Prayers are appreciated as this past Sunday our family suffered a trauma. My mother-in-law was getting ready for church, and 5 minutes or less of being away from the room, my father-in-law found her unconscious, no pulse, and not breathing. Thankfully, the fire department is less than 2 minutes around the corner and they live about 7 minutes from a hospital. She was shocked back and is in ICU now, on a ventilator. Each day has been better than the day before, with her color better and she’s moving her limbs (involuntarily and upon stimulus, not on command). So I’m writing my column this week in the ICU waiting room. Thank you for your prayers.

As I sit here, the sun is shining bright in a brilliant blue sky. There’s a courtyard downstairs that I can look down upon from this second floor window. Spring is a great time for nature walks and working on a nature notebook. It doesn’t really matter where you find yourself. I could walk down into the courtyard and sketch a flower, tree, or even some grass. Later I could look it up online to find out the species and note that on my sketch, as well as the date, time, and the weather conditions. You don’t need a park or a vast space of outdoors to walk into nature. Even if you live in an apartment, there are green spaces available even if they are just beside the parking places.

Nature notebooks don’t require any artistic abilities, you just need to copy what you see. A handy tip I have found is to turn the subject upside down and just copy it. When upside down, the item is usually a bit unfamiliar and one can sometimes do a better job of copying it. Nature notebooks were advocated by Charlotte Mason in the mid-nineteenth century. Drawing from nature was a way to get children out into the open air as well as considered a virtue for both young men and women. Getting past the idea of this being an “art class” is a good idea. As Miss Mason encouraged copy work of good literature to encourage good grammar and content writing, copying from nature helps one to become observant which is an important attribute whether one is artistically inclined or not.

This is definitely a subject that doesn’t require a “classroom” of children. I always brought my own notebook along with my son’s when we would do a nature walk—sometimes in the front or back yard, or even at the zoo. It’s good not to dictate to your child in what to draw. Being able to have control over what they choose to draw will open your own eyes on what they see as important. (It can even show you when they make a “statement” with their choice. One time I sent my son out on his own to the backyard to draw whatever, but to draw something in his notebook. He came back with a great picture of a stick. I believe he wasn’t that thrilled to draw anything that day, but he did do a great job on that little branch.) Even giving a child a camera can help them frame a view of their world, surprising you in what they felt was important enough to have a record thereof. Helping your child to slow down and observe the world around them is important and keeping and/or developing a nature notebook is one good way to do it.

So, where ever you find yourself, get yourself and your children outside and copy what you see (small items like a leaf or large items like a hillside). It’ll do you (and them) some good!

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