Sat 27 Jan 2007
Today I am going to review a book that I haven’t read. It is a book that my husband is reading and telling me so much about I thought I would make it part of the Saturday Review of Books.
The book is Nature Journaling
For the last 4 years my husband has been a contractor in nuclear power (He has worked in the industry for over 20 years). For most of that time he worked in one place. This year he had to hit the road. At first that seemed like a big negative but now it is beginning to look like a big positive. As a permanent nuclear radiation protection specialist he works long hours without any time off, as a contractor he works long hours when working but then can take time off. He has been off the month of January and we are all a bit sad that he starts back to work Monday. Thankfully, it is a local job.
While he has been off he has set up a bird watching station in our bedroom. He put a 6 foot table in the bedroom, covered it with a nice tablecloth, bought a very pretty transferware looking lamp, set out all his bird books, found a odd nature notebook around the house, bought tons of birdseed and attracted even more birds to the feeding area.
He has greatly enjoyed the book Nature Journaling for its emphasis on amateur work and quick drawing, not meticulous drawing.
He has also started up a little contest with the children. Everyday he puts a different bird on the desktop and they each have to come to him when they have identified the bird. Even little Alex was able to identify the prothonotary warbler. (Why doesn’t the spell check recognize prothonotary?)
Tim is transferring what he is reading in the book to his children by learning the art of nature journaling. Now he can give the children tips on drawing for their journals.
Yesterday, he read me this quote which sealed the book’s fate as my review of the week:
Becoming a Naturalist
pg 9 of Nature Journaling.
The overwhelming majority of people who become good naturalist don’t gain their knowledge from formal schooling. They get it in the field, by devoting themselves to direct observation and spending time with other largely self-taught naturalists. Nature journaling is a process that fosters self-learning, challenging the observer to combine intellect with experience. The work naturalist has disappeared from education today. Many of us know about specialists m, the oncologist, dentists, physicists, gerontologists, chemists…….
We disagree with the current trend towards over-specialization. Naturalists study nature outdoors, everywhere, and every part of it - rocks, volcanoes, buffalo, clouds, tides, earthworms. They are generalists and rank among the oldest of scientific learners. Pliny, Aristotle, Darwin, Linnaeus, Audubon, Pasteur, Thoreau, and Thomas Jefferson were all naturalists.”
All of this relates back to something I have been wanting to blog about for a long time. Passing on what you love to your children is one of the greatest gifts homeschooling can bring to a family. Whether it is birds or trees or knitting or Latin or grammar or wildflowers or music, your children will naturally learn to love the things that you love. This is a tremendous boon for the whole family. After our children have identified 10 birds on the desktop they get a cup of hot chocolate free. Hot chocolate is a money making enterprise for my husband and I 
That way he adds a little external motivation that keeps the learning from losing its initial excitement.
One of the best things about Charlotte Mason was her encouragement to get children out of doors learning about their environment through familiarity. She encouraged nature notebooks as
a way to accomplish attention to detail. Nature journaling is a type of narration. Familiarity with the outdoors is sadly lacking in our society of specialists. I honestly don’t think learning English grammar is more important than being familiar with the birds and trees of your own neighborhood. You don’t have to neglect one to have the other!
This book would be a great addition, a worthy purchase, for any library, especially a family one.
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I learned a love of birds from my mother.
I still fondly remember her calling,
“Children, the geese. Listen. The geese.”
Your husband sounds like a wonderful father!
The books sounds fantastic!
Comment by Miz Booshay (January 27, 2007 @ 10:51 am )
Ooh,oh, oh! We have that book!! I LOVE it. It is terrific.
Comment by DeputyHeadmistress (January 27, 2007 @ 11:17 am )
Everyday he puts a different bird on the desktop and they each have to come to him when they have identified the bird.
Are they (gulp!) dead? Just wondered how he got them there.
I think it sounds like so much fun. When I was little and we visited one of my Idaho grandmas, we would go for summer drives with her in the early evening (it stayed light till after 10 pm), all over the valley where she lived. She knew everything about the trees and crops we would pass, and talk about them all. She also knew everything about the people whose homes we passed!
I really like Mary Jo Koch’s nature books, too. We are neophyte nature journalers (we actually went out yesterday to look for signs winter was ending). I like to have them include a quote, poem, or Bible verse with their drawings, and the girls can get rather decorative. Any chance, Cindy, of you putting up any pictures of the journaling efforts? I’ll do it if you will :-).
Beatrix Potter with her animal drawings was obviously a product of the Victorian emphasis on the importance of nature…I wonder if CM was helpful in making it more popular, or if she was part of a trend (along with Romantic poets like Wordsworth, etc.)? I really want to see that movie!
Comment by Carmon (January 27, 2007 @ 11:29 am )
I have asked my dh over and over again to allow me to show you his efforts but he is too modest.
My younger children are not that proficient at nature journaling as we have just started back up recently. I do want to go dig up my older children’s old nature journals sometime before I have a CM night at my house.
As far as nature and the Victorians, I think it is more a British thing. Tolkien and Lewis were intimate with nature. Perhaps the train system and the lack of cars contribute to the British naturalism. Of course the British are also a little too-too when it comes to animals, at least nowadays.
Comment by Cindy (January 27, 2007 @ 11:40 am )
Cindy,
I enjoyed your post on Nature Journaling. Lately I have been wanting to get back to my nature notebook. I haven’t entered anything in a few years. I think part of our homeschool burnout is that we are not outside more. We moved to our rural home two years ago, but I still have a time getting the children outside during the week.
I’m also impressed that your husband has taken to nature study in such an enthusiastic way. How lucky you are!!!
I’ve always wanted to do a nature or ecology type high school course with my children. If you do anything like that with your children, then I would love to hear about it on your blog.
Blessings,
Jan from Class Ed
Comment by Jan (January 27, 2007 @ 11:57 am )
It’s true that a homeschooling advantage is passing on the things and subjects we love. Unfortunately, a disadvantage is that we also pass the attitudes we have about things we don’t enjoy very much. I’ve never been a nature lover. I can understand what you’re saying about the importance of knowing about the ntural world, but it’s a lot like animals: they’re so messy and complicated and I’d rather read about them. Or it’s like math; it’s important, but it’s a dose. Sad, I know.
So, my children learn about nature and science and math, at least about loving it, from their dad. I try to be supportive, but I think they know when your heart’s not really in it.
Comment by Sherry (January 27, 2007 @ 1:38 pm )
This post gives me such nice, warm feelings and conjures up alot of happy memories for me! I love that your husband is a bird watcher and nature journaler! I love that he is passing this on to his children. (I love that you posted about it.) My husband never overtly or pointedly taught (as in *meaning* to teach) my kids any thing, but he is a fascinating person with many, many interests, and this had a big impact on my kids. Ever read the nice essay “The Value of an Educated Woman”? Example is the key, isn’t it?
My kids are grown now, but nature was a huge part of their homeschooling lives. They were immersed in it. We live in the country and had very few “amusements” other than real things, so the kids were quite the explorers. I used to call my son “the barefoot boy” after the character in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem of the same name. And he *was* that carefree barefoot boy who learned nature mostly by immersion! (He did loads of reading about nature too, I must say, mostly inspired by his life outdoors.) I loved watching this “education” happen. We laugh when we read through my three girls’ nature writings and drawings because Aaron was apparently their field guide! All through their writings the girls would say, “Aaron told me this.” “Aaron took me to see this and explained that…” “I saw a bird and didn’t know what it was. Aaron said it was this… and that the bird does this… and sometimes this….”
We have the nature journaling book that you’ve reviewed today. It wasn’t used all that much in our home, but it was around, and somehow it was still an inspiration. My children are quite artistic, so they didn’t need the drawing tips, really, and they created their own, individual style of nature notebooks anyway (some of them are quite beautiful). *I* like this nature journaling book very much, and I was just looking through it last week, sort of inspired to try my hand at journaling.
