Sometimes…
Tag: charlotte mason
Supplies For Nature Journaling
This post is part of a series, on getting started with nature study:
Setting Up Your Nature Journal
Since releasing my new book Exploring Nature With Children: A complete, year-long curriculum, I have had several questions about the best supplies to use. We have used different journals and art materials over the years, but here is what is working for us now.
Journals
This is a very personal choice. You need to find a journal in a size you find comfortable, and you may also want to consider whether you wish to use a bound book, or a spiral bound book. Spiral bound books lie completely flat when opened and they cope better with items being glued into the books, such as feathers and photographs. You may find a bound book will struggle if you add in a lot of items that add to the thickness of the book.
The weight and texture of paper is important; choose paper that suits the media you use. Generally speaking, if you use a lot of coloured pencil, a smooth texture is best, whereas if you tend toward water colour, a ‘toothy’, rougher texture will cope better with all that lovely, juicy paint.
We are currently using the Leuchtturm 1917 sketchbooks 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 journals a lot, and we enjoy using them.
In the past we have used much cheaper journals with great success, so if possible, choose your journal in person; you will have the opportunity to touch the paper and feel the weight of the book in your hands.
I really recommend popping your nature journal in a strong ziplock bag. Accidents happen!
Water Colour Paints
We tend to prefer watercolour in our journals. The girls use Winsor & Newton paints, I use a selection of Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith paints. Winsome & Newton offer a smashing little travel set.
Above, you can see my paint tin along with a little swatch card that I made to help me remember my colours, as they look so very different in the palette.
Brushes
When nature journaling, I really recommend water brushes. Such a clever invention, you simply unscrew the brush part, fill up the barrel with clean water, screw the brush back on nice and tightly, and you are all set! You squeeze the barrel lightly and this releases a little water into the bristles. No need to take jars of water out with you for nature study! When you wish to clean the brush, simply squeeze to release a little water, and wipe the bristles on a clean tissue. Genius!
Coloured Pencils
Stay away from hard, brittle pencils and choose ones with soft, creamy leads instead. This way you will get glorious colour and coverage. Experiment by layering your colours to get the rich hues that are found in nature.
I use Prismacolor pencils, they are beautiful, but, must be used with caution as they are so soft and creamy, they are extremely fragile. They are also very expensive. Mine were bought for me several years ago as a gift and they are still going stong. For my girls, I bought the Staedtler Ergosoft pencils. Still a lovely colour ‘pay-off’ but much stronger lead, and so much cheaper too.
These can be picked up very cheaply; they negate the need for a pencil sharpener and usually have an eraser on the end too.
A Good Non-Smudge Sketching Pen
I love my carbon pen and use it all the time for quick, watercolour sketches, but I wouldn’t recommend this for a child.
A smashing tool for nature study; small and light-weight, a loope will allow you get really close up to your specimen and to engage with it on a whole new level.
We have used well-rinsed yoghurt pots in the past, but a special bug box with a magnifying glass in the lid is extra-special 🙂
Paper bags
For collecting other specimens, such as a feather, a fungus, or a few leaves.
I am in England, and I use this one a lot.
Handsanitiser
Sunscreen
A Penknife
Handy for cutting off small sample branches and such
A Torch
I know…sounds OTT? Let me tell you about the afternoon we went for a winter woodland walk, became completely absorbed, and suddenly realised it was dark! That torch was very useful!
A Water-bottle And Snacks
To keep up the energy of your wee naturalists!
A Mini First Aid-Kit
A few plasters, antiseptic spray, and something to treat bites and stings.
Something To Carry It All In
I carry my own stuff in a backpack. For the girls, I have found those insulated lunch bags really useful. Something like this.
These are the basic items we take out on most nature walks. Please share with me in the comments below what you consider to be your nature study essentials.
Week 37 ~ Our Last Week!
We made it! We made it to the end of our school year!
Our last few weeks have fizzled slightly..we have had a lot going on here; I am currently working on a project, and we had the girls changing bedrooms, which was a lot of work.
This week has been minimal; reading, Latin, maths, and a little science for my big girl.
Rose was intrigued by her eyes this week and took many, many photos so she could look closely at the colours.
