Kids are Naturals at Nature


From the time they can walk, children love to explore each blade of grass and every tiny insect. They really are naturals at nature and I got to wondering what type of nature resources I might find here at HEM now that we are enjoying spring and the returning birds. Like Brenda, I have bird feeders all over my yard and we have a whole variety of feathered friends that visit to drink and eat here. I also have three well worn reference books next to my desk that we have enjoyed since my boys were young naturalists. There is The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, Reader’s Digest Nothern American Wildlife and Birds of Ohio. We also have smaller guides, but those are in the car for when we go hiking.

Below are some great nature resources from past issues of Home Education Magazine

Supplements Are The Key! by Lois Szymanski

Have you ever thought of the world around you as one giant supplement? I do. When we go on walks, (which is physical education) we take along a great book called The Birder’s Journal. Created by Mel Baughma and published by Stackpole Books, the journal is filled with sketches of birds that can be colored. Under each bird is a place to list when and where it was sighted as well as a spot for notes. Using her Peterson First Guides to Birds, (by Roger Tory Peterson- Houghton Mifflin Company) and her Golden Guide to Birds (by Herbert S. Zim and Ira N. Gabrielson- Western Publishing Company, Inc.) she looks up the birds she sees and colors them in. When we go marsh mucking on Assateague Island on vacations, we drag every unknown specimen we find into the naturalist to learn more about it. Then we document our findings on paper and with photographs and keep them in a notebook.

Older Kids – Learning and Doing Science by Cafi Cohen

Instead, your teenagers may want to consider a specialized area, a single problem, in The following areas – astronomy, botany, geology, meteorology, electricity/electronics, nature studies, health and disease, nutrition, parasitology, paleontology, herpetology, history of science. College catalogs usually state two or three years of “science” as adequate preparation for their programs. Most do not specify biology, chemistry, and physics. And most do not specify that applicants must have taken a survey course. Choose an interesting area. Work on one topic or problem in depth.

The Road to Enthusiasm – S.A. Terhorst-Steele

Julian (four) has become interested in flora and fauna. I’m not much of a naturalist. In fact I rarely noticed plants and animals until I began having my own children. I was more likely to be found reading a book or writing. These days however, I am spending a great deal of time contemplating what types of plants or animals reside in our world and what they have in common with each other. The focus of my day with Julian is reading National Geographic, plotting the map, watching the occasional nature video, watering plants and visiting various nurseries so he can ask what kind of care his orchid needs.

Five Steps to Unschooling - Joyce Kurtak Fetteroll

To unschool, you begin with your child’s interests. If she’s interested in birds, you read – or browse, toss aside, just look at the pictures in – books on birds, watch videos on birds, talk about birds, research and build (or buy) bird feeders and birdhouses, keep a journal on birds, record and ponder their behavior, search the web for items about birds, go to bird sanctuaries, draw birds, color a few pictures in the Dover Birds of Prey coloring book, play around with feathers, study Leonardo DaVinci’s drawings of flying machines that he based on birds, watch Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”

But DON’T go whole hog on this. Gauge how much to do and when by your child’s reactions. Let her say no thanks. Let her choose. Let her interest set the pace. If it takes years, let it take years. If it lasts an hour, let it last an hour.

Good Stuff – To Dissect Or Not To Dissect by Becky Rupp

My homeschool journals are stuffed with photographs. There are pictures of our three boys building toothpick bridges, inflating hot-air balloons, weaving Navajo-style headbands, making papier-mache Viking helmets, painting birdfeeders, planting beans, firing rockets, making clay models of the Parthenon, raising butterflies. And – a fat lump in the middle of Journal #3 – there’s a whole stack of snapshots of the kids dissecting frogs.

Here are some great resources from other folks:

• Anna Botsford Comtock’s bookinspired one family to create their own Handbook of Nature Study blog journal as they use the book.
• Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock can be read in its entirety online here.
• Nature Study – Charlotte Mason Style
• Journey North
  

There are many, many more that you can find at your library or by doing a search. I found a blog that I really enjoy that is specific to Ohio, but the writer is a passionate naturalist, so I check his Ohio Birds and Biodiversity blog on a regular basis. As blogging has grown, it isn’t hard to find informative blogs on subjects that people are passionate about. Enjoy!

Time Travel with a Teaspoon Archaeology For Kids by Rebecca Rupp was featured in the September-October 1998 issue of Home Education Magazine. Rebecca opened the column by writing:

Caleb, our youngest son, wants (just now) to be an archaeologist when he grows up. Accordingly, he reads everything he can find on archaeological topics, surfs the Internet in search of the ancient, and subscribes to the magazine Archaeology, published bimonthly by the Archaeological Institute of America. Archaeology, which is aimed at adults, has a fairly sophisticated text, but the pictures – all in color – are great for persons of all ages. Each issue includes several feature articles about archaeological discoveries worldwide.

