A lady on the Charlotte Mason Nature Journaling group on Facebook recently posted the question “If you had just one piece of advice for nature journaling, what would it be?”
I thought this was a great question, and wanted to share with you my answer.
My piece of advice would be to just do it. Go to your local art shop and pick up a journal for each of your children, and one for yourself. If you cannot draw, that’s all the better, because then your children will see you struggling to learn something new, and it’s a good reminder for us mums to have the feeling of the difficulty of pressing on with learning a new skill. Don’t get caught up in finding the perfect journal, just buy something with medium weight paper, medium texture (not too rough, not too smooth.) Get everyone a pencil. (You can also pick up coloured pencils or watercolours, but if you are feeling overwhelmed, just get everyone a pencil. Also buy a local field guide specific to your area. Mark off a time on your calendar once a week for nature study. Decide where you are going. Go to the same place every week. Your own garden (if you have one) counts. So does a walk around your neighbourhood. When the time for nature study comes, get everyone dressed in weather appropriate clothing and go for a walk. As long or a short as you like. Twenty minutes is fine. You do not have to set off for an all day Pinterest-worthy adventure! While you are out, ask the children to look for something. ‘Signs that autumn is here’, or ‘signs winter in on the way’, are some ideas, but go with whatever you like. Ask them to find a small nature treasure to take home. (No fallen tree branches necessary!) Once home, sit everyone at the table with their journals (you too, mum!) and have everyone draw what they brought home. Gently remind them to ‘draw what they see, not what they think they see.’ Give them hot chocolate and cake while they draw. As they ask questions, look up the answers in your field guide. Discuss. Done!
I am not totally sure that counts as one piece of advice, but I hope it is helpful!
Wonderful advice Lynn!
Ah, thank you Heather!
It’s absolutely the best advice! And it’s prompted me to restart regular sessions for our nature journals which have been hit and miss lately. Thanks for the reminder x
Smashing. Thanks Daisy!
Me too. I think I felt overwhelmed last year as I wanted to follow the nature study guide well. Many weeks would go by where we did nothing. Now we’ll try again that even if on busy weeks we can just go out and observe anything we like! 🙂 This has really re-motivated me. I really do love your study guide by the way but it used to take up half a day at least.
I think this is common for many of us, Claire. We want to do something so well, we freeze & sometimes do nothing!
I am glad this post helped 🙂
Yes! I think this is the main problem in a lot of things in life and in homeschooling. 😀 Just do it! Excellent advice.
Thanks Tonya!
(Found you from over at Instagram) Wonderful advice, thank you! I’ve been struggling lately on how to get my daughter motivated to do nature journaling. We love nature, we talk about things we see, but can’t get her to do the journaling. Perhaps I need to try making it more casual and involve food! Chocolate is always received well here.
Thank you for your lovely comment Rachel.
Yes, I find food can be helpful! Definitely keep it low key, and be sure to keep your own journal also.
Great advice because Mommas as well as children can become so frustrated when we compare our nature journals to the Pinterest and the ones we see found online! Thank you and love your work.
Thank you Nicole 🙂