How we Nature Journal

 How we study nature is really a mish mash of methods, we sometimes use a book as our focus reading each chapter then selecting one animal/creature to focus on as we did with Pagoo. Sometimes the book selection is based on an upcoming holiday.  Other times I take note of what the children are interested in when we are out on a walk. We collect a specimen bring it home, examine it using a variety equipment, read about it and then draw it. Other times I do what Charlotte Mason suggests 6 garden birds etc.. If we cannot get out because I am too ill I will ask the children to look through our variety of animal and nature books let them choose what interests them, I will then read the information for Zany (Noah can do it himself) and they complete the process of journaling. As you can see how we do it varies a lot.  I think that is the beauty of Nature Journaling you can pretty much do anything as long as it is based on nature. 

When I first started out home educating Noah I really tied myself up in knots over this topic. I wanted to do it perfectly (I know, idiotic right?) I bought the Handbook of Nature Study, signed up to the resource site that goes with the book and off we went. Only we didn’t, we are based in the UK, the book is American and whilst there is a lot of cross over sometimes there isn’t. Also I found that the text in the book was too dry for Noah at 6, so I tried something else, then something else and before I knew it we very rarely nature journaled. It seemed too problematic and too stressful, which is the exact opposite of what it should be. It should be thoroughly enjoyable for both parent and child(ren).  It took me a long time to let go of that need for perfection and to just go with the flow, but when I did we found our groove and what works for us, which is a multi-varied approach based on our moods, health and travels.

We use a variety of resources to complete Nature Journalling:

Good quality cartridge paper or card stock, we sometimes use water colour paper but not often. We don’t use a book as we do not draw or paint outside. My kids get very frustrated with making mistakes and are both perfectionists (umm I wonder where they get that from?). If they are having to remove lots of pages from their books this becomes really upsetting so it’s best if we use loose leaf paper, we then put it in a binder.

We use a variety of mediums to complete the drawings and paintings, such as watercolour pencils, water colour paints, pencil crayons, Micron black outliner pens and felt tips. I do not mind if they use felt tips Zany definitely favours these at the moment. I still help zany with her drawings or sometimes she will request a print of the specimen to colour in. I am hoping to slowly build up her skills this year so that she can do her own drawings. The funny thing is she is a good drawer for her age but again that strong perfectionism comes into play.

We use magnifying glasses, field microscopes and an actual microscope to examine our finds and obviously our eyes. Lol.

Nature finds go on the nature/science table where the microscope is kept along with the magnifying glass etc…

Recently I have started to let them include photos of the specimens on their journal pages. They take these themselves using my phone. I might invest in a camera?

Well I can see that I have rambled on so I will leave it for now. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below.

Bye bye!!