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Would love some feedback on Nature Journals
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I’m new to this forum AND Charlotte Mason. I’ve been homeschooling for four years and had heard of her, but just recently started to really investigate what she’s all about. And I’m hooked. I’m inspired. And I’m very excited about the upcoming school year. I’m really looking forward to doing a nature journal with my kids. My son is 10 and my daughter 9. I’m reading an excellent book called, “Nature Journaling” by Clare Walker which has me motivated. Sometimes, though, a book is a book and real life is another matter so I came on here to read some of your experiences, but the couple posts I read were from people who didn’t find that journaling worked with their families. The kids didn’t like it or it was maybe too cumbersome to be taking along. This did pop my, perhaps naïve, little bubble.
You see I’m a little nervous about this project in the first place. I’m pretty sure my daughter (9) will enjoy it, but my son (10) is another matter. He has stated that he just isn’t “into” crafts or drawing or any of “that stuff”. But that book (above) that I’m reading has tips on making quick sketches that I thought he wouldn’t be too tortured. And it would be a great way to get him writing.
I’ve explained to both my kids that we’ll be doing nature journaling and have really built it up to be something fun, but I’m afraid it won’t live up to my expectations and it will turn into yet another homeschooling endeavor that falls by the wayside.
I would love to know how you have or have not implemented nature journaling into your homeschool life. What kind of journal do you use? How often? How in depth? How did you even start the process? What were some challenges? LOL You don’t have to answer all of my questions, of course. These are just some of what I’m thinking about. ANY feedback would be appreciated.
Thank-you so much.
This is my first year to homeschool SCM. My odd is 6 and my other dds are 4 yrs and 2 yrs, so Julia is the only one with a nature journal. I just explained to her on Tuesdays is our park day (we go to a different park where there is wooded areas and wildlife/plants to observe) where we’ll look for something to write about in our nature journal and sketch a picture if we see something we’d like to draw about. I told her our first 10 mins at the park is for journaling then we can go play and picnic at lunch time. We take 1 1/2 hrs out after our morning school work is finished and before the kid’s naptime.
Our nature journal is big and heavy, so I put a few sheets of paper on a clipboard to bring with us. I decided since we are both perfectionists, it’d be easier for us to draw/write until we had what we wanted to glue into the final sketchbook for keeping. 🙂
I sketched first to show her what to do. I said to Julia, “I’m going to record what the weather is like today.” Then the only thing around us I saw to sketch were trees, so made a sketch of an oak tree. Julia said she didn’t want to talk about weather, but wanted to write down about what she hears (a bird) and she drew a picture of a tree also. She isn’t confident in her drawing so I have to encourage her. She also likes to add things that she doesnt see, so I encourage her to just record what she really sees and leave creative work for art work later.
That was our first week. The second week we found a tree frog in our yard and she said she wanted to draw him for her journal (the day we were getting ready to leave for the park) so we left our clipboard home and decided to sketch our frog later at home, and then watercolor painted him. ETA: we sketched from a picture of a frog online since it was easier to see detail then from this tiny frog in a cage that moves. We read about the tree frog in our Handbook of Nature Study book and then I encouraged her to dictate to me how she found her frog and what he does.
On Amblesideonline.com they instruct children to make at least 6 drawings for nature notebook per term. So we are doing well so far. 😉 We may draw a dog or cat next for our mammel study and squirrels to finish this term, then diff birds for winter term when we study birds, then flowers in spring for wildflower study.
This is what I feel a nature notebook should be, just what we personally make of it. Just what we see in nature to help us see things in more detail than we normally would.
HTH and I hope to learn from others also!
Tara
These are some great questions you’ve asked…..I have no advice to offer, but I’m hoping lots others will reply and give us newbies to nature study some tips and hints. I can really relate to you in that my older son sounds exactly like yours – he has absolutely no confidence in his drawing abilities and no desire to try. My younger daughter is the creative one who would be just fine with sketching. And, I’ve also wondered if you really sketch while out in the “field” – or do most people come home and look at a picture from another resource after they’ve had their nature walk? It seems like it would be very difficult for a young child to try to sketch a picture from a bird that wouldn’t sit still for more than a few minutes.
Looking forward to reading the replies (and thanks, thepinkballerina, for the helpful advice you gave).
We started Nature study gently. We set aside about 20 minutes once a week in the beginning. We’ve gradually worked up to longer times as their interest has become greater. I think that’s a big key…getting their will involved. We didn’t force them to put lengthy paragraph explanations in their journals, just the sketch, date and location of the specimen found and we look in the field guides to obtain a bit of information on what they’ve found and discuss them. As the years have gone by, they’ve become more interested in taking their time and really making their journals a wonderful keepsake. This was not the case in the beginning and I would become discouraged about this. But we kept on and didn’t give up and I’m now seeing the fruit of that perseverance.
They each have their own journals (we use the smaller Bare Books for this). We haven’t branched out to watercolors and other different types of media; we use colored pencils. That’s my next goal!
