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Erin Lewis
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| Posted: July 16 2011 at 9:26pm | IP Logged
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Hello,
I was hoping somebody with more experience might be able to suggest a good, basic field guide for younger elementary kids. My oldest child is a six year old who is beginning first grade, and I want some kind of book that we can take on nature study outings in which we can look up basic birds, plants, etc. Does anyone have one you really like? My daughter can read already, so it doesn't have to be overly simple, but I just want something that isn't overwhelmingly thick and long!
Thanks!!
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Erin
Caroline (3/05), Cecilia (1/08), and Lucy (9/11)
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cathhomeschool
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Jen (Mackfam) highly recommends North American Wildlife in this thread. I've not seen it in real life but I've heard others say that it's a great book. In that post she also recommends Golden Guides and Pocket Naturalist guides. I love both of those series for young kids -- easy to use, great illustrations, small books so easy to carry. The Golden Guides give a good amount of basic information.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Mackfam
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| Posted: July 18 2011 at 10:53am | IP Logged
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cathhomeschool wrote:
| Jen (Mackfam) highly recommends North American Wildlife in this thread. I've not seen it in real life but I've heard others say that it's a great book. In that post she also recommends Golden Guides and Pocket Naturalist guides. I love both of those series for young kids -- easy to use, great illustrations, small books so easy to carry. The Golden Guides give a good amount of basic information. |
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I was JUST going to come over and recommend North American Wildlife to you!!  I'm so glad Janette linked it for you!  HIGHLY recommend it, especially since it can be acquired very inexpensively as a used book, and is not limited to a particular age group, but can be used by all in your home!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Erin Lewis
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| Posted: July 18 2011 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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Thank you! I will look into those. I was browsing around and noticed there are small chart-style guides specific to certain areas... like this one from Barnes and Noble: field guides . Does anyone know if these are good, or are they too basic? It might be nice to have something localized to our area, but I wonder if they would really include most of the plants and animals we'd find.
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Erin
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Erin Lewis
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| Posted: July 18 2011 at 1:29pm | IP Logged
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And now I see that the one I just linked to is a Pocket Naturalist one! I guess the drawback with these may be that you'd have to buy several... trees, wildflowers, birds, mammals...?
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Erin
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MaryM
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I don't have a specific recommendation of a book(s). The one piece of advice I have though is that is it most rewarding to have LOCAL field guides - ones that cover the flora and fauna of your particular area. There is nothing more discouraging for little ones than to have a field guide that covers species you aren't that likely to see or that doesn't have pictures of the ones you are finding to identify. Now there are some that are very simple and generic and cover things that might be just about everywhere and those can be okay. I might be particularly sensitive to this as someone living in the west. Many of the generic field guides cover Eastern flora and founa - even though they don't designate it as such. Nothing like having the book showing cardinals when we are never going to see one...
Good places to check are your state parks department, country extension, or NPS sites if you have nay there and ask about recommendations for field guides for the area/region.
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Mary M. in Denver
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SuzanneG
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Yes, field guides for your specific area is so helpful. I go to amazon and type in "Seattle and Birds" and look what I get!!!! My library has most of these, and eventually the kids and I decided which one we liked the best and we bought it. THIS IS OUR MOST USED BIRD BOOK!
Also, our local bird store has a good selection of local books. Birds, flowers, mushrooms, ocean life, shrubs...it's very helpful.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: July 18 2011 at 5:11pm | IP Logged
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This is a great suggestion and it's how we discovered some of the best field guides for our area - I just went to Amazon and searched under our state. I discovered a couple of out of print gems (absolute treasures for our local area)!!!
Also, check your local public television station. Ours produces a magnificent series called Discovering Alabama and this series has made a wonderful Natural History course all on its own. The series is aired on public tv, is available to check out from our library system, and is also available as a free download from itunesU. The extent of its availability to us makes it extremely useful and we learn MUCH from the series INCLUDING some recommendations for local field guides! It's likely/possible that each state offers something similar through their local public television stations so do check that resource out!
