry ground, lifts plant oils into the air, called petrichor. This calls to mind Isaiah 55:10-11 and the promise that God’s word will not return void. Erin says,
“When we go outside with our kids and point them to their Creator, God will not let that return void. Just go outside and trust.”
Rest as a Starting Point, Not a Reward
The conversation turned to Erin’s book “The Nature of Rest,” a six-week study that reframes rest not as a prize to be earned, but as the foundation from which meaningful work flows. The key insight is that Adam was created on the sixth day, meaning his very first full day was the seventh, a day of rest. Humanity was designed to begin from rest, not collapse into it.
The hummingbird illustrates the point beautifully. It visits 1,000 to 2,000 flowers a day, sustaining that activity through torpor, a state of deep rest so complete the bird becomes temporarily unresponsive. Rest, in Erin’s framework, isn’t just sleep; it’s what she calls “selah pauses.” Throughout the day, have a cup of tea, take five minutes in the sun, or a walk around the block. It’s learning to filter what the mind takes in, the way the great frigatebird, which can’t land on water, flies for up to two months straight by resting half its brain at a time. Eryn says, “God meant rest to be a gift for us, and we can experience it in all these different ways.”
What’s Coming Next
Erin has two new books releasing in fall 2026. “Where Wonder Leads” is an illustrated children’s chapter book that follows a young girl as she discovers God’s creation through both science and Scripture. “Made to Marvel” is a family devotional with 52 entries. Each devotional centers around a plant or creature in nature, connecting creation back to the Creator.
Both books carry the same conviction: the natural world is not incidental to faith. It is one of God’s most persistent invitations to know Him.
