“Why be within doors when you can rightly be without”
Nature study is one of the most enjoyable habits to have in your homeschool. It is the gateway to geography, biology, and a life long affection for the outdoors. There are many ways to incorporate this subject into your home! To get started see the 3 part Nature Study series from my podcast below, grab a nature journal and head out doors! For more inspriation follow along @hatchingcuriosity.com on instagram.
Learn how to start a nature study with the Nature study podcast series below:
(Click the image to get the full shownotes and transcript.)
More Nature Study Podcasts Episodes:
Episode 14: Nature Study in Spring
Episode 19: Nature Study in the Summer
Blog Posts about Nature Study:
All the links for a year of Nature Journaling Cards
Hatching Curiosity Nature Study Materials:
Classes to build your Drawing skills:
These classes through blueprint are SOO worth it. It teaches you the basics in a visual step by step way. It is like going to water color class in person only you can rewind and watch again when you need to! For a beginner with brush painting I Highly recommend them! Click the image below for a link to where you can purchase the classes.
Other resources I love:
(Click the images for Amazon links)
Beautiful books for Nature Study:
All of the nature books by Diana Aston are just as educational as they are beautiful!
Any of the “A walk in the…” series is a great illustration of the biomes of north america.
These little “take along guides” are a great intro to nature study, especially if you are on the east coast of the USA
“Lets read and find out science” Series covers SO MANY great science concepts that illustrate the science behind what you discover while you are out.
Nature Study Tools:
One of my favorites! For a link to buy and examples on how well this works check out my full blog post here: Digital Microscope Nature Study Tool
Use this pencil as the underdrawing in your nature journal. It erases well and even if you don’t erase it your eyes tend to not perceive the underdrawing as much as it does with a traditional graphite pencil. As recommended in John Muir Laws Nature study book “The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling”
Watercolor pens are one of my FAVORITE nature Journaling tools to have in my backpack. You can fill the body of the brush up with any available water (water bottle, creek, etc), Use it to paint when you want to change colors or be done painting you just squeeze water out to wash the brush, cap it and throw it back in your pack!
Watercolor Pencils are great for nature journaling in the field because they are lightweight, portable, and not messy! It allows you to capture color details in your notes and create a neat watercolor effect when used with your watercolor pen. You don’t get the benefits recommended by Charlotte Mason from brush drawing but I use these when hiking for ease and do more of my brush drawing at home from pictures/ specimens or when we have the time to linger at one spot for the afternoon.
