Nicole Alderman

Yesterday, we did our sit spots near a river, and I realized just how hard it is to draw a river bank, let alone paint it! I didn't have my paints with me, so I took pictures to try to get the colors right.

The river bank--hard to see through the plants in front of me!

The river bank is in the top left--it didn't really turn out. It was fun using the random mix of colors from my dried up cup of water for the grey of the water, though!

The kids also played a game called, "My Secret Plant." In the game, each kid picked a plant to try to describe in as much detail as possible--using words and drawings. They then handed their journal to a friend, and the friend had to find the plant. This was a lot of fun!

My daughter's secret plant. You can see mine above

After our Secret Plant game, we learned some gravelology and used a gravelometer to measure rocks along a transverse line of a river bank. Each kid was assigned a meter spot along the transverse tape measure and inspected a rock in their spot. They drew it, described it, and measured it with a gavelometer. It was tricky trying to draw our rocks!

Trying to draw my rock. I took a picture of it so I could paint it when I got home.

I have a lot of fun painting these when I get home. I might try bringing paints in the upcoming nature journal days, though I usually don't have as much time as I'd like to sketch things out on the spot. Painting it when I get home gives me time to reflect.

I've also been trying to challenge myself to learning and identifying a new plant each week. The first week it was Sitka spruce. Then it was sea rocket, and this week I identified our native Piggyback Plant.

Piggyback plant--it's hairy on the stem, as well as the bottom of the leaves. There's even hairs on the tops of the leaves!

r ransom wrote:This is so cool.  

The kids journals are amazing

I did a bit like this a few years ago as I wanted to document what the different fruit tree flowers looked like.  I find I refer to this quite a lot in the spring and often wonder if a bigger version of a nature journal would come in handy.

You're journal page is so pretty, and such a great resource! Isn't it amazing how much more we learn about something when we make ourselves draw it? We have to ask ourselves lots of questions when we draw stuff--how many petals are there? How many stamen? How far apart are the leaves? What are the leaves actually shaped like? What color is that leave and that bark? We notice and learn so much that we would not otherwise!

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:I'd kicked myself repeatedly this year, as I had aspirations of detailing the succession of plants and animals that passed through Wheaton Labs throughout the year. I want it to be a kind of reference for the Boots:
- First plants blooming in the spring.
- Types of insects and when they arrive on the scene.
- When to harvest annual vegetables.
- Aggressive yellow jackets.
- Periods of 0 precipitation, hottest temps in the summer, and plant "dormancy" due to high temps.
- Last flowers for pollinators to feed from.
- Procession of perennial forage greens on the property.

I think that kind of information will be useful, even just as a foundation, for long-term residents/residence and future planning. "There's always next year..."

As for sit spots, fellow boot Esteban is chipping away at a "Boot Sit Spot" location here at Basecamp. Alongside a footpath, there's a small raised garden bed there so far. He intends to install a three-log-bench there and do a series of plantings so that Boots and other guests will have a quiet place to sit and observe nature.

Thanks for the inspiration (and reminder), Nicole...!

I love this, Stephen! I'm frequently amazed at how often I put things off thinking "There's always next year"...and then the things never get done.

The great thing about something like a nature journal, is that it doesn't just help future us, or other people--it helps us in the present as well. A lot of stuff we'd never notice or realize gets figured out when we just take the time to intentionally observe.

For example, we've lived and walked along our private road for over 14 years now. I've spotted western hemlocks, western red cedars, Douglas firs, and one or two blue spruces. But, no other conifers. I figured, since we had *so many* hemlocks, that it was likely logged and seeded with just hemlocks and cedars. I figured those were the only conifers out here--they were the only native ones I ever "saw" growing up.

It wasn't until I was writing in my journal about a weird cone that I found at a nearby park that I found out that there are Sitka spruce this far inland! And then I realized that the little baby "Douglas firs" I'd dug up from the gravel on the side of the road, were actually baby Sitka spruce! I took a walk with my kids yesterday and really looked at the trees and their cones, and finally found a full-sized Sitka spruce, with it's scaly bark and soft cones. It's been there all along, but I'd  just assumed it was a fir. I'd never really looked at it. We learn a surprisingly large amount when we just take the time to look, record, and wonder!

phyllis gough wrote:May I suggest another aspect of ancient Chinese culture: physical culture which goes under many different names and forms.  One very old set of exercises still in use today (so thousands of years older than Mulan) is known as the Eight Brocades.  The children might like to watch an old Chinese man in a traditional costume performing the exercises.  I think the first one if very doable.

It's been over a year, and I realized I never thanked you! I showed my students them an early depiction of The Eight Brocades (Daoyintu Scroll from the Han Dynasty) and then played your Eight Brocades video. It was a huge hit with my students. The youngest kids really got into it. Thank you so much!

