During July 2012, our family took a trip to the Oregon Coast. We spent quite a bit of time just beachcombing for shells and rocks. I ended up with a collection that I wanted to record in my nature journal.
Rocks in general are a difficult subject to draw. I decided that the colorful rocks were much easier and that using a black pen to first outline the shape was helpful.
Recording rocks in your nature journal requires you to slow down and really examine the rock, noting its colors, shape, and texture.
I find it’s much easier to collect a few rocks and then bring them home for sketching. I have a stash of snack size Ziplocs in my nature box that I recycle from trip to trip. You can also use empty Tic-Tac or Altoid containers if you have a supply of those. We did use film canisters in the past but now that’s sort of outdated.
Sometimes you find a rock you want to draw in your nature journal but you cannot bring a sample home…like if you’re at a National Park or on private property. In that case, I take a few close-up images of the rock with my camera. Then I either use the image to draw the rock into my journal or I can just print out the image and put that in my journal.
I love looking back on these rock nature journal pages now and remembering not only the rocks but the experience of collecting them on a particular day.
Take the opportunity to create a few rock themed nature journal pages as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge for Calcite, Limestone, and Marble (make a link) from last week. Click over and read how to get started.
Our family has used Dover Coloring Books for many years and we’ve built up quite a large library of books on a variety of topics. I know there are many new readers to the Handbook of Nature Study blog that might appreciate an introduction to these inexpensive resources and a few tips on how to use them in their homeschooling nature study.
Let’s start off by saying that coloring books can be used in many ways and with different learning styles.
Not all children enjoy coloring in a coloring book and I don’t blame them. It can be tedious to try to find the “right” colors to use or to keep the markers or crayons neatly within the bounds of the black lines. I had one child who no matter what you suggested would color every image his own way…quite the creative spirit.
On the other hand, many children find it comforting to not have to stare at a blank page when creating a nature journal page. They very happily complete the page with realistic colors using either markers, crayons, watercolors, or colored pencils.
Older students find it helpful to use the black line drawings in a coloring book as a starting point for creating their own drawings in their nature journals, using the coloring book drawings as a template for their own work.
However your family would like to use the Dover Coloring Books in your homeschool or nature study plan, you’ll be glad you purchased a few to have in your nature library. Creative and nature loving children will enjoy these as a complement to their own nature journal. We used these coloring books on the long, cold days of winter when we couldn’t get outside to explore.
Please note these are Amazon affiliate links to coloring books I’ve purchased and used in our family’s nature study lessons and the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Most of the ebooks found in the Ultimate Naturalist Library here on the Handbook of Nature Study website include images from the Dover Coloring Books. If you have a membership, look for them at the back of your ebooks.
If you’d like to become a member, please click the graphic above to go to the Join Us page for more details on purchasing a membership today.
You may wish to click over and read more about our family’s experience with Dover Coloring Books.
This has been a year filled with personal challenges. My routine has been turned upside down and along with that my habit of creating pages in my nature journal has become erratic and lower on the priority list.
This last month I’ve made an effort to get back into the habit of journaling weekly. I went back and planned out some pages to “catch up” on, so 2020 isn’t light on nature notes and observations. I brought out the nature journal supplies, sharpened the pencils and organized the markers. I plan on making myself more accountable for putting down my thoughts and observations as I go along for the rest of the year.
Stay tuned to see how I do in this endeavor.
Wish List: Creating nature goals for the year is a form of a “wish list” of things I hope to accomplish. Your family can adapt this idea to fit your needs, including any of the suggestions in the wish list entry linked here.
Recap Your Month: Creating a monthly recap page is a simple way to gather lots of details into one place. I enjoy creating a “highlights” recap and your family may like to pool ideas to make a recap page in your nature journal.
Make a List: There’s usually a list of one sort of another each month in my nature journal. It may not be very exciting but it does create a record that I look at from year to year. Comparing lists is something I do all the time.
Sketch Outdoors: I took my journaling supplies along on a recent outing to the Crooked River. We stopped along the river and I realized I had the perfect view and an opportunity to sketch a juniper tree for my nature journal. What an enjoyable afternoon!
The positive news is that I faithfully complete my daily nature observations in my Nature Observer book for 2020.Keeping up on this pre-printed journal will help me reconstruct some of the months I missed in my regular nature journal.
Each month has a blank calendar to fill in with short observations, a bullet grid page for my own customized observation reminders, and a weekly spread for writing more in detail anything of note.
For July, I not only used the bullet grid for daily temperatures and other nature activities, but included a list of the wildflowers and birds observed both in my yard and down at the river. This format can easily be adapted to any bullet style journal page you are using.
The links to Amazon in this entry are my affiliate entries. I have purchased this book with my own money and I am sharing my enthusiasm for this product after using it for 2 years!
Need some more specific nature journal ideas?
I’ve created a page on the website that gathers an abundance of nature journal ideas, suggestions, examples, and links. I invite you to jump over there and find your inspiration.
Are you familiar with the book/system Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes? This incremental, child-friendly, learning to draw plan is a valuable part of an art skills program for many homeschoolers. I loved it so much that when my children were younger I adapted the plans to incorporate nature related topics and our nature journals. I’ve gathered those plans into one file for you to download and use for free.
Do you have some time on your hands these days for a little extra nature study?
Here’s a short of list of the newer Outdoor Hour Challenges you may want to complete that feature some totally awesome mammals. I’m personally working my way through the list in my own study and following up with nature journal pages for each one. I still have a few more to go!
You can click the link below to find all the mammal related nature study ideas here on the Handbook of Nature Study. I invite you to click on over and find something too!
I’ve been looking forward to the Western Tanager bird study (Outdoor Hour Challenge – Western Tanager) ever since we saw our very first tanager visitors to the feeder last spring. Their bright colors reminded us of the tropical flowers we see in Hawaii!
Would you like to see my nature journal page for the Western tanager? I tend to follow the same format for my bird pages, including the four key graphics from the AllAboutBirds.com website. I include a sketch and some pertinent facts. I use my field guide and the website to gather my information so it’s a super easy page to make.
I struggle with drawing and depicting birds accurately but in the end I get the basic idea onto the page even if it isn’t exactly the way I picture it in my head.
Tip: You can always add a photo instead of sketching if it makes you more comfortable.
I was just telling a friend who’s starting out with identifying the birds at her feeder that she should just take it one bird at a time. Birding is something you can do for a lifetime so if you can manage to learn about and identify just one new bird a month for the next ten years, imagine the number of birds you will be familiar with.
Nature study is just the gathering of knowledge over time.
One bird, one tree, one flower at a time.
Would you like some more ideas for nature journal pages? There is a page on my website devoted just to nature journal ideas. I invite you to click over and scroll through for something that catches your eye!
The Western Tanager Outdoor Hour Challenge is found in the Forest Fun ebook available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships.
Use the discount code OHC10 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.
You can also use the Learning About Birds ebook from the Ultimate and Journey level memberships to learn more about the birds in your local area. This book can be used over multiple years as you identify a bird and want to learn about it more in depth.
Somehow this post never made it to the blog in January. This doesn’t surprise me since my life has been so over the top busy and it just slipped through the cracks.
I hope you enjoy reading about my January adventures.
During our outdoor time this month we went…
We didn’t need to travel too far this month to have some outdoor time. By going through our backyard and then down to the river, we have the perfect place to take long walks in the snow. My favorite time to go out is when the sun is shining, making the snow all sparkly and glistening with snow crystals.
I also love to follow any tracks we find in the snow and imagine who made them.
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
I think about all of the life going on down under the snow and ice. We only see the tops of a few plants sticking out but I know from last year’s study of the subnivean zone (space between ground and bottom of the snow) that there is a whole habitat underneath where smaller creatures live. I imagine the Belding’s ground squirrels all snug in their burrows and the mice and pocket gophers keeping warm underground as well.
We also know the otters and beavers are active under the ice and along the river banks. Once we saw an otter jump out from a hole in the ice with a fish in his mouth. He ran along the ice a little way and then popped back under the water and ice. Such excitement!
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
The elk are back traveling back and forth along the river in small herds. We need to get up very early to see them because it’s usually just as the sun is rising that we observe them on the move. There are young elk with the herd, sticking close to the adults as
I added nature journal pages about…
I’m back at my Nature Observer journal this year where I record the temperatures, daily thoughts, and any outstanding observations. Determined to keep up on my daily records, I try to work on it first thing in the morning. It’s interesting to me that I will quickly forget things we’ve noticed if I don’t get them down on paper each day.
I finally finished my journal page from Acadia National Park.
I’m also back to posting more regularly on Instagram. Join us over there if you want to be a part of that community.
