Incorporating nature and the great outdoors into your lifestyle in some way helps to fulfill a well-balanced life, especially if you are a child. Working through A Kid’s Spring EcoJournal by Toni Albert with my children proved to be very beneficial for our science observation and exploration of the spring season.

This EcoJournal is a single workbook that incorporates all learners with its visual, tactile, or kinesthetic approach. Every student can become involved in some way through different approaches: writing daily observations, notes, or details about the particular nature area you have considered observing; drawing a detailed sketch as a map of what nature looks like surrounding that area; or using your senses to listen for different sounds, observe smells, and record all changes noticed.  Each day you will record one daily observation with writing details or notes, with a total of 24 observations. There is also a daily hands-on activity that reinforces learning, but requires some adult supervision. The author also includes some short journal entries from her own nature journal, which is lovely, for some added inspiration. This consumable workbook retails for $9.95.

My fourth grader, age 9, and my first grader, age 7, were able to participate in the daily writing, observations, and hands-on activities, as this nature journal was included into their science portion for homeschooling. Although, after working through this journal, I would recommend that the age level be for those students who have a clear understanding of sentence structure and are able to read already if you desire a more independent lesson, as I had to scribe for my 7-year-old so she could express as to what she was seeing or hearing. This is a great workbook for a non-traditional type of schooling and taking the classroom outside. Getting students to understand the depths of how nature progresses from one season to the next and becoming detail-oriented regarding the area they are observing. It is really a fantastic journal for students who already appreciate nature or for those students who need a reason to be outside. For families with multiple children and grade levels, this journal can be easily adapted to any age of student or learning style. 

We enjoyed seeing the spring season blossom and grow through a variety of observations noted and recorded that we probably would have missed if we were not intentional at working through A Kid’s Spring EcoJournal. This journal provided my students with a fresh perspective of how science works in a “nature setting” and ways you can become a part of nature without disturbing the balance, with the hands-on activities. We also learned the inner workings of how important it is to care for our “forest friends” and help support them in any way we can without disturbing their environment.

The journal provides very little room for note taking, journaling, or detailed observations, so you may need to have another type of journal or notebook on hand, especially if your student is one that has a long attention span and records several observations at once. There are also no extra pages for drawing pictures or detailed mapping of an area, which was hard as we had several loose pages that we had to keep track of. 

I would recommend this product if you are looking for a simplistic way to combine exploring science while observing nature, or for any student who needs a little extra support in finding science, nature, or writing to be an exceptionally interesting area of learning. It is also only used for the spring season which is about two to three months, but there are other journals for summer, fall, and winter that can be purchased separately, so this type of learning could take place year round. This is a self-controlled approach to learning and cannot be rushed by the student, but must be worked through methodically, taking special care with the details. We generally choose a more traditional approach to learning, yet sometimes we need a workbook that provides a different style of learning, and this is what keeps my students’ schooling balanced.

-Product review by Pam Havens, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June 2017