Virtually everyone thinks nature study is a good and healthful thing to do. Most people think nature journalling is a good thing to do as well, but many find it hard to get enthusiastic enough about it to actually go out and *do* it.
One problem people have is knowing where to start. They want some kind of method to follow to feel like they are doing it properly. Looking out the window, I expect all of us would agree that there is some kind of "method to the madness" but it may not be humanly possible to sort it all out so we'd better not allow that to stop us! I must admit though, I felt a need for guidance when I was dithering about beginning nature journalling with my daughter. For several reasons, personality and language disorder among them, "draw something" was not something she'd respond to. I wasn't even sure "draw this" would work, so I purchased some journal pages to get us started. Being in Australia, I purchased mine from Downunder Lit but I have it from a reliable source that North Americans get excited over The Handbook of Nature Study. Apologies to the rest of you, you'll have to look on Pintrest!
The other problem people have with beginning nature journalling with small kids is, well, it looks like it was made by a small kid! There is something about nature journalling that can make a person feel like everyone else's kids were born proficient water colourists while your kids' drawing looks like a dog's breakfast. What I hope to do in this series is show the evolution of my daughter's nature journal, right from her first entry. Obviously *my child's* nature journal could never look like a dog's breakfast, not even to the unenlightened out there, but I must confess, it does look like the work of a small child. I would like to invite you to keep us company as we journal on...
But first, let me get my pet hate out of the way. I know it'll come out sooner or later, so better to get it over with.
*There is no such thing as "fake nature" unless it really is made of plastic, ok? Weeds growing through cracks in the footpath are not very interesting in the scheme of things, but they are are as real as anyone else's farm, mountain or coral reef. If you live in a concrete jungle and all the nature you have to look at is weeds and the neighbours' hanging baskets, look at them. Seasons affect them. Bugs munch them. They are real! If you don't even have that, look at the clouds. Everyone has weather and weather is real enough that people spend careers studying it.
*I quite agree that grass isn't all that thrilling, but learning how to find the grass in your front yard interesting is a valuable lesson. A more valuable lesson than seeing a bear or a swamp wallaby, cool as they are. If nature study was only about the cool factor, we could go to the zoo once a year and call it good.
Ok. I've got that out of my system. Moving along...
*There is no such thing as "fake nature" unless it really is made of plastic, ok? Weeds growing through cracks in the footpath are not very interesting in the scheme of things, but they are are as real as anyone else's farm, mountain or coral reef. If you live in a concrete jungle and all the nature you have to look at is weeds and the neighbours' hanging baskets, look at them. Seasons affect them. Bugs munch them. They are real! If you don't even have that, look at the clouds. Everyone has weather and weather is real enough that people spend careers studying it.
*I quite agree that grass isn't all that thrilling, but learning how to find the grass in your front yard interesting is a valuable lesson. A more valuable lesson than seeing a bear or a swamp wallaby, cool as they are. If nature study was only about the cool factor, we could go to the zoo once a year and call it good.
Ok. I've got that out of my system. Moving along...
What a grand beginning...
I think I said she could cut out the picture or stick the whole page in. I guess she wanted to do both.
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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...
Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet. Her young son has retained primitive reflexes and autism. While there may be a deity somewhere who knows what's going to happen with this kid, he/she/it hasn't chosen to inform us. They live on a hill in rural southern Australia without enough solar panels and like it there.
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