Nicole

Here is my youngest son's sit spot...not very much there but he's still learning to enjoy adding to his notebook as he much rather just play in nature. Then my older son's sit spot journal entry, I love the these he's noticing! Finally, mine. I am looking forward to using this technique more when the weather starts warming and we can see more animals then right now in the winter.

1. I liked drawing from a photo as it gave me time to get my shapes close to accurate. The subject didn't move which is hard to say of those cute little birds! I don't think I could sketch as well with a moving object at this point. I still found it difficult to capture the angel and expression of the bird. I tweaked the beak a bit after seeing a few others drawings and that helped my bird have a little more expression. My oldest son enjoyed it and my youngest son refused to do the drawing...haha. 2.There was tons of details I wouldn't have paid as much attention to if it wasn't for drawing it. It is interesting how much my nature journal page has changed in design/layout in just this first entry! Here is mine and my oldest sons drawings.

Berta, I have thought about, and love the idea, of "astro" sketching. If you have done this how do you do it? Maybe an example? I have been trying to figure out the color scheme of sketching the night sky. Should black paper be used with white watercolor or color pencil, or do you invert the colors and use black for the stars on the white paper in the nature journal, or something else I'm not even thinking of? Would love to get a better understanding to do this. I want to give it a try and I know my oldest who is into space would love doing this. Just trying to figure out the best and most practical way to accomplish this when we are both sort of "perfectionist" and we like things to look like it looks in real time. (hope that made sense). Thanks!

Hello all, we are excited for this course. I say we because I am working through this class with my two boys (right now aged 7 & 9). We homeschool and this is a wonderful addition to our studies. 1. We have been inspired to begin nature journaling because it is a great way to connect and learn about the natural world around us. We also follow a Charlotte Mason style of education and it is highly encouraged to nature journal and be outdoors on a daily basis. We have been learning to nature journal for about a year, but we would like to become more consistent with our time outdoors. We also are looking forward to learning more about what to think about, look at, etc. during our time nature journaling and becoming better with our drawings. 2. I personally liked the first example that had an ample amount of writing with some drawings too. I like the use of the boxes and I will be using this idea at a minimum for writing out my date, time, place, and weather conditions. My oldest is still thinking through his approach and has some ideas on how to improve his journal, and my youngest will be mostly drawing with some writing with my help. 3. No new or different ideas here. I am hoping to learn to be less critical of myself because I am not a good drawer but instead focus on why this process is important and to be an example to my kids as I continue to learn about creation. It is my hope that they too will continue this habit as they get older and continue their own learning. Here is a page from each of our journals currently before starting this course.