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Writing in my nature notebook

Spring is my favorite time to nature journal.  So many things feel new and bright and beautiful I want to collect them all.  Usually, during art time, I would read aloud to the kids and they would do their art.  As the time went on though, I started really wanting to participate with the art side and not just the literature side.  So we listened to Swallows and Amazons on audio and I joined in!  We have continued through the entire Swallows and Amazons series, and we are now on to Anne of Green Gables, enjoying great literature and art at the same time!

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I started with little sketches as I watched out the window and listened to the story.

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Quickly it evolved into whole pages being dedicated to a moment where I was watching birds chase each other around our flowering cherry tree. 

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I even felt inspired to write a little poetry… although simple, it caught the way I felt at the moment.

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Writing in my journal helps inspire my kids art as well, and Cyan has started her own journal:

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Watching how the practice helps her improve is my favorite part!

March 2013:

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March 2014:

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Do you ever nature journal?  What inspires you to do art?

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Monica said…
What a wonderful thing to begin ...keeping a journal.....I especially love all the drawings. I hope your daughter continues with this because it will be a wonderful collection of her thoughts one day. I so wish I would have started this with MY daughter.....thank you for sharing with us.
4:34 AM
Val in the Rose Garden said…
Thank you Monica. :) I do love to do it. We are both starting to draw more regularly. Just yesterday she was drawing a rhodie from the back yard (they all burst into bloom these last few days) and she was commenting on how much bigger the leaves were than the individual flowers. Such an eye can really only be developed through art!

Blessings,

Val
2:25 PM
MrsKnight said…
I do love your nature journal. This is how I had intended to homeschool, but when the new baby came I lost my way! I'm exhausted and burned out on parenting. I'm going to keep reading through your posts but I'm wondering if you have a curriculum you are following or if you are unschooling. It looks like you're doing everything I wanted for my kids! I wonder if I have it in me to try again, harder.
leana dot knight at yahoo
12:44 PM
Val in the Rose Garden said…
Mrs Knight,

Have you read the book "Pocket full of Pinecones"? It is worth a purchase and a good read in a long bath. It's a short book, and simple as well, about a woman falling in love with Charlotte Mason Education and Unschooling. I found it esp sweet since I had just had my 3rd child (and then a 4th) when I decided to pull all my kids out of school. That was 8 years ago! That 'baby' is now in 2nd grade. lol!

But yes. I do unschool and I also follow some of Charlotte Mason Education, and I also do a bit of Waldorf and a tiny bit of classical ed as well. It's a education mosh pit around here, but really in the end, we just have a lot of fun and make sure we do our math. ;) This next year is my 13 yr olds last year of Middle School so I am really starting to buckle down on the literature and writing portion of her education. So it will be a bit more structured, but the last couple years have been very free and I have LOVED it! I can't imagine doing anything else. :)

Blessings,

Val
9:57 PM
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