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Nature Study & Journaling

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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49 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 3rd grade (Ages 8-9), Perfectbound, Used Books & Materials
Animal Lives - 8 Book Set
by Sally Morgan
from QEB Publishing
for 2nd-4th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Animal Lives: Snakes
by Sally Morgan
from Teacher Created Resources
for 2nd-4th grade
in Reptiles & Amphibians (Location: SCI-REPT)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Animals Up Close
by Igor Siwanowicz
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Are You a Snail?
Backyard Books
by Judy Allen, illustrated by Tudor Humphries
from Kingfisher
for 1st-4th grade
in Reptiles & Amphibians (Location: SCI-REPT)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Backyard Wilderness
National Geographic My First Pocket Guide
by Catherine Herbert Howell
from National Geographic
for 2nd-4th grade
in Field Guides: Animals (general) (Location: NAT-FG03)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Continents: Antarctica
by Leila Merrell Foster
from Heinemann Library
for 1st-3rd grade
in Arctic & Tundra (Location: SCI-ECO)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Coral Reefs
by Jason Chin
from Square Fish Publishing
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Oceanography & Marine Biology (Location: SCI-OCEAN)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Curious Reptiles and Amphibians
The Good and the Beautiful Library
by Nyree Bevan
from The Good and the Beautiful
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in GATB Science & Health (Location: CUR-GABSc)
$5.50 (1 in stock)
Dinosaurs! A Drawing Book
by Michael Emberley
from Little, Brown & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Drawing for Beginners (Location: ELE-ARTDRAW)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
DK Animals Around the World
from DK Publishing
for 2nd-4th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$7.00 (2 in stock)
DK findout!: The Living World - boxed set
from DK Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$45.00 (1 in stock)
Endangered Animals Dictionary
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Oversized Science Books (Location: SCI-OVER)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Familiar Seashore Creatures: North America
Audubon Society Pocket Guides
by Stephen H. Amos
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-8th grade
in Field Guides: Fish & Water Life (Location: NAT-FG02)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Fighters
by Bernard Stonehouse, illustrated by John Francis
from Tangerine Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Fossils Tell of Long Ago
Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science Stage 2
by Aliki
Revised from HarperCollins
for 2nd-3rd grade
in Dinosaurs & Fossils (Location: SCI-DINO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Garbage: Follow the Path of Your Trash
Build It Yourself
by Donna Latham, illustrated by Tom Casteel
from Nomad Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ecology (Location: SCI-ECO)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Exploring Earth: Animals
Golden Exploring Earth
by George S. Fichter, illustrated by Rod Ruth
from Western Publishing
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Great Whales: The Gentle Giants
by Patricia Lauber, illustrated by Pieter Folkens
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Whales & Dolphins (Location: SCI-OCEAN)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Growing Frogs
by Vivian French, illustrated by Alison Bartlett
from Candlewick Press
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Reptiles & Amphibians (Location: SCI-REPT)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Hermit Crabs
by Sue Fox
from Barron's
for 3rd-Adult
in Oceanography & Marine Biology (Location: SCI-OCEAN)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Hornets
by Sandra Markle
for 3rd-6th grade
in Insects & Arachnids (Location: SCI-BUG)
$5.50 (1 in stock)
How to Raise Monarch Butterflies
by Carol Pasternak
2020 printing from Firefly Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Insects & Arachnids (Location: SCI-BUG)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Into the Field Guide: A Walk in the Woods
by Emily Laber-Warren
from Downtown Bookworks
for 1st-5th grade
in Nature Study & Journaling (Location: NAT-GEN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Jeff Corwin: Snakes
All aboard Reading Level 3
by Jeff Corwin
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 1st-3rd grade
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Life Cycle of a Mosquito
by Bobbie Kalman