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Jen Mackintosh
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MaryM
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| Posted: July 18 2011 at 6:20pm | IP Logged
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Erin Lewis wrote:
| And now I see that the one I just linked to is a Pocket Naturalist one! I guess the drawback with these may be that you'd have to buy several... trees, wildflowers, birds, mammals...? |
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Erin I fixed the link. Something like that is what I was talking about. I have seen these particular guides and think they are very good. Yes, you have to get several but they are relatively inexpensive. And they are pretty compact so they are easy to take with. They are laminated so they are durable for in the field.
And yes, for 90% (my guess) of what you are going to see it will likely be on these guides. Most of what any of us see in an area is common - this is going to list the common.
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Mary M. in Denver
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JennGM
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We love those pocket guides. Waterford Press shows all the listings. It makes the bag light and books don't get as destroyed while on a hike.
Jotting notes, taking pictures, quick sketches -- if there is something you can't find, you go home and look it up.
I also grab at used book stores and sales inexpensive nature guides, like the Golden Guides. They are little and portable, and kid friendly. For birds we really, really like the National Audubon Society Pocket Guides. The pictures are absolutely wonderful.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Erin Lewis
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Mackfam wrote:
| Also, check your local public television station. Ours produces a magnificent series called Discovering Alabama and this series has made a wonderful Natural History course all on its own. The series is aired on public tv, is available to check out from our library system, and is also available as a free download from itunesU. The extent of its availability to us makes it extremely useful and we learn MUCH from the series INCLUDING some recommendations for local field guides! It's likely/possible that each state offers something similar through their local public television stations so do check that resource out! |
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This sounds great... we are only 15 minutes from the AL border and could actually get AL public TV by turning our antenna that way! I will have to see what we have for GA!
Thanks to all for the suggestions - this is very helpful! I am putting together a nature backpack with sketch book, magnifying glasses, a glass jar/lid, ziplock bags, pencil case, and kids' handheld telescope, and I want to add reference materials like field guides as well. We are starting up a nature club with two or three other homeschooling families and are excited about it!
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Erin
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Mackfam
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Erin Lewis wrote:
Mackfam wrote:
| Also, check your local public television station. Ours produces a magnificent series called Discovering Alabama and this series has made a wonderful Natural History course all on its own. The series is aired on public tv, is available to check out from our library system, and is also available as a free download from itunesU. The extent of its availability to us makes it extremely useful and we learn MUCH from the series INCLUDING some recommendations for local field guides! It's likely/possible that each state offers something similar through their local public television stations so do check that resource out! |
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This sounds great... we are only 15 minutes from the AL border and could actually get AL public TV by turning our antenna that way! I will have to see what we have for GA! |
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Erin --
I didn't know we were soooo close!!!! Georgia is just beautiful!!!
In case you're interested - here is the Discovering Alabama website, and here they are available at itunesU for free download!!!!! I downloaded EVERY ONE and burned them to CD. Though some of them are dated, they're all quite good and my kids and I LOVE THEM!!! Many of them would be applicable to you being so close to us! William Bartram which was an early naturalist explored extensively in Georgia and Alabama and I list his books as being helpful. I wrote an outline lesson plan to use with the DVD's which I'll upload for you if you're interested:
2011-07-18_205923_Alabama_Natural_History.pdf
There has to be some fantastic programs like this for Georgia!! With just a quick google search I found:
Georgia Museum of Natural History website
Stone Mountain Natural History (such a beautiful area!!!)
Not sure where you are in Georgia, but look at these fantastic book recommendations for North Georgia!!
I'm glad I did a search because I found that Georgia Public Broadcasting offers a program on William Bartram entitled The Bartram Trail, and on that I found several really useful links, too!
So, I think you'll probably find a lot of useful things for your family in Georgia!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Erin Lewis
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Wow, thanks, Jen - looks like lots of great stuff!! Yes, we love the natural features of Georgia... we have everything here: mountains, ocean, and everything in between! The closest AL towns to me would be Centre and Fort Payne... we have relatives in Huntsville and occasionally drive thru North Alabama to get there, right at a 2 hour drive for us.
I am checking out all the links - thanks again! Already I found some great maps, including a map showing all the rivers in the state, which I have been searching for!
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Erin
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Angie Mc
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These are our most used field guides, even as the children grow older. They are light-weight and durable. Sometimes I've been able to get them at Amazon on a 4 for 3 special.
Have fun!
Love,
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: good Field Guide for young kids?
