Welcome back to my column on child-friendly activities for outdoor adventures! In the first two columns of the series, I wrote about ways to play with observation and gave some specific ideas for enjoying shorelines. Today, I’m going to introduce one of my favorite tools for developing a child’s love of the outdoors: the nature journal.

Journaling is a great way to encourage your child to pay attention to each moment of the natural experience. At the same time, the journal itself can serve as a terrific memento of the trip, sometimes even more evocative than photos.

There is no one correct way to create a nature journal. However, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Don’t turn journaling into an assignment. If your child hates to write, (or isn’t old enough), use prompts that involve drawing. Making lists is a great option: some kids who loathe sentences just love to jot down bullet points.
• Label each page. Try to make sure the date, time, and location get on the journal pages, even if that means you write it in for your child later. Your child will enjoy remembering the trip from the journal and will even be able to compare trips to the same place at different times.
• Use multiple media. Where it’s legal, make sure your child’s journal includes a leaf or two, a pressing of a flower, a piece of bark, or a feather. On public lands where collecting is not allowed, encourage your child to mark her paper with nature in some other way: she can use a soft rock or fallen piece of bark to make a mark, sprinkle some sticky pollen on a page, or do a bark rubbing (see below).

Finally, a couple of ideas around making the journal. For groups, I created a small journal from plain paper and a card stock cover, folded over and stapled in the middle. With older kids, I would make every other page using a printout of downloadable graph paper for mapping and measuring activities. You can also use any standard composition book. Avoid pre-printed “nature journals” you’ll find in some bookstores: simple blank paper is the best.

Nature Journaling

Sound Map

Whenever I start a journal in a new place, I make a “Sound Map.” For this, you’ll need to find an outdoor location fairly free from overwhelming background noise such as cars, large groups, or running water.

1. On a blank page of your journal, mark a large X in the center. That’s you, looking down from the top!
2. Take a few minutes to listen. Close your eyes, so you can really focus on the sounds around you.
3. When you hear a sound, draw it in your journal. Use the page like a map: if the sound you hear is in front of you, draw it above the X on the page, towards the top. If it’s on your left, draw it on the left side of the page, and so on. If the sound is close to you, it will be close to the X, too — if it’s far away, draw it at very the edge of the page.
4. If you know what made the sound, like a bird, you can draw that. If you hear a sound you don’t know, try to spell it out (”dzzzz-dz-dzzzz!”) or describe it. A big question mark is fine, too!
5. Try to draw as many sounds as you hear and on all sides.

When you’re done, you’ll have a map of where you are! If it’s a favorite spot, try making a new map for every season of the year, or at different times of the day, and see how the sounds change.

Bark Rubbing

Another great way to get started with a journal is by taking a rubbing of a favorite tree.

1. Start by finding a tree you like. If you’ve never done this, start out with some bark that’s pretty smooth. Rough bark can be tricky.
2. Put a page of your journal up to the bark. Using the side of a crayon, gently rub along the paper, picking up the pattern of the bark underneath on it. (You can also use a pencil, but press very lightly.)
3. When you’re ready for a challenge, try to do rubbings from rougher trees… or even rocks! The key to challenging rubbings is: start out very lightly!

Don’t forget to label each rubbing with location, date, and time — and, if you know it, the name of the tree.

Personal Space

In this activity, your child gets to know a special spot and then introduces it to you and any other family or friends who are around. I find this activity to be really empowering: finally, kids get the chance to show you how much they know!

1. Tell your child that she’s going to find a special place that will be just his to enjoy until he knows everything about it.
2. Borrow your child’s journal and write three “prompts” or questions, one on each page. You can choose from the list below or make up your own based on your child’s interests and strengths.
3. Give your child a boundary that’s big enough for him to explore in, but not so big that you’ll lose sight of him at any point. Then sit still and let him explore — he’s got 10 minutes (or so) to find his spot!
4. Once he’s found his spot, your child can open up his journal and respond to your three questions. When he’s done, he’s ready to come back and introduce you and the family to his special spot. You can really do this up — your child will be your naturalist, your guide for the day, because he’ll know everything about his special spot.

Here are some of the “prompts” you might choose for your child — feel free to adapt them, of course. Any prompt that encourages your child to look more closely at the special spot will be successful.

• What are the first three things you noticed about your place? What do you like most about your place? Give your place a name!
• Draw a picture of the view looking straight up. Draw another picture of the view looking straight down.
• Write the name of the current season (e.g., “SUMMER”) in big letters down the left side of a page. Now, find something in your place that starts with each letter in that word.
• Try to find three different smells in your special place. What are they? Where is the warmest spot in your special place? The coldest spot?
• Be a spy! Look for a sign that someone or something has been in your special place before you: a footprint, nibbled leaf, feather, broken branch — these are all clues.
• How many different colors are in your special place? Write down as many color names as you can that you see around you.

I hope that helps get you started! After a few of these guided activities, your children will want to carry on with their nature journals on their own. Encourage them to use the journals in whatever way they want — they may ask you to prompt them, or they may be off on their own without any specific direction! Either way, a nature journal is a valuable addition to your child’s outdoor experience.

In the next installment of the series, I’m going to talk about groups! Many of us parents turn into group leaders once in a while: to groups of scouts, church groups, or even just attendees of our child’s birthday parties! I’ll introduce some of my favorite outdoor “team-building” exercises — get ready to stick your kids together with masking tape…

[tags]parenting, kids, outdoors, journal, writing, drawing, nature, environment, education, memories[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by nuanc, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved