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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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47 Items found Print
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Beekeeping
Storey's Guides
by Richard E. Bonney
from Storey Publishing
in Self-Sufficiency (Location: SS-Self)
Birds of the Willamette Valley Region
by Hall Opperman, Harry Nehls & Tom Aversa
1st edition
for 9th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
Collector, The
by Jack Nisbet
from Sasquatch Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Creative Haven Beautiful Birds - Coloring Book
Creative Haven
by Dot Barlowe
First Edition, Fir from Dover Publications
for 7th-Adult
in Adult Coloring Books (Location: COL-ADULT)
$6.99
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)
Farm Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
1st edition from Storey Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Self-Sufficiency (Location: SS-Self)
$18.99
Forager's Harvest
by Samuel Thayer
from Forager's Harvest
for 9th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$27.95
Forest Unseen
by David George Haskell
from Penguin Books
for 10th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Genius of Birds
by Jennifer Ackerman
from Penguin Books
for Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Great Alaskan Dinosaur Adventure
by Buddy Davis, John Whitmore, Mike Liston
from Master Books
for 9th-Adult
in Dinosaurs & Fossils (Location: SCI-DINO)
Great Dinosaur Hunters and Their Discoveries
by Edwin H. Colbert
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Dinosaurs & Fossils (Location: SCI-DINO)
Illustrated Book of Trees
by Eric A. Bourdo Jr., consultant editor
from Salamander Books Lmt.
for 6th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
In the Heart of the Sea
by Nathaniel Philbrick
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th grade-adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00
Insects of the Pacific Northwest
Timber Press Field Guides
by Judy Haggard, Peter Haggard
from Timber Press, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
King Solomon's Ring
by Konrad Z. Lorenz
from Routledge
for 9th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Landscapes of Promise
Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books
by William G. Robbins, Foreword by William Cronon
from University of Washington Press
for Adult
in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Putnam
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
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 Birds: Eastern Region
2nd edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$23.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Fishes
2nd ed. from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects & Spiders
by Lorus and Margery Milne
Later Printing from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$25.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Shells
Reprint from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$24.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky
First Edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$24.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees: Western Region
by Elbert L. Little
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$26.00
Nature Anatomy Notebook
by Julia Rothman
from Storey Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$19.99
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)
Ocean Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
from Storey Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$18.99
Owls of the Eastern Ice
by Jonathan C. Slaght
from Picador
for Adult
in Birds (Location: SCI-BIRD)
Pacific Northwest Insects
Timber Press Field Guides
by Judy Haggard, Peter Haggard
from Seattle Audubon Society
for 7th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$34.95
Peterson Field Guide to Insects
Peterson Field Guides
by Donald J. Borror, Richard E. White
2nd edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 6th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast
by Jim Pojar, Andy MacKinnon
from Lone Pine Publishing
for 8th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
Pocketful of Pinecones
by Karen Andreola
from Charlotte Mason Research and Supply Co.
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
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)
Sea Around Us
by Rachel Carlson
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Sharing Nature with Children II
by Joseph Cornell
from Dawn Publications
for Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
by Gail Damerow
3rd edition from Storey Publishing
for Adult
in Raising Livestock & Animal Husbandry (Location: SS-FARM)
Tales From a Northwest Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
1st edition from Caxton Press
for 5th-Adult
in Clearance: Science & Health (Location: ZCLE-SCI)
Trees and Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest
Timber Press Field Guides
by Ellen Kuhlmann, Mark Turner
from Timber Press, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FIELD)
$29.95
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 in the City
by Michael C. Houck, M. J. Cody
2nd ed. from Oregon State University Press
for Adult
in Pacific States (Location: HISV-PNW)
$22.50
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 Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
1st edition from Storey Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Nature Study (Location: NAT-GEN)
$18.99
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
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