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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22 Items found Print
Active Filters: Mass market paperback
Complete Guide to North American Trees
by Carlton C. Curtis and S.C. Bausor
1971 printing from Collier Books
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Dolphin Adventure
by Wayne Grover
from HarperTrophy
for 3rd-7th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$5.99 $3.50 (4 in stock)
Dolphin Treasure
by Wayne Grover
from HarperTrophy
for Ages 8-12
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$5.99 $3.50 (2 in stock)
Golden Guide: Reptiles and Amphibians
Golden Nature Guide
by Herbert S. Zim and Hobart M. Smith, revised by Jonathan P. Latimer and Karen Stray Nolting with J. Whitefield Gibbons
Revised and Updated from St. Martin's Press
for 6th-9th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Guide: Rocks and Minerals
from Golden Press
for 2nd-7th grade
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Guide: Seashore Life
by Herbert S. Zim and Lester Ingle, illustrated by Dorothea and Sy Barlowe
from St. Martin's Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
Golden Guide: Trees
by Herbert S. Zim and Alexander C. Martin, illustrated by Dorothea and Sy Barlowe
from Golden Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Field Guides: Plants & Fungi (Location: NAT-FG08)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Guide: Whales, Dolphins and Other Marine Mammals
by George S. Fichter, illustrated by Barbara J. Hoopes Ambler
from St. Martin's Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Grasshopper on the Road
An I Can Read Book Level 2
by Arnold Lobel
from HarperCollins
for Preschool-3rd grade
in I Can Read Books (Location: EAR-ICR)
$5.99
Grouchy Ladybug
by Eric Carle
from Harper & Row
for Preschool-1st grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Herbs - Coloring Book
by Stefen Bernath
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-4th grade
in Flowers & Plants Coloring Books (Location: COL-BOT)
$4.99
How and Why Wonder Book of Birds
by Robert Mathewson
1970 printing from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-8th grade
in How and Why Wonder Books (Location: VIN-H&W)
How and Why Wonder Book of Reptiles and Amphibians
by Robert Mathewson
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 2nd-5th grade
in Reptiles & Amphibians (Location: SCI-REPT)
Hungry, Hungry Sharks
A Step into Reading Book Level 3
by Joanna Cole
from Random House
for 1st-3rd grade
in Step into Reading (Location: EAR-STEP)
$4.99 $2.50 (2 in stock)
Last Child in the Woods
by Richard Louv
from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$16.95
Moby-Dick
Signet Classics
by Herman Melville
from Signet Classics
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Peterson Field Guide to Mammals
by William H. Burt, Richard P. Grossenheider
3rd edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 6th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Plant Kingdom
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 6th-Adult
in Botany & Mycology (Location: SCI-BOT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Plenty of Penguins
Hello Reader! Level 1
by Sonia Black
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool-1st grade
in Scholastic / Hello Reader! (Location: EAR-SCH)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Time of Wonder
by Robert McCloskey
from Puffin Books
Realistic Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
1958 Caldecott Medal winner
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$9.99
Trapped By the Ice
by Michael McCurdy
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Your Goats
by Gail Damerow
from Storey Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
in Raising Livestock & Animal Husbandry (Location: SS-FARM)
$7.50 (1 in stock)