This earth was created by God and all things denote there is a God. This is God's first classic and through its workings we can see God's hand and learn eternal laws. The door to our Father's study can always opened by us. It is easy to introduce and integrate science, art, and literature into your homeschool curriculum through nature journaling.
Establish the habit of a daily walk with your children. They need a lot of time outside to develop their bodies and their brains. Let them be outside in every season. Let them jump, swing, slide, balance, run, slide, crawl, brachiate, and spin.
While outside let them get down on their knees and observe. The British educator Charlotte Mason had children get plenty of play and exercise, but she also took advantage of children's natural inquisitiveness and curiosity. She called observing, "sightseeing." After sightseeing, the children would be asked to give a detailed oral narration of what they observed, this was called "picture painting."This was not only an introduction to Science, but was essential to oral composition and a great preparation for written narration and later written composition.
Miss Mason took children outside where they were also taught to sing, do roundels (singing action games), bird-nesting (identifying which birds built which habitats or nests and laid which eggs), and bird-stalking (watching birds in the habitats and observing the habits). In addition, being out in the natural surroundings made it easy to teach about geography, foreign languages, scouting, compass use, distance measuring, telling time by the sky, weather forecasting, etc. Her books are filled with detailed simple outdoor activities. Miss Mason used outdoor natural resources well.
Miss Mason did not like the idea of children killing bugs to collect them. She did not like to kill wildlife or destroy habitats. Charlotte lived during the time when safari hunts and trophy rooms were status symbols. She respected life and taught her students to respect life also. Miss Mason did not want children to develop a taste for the hunt, even with bugs and small animals. Charlotte taught her students nature journaling. Nature Notebooks or Nature Journals combine three traditional kinds of record keeping. The nature notebook is an outdoor science lab logbook, an artist's sketchbook, and a writer's journal all in one. The best example I have seen in print of a nature notebook is A Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. (I have wondered if Miss Holden was educated by one of Miss Mason's students.)
Keep a nature journal yourself and introduce your children to the idea by your example. Miss Mason started children at age six and they did watercolor drawings with their notes in ink. Create a title page at the beginning of your notebook with your name and the date you begin. A Nature notebook probably won't be perfect at first, don't stress over it. journaling is a journey. The more you look, the more you see, and your drawing will improve over time. Drawing is a skill. If you can learn to print, you can learn to draw! The more a person practices and observes, the more accurate their drawings and book will become. When you look for things to add to your notebook, remember some things must be sketched where they are, while other items can be collected and brought home for a later sketching time. Drawing requires us to be more observant, more so than photography, hunting, or collecting.
Label drawings with the common name of the plant or animal. You can check a field guide later and add the Latin or scientific name below the common name. Add prose, quotes, or an original poem to the white around drawings. Observe animal habits. Include the date, time, and place of their observation with each entry. This observation gives a season to season perspective.
Create an index at the back of the Nature journal—one list for animals, one for trees, and one for flowers. Include the common name, Latin name, and the page in the notebook where found. Check this index before sketching and avoid unnecessary duplication. Sometimes in checking the previous drawing, you may find that the current specimen adds new information or a different perspective, so you may then choose to proceed with the drawing. For example, a live leaf compared to a dead autumn leaf or a bud and a blossom. These drawings can help us see life cycles. Children will be able to identify male birds and female birds (they really are different). As they study through the seasons they will recognize trees in winter, without their leaves. As they look up Latin names they will see the relationships of plants and animals.
Couple nature studies with great literature. They will see many writers have seen and enjoyed the same beautiful things they are observing. They may choose to add Shakespeare's short prose on daffodils into their nature notebook alongside their sketch of a daffodil, or perhaps a poem of their own creation.
Try themed Nature Journals, such as "My summer in the Rockies," or "A Nature Study of my Yard," or even a "Leaf Notebook." You could teach your children to do rubbings or how to press flowers and tree leaves, adding them right into the notebook. Label them just like you would a drawing.
Enjoy the beautiful world around you and begin nature jounaling today!
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