Projects
To help connect people to nature, we create low-cost and free nature journaling educational projects, opportunities, and resources for children, teens, adults, and educators, both online and in person at various locations in the United States and abroad. Our projects are funded by donations from individuals and foundations.
Click the Donate button to support our projects and programs.
Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference
Founded in 2019, this annual international nature journaling conference—the largest event of its kind—is attended by journalers from around the world and features leading educators and innovators in nature journaling, visual thinking, science, art, nature connection, and conservation.
Training and Support for Nature Journaling Educators
We want to support the development of more nature journaling educators around the world, so we offer opportunities and resources for educator training. Please explore our TEACH section, which has numerous free resources to help support your work teaching nature journaling.
Most Wednesdays, John Muir Laws leads an online, live, free event, the Nature Journaling Educators Forum (NJEF), where educators gather and share ideas and inspiration. See JML’s calendar here and look for NJEF events.
Nature Journaling Educators Workshop
Join John Muir Laws—co-author of the book How to Teach Nature Journaling—along with other experienced educators for an online workshop for nature journal educators. This workshop is for anyone who is teaching in any form—formal classroom educators, but also homeschool parents, park rangers, adult education instructors, nature centers, scout leaders, environmental educators, and more. Save the date for the 2024 workshop: Sunday, April 28.
Regional Nature Journaling Retreats
Since 2023, Wild Wonder has hosted regional in-person nature journaling retreats, and we intend to expand these to locations across the United States and around the world. Led by experienced nature journaling teachers including John Muir Laws and others, these retreats offer opportunities for members of our community to gather and connect with other nature journalers, deepen their nature journaling practice, and share the joy of being in nature together. Check out our events page for upcoming retreats.
Wild Wonder Micro Grant Program
Through the new Wild Wonder Micro Grant Program, we aim to celebrate the creativity in this community, generate new outreach ideas, and offer support to individuals leading projects that bring nature journaling to new audiences, especially those that are currently underserved.
We are so grateful to the global nature journaling community for helping to bring this program to life! All of the funds for this Wild Wonder Micro Grant Program came from donations made by the nature journaling community for a series of Learn to Draw classes taught by John Muir Laws (available in our store for free, or for donation, here). We welcome your ongoing support for this program. You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Nature Journaling Outreach to Orphaned Children in Tanzania
We are proud to partner with Amani Children’s Home in Tanzania to bring the joy of nature journaling to orphaned children. Many generous donors have made this project possible.
Free online nature journaling classes with John Muir Laws
In his free weekly online classes, master educator John Muir Laws connects with, inspires, and sustains the global nature journaling community with his passion, expertise, and joy. John, who goes by Jack, also records his classes and shares them for free on his blog. Since he began sharing his class videos in 2011, his hundreds of free classes have been viewed more than 2 million times. Supporting Jack’s free classes is one of our most important projects.
The Nature Journal Connection Video Series
This free series of 40 short videos created by John Muir Laws and the Children’s Creativity Museum offers tips, techniques, and playful encouragement for beginning nature journalers of all ages.
Encouraging Nature Journaling in the Galapagos
In July 2022, the Wild Wonder Foundation donated 10 Spanish-language copies of the Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling to a library in the Galapagos Islands. Nature journaler and teacher Marley Peifer, who was in the Galapagos co-leading a nature journaling trip with John Muir Laws, worked with a local librarian who added them to the collection and made them available to the community. The librarian holds educational workshops several times a month, and she plans to utilize the new books in her future classes and lend them to local educators. As a nature journaling ambassador, Marley also taught numerous nature journaling classes to children and educators in the region.
Future Projects
Wild Wonder Magazine
This new publication will connect and inspire our nature journaling community. In this online and print publication, we will share the story of nature journaling, nature connection, conservation, and community through profiles of journalers, examples of nature journal pages, tips and techniques to help readers enhance their journaling experience, reviews of books and equipment, and more.
Wild Wonder Online Community
We are working on building a place—that is not on social media!—for our community to gather, connect with each other, share journaling pages, and share joy! We plan to launch this in late 2024.