Nature Journal
Knowing Nature through Your Notebooks
Julie's blog post, "Nature Journaling Wherever You Are," describes how once she turned her "attention to nature, it erupted into view as the varied, wild, fascinating world I hardly noticed every other day."
Nature journaling is a catalyst for nature "erupting into view."
When children sketch and write about what they see out in nature, they can:
- Notice more details
- Remember more
- Become more curious
- Develop more understanding
How to Nature Journal
Read Brave Writer's Introduction to Nature Journaling.
- Supply a sketchbook and pencils for everyone, the parent too.
- Go outside.
- Observe, using all the senses.
- Pick something to focus on.
- Draw and, if you want, write brief notes about something you see, hear, feel, smell, and touch in nature.
- Add the date, location, identification, a weather description, and "field notes." (optional)
See Nature Journals
The classic example of a nature journal, beloved by many Charlotte Mason home educators, is The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.
See others
- On Pinterest
- On Instagram, hashtag #naturejournal
Alternative Ideas
- Contribute to one nature journal notebook as a family
- add pages from parents and kids
- branch into individual notebooks or journals later.
- Use a magnifying lens or binoculars and sketch what you see through the lenses.
- Take photos first and make sketches from the photos.
- Bring natural items inside and nature journal indoors.
- Sketch an item from your nature table.
- Try a color walk and journal or freewrite after the color walk.
- Post nature journal pages in your home, or display them with your nature table.
- Keep a nature journal in blog form or on Instagram with older kids and teens.
Nature Journal Tips
- Make notebooks and pencils easy to grab in your backpack.
- Consider colored pencils for kids, but don't overdo with too many fancy supplies when you're getting started.
- Notice when nature journaling spawns a rabbit trail. Maybe one kid would like to add water colors to a sketch or another would like to tell a Jot-it-Down style story. A high schooler may come up with an idea for a citizen science project about water quality or butterfly counting.
- Notebooks provide a more sturdy surface for outdoor sketching; sheets of plain white paper may work better if you're sketching indoors at a table.
- Some children revel in journaling that looks and feels more scientific, with more field notes; others like the more artistic aspects. Let each child make it her own.
Posted October 1st, 2018
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