Nature Notebooking and Journals

“As soon as he is able to keep it himself,
a nature diary is a source of delight to a child.
Every day's walk gives him something to enter...” --Charlotte Mason

From age 3 my children have kept a very brief note and a sketch of insects or any other interesting specimen that caught their eye in the garden.  Many times they have come rushing in to tell us about some amazing creature that they had discovered, and we duly put down pens and went to ID it. That still happens...

There are two main methods - the diary sketchbook, where you take a good quality book, paints [use water from the source you are painting; river, waterfall or ocean] and pencils or pastels along on a trip and do on-site.

The more detailed, A4 notebooking pages are done at home and kept in a folder. There are many sites to print off free ready-prepared topics. Our favourite is Notebooking Fairy

and Pinterest has many links too.

Recording their rock collection for an Earth Science project

On a nature ramble

What else are trees for, than for reading tree books

There are many websites and books on the subject, here are a few to get you going... And the good news is that you don't need to live in the country, we live in the city - wildlife has a habit of springing up everywhere.

Wild Days

Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady

Nature Notebooking

Enjoy it!
50 Things.  - not strictly journal keeping but has a free booklet to keep about nature
Penny Gardner - CM methods
Getting Started