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Nature Study

Between global warming, holes in the ozone, and the pollution of our seas and rivers, maybe it is best to keep kids indoors and pacified in front of the television....but probably not. If these aren't real threats then there's nothing to protect our children (or ourselves) from, and if they are real threats—all the more reason to instill a love of nature in the younger generations.

Kids have an inclination toward exploration and learning. Allowing them to do so encourages not only active bodies and active minds, it fosters a healthy imagination and love of beauty. Charlotte Mason understood this over a century ago, and developed a system of education in which nature study played a prominent role. It is in nature, more than in the classroom or the rec room or even the library, that children best learn by observation, and this habit once formed will never disappear.

The often-referenced "childlike wonder" inherent in all of us from a young age (though modern society seems to be stamping it out quicker and more efficiently) isn't just some esoteric feeling of awe. It's literal wonder—kids wonder how birds fly, why their pet dog's fur falls out in summer, where ants go in the winter, why it gets colder and harder to breathe the higher you get. The less contact they have with the natural world, the less wonder they'll have; but the reverse is also true, and kids allowed to roam and explore the outdoors will develop a sense of inquisitiveness that can only help them in the so-called "real world."

Preparation for the Real World of modern myth often takes on peculiar guises. Children are snatched from the fields and streams and placed in front of computer screens or television sets. They are crowded into classrooms and made to feel good about the fact that they are learning nothing at the same rate as everyone around them. They are given plastic toys with supposed educational properties and made to "play" with them under close adult supervision.

