Natural Journal

We are starting a Charlotte Mason-style Nature Journal--something I've long wanted to do. John now seems just barely old enough to go beyond making observations (something littles start doing at a year old) to recording observations. My goal is to take us out to observe nature and record it in our journal perhaps once a week. Lest that sound too lofty a goal, today we achieved it by going into our own back yard for fifteen minutes. I bet that walking the neighborhood will often suffice. Also I hope to take us on special field trips perhaps once or twice a month. Ideas I have so far (for my local readers) are:

Our Lady's Grotto and path at Belmont Abbey (free)
McDowell Park and Nature Center (free)
The greenway (free)
University of North Carolina Botanical Gardens and Greenhouse (free)
Charlotte Nature Museum ($) and Freedom Park (free)
Wing Haven Gardens (donation)
Latta Nature Center and trails (free)
Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens ($)

As part of observing, this was the first time I'd ever encouraged John to use the actual color of the object he was drawing instead of a random color. Creativity is great, but learning to observe and record is great too. He asked me to draw some parts (like the above stump, which he decided to label LOG) since he has nascent drawing abilities at four. If you look closely, you'll see that I have nascent drawing skills too, not a whole lot better than a child's!

I also encouraged (pushed) him actually to try to draw things he didn't believe he could draw. We were observing an ant and he said he wanted me to draw it. I suggested I teach him how to draw an ant. You can see his reproduction below and label ANT.

We had a load of fun right there in our back yard in only a few minutes (until the baby on my back began crying). After our official observation period had ended (read: Mama was now parked in a lawn chair nursing the baby), the kids were still eagerly bringing me items from nature and providing more detailed observations than they normally do. Really neat!