Want to join in the Outdoor Mom post?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
During our outdoor time this month we went…
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…
In complete honesty, I’ve spent every available minute this month outdoors enjoying the beauty and unexpected variety of life that seems to have been drawn to our yard. It’s very true that if you create a natural space that provides shelter, food, and water, the living creatures will come to visit.
Birds – over 20 kinds!
Insects – mostly bees, butterflies, mosquitoes, snakeflies, gnats, and ants
The effort to create an inviting environment for nature to come to us has been worth every minute and achy muscle. We’re excited to see what the rest of the summer brings to us!
Here are some nature highlights from our month.
We started the month off with a family paddle down the Little Deschutes River. The sky was amazing! It doesn’t get much better than this when you’re out for a smooth water ride: the wildflowers were blooming, the birds were visible (including about a hundred cliff swallows), and the river all to ourselves.
Everywhere I looked this month I spotted a colorful wildflower. I’m keeping a list in my nature journal of all the flowers we see and it’s getting rather long. My favorite flower of the month is the wild blue iris. The meadow behind our house came alive with irises for about a week. They stand just above the grass so it looks like a sea of lavender-purple.
As I have shared here before, we don’t live in a place that is highly favorable for growing a traditional vegetable garden. Instead, I’ve opted to grow fast germinating flowers and some potted herbs. Everything is starting to really shoot up with our warmer weather and I’m anxious to see how they fare over the next few months.
We’ve been busy transplanting native plants to our newly created garden berms. Each time I find a good candidate, I try to observe the growing conditions so that I can put the transplant where it has a good chance of taking hold. I’ve moved lupine, salsify, violets, columbine, and grasses. It’s all a great experiment to see what does well and what we can move in the future.
I’ve observed so many pollinators this month in our garden! Mostly bees, but also butterflies have come to land on our flowers. This is a great success for us because we’re thinking a lot about the design of the different areas of our yard to be more pollinator friendly.
On that note, here’s an image of our freshly sprouted wildflower garden that we seeded a few weeks ago. We’re taking a gamble that we can get these plants established before the fall frosts come. If we are successful, this should reseed itself each year.
Let me set the record straight. I am not a fisherman. But, I am married to one. This month the season opened on our river behind our house and we were out there several evenings walking and fishing. We had all the boys with us on one of those nights and that was the night my husband caught THE biggest rainbow trout we have ever seen. Look at my hubby’s face…joy! In the spirit of fair play, he released this big daddy back into the river to live a little longer. This is why I love him so very much….he knows the nature lover in me admired that fish’s beauty and freedom more than I would have a few delicious bites of trout.
Now for a couple of pages from my nature journal.
There are so many wildflowers growing on our property this year after the rains of May and early June.
I could call this the “super bird list” since it has so many birds and the addition of a new bird to add to our life list.
I’ve been eager to spot a porcupine in the habitat behind our house but have been unsuccessful so far. But, we have seen two dead porcupines on the road near our house. I stopped to look at one of them up close since he wasn’t run over but just bumped. This was a first for me to see a real porcupine this intimately and to see the quills and the fur. My admiration grew for porcupines after learning about their unique features and then having the opportunity to see one in real life. This is how advanced preparation is beneficial!
Are you eager to see the new year plan for the Outdoor Hour challenge for 2019-2020? I’m going to be posting a blog entry soon that outlines the plans for the next two years. If you subscribe to my blog, you won’t miss it!
Use the discount code SUMMER5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. This will give you access to all of the ebooks, newsletter, and printables available only to members. Your membership is good for one year from the time of purchase. Don’t wait until September to purchase your membership!
We had a tease of spring before the cold temperatures crept back in and the rains came pouring down. My friend keeps track of the rainfall numbers and we’re on track for a record breaking year as far as inches of rain. Here in Central Oregon we have a fairly dry climate, some call it the High Desert because of the low rainfall and dry air. You wouldn’t think so right now with the water standing in our yard and the rivers running very high. I’m dreaming of the long, warm summer days.
In the meantime, we jump outside when the sun is out and work on the garden and get out to observe all the amazing things we have in our area.
Here are some nature highlights from our month.
We have two pairs of tree swallows nesting in our yard again this year. We’ve observed them going in and out of the boxes early in the morning and then later they take off to swoop and dive out over the river. They sometimes come back to sit on the fence in the sunshine. They are such graceful and pretty birds and I’m so pleased they are nesting here again.
