Nature Notebooks: A Pageant of the Seasons

Each of the aspects of nature study that we have talked about so far has focused on observation, but now we will begin looking at the expression of things observed by the use of a nature notebook. Charlotte Mason explained how keeping a nature notebook complimented the child’s interest in nature:

Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasps, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragonfly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way. … Let all he finds out about it be entered in his diary––by his mother, if writing be a labour to him,––where he finds it, what it is doing, or seems to him to be doing; its colour, shape, legs… (vol. 1, pp. 57-58)

Not only does this activity prime a young child for future narration lessons, but it also builds the habit of attention through a natural reward as the child gets to record the interesting things he has seen in his own nature notebook.

Charlotte Mason said that children should begin keeping a nature notebook as soon as they can keep it themselves, however, she allowed that a mother can take dictation for her child. She added that a five or six-year-old child should begin adding drawings to his nature notebook. Once lessons were begun, all children from Form 1 through Form 6 (grades 1-12) were instructed in their programme of work to “Keep a nature notebook.” There was a small amount of time on the morning schedule allowed for Brush Drawing in Form 1 (grades 1-3,) some of which could have been used to produce a nature drawing, but once a student reached Form 2, the foundation was laid and keeping a nature notebook became an afternoon occupation.

It was hoped, however, that every student would continue keeping a nature notebook beyond their school days, that it would become the work of a lifetime. In the article “Neglected Nature,” Pennethorne noted: “The ‘Nature Note Books’ still kept by the students of Ambleside are not, and never were, ‘lesson books’—they were personal records of a life lived in close communion with the life of the countryside around them.” (PR 46, p. 47)

The student-teachers at the House of Education were taught to keep their notebooks in a rather particular way. While they each reflected the student’s unique style, they all included, in some measure, the same components. Keep in mind that these students were young adults who were studying to be teachers themselves, so their books were held to a high standard. Eventually, it would be their job to inspire and guide the children in their care to keep a nature notebook of their own.

As parents, we have the same responsibility. However, it is not necessarily a task that can be explained to young children. Instead, they will learn many of the principles as we lead by example. For this reason, I have written the next set of articles, all focusing on keeping a nature notebook, to you. I will not describe what a nature journal kept by a five-year-old may look like, or even that of a fourth grader. Rather, I intend to describe the ideal based on what Charlotte Mason’s student-teachers were taught under her direct influence. I hope that as you become thoroughly familiar with each aspect, you will find your own personal style and be highly motivated to keep this personal record for yourself. Which will, in turn, guide your children to do the same.

When the student-teachers of the House of Education Teaching College were ready to graduate, they presented lessons before an examiner and were given critiques. Their nature notebooks and some handicrafts were examined as well, and a summary of the results was published in the “Our Work” section of the Parents’ Review once a year.

Herbert Geldart acted as the first examiner of nature notebooks, from 1893 to 1901. In 1898 he gave a lecture at Charlotte Mason’s request which was later included in the Parents’ Review entitled “Nature Work at the House of Education.” In his lecture, he told of the history of nature notebooks at the House of Education, outlined their purpose and structure at the time, and he explained how he scored them. Throughout he showed great admiration for the students’ books, for their natural history teacher, M. L. Hodgson, and he expressed deep respect for Miss Mason herself. Although he freely admitted that he knew nothing of the “process and the progress of the teaching,” it was through the reading of each student notebook that he was “acquainted with the result,” and hence, he closed his lecture by explaining, “There are two ways of Nature teaching, which take two different lines, according to whether you want merely to teach a science, or whether you want to instruct and elevate your pupil—in other words, whether you value your subject or your pupil most.” (PR 9, p. 487-88, emphasis mine)

When Geldart retired from this role, he was succeeded by the longest running examiner of the nature notebooks, Alfred Thornley, who examined the notebooks for 35 years and always approached the task with great interest and encouragement. Each summer Mr. Thornley visited Ambleside for a couple of days, at which time he took the students, both student-teachers and the young students of the practicing school, for long nature walks where he answered copious questions, named every living thing, and generally inspired the whole lot of them. In his examination notes, he often remarked on his visits, such as the following example from 1908:

I had again a very happy visit to Scale How in June, and a most delightful walk with the students. The weather was against us, but our enthusiasm was far superior to any depressing conditions. So great was the interest that it is recorded against us by the more active spirits that it took us about four hours to walk only three miles. But this is not surprising when every footstep revealed new objects of interest. Two entirely new flowers were added to the list, and acquaintance made with several new creatures. A good account of this walk will be found in all the Note Books. (PR 19, p. 232)

