Kids Not Wanting to Nature Journal, bc Abilities

We take photos as well during our nature study walks. I get them printed at Walgreens and then we paste them in our notebook. Many times, the kids attempt a drawing. My DS6 used to not like this part. He has a engineering personality so I got some step-by-step drawing books. He liked having a process so it helped with his willingness to draw. I hope that someday he will gain confidence and will draw freehand.

We keep one notebook for our whole family (my kids are all 6 and under).

I’ve posted many of our nature studies and notebooking days on my blog. Here’s a link to one I posted today and there are more ideas if you click “Nature Study” at the top. Hope this helps!

https://brighthope4tomorrow.wordpress.com/

I google simple outline pictures of the things we see outdoors when we get home as well as a real picture. We use the outline pictures as a guide to draw them in our books and the real picture to add details and color to the subject. We draw at the table in our home, using the drawing and picture after we have walked and observed. This has really improved the nature journal experience for all of us.  😉

I think that if all else fails and they do not want to draw, print a picture to put in a book. I would expect them to label it, date it, and include something that they observed about when taking the picture. That requires some attention that might be lost in simply taking a picture and calling it nature study, plus it might encourage them to want to eventually draw on their own.

I don’t remember where I heard it, but tracing is considered drawing lessons.  One of my children loves to trace, and uses tracing paper. She also likes to trace the step by step drawings in drawing books.

Hth!

I have kids a wide variety of ages and some have natural artistic talents they have worked to improve while others do not.  It can be easy for one child to see the work of another and feel like their work isn’t good enough, esp. if they are comparing themselves to one of my natural drawing children.  They feel embarrassed or just like no matter how hard they try their drawing doesn’t come out looking like what they see in their head.  It’s normal, natural, and oh so frustrating!

What we have done to combat that is encourage everyone to draw regularly outside of school work (nature study is not the time to practice drawing).  We have invested in a variety of drawing books for all ages and abilities (and borrow more from the library) and I try to invest the time to sit with the children and show them how to use those books.  The more they use them for practice the more comfortable they become with drawing and that translates into becoming more comfortable with drawing something you see without instructions.  We literally make this a family activity – everyone gathers at the table, grabs a book if they want one instead of drawing from a picture or memory, and we draw at the same time, talking and enjoying one another’s company and just making it a fun time.  We have an art line up on the wall that we hang pictures from after these drawing sessions with everything from the 1 year old’s scribbles to Daddy’s technical looking sketch of a machine.

Some books to get you started:

• Draw Write Now series – these are great because each new step of the simple drawings are shown in RED ink.  It makes it very easy for a child to add the next part because it stands out.  This one series has been the staple for our beginning to want to draw better children.
• Usborne Playtime series such as “I can draw animals” – we found a few of these used and they are for younger children.  Great part: the drawings are done with a crayon so they look less ‘perfect’ than a pen or pencil line.  Colorful, step by step.
• Ed Emberly’s Drawing Book of Faces (he has others) – Super simple using a few basic lines or shapes.  It really just gets them to see that with the same few lines/shapes they can make widely different pictures.
• Walter Foster Learn to Draw series – These are a step more complicated than the Draw Write Now, but still begin by building on basic shapes, they just end up adding more details as you go.
• Draw and Write Through History – These are more advanced than the others and can overwhelm a young child, but once a child has a solid practice with the Draw Write Now and Walter Foster Learn to Draw they are ready to branch out into these.
• Draw 50 series by Lee J. Ames – Not for little kids!  These use very light guide lines and lots of details.  I get intimidated by these!  However, when I really want to work on learning to draw something better than I currently can these can be a great resource to push myself.  (And no, I’m not artistic, just persistent.)  So when I wanted my birds to be more bird like and less basic I pulled out the Draw 50 Birds book from my 14 year old’s shelves and got to work.
• Ralph Masiello’s drawing series – Also good for kids, not quite as simplistic as Draw Write Now but not super complicated either.  We borrow these from our library.
• Walter Foster also carries many more drawing books beyond their Learn to Draw series for kids, so there is plenty of room to grow when a child is ready.

There are so many more drawing books out there, especially when you want to work on drawing a specific thing.  Two of my kids are enamored with dinosaurs thanks to Jurassic World and have been using Draw-A-Saurus from our library’s shelves.  My 14 year old worked through Drawing Dragons by Sandra Staple a few years ago, a book I can’t use because it’s just too hard for me! LOL.  I still watch her draw and can’t picture how she gets from the beginning strokes to the final drawings, but she does.

Go check your library’s shelves and their catalog to see what they can get you from other libraries.  Check them out, see which ones are worth adding to your family’s shelves, or just use them from the library!  Play around with a drawing challenge – draw something in a notebook every day for 30 days. Just like everything else, the more often you do it the easier it gets to do well.  This can translate into a happier nature journaling time.