There’s also a nest up on the back of our bbq house. I noted some dried grasses on the ground behind the shed and wondered where they came from. On investigating it further, I looked up to see a big nest up on the top of the wall. The kind of bird has yet to be determined.
What a fantastic surprise to look outside the other day and see the colorful Western tanager at our bird feeder! There ended up being five males and two females that were enjoying the suet feeder.
We braved the weather to get in a hike at Smith Rock State Park on a weekday afternoon. It’s a very popular place on the weekends, so my aim was to get there on a day and time when we wouldn’t have so many other people on the trail. Success!
There were so many wildflowers to see along the trail and there were lots of birds too! My favorite flower of the day was most definitely the arrowleaf balsamroot that was growing along the ridge of the canyon. There was quite a display of color!
Now for a couple of pages from my nature journal.
I attempted to draw a scene from the hike. The water coming over the dam from the lake and the resulting rainbow in the spray was one of my favorite moments to capture as a reminder of this day with my daughter on the American River in California.
My son was out hiking behind our house in the evening and he spotted a slow moving animal in the distance. As he got closer, he first thought it was a beaver but when it climbed a tree he realized it was in fact a porcupine! I still haven’t seen it, even though I’ve been trying to keep my eyes open for it when we’re out in the evenings. This page is the result of my research in the hope that I will soon spy my very own porcupine.
I’m still playing catch up in my nature journal so hopefully I’ll have a few more pages next month to share. In the meantime, if you want to look at the page on my website with hundreds of nature journal ideas, please feel free to use them as inspiration.
There are many, many nature journal ideas included in the archives of the Handbook of Nature Study newsletters. If you have any level of membership, make sure to download the newsletter index to make finding a topic easy.
Don’t panic! I know that many of us have a fear of drawing and the idea of teaching our children to draw makes us anxious! Please give this Outdoor Hour Challenge a try alongside your children. There are plenty of suggestions and a link to a fabulous website of tutorials in the original challenge to make this week’s nature study a complete success.
Keep it simple and if you have any trouble, be patient with yourself. Remember the flower parts that we learned about in the second challenge in this series? Keep those in mind as you look at your flower and try to create a simple sketch in your nature journal.
If you’d like to look for a couple of books at your library, here are two that I really enjoy and they’re appropriate for children of all ages.
I wrote a blog entry a few years ago with a few simple tips to encourage moms who don’t think they can draw. I hope you’ll find some inspiration here if you’re one of those moms:
We’re continuing to work through the Garden Flower and Plants ebook over the next few weeks. If you own this ebook or have access to it in your Ultimate Naturalist Library, you’ll want to get it out and read the first few pages. It outlines how the ten week series of garden challenges work together and can be done in any order that makes sense to your family. The ebook has planning pages as you choose, observe, and then learn more about each garden flower you study.
Use the Outdoor Hour Challenge topics to stimulate my interest in my local habitat and help to build my skills as a naturalist. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Outdoor Hour Challenges during the first quarter. Here are links to my favorite challenges: Our Winter Willow Observations – Buds, Galls, and Beavers
Keep a detailed record of my nature observations. I’m keeping up with my daily nature journal notes and it’s always amazing to me that I have something to write about each day. It’s made me be more aware of the many interesting things that happen right in my own yard and neighborhood. My personal nature journal is going well and there are lots of pages completed already. If you read my Nature Observer entries each month here on my blog, you’ll see the pages as I complete them.
Hiking and Kayaking. We haven’t really been able to do either of these activities yet but this coming quarter should be much better weather and trail conditions for us. I’m anxious to get back in my kayak after the river ice melts. (insert a photo of the the icy river)
Read nature related books this year. I’m sorry to say I haven’t read any books yet. I’m going to do something about that this month!
I still think it’s a worthwhile activity to make and work towards nature goals each year. Even though I didn’t quite live up to my goals this past quarter, I’ll make some adjustments to do a better job over the next few months. I’ve had a lot of family obligations in February and March that have kept me from spending as much time outdoors as I would like. I am not going to be discouraged!
I’m doing much better physically with my recovery from my bilateral hip surgery last October. I can walk a great distance and my strength is coming back. I started swimming at my physical therapy and that is really bumping up my stamina. With renewed vigor, I’ll hopefully hit May and June this year with a new ability to hike and kayak to my heart’s content.
For July, I not only used the bullet grid for daily temperatures and other nature activities, but included a list of the wildflowers and birds observed both in my yard and down at the river. This format can easily be adapted to any bullet style journal page you are using.