She also set up scenes for her guinea pigs, and took lots of photos to tell a story. This one features Nibbler as a bank teller:
And here is Prince Albert. His story was all about his day, beginning with shots of him in ‘bed’.
Rose got another new fish: Bob. This of course involved another trip to the pet shop, which is Rosie’s favourite trip out 😉
We had friends over one afternoon and watched the Big First Aid Lesson by St. John Ambulance. This was a smashing little course to raise awareness of very basic first aid.
Listening to the Faraway Tree and playing with her toy animals
We took a trip to The Lady Lever Art Gallery. I was so very excited to see The Scapegoat by Holman Hunt, The Blessed Damozel by Rossetti, The Beguiling Of Merlin by Burne-Jones, and Snowdrift by Onslow Ford. Elianna particularly liked the sculptures & was fascinated by the way the body could be sculpted in marble. Rose loved whizzing ’round and seeing everything! They had the hand-held ‘telephones’ which presented a short talk about varying art works, so this was right up Rosie’s street.
Here are our sketches from the museum:
Elianna’s sketch of the sculpture ‘Venus’ by Lorenzo Bartolini
Rosie’s sketch that she did not write down the name of the painting.
My Sketch of The Scapegoat by Holman Hunt
For our last day of lessons, we met with friends and went to have ice-cream, and then on to the park.
Here are the girls doing their best superhero poses 🙂
Books we are reading this week;
Rose:
I struggle to keep track of Rosie’s reading; she tends to read a lot of nonfiction, dipping in and out of what appeals at any one time.
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners. She completely adores these books & we are usually getting a couple of new ones each week.
Plus many others..
Elianna:
Percy Jackson & The Lightening Thief
Horrible Histories Woeful World War Two
The View From The Oak – This is a smashing book, recommended by a wonderful friend. A great living science book.
We are now officially on our summer break 🙂
Happy Summer!
Week 36 ~ Busy, Busy, Busy…
We have had such a busy week here. My big girl moved bedrooms, which involved a lot of building and moving of furniture, organising, moving, and re-homing books. I am utterly exhausted!
Lessons have been minimal this week; lots of reading and daily Latin, plus the girls following their own interests. For Rose this has meant heaps and heaps of nature study, for Elianna, she has been drawing on her new tablet.
I am astounded at how quickly she has learned to used this thing! And very proud of the art she has created.
Rose has been rescuing bees again
This week was a sad one for Rose as her Siamese Fighting Fish passed away.
Here you can see Groot in all his former glory, swimming alongside tank mate Esme
She already had two Balloon Mollies in her aquarium, so she went to the pet shop and chose two new ones to ‘keep the others company’.
Here you can see Simon (the black fish) who is an old time resident, along with new tank mate, Helius.
And here is Sol
The fish all appear to be happy campers & Rose is over the moon with them.
Little Passports arrived this week. This month’s country was Britain! Here is Rose looking suitably proud after building Big Ben 🙂
Rose has had a mystery this week. Her dad put out some past-their-best apples into the undergrowth in the garden one evening this week. Rose woke up the next morning to find two apples strewn on the lawn; one with a sizeable chink (or chunks?) missing. Out came the pH testing paper & guidebook, and she has begun to come up with her theories. So far she is think it may be either a fox, or a squirrel…
Science club this week was more on photosynthesis. Unfortunately I forgot to take our weekly photo until one of the girls had left…so the two remaining girls used a pineapple as a stand in!
Books we are reading this week;
Rose:
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners. She completely adores these books & we are usually getting a couple of new ones each week.
Plus many others..
Elianna:
Percy Jackson & The Lightening Thief
Horrible Histories Woeful World War Two
The View From The Oak – This is a smashing book, recommended by a wonderful friend. A great living science book.
Next week will be our last week before we break for summer…
Happy Weekend!
Week 28 ~ Creativity Abounds!
We are back on track this week; last week we had our Easter break, and the week before that I did not post as everyone was poorly at various parts of the week!
This week has been lovely – we have had some days of sunshine which reminds us that spring is really here!
Primary Language Lessons had Rose write a letter this week, which she really enjoyed, so much so that she wrote two more letters to family of her own choosing. 
