Nature Journaling for Mom

[birchbark]

I'm thinking of doing some nature journaling this summer. We have never really integrated this into our homeschool, and I think the reason may be that we live up north, and most of the traditional schoolyear is pretty chilly. I was inspired to actually get into this recently when reading Charlotte Mason (Home Education, pp 46-55), and I realized that we just need to do this in the summer. I decided to try it first myself, and see if the kids get interested by watching me do it.

 

So I'm looking for suggestions, tips, and tricks from any of you who have done it. I'm thinking of a very simple approach, with an emphasis on identification, rather than a nice collection of artwork, if that makes sense. I'm thinking of a stiff spiral sketchbook from Miller's, and colored pencils? Or watercolor pencils?

 

I looked at several nature journaling titles on Amazon, and most of them have a more elaborate approach than what I have in mind.

[macmacmoo]

I didn't think much of it until I was able to see it in person.

 

But the simple Charlotte mason journaling a year of nature was the little nudge out the door that I needed. Granted I haven't graduated past it but it's better than nothing.

 

I bought a physical copy last year, but got the PDF this year and ran the art paper through the printer (which said some nasty words but it survived).

 

I like that it's split into seasons and has weekly prompts.

[4Kiddos]

I nature journal and I love it. It is so relaxing and really makes me happy. Plus I have learned a ton about nature and I notice so much more than I used to. How I do it is pretty simple. Here are some things that have been helpful to me:

 

- Materials: Buy the best materials you can afford. This makes such a difference. Dick Blick and Cheap Joes are good places to find quality materials for cheaper. They also have coupons. I started with colored pencils and have recently been doing drybrush with watercolor. For drawing with pencils here is what I use (my older kids are allowed to use these as well):

 

- A nice drawing pencil set- I have this set of twelve

- Prismacolor Colored Pencil set- I purchased the set of 48 with a coupon

- Two Prismacolor illustration pens in black for outlining my stuff- I like the 005 and 01

- A drawing book with nice paper- I can't seem to find the ones I purchased first. My kids still use them and really like them as they are a small square size but I switched to a Moleskine watercolor book because I ended up hating the spiral bound. ETA: Found them

 

- Subjects: So, as a busy mother of five I don't always have uninterrupted time. So, when I find something I want to put in my notebook I take a picture of it first. Then, if I am interrupted or something i can go back and finish later. My favorite is sketching the real thing but I don't always get to finish if I do that. I tend to just draw a flower or bird or whatever and not really whole landscapes.

 

- Text: When I first started out I would just draw the thing and then write the name down. I mostly still do the same thing but now I try to write down extra things if there are any- like the time we saw a sparrow "swim" across a canal as he had a hurt wing and just flapped his wings in the water and paddled himself across the canal. I drew the sparrow and wrote the little story beside it. I have also begun adding dates or at least months because it has been interesting to see how the timing of things (wildflowers for example) is different each year. I don't get too complicated because I just don't have that much time.

 

- Lists- I also keep lists in the back of my book- what birds I have seen, what wildflowers, etc.

 

- Reading- Sometimes if I have read something interesting that pertains to something I have drawn I will go back and make a note for myself on that page of the quote or information or whatever.

 

- Collections- I like to try and draw collections of items. Earlier this year, I did a whole page on early spring wildflowers and it was so much fun. Last fall, I did a collection of various mushrooms.

 

I think that this is all for now. I would just say to go ahead and start. Don't worry about any rules but just start somewhere and start from there. Happy nature journaling!

[Coco_Clark]

That's exactly how I got my family nature journaling! First I just did it myself...then when they seemed interested I made a "family" journal that everyone was allowed to make additions in, and only recently have my older kids been interested in keeping their own.

 

We also live way up north. We tend to take pictures and bring them home when it's too cold to take sketches on location.

 

I started off with nice colored pencils and spiral bound multi-media books. We've since also included small travelers paint boxes for dry brushing. I organize my family book by seasons. So Summer page with any lists I'm keeping. Then pages for specific outings with date, location, weather, and labeled drawings. Then a Fall page with any lists. We live in an area with distinct seasons and my kids are young enough I like to keep that a focus. They like to look back and see if we can find those flowers/animals again the next year.

[Chelli]

Are there some good videos or tutorials to teach dry brushing?

[2_girls_mommy]

We nature journal as a family, but definitely more in the summer just because we have more time. We each only have a couple of fall entries and maybe one winter entry before we started again this spring, with tons of summer. 

 

I and my odd only use a plain composition book, seriously. We used the book, Keeping a Nature Journal  by Claire Walker Leslie as a guide to get started. The book is huge. We definitely didn't even read the whole thing, lol. 

 

We draw, try to identify, and take note of temperature, time, location, etc. My odd actually prefers to take pictures, so usually she brings a camera and then does a quick drawing after. But she will spend time trying to get a good pic and trying to identify with that. 

 

My other daughter is much more artistic, and for her it is more about drawing. So she uses a nice sketch book. 

 

Tips_ I keep a Nature Bag that we take when we go. It has a bag of colored pencils, regular pencils, and a sharpener, all of our journals, and a couple of field guides that we use regularly. That way I just grab it when we are going to a park. 

 

I keep it very simple. We spent one year long ago really learning about birds. I am no expert at identifying, but we have fun using the knowledge that we gained and our guides to try to figure out which one it is. We got a new book about trees and are going to learn more about them. We have checked out the big CM recommended book, THe Handbook of Nature Study, and we worked through a lesson in it. We really enjoyed it in our backyard. That book is huge, so I tried it out first before buying. The narrative in it as we looked at the flower we were studying really helped us to identify the parts better than a field guide I think. But it is too heavy for carrying around in the nature bag while hiking around! It would be for planned lessons only. :)

Edited June 16, 2017 by 2_girls_mommy

[jenn&charles]

I recommend prismacolors (colored pencils). I don't often have time to make sketches, so I resort to taking pictures and cataloguing them in a Word document. I add notes in the document. I've also collected samples and put them in Ziploc bags to identify later. Someday I plan on pressing some of the plants / flowers I find and putting them in a notebook (plastic sleeves or such). At some point I'll transition to a notebook and try a bit of watercolors, etc.  

 

A great book I recommend is: Keeping a Nature Journal by Leslie Roth

 

Also, EDx has a free course that is starting on June 27: https://www.edx.org/course/drawing-nature-science-culture-natural-newcastlex-nhi101x-0

It's called "Drawing Nature, Science and Culture: Natural History Illustration 101" and is put on by The University of Newcastle in Australia. It's an online course with video & text instruction on drawing the natural world.

I took the course when they offered it previously and noticed there were quite a few homeschoolers / kids taking the course. It "forced" me to get out and do some nature-related drawing. :-) 

 

 

[birchbark]

A friend pointed me to some scans of actual nature journals by Charlotte Mason students. They have more writing than pictures and are more like . . . a journal. It just seemed more doable and straightforward for a beginner. Although I could never have such beautiful painting or handwriting!

 

http://charlottemason.redeemer.ca/Box08/cmc60/cmc60-p049cmc60.pdf

 

http://charlottemason.redeemer.ca/PNEU-Briefcase/PNEU-Box24/pneu162/i1p001-p065pneu162.pdf

 

http://charlottemason.redeemer.ca/2nd-CM-Briefcase/Box32/i8p071-p154BoxCM32.pdf