Has your child had success with a CM-style nature notebook?

[EKT]

We plan to start keeping Charlotte Mason-style nature notebooks next year and I'd love to hear from anyone who has done them before. Would you consider your child's experience successful? I'd love to hear the specifics of what your family did. (What kind of sketchbook you used, the art supplies you used, where and when you did your observations, etc.) Mostly just looking for feedback and inspiration. 

 

My only fear with starting them is that my girls will be frustrated by their still-developing drawing abilities. (My oldest tends to be perfectionistic and I don't want her to be frustrated if she can't draw leaves exactly as they appear in nature, know what I mean?) I want to keep it fun and casual, but I'd like to hear about others' real-world experience with the project. Thanks!

[Coco_Clark]

I LOVE love LOVE our nature notebook.  

Because my kids are young, and I didn't want it to be stressful, we have a family nature notebook.  It's just a watercolor spiral bound sketchbook I picked up at an art store.  We go on a hike once a week and we bring along colored pencils and a small watercolor set.  Everyone is expected to find something interesting to add, including me.  I label where we were and the date, and we are done.  After we hit a year my kids really enjoyed going back and seeing what was cool last year this month, and then going back to see if it's there again (like crabapples in bloom).  

We've also kept lists; flowers we've identified, bugs we've seen, ect.  My kids have occasionally been interested in drawing the same thing over a few weeks or months; my son did a series of sketching on dandilions of all things that ended up being my favorite nature notebook page ever.

 

I largely leave it up to them.  Neither is an artist by any means.  My 5yo drew a snake last week with a big old smiley face.  But it's really increased how much we actually SEE on our nature walks.  We notice more because we are looking more.  

[FO4UR]

If nature study leads your child into a relationship with the world around her, it was successful.  Yes, they pick up all sorts of details, learn how to observe, ask solid questions, think, test their thoughts, and generally begin the process of becoming scientists.  What sets nature study apart is the natural process of discovery in the real world that the child knows. Nature study is something that extends beyond formal schooling.

 

 

Drawing is just drawing.  The purpose of drawing in a nature notebook is not to make a perfect representation, but to see the object perfectly in the mind's eye.  When we try to draw something, we look much more closely at it...and that is the main point.  The actual drawing will develop as the dc grow.

 

They can take photographs if you have a camera that you let them use.  I think there is great value, similar to drawing, in photography.

 

They can take a mental picture of something and describe it to you. You can scribe it down for them.

 

 

I use this Nature Journal. You can use any sketchbook, but I put this together to give some very light direction so my dc will branch out into more variety. I like Keeping a Nature Journal b/c this book shows many examples of entry types, and my kids have used the drawings in this book as models to practice.

 

 

 

 

ETA: adding links  Blog Post and downloadable Nature Journal

[....]

My oldest daughter keeps a CM-ish notebook for botany.  She collects plants and flowers, records their common name, gives the location where the plant was found, writes a description about them or sketches them and sometimes she dries/presses them and puts them in the notebook.  She seems to really enjoy it.

[EKT]

If nature study leads your child into a relationship with the world around her, it was successful.  Yes, they pick up all sorts of details, learn how to observe, ask solid questions, think, test their thoughts, and generally begin the process of becoming scientists.  What sets nature study apart is the natural process of discovery in the real world that the child knows. Nature study is something that extends beyond formal schooling.

 

 

Drawing is just drawing.  The purpose of drawing in a nature notebook is not to make a perfect representation, but to see the object perfectly in the mind's eye.  When we try to draw something, we look much more closely at it...and that is the main point.  The actual drawing will develop as the dc grow.

 

They can take photographs if you have a camera that you let them use.  I think there is great value, similar to drawing, in photography.

 

They can take a mental picture of something and describe it to you. You can scribe it down for them.

 

 

I use this Nature Journal. You can use any sketchbook, but I put this together to give some very light direction so my dc will branch out into more variety. I like Keeping a Nature Journal b/c this book shows many examples of entry types, and my kids have used the drawings in this book as models to practice.

 

 

 

 

ETA: adding links  Blog Post and downloadable Nature Journal

This is super helpful information--thank you so much!!

[EKT]

I LOVE love LOVE our nature notebook.  

 

 

Your family's nature notebook sounds really lovely! :-) Thanks for sharing!

[EKT]

My oldest daughter keeps a CM-ish notebook for botany.  She collects plants and flowers, records their common name, gives the location where the plant was found, writes a description about them or sketches them and sometimes she dries/presses them and puts them in the notebook.  She seems to really enjoy it.

I really love the idea of pressing flowers and recording the names of items found, etc. Sounds lovely. Thanks!

[Bluegoat]

I have a daughter who gets frustrated sometimes when her drawings don't look the way she imagines they should.  I've found a few things helped with this.

 

 - making sure she understands that even artists often have to work on things awhile to get it right and that drawing is a skill that requires practice, just like piano

 

 - Emphasizing that pictures for a nature notebook aren't always about having a perfect drawing, but recording facts

 

 - We've done a few practices in drawing technique, and I am planning to spend a little more time on this in the coming year - probably just from some books at the library.  I also am hoping to get my hands on some specimens - i used to draw from them as a child and it actually was immensely helpful.  Sometimes you can borrow them from museums, or you can actually go to a museum and do the work there.

 

I also think that sometimes kids are more satisfied by actually using the dry-brush technique - it lends itself to less precision than pencils do.

[EKT]

I have a daughter who gets frustrated sometimes when her drawings don't look the way she imagines they should.  I've found a few things helped with this.

 

 - making sure she understands that even artists often have to work on things awhile to get it right and that drawing is a skill that requires practice, just like piano

 

 - Emphasizing that pictures for a nature notebook aren't always about having a perfect drawing, but recording facts

 

 - We've done a few practices in drawing technique, and I am planning to spend a little more time on this in the coming year - probably just from some books at the library.  I also am hoping to get my hands on some specimens - i used to draw from them as a child and it actually was immensely helpful.  Sometimes you can borrow them from museums, or you can actually go to a museum and do the work there.

 

I also think that sometimes kids are more satisfied by actually using the dry-brush technique - it lends itself to less precision than pencils do.

Great info and ideas, thank you!

[arliemaria]

We have an informal Family Nature Diary.  My children are little, but it is something I try to remember from time to time.  We've had it for a few years and haven't recorded weekly or even monthly, but when we find something really neat (like a three toed box turtle) someone will usually exclaim, "Let's add this to the nature journal!"  We have a few spider pictures and some spring flower drawings.  I drew a few month calendars and use it to include a year and an observation from that day.  I have done this consistently twice at the beginning of spring for the month of March.  Reflecting on this I think this is a time when I am recharged and excited about nature after long midwestern winter.  I have things like "snowdrops in bloom" or "SNOW! 20 degrees below normal"  We have a few leaf rubbings and I'd like to eventually identify all the trees we can on our nearly 20 acres and do a leaf rubbing for each.  I like to write little sayings on pages too.  On our oak tree leaf rubbing I have "Great oaks from little acorns grow."  On our April calendar I have "...in like a lion ...out like a lamb."  We have a few ladybug drawings and then the poem Ladybug, ladybug, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, And your children are all gone.  We went to a Ren Faire a few weekends ago and spotted a really neat grey ladybug.  I had my husband snap a shot of it on his phone.  I am going to have Robby help me identify it with the help of lostladybug.org  I want to post the photo in our book.  I need to get some photo corners.  I also have a page that I have begun to record all our hiking at our state parks.  We have used lots of mediums from watercolors to crayon to colored pencil.

Hope that helps.