from Crabtree Publishing
for 2nd-5th grade
in Insects & Arachnids (Location: SCI-BUG)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Life Cycle of a Tree
by Bobbie Kalman & Kathryn Smithyman, illustrated by Barbara Bedell
from Crabtree Publishing
for 2nd-4th grade
in Botany & Mycology (Location: SCI-BOT)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Life in the Far North
Native Nations of North America
by Bobbie Kalman and Rebecca Sjonger
from Crabtree Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Native American History (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Mission Migration
by Ileana Martinez Board, illustrated by Anna Speshilova
from The Good and the Beautiful
for 2nd-5th grade
in GATB Science & Health (Location: CUR-GABSc)
$5.50 (2 in stock)
Nature Explorers Journal
by Amy Atkins
from Kindle Direct Publishing
for 3rd-6th grade
in Nature Study & Journaling (Location: NAT-GEN)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Night Sky
Usborne Spotter's Guides
from Usborne
for 3rd-12th grade
in Field Guides: Weather & Astronomy (Location: NAT-FG10)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
On the Wings of Wonder
Good and the Beautiful Library Level 7
by Shannen Yauger, illustrated by Kessler Garrity
from The Good and the Beautiful
for 2nd-4th grade
in GATB Science & Health (Location: CUR-GABSc)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Otter
Animal Lives
by Sandy Ransford, illustrated by Bert Kitchen
from Kingfisher
for 2nd-4th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Planet Earth: Finding Balance on the Blue Marble
Build It Yourself
by Kathleen M. Reilly, illustrated by Tom Casteel
from Nomad Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ecology (Location: SCI-ECO)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Protecting Earth's Water Supply
Saving Our Living Earth
by Ron Fridell
from Lerner Publishing Group
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ecology (Location: SCI-ECO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Questions and Answers About Forest Animals
by Michael Chinery
from Kingfisher
for 3rd-5th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Science Comics: Birds of Prey
by Joe Flood
from First Second
for 3rd-6th grade
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Shine-A-Light: Secrets of the Apple Tree
Shine-A-Light
by Carron Brown and Illustrated by Alyssa Nassner
from Quarto Knows
for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Botany & Mycology (Location: SCI-BOT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Showoffs
by Bernard Stonehouse; illustrated by John Francis
from Tangerine Books
for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Spiders and Other Creepy-Crawlies
Wild, Wild World
by Denny Robson, illustrated by James Field
from Paragon Publishers
for 2nd-4th grade
in Insects & Arachnids (Location: SCI-BUG)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Swimming with Sea Lions and Other Adventures in the Galapagos Islands
by Ann McGovern, author and photographer
from Scholastic Inc.
for 1st-3rd grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
True Book: Antarctica
A True Book: Geography
by Mel Friedman
from Children's Press
for 3rd-5th grade
in Arctic & Tundra (Location: SCI-ECO)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
True Book: Fossils
by Ann O. Squire
from Scholastic Inc.
for 2nd-5th grade
in Dinosaurs & Fossils (Location: SCI-DINO)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Turtle Summer
by Mary Alice Monroe, Barbara J. Bergwerf
from Sylvan Dell
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Reptiles & Amphibians (Location: SCI-REPT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Usborne Book of Wild Places
by Angela Wilkes
Revised from Usborne
for 1st-3rd grade
in Ecology (Location: SCI-ECO)
$6.50 (3 in stock)
What Are Food Chains and Webs? with Audio CD
by Bobbie Kalman and Jacqueline Langille
from Crabtree Publishing
for 2nd-4th grade
in Ecology (Location: SCI-ECO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
What Is a Plant? (Science of Living Things)
Science of Living Things
by Bobbie Kalman
from Crabtree Publishing
for 2nd-5th grade
in Botany & Mycology (Location: SCI-BOT)
$5.50 (1 in stock)
What is Pollination?
by Bobbie Kalman
from Crabtree Publishing
for 2nd-4th grade
in Insects & Arachnids (Location: SCI-BUG)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Young Naturalist
An Usborne Guide
by Andrew Mitchell
from Usborne
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Nature Study & Journaling (Location: NAT-GEN)
$6.99 $3.50 (2 in stock)
Zoology for Kids
by Josh and Bethanie Hestermann, foreword by the Kratt Brothers
from Chicago Review Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
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