In this one paragraph, Rebecca explains the beauty of learning and that children do not have to be limited to age appropriate material when exploring their passions in the real world! The column was written over ten years ago, but as always, much of what she shared remains available today. Here are some of the Archaeology resources she shares:

Society for American Archaeology (SAA) http://www.saa.org. This first one offers many great resources, but I was delighted find Frequently Asked Questions About A Career In Archaeology In The U.S.

Next she offered these recommendations:

• Calliope http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/CAL/
• Faces http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/FAC/

I was able to find the following book suggestions at my local library:

• Dig This! How Archaeologists Uncover Our Past (Michael Avi-Yonah; Runestone Press, 1993) Also in this series; Scrawl! Writing in Ancient Times; Fired Up! Making Pottery in Ancient Times; Piece by Piece: Mosaics of the Ancient World; and Sunk! Exploring Underwater Archaeology
• The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archaeology (Jackie Posner; Scholastic, 1997
• The Young Oxford Book of Archaeology by Norah Moloney (Oxford University Press, 1997)
• Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Ceram (Bantam, 1976

I could not find these at my local or statewide library, but as Becky writes, many can be found in libraries or used bookstores.

• All About Archaeology by Anne Terry White (Random House, 1959)
• Archaeology by Dennis Fradin (Children’s Press, 1983)
• The Practical Archaeologist by Jane McIntosh (Facts On File, 1986
• Archaeology: A Brief Introduction by Brian Fagan (Addison Wesley, 1996)

As always, Rebecca offers some interesting hands on resources as well.

• Prehistoric Cave Painting Kit and Rock Art Painting. Both kits are available from Ancient Graffiti, 52 Seymour St., 888) 725-6632 fax (802) 388-7104; e-mail: ancientg @ sovernet.com. (I could not find the company on line, so I’m not sure if they remain in business or not.



• Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin (AFOB)
• PIT (Passport in Time) Traveler
• The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training

In this column Rebecca also reviews some other great resources. was able to find: Reading Through the Ages By Linda Thornhill and Sally Barnard, The Game of Shakespeare, Beaver Tooth and Days of Knights and Damsels

HEM columnist Rebecca Rupp has a Ph.D. in cell biology, has written for many magazines, and has published several books. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three sons.

I discovered, “Feed the Birds” from Rebecca Rupp’s Good Stuff column in the January – February 1997 Issue of Home Education Magazine and as always I found enough resources to create a unit study.

She writes:

It’s fine to feed the birds all year round, but a wonderful time to start is right now, in the heart of winter, when seeds are sparse and those birds who didn’t hightail it south in September really need a helping hand.

She then shares some books for potential bird feeders that I was able to find online or at my local library:

• Birdfeeders, Shelters, and Baths by Edward Baldwin
• Invite a Bird to Dinner: Simple Feeders You Can Make by Beverly Courtney Crook
• The Bird Book & Feeder by Neil Dawe
• Susan Bosnak Science Is… by Susan Bosnak

She also shared these great field guides:

• Peterson guides -A Field Guide to Western Birds and A Field Guide to Birds East of the Rockies by Roger Tory Peterson
• Audubon guides – The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Vol. I by John Bull and John Farrand, Jr. and Vol. II by Miklos D.F. Udvardy
• Everybody’s Everywhere Backyard Bird Book

She also suggests some Dover Publications Coloring Books. These include:

• State Birds and Flowers Coloring Book (Annika Bernhard)
• Fifty Favorite Birds Coloring Book (Lisa Bonforte)
• Tropical Birds Coloring Book (Lucia DeLeiris)
• Birds of Prey Coloring Book (John Green)
• Audubon’s Birds of America Coloring Book
• Audubon sticker book (Audubon Bird Stickers in Full Color)
• 50 full-color bird stickers in an eight-page booklet

She then shared these real life books about kids and their bird experiences all of which I was able to find at our local library.

• The Birdwatcher by Felice Holman’s Elisabeth
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat
• That Quail, Robert Margaret Stanger (a favorite at our house)

For legendary birds she recommended:

• The Long-Tailed Bear and Other Indian Legends by Natalia Belting
• How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots: A Swahili Tale of Friendship by Barbara Knudson
• The Hummingbird King: A Guatemalan Legend by Agentina Palacios
• How the Birds Changed Their Feathers: A South American Indian Folk Tale by Joanna Troughton
• The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks by Katherine Paterson
• Ka-ha-si and the Loon by Terry Cohlene

Continuing down the bird investigation trail, Rupp suggests posting a checklist on the fridge to record the birds that visit. Also in this article she shared Bethump’d With Words, How Math Works by Carol Vorderman, XIT(could not find this one), Catchpenny and Duo.

