It’s my turn to be a broken record. It’s wonderful to have nice notebooks (I often use Moleskines as already mentioned, or sketchbooks purchased at an art supply shop that catch my eye), but plain, regular paper you use for your printer is just fine to get started. Or, buy a sketchbook, but rip the pages out (some sketchbooks have perforated pages). The loose paper seems much less intimidating, especially for beginners, and there is no feeling of “I wrecked my sketchbook with this terrible drawing.”
Later, you can either bind the loose sketches into a homemade book, keep the loose sketches in a box or portfolio, put them in a photo album, display on the fridge or in a frame, etc.
If you don’t like the loose paper idea, I still recommend reminding the kids that sketchbooks of even accomplished artists are full of bad sketches, mistakes, blunders, etc. Not every page needs to be perfect. The best thing about the nature notebook is that you were out in nature observing it.
Hope that pep talk isn’t out of line. I love to see any sketch – on a napkin, on a paper bag, or on the back of a receipt – rather than a really beautiful sketchbook that is empty.
Esby…an admitted nature notebook fanatic, thanks to Charlotte Mason. 🙂