Whether it’s a rainy day or a bright, sunny day, you can help your children make a nature journal. It’s easy and requires just a few inexpensive materials and some of your time. The benefits are many.
You will be helping your children make a life long connection with nature starting at an early age. Even preschoolers can start to identify a squirrel, a robin or a maple leaf. They will get better at more specific identifications as they get older, but you will be teaching them early the value of size, color, shape and markings in identifying objects…in this case living objects.
Children can start to visually and verbally identify nature’s beautiful species…by drawing them, by naming them and by keeping a record of what they see and hear. Coloring their sketches can take them a step further in their identification skills.
What you will need to get started…
You will need something for your children to draw on. You can pick out an official nature sketch book or simply put together some blank sheets of paper that you can organize in a three ring note book or folder for your children as they add to their journals. As children reach school age, it’s a great aid to help with their spelling of “squirrel, robin,” etc.
If it’s a rainy day, bring in a leaf they can trace or from which they can do a rubbing. Ask them to color it. If you have school age children, ask them what the tree looks like. Or, ask them to draw and color a bird or squirrel in the tree.
When it’s a nice day, have them take their notebook or paper (on a clipboard) and pencil outside and sketch a plant or bird they see. They may want to color it then or later when they are inside. Ask them to tell you how tall the plant was or what sound the bird made.
Sketch by Anna Buchberger (age 8)
What skills you are teaching your children…
You are teaching your children the ability to watch and listen and remember detail. These skills can be used in the future for other learning tasks. Keep their notebooks. Not only will they enjoy them, but they will be able to see their skills develop in the sketches they make and the notes they write. They may even write a story or a poem about something they have seen in nature. Their creative skills can be nurtured through their journals.
To add to the nature journals, you may want hollow plastic insert pages for leaves or flowers, or you may want small plastic boxes for pine cones or shells they have collected and drawn. (Caution: make sure they don’t pick other people’s flowers or you may both be in trouble!) Traveling provides other great opportunities for adding to the journals as well as keeping them busy.
Connecting your children with nature by having them keep journals is a wonderful and easy thing to do. It not only helps them appreciate the nature of things around them, but it develops great skills in concentration, identification, art and writing.
Deanna Frautschi
Naturalist
Photo of a robin by Deanna Frautschi
If you have any questions about making a nature journal with your child, you may contact Deanna at Decardinal@aol.com. Catch a glimpse of Deanna's wildlife photography on Facebook too!
