My Account Wish List Shopping Cart Log In
Store Location

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.
Did you find this review helpful?
Parent Categories
Nature Study
Subcategories
58 Items found Print
Filter
Active Filters: Adult, Used Books & Materials
American Wild Life
1952nd edition from Wm. H. Wise & Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific States
by Gayle Pickwell
from Stanford University Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$10.00 (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)
Back Roads of Oregon
by Earl Thollander
from Clarkson Potter Publishers
for 9th-Adult
in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
$8.00 (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)
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 Oregon
by Roger Burrows & Jeff Gilligan
from Lone Pine Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$14.00 (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)
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)
Collector, The
by Jack Nisbet
from Sasquatch Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Compact Guide to Wildflowers of the Rockies
by C. Dana Bush
from Lone Pine Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Discover Nature in Water & Wetlands
by Elizabeth P. Lawlor, illustrated by Pat Archer
from Stackpole Books
for 9th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Discovery
by John K. Terres
First Ediition from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
$9.00 (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-FIELD)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Encyclopedia of Animals
from Fog City Press
for 8th-Adult
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Encyclopedia of Mammals
by Professor David Macdonald, editor
from Barnes & Noble
for 8th-Adult
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Exploring Nature with Your Child
by Dorothy Edwards Shuttlesworth
from Greystone Press
for Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Field Guide to Mexican Birds
Peterson Field Guide Series
by Roger Tory Peterson and Edward L. Chalif
from Houghton Mifflin
for Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs
Peterson Field Guide Series
by George A. Petrides, illustrated by the author and Roger Tory Peterson
First Printing from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Forest Unseen
by David George Haskell
from Penguin Books
for 10th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Fresh & Salt Water Fishes of the World
by Edward C. Migdalski and George S. Fichter, illustrated by Norman Weaver
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Adult
in Sharks & Fishes (Location: SCI-FISH)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Genius of Birds
by Jennifer Ackerman
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Hand That Paints the Sky
from New Leaf Press
for 3rd-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Hunters
by Dr. Philip Whitfield, illustrated by Richard Orr
from Simon and Schuster
for 8th-Adult
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Key to the Skulls of North American Mammals
2nd edition from Oklahoma State University
for Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
King Solomon's Ring
by Konrad Z. Lorenz
from Routledge
for 9th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Living Amphibians of the World
by Doris M. Cochran
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Moby-Dick
Wordsworth Classics
by Herman Melville
from Wordsworth Classics
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Mountains of California
by John Muir, introduction by Edward Hoagland
from Penguin Books
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies
by Robert Michael Pyle
Chanticleer Press ed from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$24.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales & Dolphins
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Nature for the Very Young
by Marcia Bowden, Illustrated by Marilyn Rishel
from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Nature Notes of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
1st edition from HarperCollins
for 8th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$6.50 (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)
Our Historic Desert
by Diana Elaine Lindsay
First Edition from Copley Books
for 5th-Adult
in Landmarks & Symbols of the United States (Location: HISV-LANUS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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-FIELD)
$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)
Plant Kingdom
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 6th-Adult
in Botany & Mycology (Location: SCI-BOT)
$4.00 (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)
Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism
P.I.G. series
by Christopher C. Horner
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Environment & Conservation (Location: SCI-ENV)
$13.00 (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)
Sharing Nature with Children
by Joseph Cornell
from Dawn Publications
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Sharing Nature with Children II
by Joseph Cornell
from Dawn Publications
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Unwrapping Wonder
by Carol O'Casey
from Cladach Publishing
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Vitamin N
by Richard Louv
from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Why Read Moby-Dick?
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Reprint from Penguin Press
for 11th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Wild Life the World Over
by Frank Shay, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
1953rd edition from Wm. H. Wise & Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Wilderness Warrior
by Douglas Brinkley
from HarperCollins
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Wildflowers of the Columbia Gorge
by Russ Jolley
from Oregon Historical Society Press
for 8th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Wildlife in Color
by Roger Tory Peterson
from Houghton Mifflin
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Wildlife Portfolio of the Western National Parks
by Joseph S. Dixon
from United States Government Printing Office
for 3rd-Adult
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Wolves of Denali
by L. David Mech
from University of Minnesota
for Adult
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Wonderful Life
by Stephen Jay Gould
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for Adult
in History of Science & Mathematics (Location: SCI-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Zoology Coloring Book
by Lawrence M. Elson
1st edition from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$24.99 $14.00 (1 in stock)
Sign Up!

Shop

Support

Hours & Directions

Learn more about our store location and hours

Connect

503.655.1951

hello@exodusbooks.com

19146 Molalla Ave,
Oregon City, OR 97045