The scroll painting also went really well. I wish I'd managed to get pictures of all the cool scroll paintings the kids did.

Thank you, Anne ♥. One of the class teachers mentioned how, if a fire happened, the first things she'd be grabbing were her and her kids' nature journals. They have like 6 years of nature journals full of beautiful memories.

I have a copy of my great-great-great grandfather's diary from when he traveled up to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Reading it really brought the past to life and connected me to my family.

I thought I'd share some of my kids' and my journal entries. This is a great way to get kids noticing their world, and also get reluctant artists and writers to see a reason for writing.

My reluctant writer wrote quite a bit!

My creative artist/writer had a lot of fun making her journal page be fun and artistic.

This was our first field trip, and so my first entry. We learned about using meta data--like maps and temperature--in our journal entries

The next week was rather fun, because I finally spotted my first hawthorn! And, I learned how to distinguish Douglas firs from Sitka spruce! One of the students found a cone with mushrooms growing out of it. They thought it was a Douglas fir, but it didn't have the little "bracts" coming out of it. I took as many notes as possible about the tree and plant, and identified it when we got back to school! Then I found out that the trees I'd planted thinking they were doug firs were actually sitka spruce!

I wish I'd recorded more info about the tree on the left. It was covered in moss & lichen, with alternate slightly-serrated heart-shaped leaves. But, I ended up spending most of my time helping my son with his journal since it was raining.

The next week, we went to the beach, and I learned about Turkish towel seaweed, identified European sea rocket (a brassica! I didn't try eating it, though. It probably had dog pee), and I learned about the Beaufort wind scale.

I had fun painting and inking parts of this page when I got home. I took a few pictures with my camera while I was at the beach so I could identify stuff better and paint them better.

I thought the Beaufort wind scale was facinating and super handy, so I transcribed it into the back of my journal!

I've always kind of wondered what wind speeds were happing outside. Now I have a way, using just what I see and feel!

Here's the video we watched about the Beaufort wind scale:

My kids are in a sort of environmental studies/forest school class. A large part of the class is keeping nature journals to observe the world around them and write down things they notice, wonder, and learn. I couldn't resist joining in on the fun!

Step 1: Get a book!
The teachers encouraged us to get hard-cover books that allowed for both art and descriptions. I let my kids pick their own books, and I decided to use the book that I'd made as an test-book/example for my medieval history class.

My kids and my nature journals!

Step 2: Learn about "sit spots" and how to nature journal.
A sit spot is a place you pick out to sit quietly for at least 15 minutes and write down what you notice, wonder, and realize. The things you document can help you identify stuff later on! My kids teachers have 4 rules for sit spots. They should be: silent, solo, sitting and safe (you might not sit if it's raining!).

These are some of the videos my kids have watched to learn about sit spots & nature journaling:



You can pick a sit spot at your own property to continually observe the same area all year round:


Step 3: Start journaling!
You can journal at your own place, to see how thing change all year round. You can visit other places to learn about more plants. I'm kind of surprised at how much I've learned in just three weeks of nature journaling. I've found and identified my first Hawthorne, realized trees I thought were Douglas Firs were actually Sitka Spruces, and the Beaufort scale for identifying wind speeds.

It's also a really fun way to engage your creative mind and have an excuse/reason to draw and paint. But, if you don't like art, you can just use words and numbers to record what you're noticing.

My son was in a cooking class, and the instructor had the kids peeling potatoes. Apparently, his reaction of "What? Why?!" was so intense that she thought he'd never seen a peeler before.

Nope. The kid has peeled copious amounts of carrots with a carrot peeler. And, according to him, that was the exact same tool they were using to peel potatoes. But, we've never peeled potatoes. Carrots are quick and easy to peel and the flavor is greatly improved by peeling (if they're store-bought carrots). But, I've never wasted time peeling a potato. We just scrub them, cut off any green/brown/eye spots, and cook them.

Hi Stephen!
The dailyish freebies are for things that are for sale in the Digital Market but can be unlocked by those subscribed to the Dailyish Newsletter. It looks like your app is already free (which is pretty cool!). As such, another moderator moved it out of the Digital Market to the advertising forum.

I think it's super cool that you're offering it for free to the public, but that means it's not a good fit for our Dailyish Freebies program. Here's a few options:

(1) Offer the app for sale here on permies, and then we can turn it into a Dailyish Freebie.

Or:

(2) Keep it free as it is, and advertise it in different ways. You can add it to your signature, "bump" the thread by replying to it every so often, or try some of the other ways to advertise for free (and not free) on permies.

I hope that helps! If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask![

It looks like some staff members here on permies are also not getting their emails, and they also have yahoo. We're trying to figure out what went wrong. Adding us to your contact list might help, though!