We all played Math Wars several times this week, after not having played it for a while. (One of our guinea pigs is peeking from his wee sleeping bag on the table, but unfortunately the photograph is too dark to show him)
The girls did a fun activity together – The Leak-proof Bag Trick which was all about polymers, a smashing activity that was fun & required no prep (other than sharpening a few pencils!)
Rose rescued a tired Bumble Bee this week. She found it on the lawn, tired out & unable to fly, or even walk. She gave it some honey & watched closely as it used its proboscis to feed. It was soon waving its wee legs around & was flying away in no time at all.
There has been much creating at our house this week – both girls made signs to put on their bedroom door (they share a room)
Elianna made a card for a dragon loving friend
And Rose is working on a secret painting for me for my birthday (here she is drying it part way through, with my heat gun) Clothes are not essentials for artists 😉
I have been doing quite a bit of painting myself this week. Here are some water colours I have been working on
Friday is Science Club day. We are working slowly though this KS 3 text which I am pleased with. I loved Building Foundations Of Scientific Understanding so much, and honestly think it is the better book. But, it required too much prep for me & therefore was not getting done, so ultimately the Letts text is turning out to be the better option.
This week was more about atomic structure & we watched some great videos: Models Of The Atom Timeline & This Atomic Structure Activity. Science club is a real hit, I am pleased with how the girls work together & I think they are enjoying working together. Rosie’s friend came over again, so they took our dog to the park & played ‘wars’ while the big girls got on with science 🙂
Little Passports turned up for Rose, which is always exciting. She decided to organise all the postcards she has received into a scrapbook and played all the online games for this month, which is South Africa.
We did some Nature Study earlier this week. Rose found a caterpillar to study & Elianna drew a fading blossom from our Magnolia tree. Elianna has been reading about Constantinople for history & outlining in her history book.
Plus all the regulars; English, maths & Latin.
Books we are reading this week;
Rose:
Poems To Read To The Very Young
Annotated Classic Fairy Tales Fairy Tales are going down a storm with Rose right now – she is lapping them up, making great connections, asking thoughtful questions, & even coming up with scientific ideas, such as the porridge in The Three Bears cools incorrectly (the Middle Bear’s being the coolest)
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners
A Child’s History Of The World
Elianna:
The Annotated Anne Of Green Gables
Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl
I am finding these ‘teacher guides’ helpful:
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher Guide
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher’s PDF
I have completed my plans for the 2015-2016 school year, which I am very excited about. I really must post them soon!
Happy Weekend!
Week 26 ~ Coal Mining
The weather has been rather mixed this week, but we have had a couple of lovely nature walks, including one with daddy. As per usual, Rose was off into the water splashing about. Spring has sprung!
Rose collected lots of lovely, fresh Ramsons, which became part of a lovely dinner that evening.
Elianna & I travelled on the train to Manchester to meet another home ed family on Monday, so Rose had fun with Granny & Grandad. Tuesday was another day away from home as we visited a local Colliery Museum.
Rose still has her interest in coal mining, so I was delighted to discover that we actually have a local mining museum!
What an eye opener, and it really ins’t so far removed from me in both locality & in time. How very different our lives could have been, had we been born a century or two earlier. Most humbling…
We had a smashing day with our local Home Ed group, it was a fascinating trip & we ll learned so much. How times have (thankfully) changed.
Here is Rose ‘clocking on’ for her shift 😉
Here is Rose, listening to Fairy Tales. It looks like she is giving the thumbs up sign, but look closely, & you will see her scratching Michael the cat’s chin.
Elianna met with two friends this week for ‘Science Club’ This week we reviewed the particulate nature of matter, atoms, molecules, elements, and compounds. We had some great discussions. The girls are all very enthusiastic & a joy to teach!
Rose got on with some nature study in the garden whilst the big girls worked on their lesson…
Elianna wrote an ‘Eclipse Myth’ based around British culture. It was a comedic take on the British love of tea & had the moon & sun meeting for afternoon tea…
Plus all the regulars; English, maths & Latin.
I have very little to report in the way of reading this week;
Rose:
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners
Elianna:
Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl
I am currently working on my plans for the 2015-2016 school year, which I love to do…I am pretty much there…just undecided on my Literature plans for Elianna…I shall keep you posted
Happy Weekend!