You can read the entire column here.

Here are some more of my favorite bird resources from around the web:

• Celebrate Urban Birds
• What Bird the Ultimate Bird Guide
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• The Life of Birds- Sir David Attenborough
• Wildbirds.com
• Journey North
• Funschool Bird Watcher
• Natural History Notebooks(Birds)

Linda Dobson described this process in her 1999 November-December HEM Column, Early Years Child’s Learning Assets.

With childhood energy flowing, imagination and creativity turn your child into a learning scientist who puts the information he’s gathering to the test. He’ll hypothesize, investigate, analyze then do it again and, likely, again! Creativity then allows him to expand the thinking process to bring ideas together in new and unique combinations.

In our fast paced frenzied society, the world can only grow richer as our children become self-educated adults, continuing to investigate, think and contribute to the world around them.

Below you will find some great science articles and resources.

Articles

Learning High School Science Outside a Lab – Sue Smith-Heavenrich

Most homeschooling parents have no problem accepting that science, at least for young children, is largely a matter of discovery and exploration. However, when those children begin reaching adulthood, the ages one normally associates with high school, a sort of panic sets in. “How can I teach biology (or chemistry) without a lab? How can I teach physics if I never took it myself?” You can’t – teach, that is. You can gather materials, open doors to opportunities, share ideas.

Of a Flat Universe and the Nature of Science – David Albert

When Aliyah was working through her high school biology (which we did via a distance learning course with the University of Missouri), she’d find errors all the time (based on her reading of Scientific American) and would come to me with her laments. What she was learning about, even if she didn’t immediately realize it, was the process of scientific revisionism, and how textbooks (and teachers who parrot them) aren’t holy writ a good lesson!

Shooting Hoops, Riding Bikes – Sue Smith-Heavenrich

Science and Math in a Kid’s World

My younger son loves to play basketball. Or ride his bike through the just-melted mud patches on the logging road. Or follow frogs or kick a soccer ball or just about anything except sit for long periods of time trying to figure out useless math problems from a workbook.

Learning with Leonardo – Rebecca Rupp

Leonardo da Vinci is a treat for homeschoolers: just like us, he had a multiplicity of interests, and those studying him are thus likely to spin off in any number of mind-building directions. Variously a painter, sculptor, inventor, mathematician, meteorologist, geologist, biologist, philosopher, and engineer – and a left-hander, who kept his voluminous journals in mirror-writing – Leonardo is both an enviable role model and the quintessential Renaissance man. He’s also just plain irresistible.

How a List Can Become a Personalized Curriculum and Learning Adventure- M Roth

Learning about heroes and heroines, their lives and ideals, their struggles and triumphs, leads us into history, science, art, architecture, music, literature, civics and many other traditional school subjects. But it also reaches beyond academic learning.

Running Through Walls - Cafi Cohen

Just Read

This is a variant of self-instruction. One homeschooling mother explains, “We have shelves of books by creative people who have done it better than we ever could on our own. Our homeschooler learns science from real scientists – Mendel, who grew peas in his garden, and Gerald Durrell whose first scalpel was a razor blade.”

A Visit with Mary Hood – Janine Calsbeek

For science, the critical element is to learn to think and act like a scientist, said Mary. Ask a legitimate question and find the answer. Don’t simply do experiments because you think you must. Gardening, wildlife, and nature are explored by the Hoods – Roy got out the bird-identification books and that inspired the kids. But more structured subjects like chemistry haven’t been part of their “school” and may never be.

Good Stuff- Rebecca Rupp

Rain, Snow, And Sun: Weather For Kids

The weather in Vermont lately has been spectacularly disastrous. We’ve had torrential rains, glacial ice sheets, wind, thunderstorms, floods, and week-long power outages. Four counties have been officially deemed emergency zones. This meteorological excitement has affected all of us – small talk about the weather isn’t as small as it used to be – and the boys have picked right up on the current trend. Ethan, our middle kid, – the weather freak – was beside himself at missing two days’ worth of dramatic data. (“Mom! Where’s my rain gauge?”)

H is for Homeschooling - Scott Stevens

S is for Simple Science Experiments that you can do in your kitchen or your garage that can provide more opportunities for young minds to learn than the most advanced science labs in any school building. Science is about trial and error, making observations, learning from mistakes. Some experiments may be quick and easy, but many require time, and homeschoolers, fortunately, have control over how they to choose to spend their time.

Gifts of Homeschooling – Rachel Phillips

Experience of What?

The gift of time lets children explore, discovering through experimentation where their innate interests and talents lie. But what about homeschooling’s gift of experience? Experience of what? Homeschooling offers children experience of the real world. While their schooled peers are in the artificial world of school at least six hours a day, homeschooled children are immersed in the intricate, diverse, nuanced world they will navigate as adults. What a gift!

