We are also new to HOD, with a 7th grader who will be doing Res to Ref, including Shakespeare. (We have done other curriculum that is more book-based, less notebook-y.) To keep topics similar to my high schooler's studies, next year, we will skip over to MMM. I think I have read that there is nature study in MMM. I know I have read that adding a bit here and a bit there winds quickly becoming too much, and we are not used to long homeschooling days nor to teacher-intensive days.
Would we be better off to simply not worry about it this year, to just wait for next year, and go to the park this year when we feel like it without the extra concern of trying to do "nature study"? Should I just put it off a year?
The nature study is fun! Years's back, before MTMM had ever been written, I went on a nature walk with my dc each day weather permitted. We just bought bird and plant books, as well as picked up pamphlets from our state parks, that focused on the birds and plants we'd find in our state, and we looked up things we saw along the way on enature.com. We also tried to draw in blank sketch books, but that didn't go so well (my kids were young and not as artistically inclined