My Calendar of Firsts for this week:
My ‘colours’ for this week, (along the top left hand page) were the greys of this week’s sky, which I blended into the duckling sketch.
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
Margaret Atwood
My Calendar of Firsts for this week:
My ‘colours’ for the week, along the top left hand page, where simply the blues, greys, and golds of this week’s sky.
This week is Spring Tree Week in Exploring Nature With Children, but we have jumped ahead a week to the plant life-cycle week.
We went to our special nature spot and fed the pigeons and fowl.
We were overjoyed to see ducklings out for a swim with mummy duck!
Rose found an empty egg, most likely a Mallard egg. Unfortunately it looked like it met a sad end.
Rose found flowering plants hiding behind the Rhododendron bushes. We also saw lots of Daisies and Dandelions!
Rose was delighted to find so much Lichen growing on this tree. She declared the air to be ‘good and clean’, as lichen thrives in clean air.
We came home and discussed the lifecycle of a plant, then sketched a tiny Daisy we had found on our walk.
A couple of days later we discussed the plant life-cycle and then we copied pictures From Seed To Plant by Gail Gibbons into our nature journals, to illustrate what we had remembered.
How is your nature study coming along this week?
Happy exploring!
Every child has a natural interest in the living things about him which it is the business of his parents to encourage.
Charlotte Mason
I recently shared with you my updated nature journaling supplies.
Already I have fussed around and changed them! It was more the method of organisation than the supplies themselves, but seeing as I love to look at how others organise their supplies, I thought it would be fun to share mine.
First off here is my new daypack; the other was very old and tatty. This is a child’s pack, so not too big, which is great as it is always tempting to pack more stuff.
Water for painting with
A tiny atomiser filled with clean water for spraying over my paints to get them nice & juicy before I begin to paint.
A genius, foldable pouch for pouring your water into (I stand the bottle in the pouch, to avoid the water blowing away on windy days!)
First Aid kit
It contains:
Antiseptic spray
Sun cream
Bite / sting lotion
Antibacterial gel
Bug repellant (I made this myself, it is just a blend of essential oils in a coconut oil base)
Plasters
Small sandwich box (to collect small nature treasures)
Hand wipes
A large pencil case stores the following:
Watercolours
Tissues for blotting
Paperclips to hold open my journal
Tin of supplies:
Prismacolor pencils in white & black grape (useful for sketching and asking highlights / shadows)
2B pencil
Platinum carbon ink pen My favourite pen! Oh, how I love this one! Reliable, waterproof, deep black ink. Never lets me down.
Derwent watercolour pencil in blue grey I have added a nice new one to my kit. Smashing for sketching, then painting over with watercolour. Gives a lovely effect
White gel pen Perfect for adding small highlights to finished watercolours.
Cross mechanical pencil (not quite the same as mine, but similar) Fantastic, as it never needs sharpening!
Versatil round pointed brush Great for tree branches & fine details. A smashing, well-priced, synthetic brush.
Da Vinci 1503 size 8 watercolour brush A beautiful brush, with an exquisite point. Pretty much the only brush I use in my journal.
An old brush. Used for splatters & scrubbing out colour. It is also sharpened at the other end, so I can use it to scrape out colour when dried, or scrape in twigs etc.
Ruler. Useful for measuring specimens out in the field.
Birthday candle. Perfect for keeping white highlights in your watercolour, due to its resist properties.
Penknife For cutting wee plant specimens.
Kneadable Eraser. These are smashing! You can shape them to the smallest point to erase tiny details, or add highlights to a pencil sketch. Knead after use to avoid build up of colour from the pencil.
Cut up credit / key card. Again, useful for scraping in twigs and so forth.
Tiny chunk of sea sponge Useful for creating texture in foliage, rocks etc.
Water colour palette. Mine is a Schmincke, to which I have added Winsor Newton & Daniel Smith paints. My current colours:
NB. I have removed the Napthamide Maroon & replaced it with my much needed Raw Sienna.
Field Guide This is a smashing guide that we have used on and off for years.
A journal – this one is My newest journal, a Stillman & Birn Alpha Sketchbook which I am using to practice new techniques and such. A smashing journal, the paper is wonderful; it takes a wet wash beautifully & has a nice tooth, but still works well when writing in ink.
I also use:
My regular nature journal. I am currently using the Leuchtturm 1917 sketchbook in medium (A5). The paper is a decent weight, and very smooth, however the paper is really too thin for watercolour, so I have found that once I have completed my painting & it is dry, I miss a page, & glue them together, so I get a double weight of paper.But I like the journal a lot, and am enjoying using it.
UPDATE: I actually really love this journal, and having finished this one, I have moved on to another, but this time I am not glueing the pages together. It isn’t perfect; if I use a particularly juicy wash, it bleeds through the page, but I love the crisp white of the paper & it holds up to most of my pen & ink and watercolour washes.
My Calendar of Firsts. A Moleskine diary, the paper is, as always with the Moleskines (except the specialist water colour book) not great for watercolour, but I am used to how the paper takes the wetness of the media & this book is doing exactly what I need it to do; record what is happening in nature in simple sketches. The fact that it is such a ‘casual’ book makes it easier for me to sketch in hasty sketches; I don’t feel bad about messing up!
I hope that is of some interest! Please do share your own supplies & packing tips in the comments!
Happy exploring
Lynn
My Calendar of Firsts for this week:
My ‘colours’ for the week, along the top left hand page, where simply the blues and greys of this week’s sky.
Happy Easter!
“Self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature.”
Charlotte Mason
My Calendar of Firsts this week:
My ‘colours’ for the week, along the top left hand page, are the pretty blues of the bright sky, with hints of gentle pink that were all around me in the natural world this week.
Many moons ago we used to be pen-friends with a home educating family in the US. On a few occasions we exchanged items for our nature tables.
I was remembering these parcels fondly and thought it would be a smashing idea to arrange a ‘Nature Pen Friends Swap’. I will announce the sign up procedure on the blog; sign up week will be 17th to 23rd April. The following week, I will send you your pen-friend’s details, and you and your child can get busy, hunting for nature treasures from your special nature spot.
Once you have collected your nature finds (minimum of six items), put together your box of nature treasures to post to your nature pen-friend. What an exciting opportunity to learn about nature from another part of the country, or even the world! (During sign ups you will be able to indicate if you are able to post internationally.)
You will need to find out what you are able to post to your Nature Pen Friend. Most countries will have very strict guidelines about what can go in and out of the postal system.
Restricted Goods International
Prohibited Goods International
The last day for posting will be the 21st May.
Once your parcel arrives, you would contact the family that sent to you, to let them know your goodies have arrived!
If you have a blog, or are active on social media, please do share in the Exploring Nature With Children FaceBook page.
If you think you may be interested, please leave me a comment below; it would be good to have an idea of how many people are interested. Also, may I suggest subscribing to the blog, so you do not miss the sign up!
I will give full details of the sign up process when I open sign ups on the 17th April.
