CMP Review 2025-10-08

October 8, 2025

Did you see the time-tables in yesterday’s article, “The Group Organization”? In it we see a weekly 20-minute slot allotted to Nature Note-Notebooks in the afternoon. This was an exciting find by @artmiddlekauff. Of course, children were encouraged to make any amount of entries in their nature notebooks throughout the week.

The brush drawings in my own nature journal took, on average, 15 minutes. I had recalled reading (possibly in Essex Cholmondeley’s The Story of Charlotte Mason) that the teaching students had a precious 15 minutes scheduled for a nature journal entry. I scheduled Playtime for my sons ahead of nature journaling in order to set up the dining table with paints, water, towels, and our journals all atop a piece of flannel to protect the table. There was 15-minutes for painting, time for notes and clean-up.

Brush Drawing lessons were a separate time, and I think this made for success in our nature journaling. Learning and practicing a handful of key strokes built our muscle memory and, when strokes were combined, it seemed we could capture about any nature specimen.

Of course, we have the freedom to schedule our lessons in the way best for our own unique family. For us, the short time-block meant we couldn’t dawdle or overly finesse our entries and it also kept my young boys from the physical stress of holding a brush.

@rbaburina