From his home, Thornley read the notebooks year after year, and found himself transported back to the lovely countryside of Ambleside: “As I read these excellent books the glorious pageant of the seasons passes once more before me and I can fancy myself walking in the green meadows and by the rippling streams of Ambleside.” (PR 21, p. 228)

Upon Thornley’s resignation, Agnes Drury wrote:

What we have received from his exceptionally wide knowledge of Nature, his long experience of schools, united with a strong sympathy with our Founder’s aims and methods, is known to none better than to myself. And I cannot find words to express my regret, and particularly, in later years, at the loss of his visits in June, and his teaching us all how much is to be discovered in a short walk. (PR 50, p. 139)

Drury herself followed Thornley as the examiner. She had previously been a student at the House of Education, and her own nature notebook was reviewed by Thornley in 1902 where he reported, “Observations profuse and well recorded. Drawings excellent.” (PR 14, p. 549) Five years after her graduation she joined the faculty of the House of Education, eventually taking on the role of Natural History teacher. She also wrote several articles in the Parents’ Review, such as “Nature Study” and “How to Keep a Nature Note-Book.” Her role of examiner seemed to come out of necessity, as she wrote:

It is unfortunate to have to succeed Mr. Thornley as inspector this year, when the Nature Note-books have been compiled under my own supervision. Therefore a generous estimate of their merits is called for on my part rather than a severe one. Some of them are among the most beautiful that Scale How has produced, but not one is quite full. This is unusual and is chiefly accounted for by neglect in the holidays. (PR 50, p. 139)

We owe a great deal to Drury for her practical instruction both to her student-teachers at the House of Education and the parents who then and now read the Parents’ Review. However, there came a time when Drury was separated from Ambleside, and just like Thornely, she found pleasure in reading the notebooks while away from her longtime home: “Reading these books has been specially pleasant because I have missed a year and a half of Ambleside.” (PR 53, p. 59)

I am struck by the comments of both Thornely and Drury as they indicate a connection to the beautiful region of Ambleside through the students’ notebooks. And they weren’t the only ones to react in this way upon reading the notebooks. In The Story of Charlotte Mason, Essex Cholmondeley noted that “Miss Mason enjoyed the students’ nature books as much as Mr Thornley did; she always felt, after inspecting the pile that were being sent to him, as if she had been out of doors, and only wished that she had leisure to read each one through.” (p.159) Drury also commented on the deep connection from a student’s perspective:

Most of us look back upon this result of our training, together with the practice of taking walks which it implies, as among the greatest of the benefits we owe to Miss Mason. And the pages of our nature notebooks recall, as nothing else can, the choicest walks we have had and our most cherished memories of birds and flowers. (PR 34, p.371)

When Thornley said he could “fancy [himself] walking in the green meadows and by the rippling streams of Ambleside,” it caused me to look more closely at my own notebook. Would the potential reader receive such a clear picture, season after season, of what the natural world looks and feels like where I live? Almost a year ago I moved across the country from northeast Tennessee, which borders on being a temperate rainforest, to the foothills of northern California in an area that straddles woodland chaparral and the yellow pine belt. From reading my nature notebook, one should get a good sense of the ecology of the place I reside now and a feel for the seasonal changes. I see many lovely nature paintings on social media from people all around the country, even around the world, showing the same spring flowers that I see on the trails near me, but could you tell from reading each of the books that we live in very different regions with very different climates? Do you know from reading my book that the green grass comes up in January here, but will die to a golden brown in late spring, (as opposed to the summer grass in Tennessee that sometimes has to be mowed more than once a week)? Do you know that the sky is a brilliant blue here, (contrasted with the soft blue sky in Tennessee due to the humidity)? It’s not that we need to compare our place to another, as I have done above to demonstrate an idea, but that our books should reflect an overall impression of our region.

As we begin to see our place with fresh eyes and record its nuances and character through the seasons, we will find greater enjoyment in the passing year. Our notebooks will reflect the joy of a returned bird building a nest or the bloom of a fall flower. Each change will be an expected surprise. Expected because we are familiar with our place and know what to look for, and yet still a surprise because the fall foliage is never precisely the same twice and the peony has to be seen to be believed each and every year.

