Fledgling Nature Notebooks

Not being an outdoorsy sort of gal and not having an artistic bone in my body nature notebooks were something I was a little reluctant about.  I didn’t want to begin to have it all fizzle out because I wasn’t very good at any of this stuff.  I wanted to encourage the children to enjoy nature without getting caught up in my hang-ups .

Well I finally got going with the whole idea having been well inspired by my friends, Dawn , Theresa  and Meredith . The children also spent virtually the entire spring outdoors in the Cottage Garden with the incomparable Mrs. Derham so they were primed and ready to begin notebooks. So this is what I started with…

The Nature Study Notebooks used to be offered by Family Centered Press but are no longer available. Go there and buy other cool stuff though :). They were commandeered by Erin and Ryan. Katie took the blank white book available from Emmanuel Books.  These are great for so many things including Nature Books.  Then the rest are all the books you see in my side bar.  Now we haven’t actually been able to get on any nature hikes yet this summer but we have done some observing here in the backyard. I promised to show only the "nice" pictures on the blog.

This was my attempt at lilac.

This is my attempt at not drawing at all :D.

This is Erin’s drawings of lilac and a cardinal. Pretty good I think.

Ryan’s lilac.

                   Katie’s lilac.

You would be justified in thinking that I need to expand my horizons but honestly there are a lot more pictures even some of a buggy nature. It’s just that I occasionally do take into account the children’s feelings when I blog about them.  They didn’t want all of their artwork exposed and I understand that.

The important thing is that we are trying and  I promise you their work is really nice. What’s more important is that they are learning and enjoying it. You know what?  So am I!