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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Birds of the Pacific Northwest
by John Shewey & Tim Blount, edited by Hendrik Herlyn
from Timber Press, Inc.
for 5th-Adult
in Field Guides: Birds (Location: NAT-FG01)
$29.99 $18.00 (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-FG07)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
By Pond and River
Eyes and No Eyes #2
by Arabella B. Buckley
from Cassell
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
DK Handbooks: Insects, Spiders and Other Terrestrial Arthropods
by Randall Jarrell
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-Adult
1966 Newbery Honor Book
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
Encyclopedia of Life
from Miles Kelly Publishing
for 3rd-8th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Golden Guide: Reptiles and Amphibians
by Herbert S. Zim, Hobart M. Smith
from St. Martin's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Reptiles & Amphibians (Location: SCI-REPT)
Henry the Impatient Heron
by Donna Love, illustrated by Christina Wald
from Arbordale Publishing
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
by Eric R. Eaton & Kenn Kaufman
from Houghton Mifflin
for 8th-Adult
in Field Guides: Insects (Location: NAT-FG04)
$25.00 $14.00 (1 in stock)
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
by Joe Ammirati, Steve Trudell
1st edition from Timber Press, Inc.
for 7th-12th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$29.99
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales & Dolphins
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides: Fish & Water Life (Location: NAT-FG02)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms
by Gary H. Lincoff
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$26.00
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest
National Audubon Society Field Guide
by Peter Alden & Dennis Paulson
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$27.95
National Audubon Society First Field Guide: Rocks and Minerals
by Edward Ricciuti and Margaret W. Carruthers
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Owl Moon
by Jane Yolen & John Schoenherr
from Philomel Books
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne World of Animals
by Mike Unwin & Susanna Davidson
from Usborne
for 4th-7th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$12.00 (1 in stock)