We recently discovered WILD KIDS, a free downloadable magazine published by Alicia Bayer, and were wishing we had had this back when our own kids spent their days roaming and playing in our woods. So of course we had to share it with you:

Wild Kids Magazine for March is out! As always it’s absolutely free to read and print out.

This month’s topics include foraging wood sorrel the tasty little plant everyone thinks is clover, plus how to build wild shelters, tapping maple trees (and others!), 10 ways to play in nature this month and much more.

CLICK HERE to go to the download page

Here’s our final volume (for now) from the “Look About You” nature study series written by Thomas W. Hoare, an English nature study teacher in the early 1900s. These stories follow the activities of an uncle and his nieces and nephews as they explore the countryside and farm and really begin to pay attention to all the wonders of nature surrounding them. Each short chapter ends with some “hands on” experiment or activity for children, related to the topic. These books are exceptionally well done, are great for primary age nature study, and have great illustrations to boot. We highly recommend you check them out!

Again, the series introduction:

This little book should be used as a simple guide to the practical study of Nature rather than as a mere reader.

Every lesson herein set down has, during the author’s many years’ experience in teaching Nature Study, been taught by observation and practice again and again; and each time with satisfactory result. The materials required for the lessons are within everybody’s reach.

There is nothing that appeals to the heart of the ordinary child like living things, be they animal or vegetable, and there is no branch of education at the present day that bears, in the young mind, such excellent fruit as the study of the simple, living things around us.

Your child is nothing if not curious. He wants to understand everything that lives in his bright little world.

Nature Study involves so many ingenious little deductions, that the reasoning powers are almost constantly employed, and intelligence grows proportionately. The child’s powers of observation are stimulated, and his memory is cultivated in the way most pleasing to his inquiring nature. By drawing his specimens, no matter how roughly or rapidly, his eye is trained more thoroughly than any amount of enforced copying of stiff, uninteresting models of prisms, cones, etc., ever could train it.

The love of flowers and animals is one of the most commendable traits in the disposition of the wondering child, and ought to be encouraged above all others. A few lessons on Nature Phenomena are added.

It is the author’s fondest and most sanguine hope that his little pupils may study further the great book of Nature, whose broad pages are ever open to us, and whose silent answers to our manifold questions are never very difficult to read.

Today’s book is Volume 4, and topics covered are: Snowdrops – Crocus – Tulips – Daisies – Water Beetles – Life of a Trout – Silkworms – Birds
CLICK HERE

This book can be viewed and read online, or can be downloaded as kindle or epub ebooks.

Here’s another of the “Look About You” nature study series written by Thomas W. Hoare, an English nature study teacher in the early 1900s. These stories follow the activities of an uncle and his nieces and nephews as they explore the countryside and farm and really begin to pay attention to all the wonders of nature surrounding them. Each short chapter ends with some “hands on” experiment or activity for children, related to the topic. These books are exceptionally well done, are great for primary age nature study, and have great illustrations to boot. We highly recommend you check them out!

Today’s book is Volume 3, and topics include: Birds in Winter – Seed-Eaters & Insect-Eaters – Baby Plants – Tadpoles – and Frogs

CLICK HERE

this book is available in HTML format to read online, or it can be downloaded as an epub or kindle ebook!

This week, we’re sharing a few volumes from the “Look About You” nature study series written by Thomas W. Hoare, an English nature study teacher in the early 1900s. These stories follow the activities of an uncle and his nieces and nephews as they explore the countryside and farm and really begin to pay attention to all the wonders of nature surrounding them. Each short chapter ends with some “hands on” experiment or activity for children, related to the topic. These books are exceptionally well done, are great for primary age nature study, and have great illustrations to boot. We highly recommend you check them out!

From the series introduction:

This little book should be used as a simple guide to the practical study of Nature rather than as a mere reader.

Every lesson herein set down has, during the author’s many years’ experience in teaching Nature Study, been taught by observation and practice again and again; and each time with satisfactory result. The materials required for the lessons are within everybody’s reach.

There is nothing that appeals to the heart of the ordinary child like living things, be they animal or vegetable, and there is no branch of education at the present day that bears, in the young mind, such excellent fruit as the study of the simple, living things around us.

Your child is nothing if not curious. He wants to understand everything that lives in his bright little world.

Nature Study involves so many ingenious little deductions, that the reasoning powers are almost constantly employed, and intelligence grows proportionately. The child’s powers of observation are stimulated, and his memory is cultivated in the way most pleasing to his inquiring nature. By drawing his specimens, no matter how roughly or rapidly, his eye is trained more thoroughly than any amount of enforced copying of stiff, uninteresting models of prisms, cones, etc., ever could train it.

The love of flowers and animals is one of the most commendable traits in the disposition of the wondering child, and ought to be encouraged above all others. A few lessons on Nature Phenomena are added.

It is the author’s fondest and most sanguine hope that his little pupils may study further the great book of Nature, whose broad pages are ever open to us, and whose silent answers to our manifold questions are never very difficult to read.

Today’s book is Volume 2. Topics include:  Sowing Seeds – the Life of a Plant – Country Walks – Rabbits – Gulls – Spiders – Ants – and Grasshoppers.
CLICK HERE

This book can be viewed and read online, or can be downloaded as kindle or epub ebooks.

This is a wonderful storybook from 1897 that tells the story of different types of birds in the United States, and how each species’ habits, character and behavior are unique. Their story is told in the setting of a farmhouse owned by an ornithologist (bird scientist) whose young niece and nephew come to visit him throughout the year. Their adventures and observations of the birds around them make this a fascinating and fun course in ornithology for old and young alike.

This ebook is heavily illustrated with 111 wonderful drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes (who did many of the illustrations for the Common Birds Coloring Book which we featured yesterday), detailing many species of birds, and illustrating the differences between them. Highly recommended for anyone who want to know more about our feathered friends. PDF ebook, 312 pages, illustrated

To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key, then click the link and save to your mac.

This is a massive 600+ page PDF collection of wonderful nature study lessons developed by Cornell University in the early 1900s for use in rural schools in the US.  The first section of studies is for teachers, the second section is studies for children. It is amazing.

This was the primary source from which Anna Botsford Comstock derived her famous “Big Book of Nature Study”.

There’s a ton of great material in here, be sure to check out the children’s studies in particular.

To download this ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE  and “save” to your computer.

Mac users: Press the “control” key, then click the above link and “save” to your mac.