I self-published a book this fall: What Remains: Poetry & Essays. I started writing it when my daughter was a baby. She’s a teenager now. At first the whole process was a celebration of so many years of work. I was excited to get the proof copies in the mail, and to announce it online….
Sometimes a kid just doesn’t want to nature journal… right now. Maybe they just want to play tag, or lay down and stare up at the clouds, or smell the flowers. Maybe they want to climb a tree, or write a silly story in their journal about a cat and a spaceship. Letting them take…
Before starting a nature journal page, illustration, or design project, I always begin with a simple question: “Why am I doing this?” This helps me with all the infinite decisions of all different sizes that must be made, and helps me push through and continue even when it gets frustrating or challenging. I have discovered…
This is the first in a series of posts about NOT drawing a bird, but instead, drawing lots of things ABOUT birds. (Notice how this is different from videos about how “not to” draw a bird, which implies there are “wrong” ways to draw a bird… when really, the only wrong way is to not…
I made a video on how to draw a palila (Loxioides bailleui), a critically endangered bird found only on the western slop of Mauna Kea, on Hawai’i island. The native bird shirt I’m wearing in the video is from Laulima: https://laulima.store/ (Fun fact: since 2017, Laulima has donated over $50,700 to Hawaiʻi non-profits and conservation efforts. Plus…
While working with Hawaii Audubon Society, I helped teach over one thousand Hawai’i students about our native birds and how to draw them. However, I sometimes left classrooms wondering how much was actually learned, and what will be remembered a week, month, or year from now. I’ve had students fall asleep during a presentation, spend…
The biggest impediment to people starting (or continuing) to nature journal is a perceived lack of ability. This is especially evident to new learners when their teacher or the examples they’re given are way beyond their current capacity. One way to overcome that is for you as the teacher/parent/adult in their lives to demonstrate learning…
As a nature journaling teacher, I am frequently asked, “How do I get my child/students interested in nature journaling?“ The first step is to do it yourself. It’s very hard to convince someone that nature journaling is important if you don’t do it! Author Oliver Burkeman wrote about this topic in his recent newsletter: “…in…
Nature Journaling begins with the observation of nature — paying attention to the world around us. Then we document those observations in different ways in our journals with words, pictures, and numbers. So what does it mean to give attention to something, and what are the different ways to do that? In other words, it’s…
Be sure to check out the new Hawaii Nature Journal Club website! I am moving all my learning resources over to this page. Hawaii Nature Journal Club Print out the page below. It’s double sided and designed to be easy to use on a clipboard. Be sure to send me a photo of your finished…