Meanwhile, the real real world waits outside the walls and doors and windows with its fresh smells, its colors brighter and more unique than anything on HDTV or Blu-Ray, its real wind, and its endless mysteries. If you don't like answering questions, don't want your kids to grow or exercise, prefer fat and lazy to fit and intelligent offspring, by all means somberly prepare them for a life without questions, and consequently without answers. If you want children who will grown into thoughtful adults with a sense of the loveliness of Earth and their place in it, keeping them inside is possibly the most dangerous choice you can make on their behalf.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Active Filters: Birds, Used Books & Materials
All the Water Birds - Pacific Coast
by Jack Griggs
1st edition
for 7th-12th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Another Field Guide to Little Known and Seldom-Seen Birds of North America
by Ben, Cathryn, and John Sill
from Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Audubon Society Field Guide to the Bald Eagle
by David G. Gordon
from Sasquatch Books
for 7th-Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Audubon's Birds of America
by John James Audubon
from Galahad Books
for Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Avenging the Owl
by Melissa Hart
from Sky Pony Press
for 4th-7th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Backyard Bird Feeder's Bible
by Sally Roth
from Rodale Press
for 5th-Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Barn Owls
by Wolfgang Epple, photographs by Manfred Rogl
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
for 2nd-5th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Bird Families of the World
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Birds of America
by T. Gilbert Pearson (editor), illustrated by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Birds of Prey
A Grosset All-Color Guide
by Glenys and Derek Lloyd, Illustrated by Ken Lilly
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 9th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Birds of the Puget Sound Region
by Dennis Paulson
from R. W. Morse Company
for 3rd-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Birds of the World
by Alan Greensmith
1st edition from DK Publishing
for 7th-12th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$9.50 (1 in stock)
Birds' Eggs
by Michael Walters
1st edition
for 7th-12th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$9.50 (1 in stock)
Bluebirds and Their Neighbors
by Wayne Northey
from Pacific Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Bluebirds Seven
by R. Bruce Horsfall
1st edition
for 3rd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Book of Birds Volumes I & II
by Gilbert Grosvenor & Alexander Wetmore (editors), illustrated by Major Allan Brooks
from National Geographic
for Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Book of Eagles
by Helen Roney Sattler, illustrated by Jean Day Zallinger
from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Collins Guide to Bird Watching
2nd edition from William Collins
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Ducks Don't Get Wet
by Augusta Goldin, illustrated by Leonard Kessler
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 1st-2nd grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Exploring Creation With Zoology 3 - MP3 CD Audio Book
Young Explorer Series
by Jeannie Fulbright
from Apologia Educational Ministries
for 3rd-6th grade
in Apologia Young Explorer (Location: SCICUR-AEM)
$24.00 $18.00 (1 in stock)
First Look at Owls, Eagles, and Other Hunters of the Sky
by Millicent E. Selsam, illustrated by Joyce Hunt
from Walker Publishing, Inc.
for 1st-3rd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon
by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
from Dutton Juvenile
for 4th-9th grade
1928 Newbery Medal winner
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$14.00 (2 in stock)
Genius of Birds
by Jennifer Ackerman
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Have You Ever Heard of a Kangaroo Bird?
by Barbara Brenner, illustrated by Irene Brady
from Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Helicopter Bird - Audio CD
by "Uncle Bob" Devine
from A Beka Books
for 4th-6th grade
in A Beka Science (Location: SCICUR-ABK)
$8.00 (3 in stock)
How Do Birds Find Their Way?
by Roma Gans
from HarperCollins
for 1st-3rd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
How Grace Got Her Name
by Alice Elshoff, illustrated by Jennifer Curtis
from Moonglade Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
If I Were a Bird
by Gladys Conklin; illustrated by Artur Marokvia
from Holiday House
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Kiya the Gull
by Fen H. Lasell
from Addison Wesley
for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lizards for Lunch
by Conrad J. Storad
from Bobolink Media Inc.
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
My Hobby is Bird Watching
by Mary P. Pettit
1958 Printing from Hart Publishing Company
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$24.00 (1 in stock)
National Audubon Society First Field Guide: Birds
by Scott Weindensaul
from Scholastic Inc.
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Nest Full of Eggs
by Priscilla Belz Jenkins
from HarperCollins
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
New True Book of Bald Eagles
by Emilie U. Lepthien
from Children's Press
for 1st-3rd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Of Skies and Seas
My Father's World
by Joanne E. De Jonge
from Eerdmans
for 7th-9th grade
in Morality Tales (Location: FIC-WH05)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Oliver Pete is a Bird
by Carroll Lane Fenton and Dorothy Constance Pallas
from The John Day Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon for Birds of America
by John James Audubon
1985 edition from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Oversized Science Books (Location: SCI-OVER)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
Ospreys
by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, photos by William Munoz
from Clarion Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Our Amazing Birds
by Robert S. Lemmon, illustrated by Don R. Eckelberry
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Penguins
by Emily Bone
from Usborne
for 1st-2nd grade
in Usborne Beginners (Location: SCI-USBREA)
$2.70 (1 in stock)
Penguins: Flightless Birds of the Southern Hemisphere
from Sea World
for 6th-12th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Peregrine's Sky
by Consie Powell
from Western National Parks Assoc.
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Peterson Field Guides: Western Birds
by Noble Proctor, Roger Tory Peterson
2nd edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Pocket Naturalist Guide: Portland Birds
from Waterford Press
for 3rd-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Real Thief
by William Steig
from Houghton Mifflin
for 3rd-5th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Secrets of Backyard Bird-Feeding Success
by Deborah L. Martin
from Rodale Press
for 7th-Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Snow Goose
by Paul Gallico
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$19.95 $14.00 (2 in stock)
Songbird
by Nancy Lohr
from Bob Jones University Press
for 5th-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$6.99 $4.50 (3 in stock)
Strange Birds and Their Stories
Strange Stories From Nature #4
by A. Hyatt Verrill
from L. C. Page & Company
for 5th-12th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
The Birds
Life Nature Library
by Roger Tory Peterson
from Time-Life Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne Discovery: Birds
Usborne Internet-Linked
by Gillian Doherty
from Usborne
for 4th-6th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$4.05 (1 in stock)
What's That Bird? - Teacher Guide
by Ashley Gratto
from Memoria Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Old Edition Science (Location: OSCI)
$8.00 $4.00 (4 in stock)
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