Nature Journal

Since making the nature page, I have had many questions on how to make a nature journal, what could/should be included, what types of notebooks are used, glues used, books which are helpful, how to draw nature, and what types of mediums are best. I've had so many questions in fact, that I am devoting this page to the making of a nature journal. I hope you'll find help and inspiration.

One of my greatest inspirations to making a nature journal is the book called The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. This book in its original form was found on the shelves of an English country house. It was a private nature diary of a woman who loved the changing seasons of England and recorded poetry, drawings in watercolor of wildlife, Latin names and common names of flowers, birds, insects and trees which she observed near her home in Olton, Warwickshire. You can surely tell of her love of nature by this hand written book which was published some 70 years after her first entry of January 1, 1906. This book is now out of print, but you may find this and other books by her in out -of-print searches. I first found this book at my local public library. I highly recommend that you find this book and check it out just for it's inspiration alone. I went through it with my children and we all became very excited to make our own nature journals.

Another inspiration was Karen Andreola from whom I had first heard of nature notebooks. Karen also inspired me to teach my children in the Charlotte Mason style. Charlotte Mason was also an Englishwoman from the late 1800's who emphasized nature walks and nature study. I also discovered another very inspirational book from Karen Andreola's recommendations called Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock who was another "turn-of-the-century" woman. Mrs. Comstock was founder of the Department of Nature Study at Cornell University. This 887 page book is chock-full of "everything nature." It is very evident by Mrs. Comstock's writings that she too loved nature and easily transferred that love to her students. This book is in print today and a bargain for the amount of good within the pages. I highly recommend this book if you wish to teach Nature Study to your children.

There are many different kinds of journals that you may use and it will mostly depend on your preference. After many years of nature journaling, I have stuck with a ruled book-type which could be considered a composition book or an office journal. Ours are about 9 x 7 " and 192 pages. The books we have are made by Blueline, are hard covered, and we bought them at an office supply store for about $6. There are also other journals which have a spiral back and lie flat when opened. These would be much easier to use for younger children. The thing that I like to have in a nature journal is a sense of permanency. I want them to look and feel like a "real book" not just a spiral notebook. I want the journals to be treasures that we go back to often as one would go back to a favorite book to read again and again. If possible, try to find books with acid free paper for better preservation.

There are other journals which lie flat and have half-plain and half-ruled pages in 8 1/2x 11 " with 64 pages.. I bought this one from Elijah Company for about $8 by Beinfang. It is called a Note Sketch Book. It reminds me a lot of a glorified spiral notebook, but I'm thinking I may record in it and then take it to the print shop and have them bind it in a hard cover if possible, or I may do the following which was submitted from Mary, an internet friend and fellow home schooling mother.

From Mary... I've been experimenting with making books. I had these old books I was going to be rid of. I took off the covers of old books and recovered the hard board with modge podge & brown grocery bag. Then I made pages from sketch paper which is bound together with layers of modge podge, putting some material on the last couple layers to help attach it to the cover, I use pellon but other material could work. This is elaborate, but I wanted something that would be a real keepsake. The pellon should be just an inch or two bigger on each side of the spine of the paper and then just glue it to the cover, and cover the inside covers with sketch paper--it's sort of like reconstructing a book. If you take a book apart, you can see how to put it back together with new materials. You could cover the book with anything... material, paper etc. After it is put together, you can decorate the cover with pressed plant material, homemade paper, drawings, or a nature picture you've found using Modge Podge to "glue it down". You get a very pretty book with a hardcover to use for a nature journal, personal journal, poetry collection and etc. We can put our best work inside. I like to glue the work in because then we can choose the nicer things rather than doing a free-hand drawing & painting right in the book in case of those big mistakes that can be made. My kids are older, so we can do more interesting things now. But for years I just collected in binders or spiral notebooks or sketch books rather sporadically.

From Ann... My children are both very particular about their art work and we also like to use different mediums. I bought flip files and we do the work, writing on lid, art on art sheets and when completed we slide them into the plastic sleeves. The children had great fun decorating the covers as well.

From Laura... For my 5yo I'm using loose pages and then I keep them in a folder. At the end of the year I can bind them at our church with the machine they have that puts plastic binding on. It's very simple to use. Also, how about using a "how to draw" type book or curriculum to get them started? Some basic tips can be very helpful. We use Mona Brooks' book Drawing With Children.

Glue sticks...I like these best for putting drawings into books because they don't leave a thick gloppy mark inside your special book.

Colored pencils... Berol Prismacolor are the best and can be bought reasonably from Timberdoodle for $13 for a set of 36. Others will do however.

Watercolors... Prang are the best inexpensive set you can buy for children. We like to draw first and watercolor after. Prismacolor also makes a watercolor pencil set!

Pen... if your students are old enough to record in their journals without making many mistakes.

The best way to get started on your nature journals is to go on a nature walk. Just take the children outside for awhile and walk and observe anything that catches your eye. It might be a bird or a big dragonfly. You might spot a beautiful rose or a grand old oak. You may find a weed or an insect that's been a constant pest to you. Whatever it is you or your child choose to study, if possible, bring it in to your home in a jar or plastic bag. If it's not possible to bring it home (it's the neighbor's horse) then just look up your speciman in a field guide or encyclopedia to find a good picture of it.

Observing is something we often take for granted. We think we know quite a lot about birds until we really take the time to study all the stages of a bird's life for example. Have you ever looked closely at the pattern of the feathers on a bird? Have you noticed that their feathers are arranged as shingles on a roof, all over-lapping one another to shed water? Have you noticed different beaks on birds and why they may eat only certain things because of them? Have you noticed the feet on birds? Some can paddle in water and some can cling to branches while others are better for scratching up the soil. All these things can be observed and tell us much about what we see in nature and why it works so perfectly.