Thornley once remarked in his report:

The best side of the work is the joyous spirit these books display. Nature, to these students is plainly a stimulus to high thoughts; they have received from their study, not merely knowledge, but inspiration, and such inspiration, as our own Wordsworth implies in his beautiful lines :—
To the solid ground of Nature,
Trusts the mind that builds for aye. (PR 22, p. 149)

Elsewhere he said, “The beautiful and artistic paintings, the Bird and Flower lists, all testify to the Spirit of keenness and joy which the study of nature awakens in the heart of her students.” (PR 26, p. 233) Drury agreed. She said of the notebooks, “But with hardly an exception, the enjoyment of Nature Study is evident.” (PR 52, p. 62)

Still, Thornley warned that there must be a balance: “The poetic feeling aroused in us by the contemplation of Nature is always admirable, but it should not be allowed to obsess altogether the true spirit of scientific enquiry. The same remarks will to some extent apply to the drawings and paintings.” (PR 20, p. 229)

This idea again caused me to review my own nature notebook. Does it display a spirit of keenness and joy and also knowledge? Upon reflection, I realized that over the years I had struggled to find this balance. For an extended time, I made it all about capturing the beauty of a single specimen at a time. Then later, I lost my balance to the other side, making my entries all about science by recording measurements, locations, and other data. I had never quite found an appropriate balance between poetic feeling and scientific inquiry. Furthermore, my notebook didn’t really make it clear how much I had enjoyed the study or that daily I marvel at God’s beautiful work.

That all changed as I came to understand, through the examiners’ reports and the student-teachers’ own notebooks, each component included in a Charlotte Mason style nature notebook: notes, drawings, lists, poetry, and overall impressions. By looking at each of these parts over the next several weeks, I hope to share with you how easy it can be to record a consistent pageant of the seasons, while also balancing science and heart. Maybe this understanding will give you the same renewed purpose and motivation for keeping a nature notebook, that it has for me.

Resources:

Throughout this portion of the series, I will often include excerpts from the nature notebooks of three student-teachers from the House of Education Teaching College: Florence Rankin, Margaret Deck Deering, and May Openshaw. In addition, I will periodically reference the notebook of a student of the Parents’ Union School, Margaret Hickling, who attended Overstone School, a public school for girls from twelve to eighteen originally organized in 1928 by Henrietta Franklin and Dr. Costley-White. You may enjoy reading some of them for yourself.

Florence Rankin 1 1894 Ranked first in her class with distinction for excellence of drawing.
Florence Rankin 2 1899

Margaret Deck.Deering 1a Apr – Aug 1910 Also ranked first in her class.
Margaret Deck.Deering 1b Aug 1910 – Jun 1911
Margaret Deck.Deering 2 Jul – Aug 1911
Margaret Deck.Deering 3 Aug 1912 – 1923

May Openshaw 1a 1912 Ranked 9 of 16.
May Openshaw 1b

Margaret Hickling 1a 1934-1936 Not ranked as this was a student notebook.
Margaret Hickling 1b
Margaret Hickling 1c

References:

Cholmondeley, Essex. The Story of Charlotte Mason. Child Light Ltd, 2000.
Drury, Agnes C. “Nature Work at the House of Education.” Parents’ Review, vol. 34, 1923, pp. 369-374.
Drury, Agnes C. “Our Work” Parents’ Review, vol. 50, 1939, pp. 138-139
Drury, Agnes C. “Our Work” Parents’ Review, vol. 52, 1941, pp. 62-63.
Drury, Agnes C. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 53, 1942, pp. 59-60.
Geldart, H. “Nature Work at the House of Education.” Parents’ Review, vol. 9, 1897, pp. 487-495.
Pennethorne, R. A. “Neglected Nature.” Parents’ Review, vol. 46, 1935, pp. 47-50.
Thornley, Alfred. “Examiner’s Report on Nature Note Books, December, 1902.” Parents’ Review, vol. 14, 1903, pp. 549-550.
Thornley, Alfred. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 19, 1908, pp. 232-233.
Thornley, Alfred. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 20, 1909, pp. 228-230.
Thornley, Alfred. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 21, 1910, pp. 228-229
Thornley, Alfred. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 22, 1911, pp. 149-150.
Thornley, Alfred. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 23, 1912, pp. 227-228.
Thornley, Alfred. “Our Work.” Parents’ Review, vol. 26, 1915, pp. 234-235.

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