I have a really interesting research-based book, published by MIT, called Children and Nature. The book discusses many things– why children need nature, how it is developmentally essential (intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, socially), how a combination of books (living) and nature are powerful in a child’s life, what kind of nature experiences children need and when, why politically correct/environmentally focused nature teaching in the early years is actually counterproductive… And there’s always the good book Last Child in the Woods. Children just plain need free time to enjoy God’s creation. They see Him there. They see His power and love and Creativity. They develop wonder and awe and an ability to worship from the heart. And then there’s Rachel Carson’s fine book A Sense of Wonder encouraging a child to love nature (though I don’t endorse many of her grown-up views necessarily). Do you know– have you read– any of these books?
For almost ten years, ladies came to my house twice a month for homeschooling discussion and support (the meetings just ended this month). Something that really encouraged them to get serious about nature journaling was the simple plan/schedule in the book When Children Love to Learn. Weekly nature walks (find one interesting thing in nature, observe it, and read about it back in the classroom or home). One nature page per month (artfully portraying one of the chosen nature objects and some of the information learned). Simple. Easy. If a homeschooler did this even for 8 years– one page per month for, say, nine months each year, the child would have a lovely nature book of 72 pages. What a keepsake that would be! I wish I would have kept a schedule like this. But alas, we do have some beautiful, beautiful nature pages and books, and these pages might be the things I treasure most of all that was produced in our homeschool.
Very lovely post, Cindy.
Susan
Comment by Susan L (January 27, 2007 @ 1:47 pm )
Wow, Susan, do you have a blog?
My husband is actually a very good artist but he and a couple of our children always belabor every drawing so much that they miss the gist of nature journaling. My son Nathaniel will work hours on a drawing and it will be the ear of a deer or something and he still won’t be satisfied. The book is helping my husband bread away from that trend.
I love your simple idea. Those are the ones that work.
The only Rachel Carson book we have read is The Sea Around Us although I do have at least one more of her books on the shelf, not the one you mentioned.
I am excited to look into the other titles you recommended. Thank-you for taking time to encourage.
Comment by Cindy (January 27, 2007 @ 1:55 pm )
I started feeling a bit uncomfortable about something I posted, so I came back to mention it, but first…
No, I don’t blog. I’ve thought about it, but I’m afraid that my time and focus will go there too often. So I just enjoy reading blogs like yours!
I know what you mean about belaboring the drawings. My son tended to be this way, too. Is it a common boy thing, I wonder?
Okay, now for the thing I wrote that is bugging me. The MIT book I recommended has one very, very good chapter that made the purchase of the book worthwhile (for me, but then I love this kind of thing), but much of the book is written from a strong evolutionary perspective. Now, I know you are smart and quite able to sort through this kind of thing and could get right past it, Cindy, but since I posted a recommendation of the book on your blog… I just thought I should mention it.
In fact, I’d say the book could (should?) pretty much be skipped except for the fact that that one chapter is so very worthwhile. I wonder if it could be tracked down online? I looked, but I didn’t see it. The chapter is called “Experiencing Nature” by Stephen R. Kellert. Excellent!
Also Carson’s book is not titled *A* Sense of Wonder, but *The* Sense of Wonder. It’s done in sort of a picture book format with large photos and text about the length of an essay. This is not a children’s book, though, but is for adults who spend time with children. It’s perfect for homeschoolers. I love this book.
There. I feel better now.
Susan
Comment by Susan L (January 27, 2007 @ 3:39 pm )
Cindy,
I was tickled to read your review about Nature Journaling. I have the book “Keeping a Nature Journal” by the same authors, and I just love it. I refer back to it time and time again.
I have become a self-taught naturalist simply by living out here on the prairies of Montana. For the past 25 years of my life (married to a rancher) I have grown to appreciate nature more than ever and have passed this on to my children as well. It’s really true, if you pass on your loves to your kids, they tend to appreciate those same things.
~Jody
Comment by Jody (January 27, 2007 @ 9:27 pm )
Post Script…..