The Handbook of Nature Study is a fine book for helping us help our children to observe. Anna Botsford Comstock has included questions in her studies that will help you to observe the fine details. This has been very valuable to our home school and for me personally. I have learned to notice small details which give clues to "why" questions I have had in the past. This book also gives a nice "run-down"~ beautifully written~ to help you know more about the specimen you are studying.

Don't forget that weather, clouds, astronomy, rocks and soil are all a part of nature too. You may want to devote the winter months to studying weather or astronomy when things aren't growing. I did find a nifty book called Discover Nature In Winter by Elizabeth P. Lawlor which had us finding abandoned bird's nests, dry plants and weeds left standing in the snow, tracking and identifying animals by their prints, and watching the place of the sunset move as the days shortened.

Remember to "be still and know that I am God" and to see all that He has to show us and learn all the lessons He has for us through His creation.

You may then want to begin a drawing. Like I said before, try to really look at your specimen the way its truly designed. See all the shapes it has and do the best you can. Its ok if it's not perfect. It's a part of the learning, and you will improve as you begin drawing.

If you have young children who struggle terribly with drawing, you may like to have them use a nature coloring book. I have found the best nature coloring books from Rod and Staff. I have also bought many good ones from Dover Publications. The young child may really enjoy coloring these and then cutting and pasting them into his book. He may even try to trace the picture and fill in the details himself.

Another idea is to press flowers and leaves and plants to glue in at a later date. I do this quite often for myself but use them for card-making mostly. But you can also glue them into your nature journals. Press flowers and plants between a triple layer (or more) of newspaper. Put a couple of heavy books over top and wait for at least a week before peeking. When completely dry and flat, you may remove and carefully glue them into your journals. For this, I like Elmer's Glue and I use a Q-tip to apply the glue onto the plant or leaf. Try not to get glue outside of the plant being glued in or you'll have pages stuck together.

A helpful book to us in drawing nature is by Jim Arnosky and is called Drawing From Nature. There are many pages devoted to different types of drawing such as water, rocks, hills, woods, clouds and animals~in flight, walking, under-water and hiding. These are all pencil drawings so are easy to understand. Mostly however, we have learned to draw nature just by doing.

After drawing your pictures on sketch paper, you and your child may want to color it in with colored pencils or watercolors. Don't think that you MUST always color a picture. I one time drew a very nice looking duck and decided to use colored pencil on it and frankly, I felt I ruined it. It looked ok, but I wanted it to be as nice as it was in its pencil state. Sometimes less is more.

At times our drawings are simply a border around our special poem which we have included in our nature journals. The border might be a flower chain, vines, feathers, birds or leaves. Don't forget to include constellations in your drawings. We draw the stars in the proper positions and then connect them with faint lines.

Sometimes we take photographs of things that are just "too good to miss" when the opportunity to click a picture arrives. This past spring a pair of robins nested on our front door wreath and so we had the opportunity to take many pictures of various stages of development...from nest to eggs to chicks to chicks fledging. The photos were irreplaceable and were a nice addition to our nature journals. Remember that photography is an art too.

This can be totally your call. You may have a special poem that would go nicely with your picture of the Robin Redbreast or you may like to compose your own poem. You may just want to write out what you've observed about dung beetles. You may like to always write down the Latin name of your specimens and the common name.

In our nature journals, we always date the entries. We always label our pictures or drawings with the common names and the Latin names. We often tell of our observations or tell of an unusual thing that this specimen does that most people would not know. At times we do write poetry, hymns or scriptures that would go with the month, season, weather, bird, insect or flower. It just depends on your preference. Your nature journal may only include drawings and common names of things. Make your journal your own, and keep it simple for younger children.

Birds...Insects...Mammals...Wildflowers...Domestic Garden Flowers...Vegetable Gardens...Rocks and Minerals...Butterflies and their Caterpillars...Sea Life...Pets and Domestic Livestock

Your journal may only include things that are found on your property or in your backyard. You may wish to keep individual pages of your recordings and then at the end of the year, have them bound by your print shop or bind your own as in the description above...On Making Books. One of my books includes three years worth of recording month by month. You may want yours to only have one year from January to December or yours might be continuous from "today" to "whenever." I say..."Just do it."

A New Book for you!!! I've just reviewed a new book: My Nature Journal by Adrienne Olmstead, and I highly recommend it to you. It's a wonderful tool for those of you just getting started in nature journaling and I have to say, I'd like to work through it myself. Adrienne really knows how to get you started observing nature. Here are some highlights of the book.

1. I appreciate the notes in the front to the parents and educators and the checklists you include for your students.

2. I also appreciate the "clues" you give your students before they go "hunting" for Nature's treasures. The book gently guides the student to observe.

3. I appreciate the sciencey notes which answer basic questions.

4. There's wonderful blank space for the children to draw in, write notes in, and express themselves in their own way.

5. The spiral construction is great. It lays flat and makes it easy for a child to work in it.

6. The simple black and white drawings within are perfect for inspiring children in their own drawings. The book will become a treasure for both student and parent when it's completed.

7. I appreciate the fact that the student can move about in the book in any fashion. Depending on the seasons, the child can pick and choose which parts of the journal to tackle.

If you'd like to order the book directly, you may go to the Olmstead family's website: http://www.pajaro.com and look for the book My Nature Journal.

Timberdoodle Co. a mail order catalog where you can purchase Prismacolor pencils/watercolor pencils and other interesting home schooling things.

Dover Publications Ask for free Complete Catalog, Nature Catalog, and Children's Catalog (for excellent nature coloring books).

May your Nature Journals be treasures to you and cause you to turn the pages and smile.