Nature journaling is a huge part of our homeschool routine.
If you have followed our site for any length of time, you already know we are a family of nature lovers. We hike daily, in almost every type of weather. If you are on Instagram, you can follow our daily adventures via our stories.

As New Englanders, we see lots of weather but that doesn’t stop us from getting out there and exploring the world around us!
Lately, I have received several emails and social media messages asking about our family’s favorite nature journaling books.
And one of our favorite nature-related activities is to journal either during a hike or just afterward. Today, I’m sharing our favorite books for nature journaling.
The Best Nature Journaling Books for Creativity and Inspiration
Nature Study in Your Homeschool
I absolutely love to explore nature with my children… but I am terrible at planning nature-related activities, art, and readings. That’s why I was delighted when Kara introduced me to a super-fun, super-easy nature curriculum. That was years ago, and we are still using it regularly!
Check out My Little Poppies Course Offerings:
- The Lazy Homeschooler’s Guide to Unit Studies
- How to Rock THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Your Homeschool Day
- Gameschooling 101: How to Add More Play to Your Homeschool Day
Before I share our favorite nature journaling books, I wanted to share this nature study curriculum. It is called Exploring Nature with Children: A Complete, Year-Long Curriculum.
It is super affordable and easy to use whether you are outdoors daily or just getting started. If you would like to learn more, you can read my full review:
Download our free Nature Study Resource Guide!
Be sure to fill your backpacks with resources for exploring nature
I have a couple of posts about creating Nature Explorer Packs for your little hikers, but here are some of our favorite resources:
The Best Nature Journaling Books for Your Homeschool
One of our favorite things to do is to take our journals on a hike, stop for a picnic, and take a moment for nature journaling. Sometimes, we sketch something we found in nature.
Other times, we draw a landscape. And, of course, we also sketch purely from our imaginations.
We love to enjoy a nice long hike and then return home and journal using some of our favorite books. The wonderful thing about nature books is that they can inspire so much creativity!
Books for nature journaling and creative inspiration
These are a few of the books that have inspired fantastic nature journaling in our home:
Super-Simple Nature Journaling
One of the easiest ways to inspire nature journaling in your homeschool is to create a nature table. I actually got this idea from Exploring Nature with Children: A Complete, Year-Long Curriculum.
As children hike, ask them to collect nature “treasures” and add them to your homeschool nature table. If you hike regularly, the table’s contents will change with the seasons. It’s a wonderful and simple way to learn about the natural world.
Add a few nature books, magnifying glasses or pocket microscopes, and sketch paper and your kids won’t be able to resist learning about nature… and maybe nature journaling, too! This is called strewing and it’s one of my favorite things to do!
Need more resources for nature journaling with kids?
Check out these related articles:
Nature Books for Grown-Ups
You didn’t think I’d leave you out, did you? Here are some of my personal favorite nature books for big kids:
Nature Games to Complement Your Nature Journaling
It wouldn’t be a Cait post if I didn’t include some of our favorite gameschooling resources!
Looking for some nature-related projects?
You may enjoy these articles:
- Simple Pond Study
- 5 Simple Spring Homeschool Projects
- Simple Bee Study with Candle Making & Honey
- Forts: The Original STEM Challenge
- Fairy House STEM
Love nature?
Check out these related posts:
- Exploring Nature with Children & DIY Nature Explorer Packs!
- 5 + Nature Games for Your Homeschool
- Nature Lovers Will Adore This Jim Arnosky Author Study
- DIY Nature Explorer Pack
- Gardening Books and Resources for Your Little Nature Lover
Love art?
You may enjoy these articles:
- Artists Around the World: A New Series from Around the World Stories
- Fuel Creativity and Learning Through Art
- Celebrate Summer Mixed Media Workshop
- Get Ready for Summer with this Seashore Chalk Pastel Video Art Course
Would you like to learn more about our homeschool nature and science curriculum?
My oldest two participate in a homeschool nature class. In addition, everyone dabbles in:
- Science I (with advanced readers) from BookShark
- Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum
- Exploring Nature with Children
- Science games
- Nature games
- STEM toys
- STEM books
- Science storybooks
Our homeschool curriculum choices, by year
I get a lot of questions about our curriculum choices. You can read more here:
- 2017-2018 Homeschool Curriculum (1st, 2nd, and 4th grade)
- 2016-2017 Homeschool Curriculum (K, 1st grade, and 3rd grade)
- 2015-2016 Homeschooling Curriculum (Pre-K, K, and 2nd grade)
Love Coffee and Books?
Be sure to check out these related posts:
- Coffee and Books: A 5-Day Series
- Coffee and Books: Select Titles from Fall 2017, Organized by Subject
- Why You Should Start Your Day with the Easiest Thing
- Rock Your Read Alouds with this Simple Trick
- What to do When Bedtime Reading is Giving You the Blues
Guess what else I love?
Games. And I love to pair books and games! Read more here:
Do you want to see Coffee and Books in action?
Be sure to follow My Little Poppies because we share snapshots of our homeschool day… and heaps of fantastic books!
You are also invited to join the {Virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a private Facebook Group for parents who love to read fantastic books to their children… and chat about them!
What is the spiral book next to the Julia Rothman book? What a great post!
Thank you! It’s a sketchbook from the Canon Artist series, I believe.
What book has the apple variety drawing in it?
I believe it is Nature Anatomy- if not, it’s Farm Anatomy. Both are by Julia Rothmann.