Be encouraged! It really is a wonderful thing to incorporate in your homeschool.
mj
Nature journals are a big part of our lives. I am so thankful to CM for encouraging me to start and continue nature journals. It really has been a blessing on our lives.
My advice is to approach it casually and not make a big deal out if, especially in the beginning. Even if your son doesn’t want to participate, YOU make drawings anyway. Also, you can point out that he can draw anything that catches his interest – sticks, mucky riverbank, worms, spiders, fish, etc. The journal doesn’t have to be “girly.”
I also suggest to casually display your drawings in your home, changing them often. I know the word “journal” means a book, but we don’t always draw directly in a book. I think it’s less intimidating to draw on a piece of loose paper. If you mess up, it’s no big deal to crumple up the paper or turn it over and begin again. When you get home, put up the drawings and casually talk the day and your discoveries rather than focusing on the drawing skills. Make the drawings and the adventures part of your life.
I rarely assign writing to the pages, but the kids see me jot down notes on my pages and they will follow suit. The notes can be anything – weather conditions, materials used, name of subject (or “I don’t know what this is” as I often write!), location, mood.
I think the best way to motivate your children will be for YOU to do the drawings and enjoy yourself doing it, even if they balk and don’t want to draw themselves. My kids do nature journal drawings, but some days I can tell they really want to run around instead and it shows in their drawings. That’s okay. Other days they spend time making nice renderings that are charming.
Whatever effort is made in the beginning should be accepted, imo. As time goes on and the journals are more of a habit, you might want to encourage more diligent work if they get sloppy. But in the beginning, focus simply on the habit. Again, even if they don’t spend time with their drawings, you should work on yours and show them your efforts (especially if your drawings don’t turn out perfectly…it’s so calming to know that others struggle too).
If a session doesn’t go particularly well, that’s okay. If you go a long stretch without sketching, that’s okay. Pick it up again when you can. I find we go in spurts with our journals. This time of year is easy for us to be outdoors, and there are so many things to draw that we are working on our journals daily and can’t wait to get to them. In the middle of winter, we are likely to neglect the journals. The journals should be a source of joy, not guilt.
As for materials, I’d keep them as simple and lightweight as possible.
Have fun!
Hello! I too am just trying to figure out how exactly to do a nature journal/notebook. Barb from Harmony Art Mom has a VERY useful blog that I think might help you. There are a bunch of articles to click on having to do with this subject.
I haven’t read everyone’s responses yet, but I’ll go do that now to see if I can get some more info myself.
Thank-you so much for all of your wonderful feedback and encouragement.
A common piece of advice that I see continues to pop up (here and other places) is doing your sketches on separate pieces of paper that later get pasted/taped into the journal. I like this idea. My only concern is that then you wouldn’t have a hard surface on which to draw like you would if you had the actual book. I guess I could carry a clipboard. Hmmmm, I’ll bet there are smaller clipboards out there instead of the full 81/2 x 11 size. Or I could just paperclip some paper to a stiff piece of cardboard. Any ideas in this area?
Thank-you, mj, for the suggestion of the Bare Books. I hadn’t heard of them before and they look perfect. And not very expensive either. I had to contact them about how to get them up here in Canada but they responded quickly and told me I could get them from Spectrum Educational Supplies.
I love what you said, Esby, about how “the journal doesn’t have to be “girly.” I am definitely going to say that to my son and encourage him to draw things like mud and worms, etc. And you’re right, I’m going to draw right alongside them. At this point, I can say with certainty that my skills in this area are lacking but that’s okay. My children will get to see me learn and make mistakes and improve with them.
A great help, ladies, thank-you.
Debbie
Some pics of our nature journal pages are at Flickr. That should give you a very clear picture of how we do it. 🙂 It’s very fluid. I don’t make a whole lot of requirements. Just sketch and write a description.
Sometimes taking paper and pencil outdoors IS difficult or cumbersome. We often bring things home to sketch. Or we take photos to sketch from (or just print and include in the journal).
One big recommendation I have is to do this alongside your children. When they see you enjoying it, it helps with motivation. You’ll see my nature jounal pages in the Flickr set as well as my daughter’s. I think you’ve already done a great job of portraying nature study and nature journaling as a fun pasttime. I think that’s vital. It’s not “just another assignment” but a joy to experience God’s creation. (In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s our DUTY.)
We are just starting a nature journal this year and while my oldest daughter loves to draw (we too are perfectionists 🙂 my next oldest boy is not as crazy about it, however he is willing but he wants me to draw it all for him:) so instead I found some neat sites that offer coloring books (FREE) that have many different birds and wild flowers as outlines. That way at least some of the things we are interested in, I can just copy the pages off and after showing them a picture of what it’s suppose to look like, they color it in and I don’t have to worry about drawing it all for them. (We do other drawing things later on also from Draw Write Now.)
here is the site: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/schoolyard/T_Resouces/ColoringBook.pdf
and: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/northern/SheyenneNG/index.shtml
this last one you can pick the region you are closest too for more of a match! Hope this helps.
Kristen
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