I’ve been thinking about nature journals for children and for grown-ups and for families to collaborate on. 

I’ve been thinking about the age old way of drawing a picture and doing some writing at the bottom of the page and how I’m sure we can mix things up a bit. I’m thinking about all the other ways that a nature journal could be kept.

If a nature journal is a place to record our explorations then we can open up the pages and invite the endless possibilities of nature exploration to join us?

I’ve got so many ideas of how we could do that. How we could really use the nature journal as a tool for genuine exploration and deep learning.

And I’m pretty excited to explore and share those ideas with you.

But what I’d like to know is this – would you like to keep a nature journal, if there was a creative and fun way of doing it?

A few thoughts on nature journaling:

• It can be collaborative. A family can create a journal together.
• Not all children will want to spend a long time drawing or writing in nature. This is when taking quick notes on cards can help.
• A nature journal doesn’t have to look beautiful.
• You can have fun arranging, paper mounting, or decorating the notes, sketches and writing as you stick them into the journal.
• A nature journal can be a space to record your ongoing, ever developing relationship with nature.
• A nature journal does not have to contain only facts. Emotions, sightings, experiences are all valid ways of learning.