Interview with Sandra Dodd - Emily Subler

I think setting “academics” apart from the rest of cool stuff to know is just as bad. Is science more important than auto-mechanics? Hey, it is auto-mechanics, everywhere but at school, where auto-mechanics is in one building, and science is in another building, different teacher, different book, different line on the report card. In real life there are thousands of buildings, and teachers, and books.

Resources

• Previous Closer Look: Science
• NASA Kids Club
• Journey North
• Exploratorium
• The Backyard Scientist
• Discovery Channel Young Scientest Challenge
• About.com: Homeschooling: Science Resources
• Science Inquiry & Technology

In her great article, Learning and Doing Science (HEM, March/April 1999), Cafi Cohen writes, “Typical science activities include observing, measuring, categorizing, asking questions, forming a hypothesis (guessing how something works), proposing solutions, trying solutions (experimenting), summarizing findings, evaluating results, recycling back to observing, and sometimes reporting.” She observes, “If your daughter collects and classifies insects, that is science. If your son experiments with model rockets, that is science. Watching a PBS or TLC program on volcanoes is science. If your entire family reads and discusses everything they can find about a certain kind of cancer because a grandparent has recently been stricken, that is science.”

Science is all around us, all the time. Check out the great articles, resources and websites listed here for more information about teaching and learning science.

Articles on Science

Learning and Doing Science by Cafi Cohen – “It’s important to understand the differences between classroom science and real world science when deciding how to approach astronomy or chemistry or physiology with your teenagers.”

Caterpillar Secrets by Sue Smith Heavenrich – “‘Do you study biology?’ The high school student asked my children. She was curious about what homeschooled children studied.
‘No!’ stated my oldest, with all the authority he could muster. ‘We study caterpillars.’”

Fortuic Acid by Natalie Mortensen – “They looked at me with that please-say-yes-or-I’ll-die look in their eyes. I stared down at the mass (let’s use the exact word here) in the sink. I had to make one of those split second decisions.”

Ribbet! The Season of Frogs! by Rebecca Rupp – “The kids brought home a million frog eggs from the pond up the road, which, lovingly tended, turned into a million tadpoles, which were well on the way to turning into a million frogs when I cracked and insisted that 999,997 of them be returned – now! – to their natural habitat.”

Science a la Carte by Michelle Winkler – “I wanted eagerness and arguments – not over the lab equipment, but over hypotheses. I wanted to watch young eyes grow big with excitement as we prepared our experiments and waited to see if they would turn out as we had predicted.”

Feed the Birds by Rebecca Rupp – “It’s fine to feed the birds all year round, but a wonderful time to start is right now, in the heart of winter, when seeds are sparse and those birds who didn’t hightail it south in September really need a helping hand.”

Star Light, Star Bright by Barb Theisen – “The night sky has always fascinated me. Whether lying on the grass in our backyard as a child (up way past bedtime on a starry summer night) or sailing on the ocean (all alone in the cockpit on my night watch), I have always found comfort in looking up to see familiar companions like Ursa Major or Orion lighting the night sky.”

To Dissect or Not to Dissect by Rebecca Rupp – “Dissection, in more ways than one, is a tricky process. Some biology students find it distasteful; some find it morally suspect.”

Of Ponds and Tadpoles by Jeff Kelety - “I counted twelve in all, twelve very much alive tadpoles wriggling silently in the shallow, alien depths of their new home – the kids’ goldfish bowl.”

Rain, Snow, and Sun: Weather for Kids by Rebecca Rupp – “Weather is a wonderful home-study project. For one thing, it’s always right there outside the windows, doing something.”

Science Resources

HEM’s Reviews of Science Resources Reviewed by Mary Nix for HEM

TOPS Learning Systems Hands-on projects with simple items like rubber bands and paper clips

Science Projects for Kids Easy science experiments for kids

Carolina Biological Supply Extensive science resource supply catalog

Edmund Scientific Outstanding science supply and equipment website and catalog

Educational Innovations Teacher’s source for science workshop supplies

Exploratorium Science Snacks Miniature versions of some of the most popular exhibits

Science Friday for Kids Teaching materials for the popular radio program

Science Spot: Kid Zone Explore Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science and more

For Kids Only: Earth Science Enterprise NASA’s kid-friendly science site

National Geographic Science Experiments Cool science tricks and experiments

Science News for Kids Creative ways of using science news

HEM Back Issues Package: Science & Math Science topics included in this six-issue selection: Science learning stations, butterflies, snowflakes, a selection of Rebecca Rupp’s Good Stuff science resources, dinosaurs, nature studies, museum resources and docent programs, light and electricity, and science toys.