Week 24 ~ A science-y Sort of Week
Rose completed her egg experiment by leaving it to soak in coloured water & then after a few days, bursting it. We talked about osmosis & she was utterly fascinated. And it was messy – always a bonus!
Maths is coming along…Rosie is working steadily through Graded Work In Arithmetic, a vintage text which is very solid. This is done orally, or on our whiteboard. It is working right now…
Greek Myths have taken a back seat this week & lots of Grimm’s Fairy Tales have been read. LOTS. She loves the gore…
Plus lots of non-fiction reading from her favourite series:Usborne Beginners
Ellie is really enjoying her reading…The Children Of Odin (Norse Mythology – her favourite) & she is still reading & enjoying Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl.
We made more ice-cream this week, in honour of our read aloud, Anne Of Green Gables. Essentially, you just make a custard & freeze it. It was utterly delicious!
Rose went through the box in which I keep special items for our nature table. She re-discovered the wooden eggs we have & promptly decided to build a bird’s nest. She wrapped up one of the eggs in cling-film, popped it in the nest & has put the nest in a tree in our garden to see if a bird will use it. I love that child…
Rose cut up the last of the seeds from her bean experiment & added a wee booklet to her notebook (Parts of a seed shape book)
There have been lots of froggy goings on in the garden, with Rose keeping a close eye on them
She has observed them, sketched them, & generally just enjoyed being with them, dancing around with glee each time a new globe of frogspawn appears.
Elianna has been drawing a lot…still inspired greatly by mythology…
This week I tentatively invited two friends of Elianna to join us for science once a week. This week one of them was poorly, so I was eased into it with just one extra student! We began with states of matter. The girls worked hard & it all went well. Everyone is really looking forward to these lessons as this week I ordered a bunsen burner! Yay!
More molecule modelling from Elianna….
All the regulars, English, maths & Latin & another week is over.
Some of the books we have been reading this week;
Rose:
Favourite Poems Old & New – this is my most favourite poetry book, of all that we own!
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners
Elianna:
The Annotated Anne Of Green Gables
Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl
I am finding these ‘teacher guides’ helpful:
A Guide For Using D’allaire’s Greek Myths In The Classroom
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher Guide
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher’s PDF
We are meeting with our home ed groups this afternoon…
Happy Weekend!
Week 23 ~ 100 Days Of School
Wednesday was our ‘100th Day Of School’. We always make it a special day; special breakfast, lessons worked around the 100 theme, a little educational gift…but this year I had forgotten all about it until the day before! So, I played it cool & surprised the girls with a trip to a local farm. (Don’t tell them I forgot!)
As a bonus, Elianna got time to photograph the Banana Snake they have there. She was so excited, as this will be useful for her ‘Mythical Creatures’ art project.
In other news, Rose is making the Herman The German Friendship Cake, which is the activity for week three of Lent in the 40 Acts family guide.
Essentially a sourdough cake, she made the ‘starter’ on Monday & each day we have to tend wee Herman..
Elianna has made more molecule models
Rosie with the white board cloth on her head for maths (it helps!)
Making hydrogen gas with a 9V battery. We used this video.
The terminal releasing impure oxygen.
Rose is here with the results of her ‘egg in vinegar’ experiment. We discussed what had happened (the egg shell – calcium carbonate & vinegar – acetic acid, reacted which produced carbon dioxide gas – lots of bubbles – & dissolved the shell!
She has now added the ‘naked egg’ to a bowl of coloured water…we shall keep you posted!
Rose dug out our continents jigsaw, which she hasn’t played with for a while…
Rose & I have read quite a bit of poetry this week. I ordered a lovely book which arrived this week, so we read Hiawatha’s Childhood again, this time with this lovely picture book.
I read some more of The Annotated Anne Of Green Gables to Elianna. She wrote a description of her own playhouse, as was suggested in this great Anne Of Green Gables Teacher’s PDF, and we made ice-cream!
She has also been busy drawing & painting this week:
Plus all the usuals – narrations, maths, & English for both girls, Latin for Elianna, Latin & Greek roots for Rose.
And finally…our first frog of the year showed his face in our garden pond!
Some of the books we have been reading this week;
Rose:
Favourite Poems Old & New – this is my most favourite poetry book, of all that we own!
D’Aulaire’s book of Greek Myths
A Little Garden Calendar For Boys & Girls
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners
Elianna:
The Annotated Anne Of Green Gables
Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl
I am finding these ‘teacher guides’ helpful:
A Guide For Using D’allaire’s Greek Myths In The Classroom
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher Guide
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher’s PDF
We are meeting with our home ed groups this afternoon…
Happy Weekend!
Week 22 ~ A Week With The Annes
On Monday Elianna & I went to a local-ish home ed meet for older children. Rose stayed with her Granny & Grandad, whilst us ‘big girls’ went off for the day.
More model molecule making for Elianna this week, plus she is making her own Periodic Table.
Rose has been busy as always. Her bean experiment is rocking, & all the plants she is growing are shooting up! She definitely has green fingers!
We have been reading The Childhood of Hiawatha from The Song Of Hiawatha & Rose has begun a watercolour of the forest & Hiawatha’s home…hopefully more on that next week. Still going strong with our Greek Myths, we have also been reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales this week.
Elianna is really enjoying Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl. She would happily spend all day reading it if she could! I have begun reading Anne Of Green Gables aloud to her, as I had really wanted to reread this myself, & it wasn’t happening, so I am reading it to her. Love!
Elianna has begun a new art project – a sketchbook into which she is gathering ideas for work on ‘Mythical Creatures’ I am hopeful that this will produce lots of lovely creativity, effort & development.
Plus all the usuals – Maths & English for both girls, Latin for Elianna, Latin & Greek roots for Rose.
Some of the books we have been reading this week:
D’Aulaire’s book of Greek Myths
A Little Garden Calendar For Boys & Girls
The Annotated Anne Of Green Gables
Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl
Gazzilions of the Usborne Beginners read by Rose…
I am finding these ‘teacher guides’ helpful:
A Guide For Using D’allaire’s Greek Myths In The Classroom
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher Guide
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher’s PDF
Happy Weekend!
Week 20 ~ Thinking About The Garden
Rose & I have really been enjoying reading A Little Garden Calendar For Boys & Girls. What a smashing book! It goes through the months of the year, following the gardening adventures of a little boy & girl.
We went to our local garden centre & Rose chose runner beans, radishes, Sunflowers, corn & salad leaves (very much like the children did.) She has planted them up to grow in the window, again, just like Davy & Prue in the story.
She has also been excited about a ‘spinner’ toy she received this week. It loos like a small gun, & shoots a plastic wheel high into the air. She spent ages outside working out how the angle it is shot affects the distance it will travel….
Elianna has been busy reading The Care & Keeping Of You. This is a smashing book for younger girls learning about their changing bodies. She has read it several times & is currently focusing on the chapter about a healthy diet. She has begun to incorporate a couple of healthy snacks every day because of her reading & has been researching recipes using the various fruits & vegetables discussed. Which can only be a good thing 🙂
Rose & I have finished Charlotte’s Web. She had to read all of the last couple of pages, a again, I was in tears! Our next read aloud is D’Aulaire’s book of Greek Myths.
Science has been messy & fun with this activity. It is right up my girls street, lots of mixing & fizzing!
Elianna joined in, as it worked out nicely as a discussion point for an acid being a chemical that wants to get rid of a proton, & a base being a chemical that wants a proton, which is what she is currently learning about in her science studies.
Rosie’s bean growth experiment is coming along nicely.
She is keeping a record of what is happening & is full of joy each time she sees a change.
The girls have been working hard as always on their basics; English, Latin, & Maths. Elianna is still working on the Future Learn Archaeology Of Portus course. Lots & lots of reading this week.
Elianna made herself a necklace.
She was inspired by Steam Punk & is really pleased with it. Another of her ‘middle of the night’ creations!
Finally, we rounded off the week by making Chocolate Mousse for Valentine’s day. The girls licked the bowl & declared it a success!
Some of the books we have been reading this week:
D’Aulaire’s book of Greek Myths
A Little Garden Calendar For Boys & Girls
Sinbad The Sailor & Other Stories
The Annotated Anne Of Green Gables
I am finding these ‘teacher guides’ helpful:
A Guide For Using Charlotte’s Web In The Classroom
A Guide For Using D’allaire’s Greek Myths In The Classroom
Anne Of Green Gables Teacher Guide
Happy Weekend!