I also meant to mention that since we live in the country — far from museums, art galleries, orchestras, and the like, I chose to focus the children’s education on what we DO have, and that was Nature. They didn’t get to hear symphony orchestras, but they have heard a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds Rock ‘n’ Roll, and they’ve anticipated the simple flute-song of the Western Meadowlark in spring. My kids haven’t been to an art gallery (except online) but they have seen a prairie meadow in full bloom and a drouthed-out prairie blooming with Prickly Pear Cactus. They haven’t been to many museums, but they’ve found many fossils and arrowheads while riding horseback. There’s always something to seek and learn from nature.
~Jody (again)
Comment by Jody (January 27, 2007 @ 11:28 pm )
When I buy I book, I always have to consider its size and weight, because I will be taking it to Poland (and does everyone know that the luggage allowance has been reduced from 70lbs. to 50lbs.? Boo hoo)
Many times, I reject heavy, hardcover books as not being worth their “weight,” so to speak. But this book made the cut and I happily made allowance for it in our luggage. What a great book.
Comment by Karen Gass (January 28, 2007 @ 7:45 am )
Cindy,
I am blessed to have one child who is both an artist and a naturalist. One of his strengths: patience, patience, patience. I’ve known him to stalk a lizard for over half an hour. You should see his science notebook. Beautiful!
And, thanks for the encouragement to pass our own particular love of nature to our children. Flowering plants and the wildflowers of Jordan are what really flips my switch and I am relentlessly giving wildflower tours to the kids, waxing eloquent about the interesting characteristics of the plants, quizzing the kids on their names. I’ll have to try the reward idea that you mention but I’ll have to use something other than hot-chocolate as a reward as they already drink it freely and with marshmallows! Some months ago my oldest daughter, who has yet to develop a love of the outdoors and flowers asked me, “Mom, when I grow up will I love flowers like you do?” I hope so!
Comment by Melissa (January 28, 2007 @ 6:33 pm )
Miz Booshay, Jan and Susan,
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I’m afraid though that Cindy is being very generous, making it sound like I spend hours a day sketching and studying nature. A more apt description would be a “Philosophical Nature Journalist”
One thing I do appreciate about Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E Roth is that they encourage people to begin where they are even if it is in the inner city.
Comment by Tim (January 28, 2007 @ 10:32 pm )
There you have it, folks: a glowing recommendation from a nuclear guy!
Comment by Valerie (Kyriosity) (January 29, 2007 @ 8:02 am )
Tim, I’m delighted to read about your nature journaling hobby. It was pretty brave to start with wiggly birds! And I too like the encouraging tone of this book. We only bought it this year. I love the loose style and splashes of color!
We come from a slightly different perspective in our home: I am (or was) a professional artist, and somehow seeing me paint when she was young conveyed to my daughter the misperception that she can never be an artist. This is unfortunate, because she’s actually not bad at drawing, and she has a nice aesthetic sense! So, I’m not giving up yet.
What we have learned nicely together is birding. We both love nature, and early in our homeschooling journey I was frustrated because we lived in Manhattan where she couldn’t dig in the dirt and climb trees. Somehow we noticed, however, that if you sit still in the park for ten minutes, you notice something that you didn’t notice before. Once we were doing this, looked up, and noticed a black-crowned night heron right above our heads! That was the beginning of what is now probably a life-long hobby for us.
I’ve known Susan for a long time, and she’s been a huge help in suggesting books and generally inspiring people. She really does have a gift for encouragement! Naturally, as a result, I’ve read many of the books she’s mentioned.
And whenever I see pictures of the rolling hills where Jody lives, it makes me want to walk right into them!
Thank goodness for moms of older children who still hang around homeschooling boards to encourage the next generation!
Comment by Laura A (January 29, 2007 @ 9:04 am )
Great book review. I just checked this book out at the library recently!
I was never much of an outdoors-girl, preferring reading books indoors more, but am determined to be outside more while we homeschool and help my kids see the beauty of creation.
Comment by Christie (September 20, 2007 @ 12:10 am )