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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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Nature Study
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46 Items found Print
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Active Filters: Mammals, 5th grade (Ages 10-11)
100 Things You Should Know about Mammals
by Jinny Johnson
from Barnes & Noble
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Album of North American Animals
by Vera Dugdale, illustrated by Clark Bronson
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
All About Cats
All About Books #58
by Carl Burger
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in All About Books (Location: VIN-ALL)
All About Dogs
All About Books #42
by Carl Burger
from Random House
for 3rd-6th grade
in All About Books (Location: VIN-ALL)
All About Horses
All About Books #43
by Marguerite Henry
from Random House
for 3rd-6th grade
in All About Books (Location: VIN-ALL)
All About Monkeys
All About Books #26
by Robert S. Lemmon
from Random House
for 4th-6th grade
in All About Books (Location: VIN-ALL)
Apes and Monkeys
by Deborah Dennard, illustrated by John F. McGee
from Northword Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Arctic and Antarctic Life - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Ruth Soffer
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Animal Habitat Coloring Books (Location: COL-HAB)
$5.99
Backyard Nature - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Dot Barlowe
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Animal Habitat Coloring Books (Location: COL-HAB)
$4.99
Book of Small Mammals
by Ted S. Pettit, illustrated by G. Don Ray
from Garden City Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Bringing Back the Wolves
by Jude Isabella; illustrated by Kim Smith
from Kids Can Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Ecology (Location: SCI-ECO)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Cat - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Karen Baldauski
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$4.99
Cat Book
by Marianne Besser, illustrated by Shannon Stirnweis
from Holiday House
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
Coyote
by Stephen R. Swinburne
from Boyds Mill Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Mammal
DK Eyewitness Series
by Steve Parker
from DK Publishing
Science Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Draw 50 Cats
by Lee Ames
from Watson-Guptill Publications
for 3rd-8th grade
in Draw 50 (Location: ELE-ARTD50)
$9.99
Draw 50 Dogs
by Lee Ames
from Broadway Books
for 3rd-8th grade
in Draw 50 (Location: ELE-ARTD50)
$9.99
Draw Write Now Book 8
by Marie Hablitzel & Kim Stitzer
from Barker Creek
for 1st-5th grade
in Draw Write Now (Location: ELE-ARTDWN)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Draw Write Now Book 8
by Marie Hablitzel & Kim Stitzer
from In the Think of Things
for 1st-5th grade
in Draw Write Now (Location: ELE-ARTDWN)
$19.99
Endangered Mammals of Africa - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$3.95
Endangered Mammals of Asia & China - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
Endangered Mammals of South America - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$3.95
Exploring Creation With Zoology 3
by Jeannie Fulbright
from Apologia Educational Ministries
for 3rd-6th grade
in Apologia Young Explorer (Location: SCICUR-AEM)
$39.20 $28.00 (3 in stock)
Eyes on Nature: Cats
Eyes on Nature
by Janr P. Resnick
from KidsBooks, Inc.
for 1st-6th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Favorite Dogs - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by John Green
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$5.99
First Book of Mammals
by Margaret Williamson
from Franklin Watts
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
Forest Animals - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Diane Gaspas-Ettl
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Animal Habitat Coloring Books (Location: COL-HAB)
$5.99
Gorilla Doctors
Scientists in the Field Series
by Pamela S. Turner
Reprint from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 3rd-5th grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
How and Why Wonder Book of Cats - Activity Book
by Sarina Simon, illustrated by Lesley Boney
from Price Stern Sloan
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$2.00 (2 in stock)
Lone Muskrat
by Glen Rounds
from Holiday House
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Magnificent Mammals
Marvels of Creation
by Buddy & Kay Davis
from Master Books
for 2nd-6th grade
in Mammals (Location: SCI-MAM)
$11.19
Mammals - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
Marsupials - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$3.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mammals
by John O. Whitaker
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 5th-10th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$26.00
Peterson First Guide to Mammals of North America
by Peter Alden
3rd edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 3rd-6th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$8.99
Primates - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$3.95
Rain Forest River Life - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Water Life Coloring Books (Location: COL-WAT)
$3.95
Rain Forest Tree Life - Coloring Book
Educational Read & Color Books
by Peter & Linda Spizzirri
from Spizzirri Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Animal Habitat Coloring Books (Location: COL-HAB)
$3.95
Real Book About Dogs
by Jane Sherman
from Garden City Books
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
Science Vocabulary Crossword Puzzles Grades 4-6
by Noreen Conte
from Critical Thinking Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Critical Thinking Vocabulary (Location: VOC-CTP)
$12.00
Squirrels of the West
Lone Pine Field Guide
by Tamara Hartson
from Lone Pine Publishing
for 3rd-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
The Tiger
by George B. Schaller and Millicent E. Selsam
from HarperCrest
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Science & Math (Location: VIN-SCI)
$24.00 (1 in stock)
Walt Disney's Odyssey of an Otter
Walt Disney's Animal Adventures
by Rutherford Montgomery, Illustrated by Hamilton Greene
from Golden Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$26.00 (1 in stock)
Wild Cats of the World - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by John Green
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Mammal Coloring Books (Location: COL-MAM)
$4.99
Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest
Timber Press Field Guides
by David Moskowitz
from Timber Press, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$29.99
Zoo Animals - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Jan Sovak
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Animal Life Coloring Books (Location: COL-ANI)
$3.99
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