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Nature and Survival Books


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Hello everyone,


 


I am interested in finding books for my children that share how to read the weather and nature to know what is coming up in terms of weather and danger, good crop etc... (ex: the sky is dark for 3 nights in a row, therefore, it means that ....is coming... or the animals are running quickly away from this direction therefore this means....). 


 


Also, I would like to start teaching my children survival skills and how to take care of themselve without the need for government assistance. This could range from homesteading to how to run a business etc. 


 


Any suggestions?


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DH & DD actually did this for one of DD's summer projects.  DH is quite knowledgeable about hunting and basic wilderness survival. So he helped her put a survival pack together; taught her how to make fire starters to keep in her pack & how to start a fire without starters as well; how to build a shelter from materials around her, etc.  DD was younger at the time so he didn't go too in-depth.  She had fun with it because it was relaxed.

 

If I were you, I would start out with a basic book like Bushcraft 101: A Basic Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival.  Have them put a survival pack together, practice knots, and generally practice what they read in the book.  You may also want to get a guide to edible wild plants in your area, work on identifying them and trying them.  We did this as well.  This is one of the books we chose: The Forager's Harvest.  DD is also very interested in medicinal plants/herbs.  We actually did a science class for this combined with Botany. The books we used for the medicinal plants' portion were: Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide and Herbal Recipes. The last component I would add would be wilderness first-aid -- something like: Wilderness First Aid: Emergency Care in Remote Locations.

 

The only book I can think of for reading the weather is...Reading Weather: Field Guide to Forecasting the Weather.

 

HTH

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When my kids were interested in this, we used a Scouting book. It had tracking, fire-lighting, shelter-making, as well as more domestically useful ideas.

 

They also liked any books/tv series by Ray Mears. Bear Grylls was also popular, but some of his survival stuff was rather more extreme than we were ever going to need!

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The military survival manuals are great fun for kids to read, in addition to picking up some tips.  I can remember loving them as a kid, and my kids pore over them now.  There are a bunch, here's one example.  

 

For homesteading, the best single book is probably The Encyclopedia of Country Living.  

Nourishing Traditions or another book that covers natural food preservation is probably a good one to have.

 

 

Other books that I've got on my wishlist but haven't purchased include-

Where there is no doctor

Where there is no dentist

 

I thought there was also a midwifery option in that series, but now I'm not seeing it.  I've got quite a few midwifery books already because I'm a doula, they seem like they'd be a useful thing to have tucked away in the apocalypse toolbox...  

 

 

There are also some great youtube channels out there with interesting survival stuff.  I watched one recently on starting a fire with a plastic bag and a bit of water.  Can't think of the channel right now, but it's easy enough to poke around and stumble onto the good ones.

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You might also want to invest in a good area-specific book on foraging.

 

We also enjoyed "Frontier Living:an illustrated guide to pioneer life in America", which is more historical, but inspirational, alongside "The Little House" cookbook, when we read the Laura Ingalls series.

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We springboarded this with The Dangerous Book For Boys and the American Boys Handy Book (this, and the Girls one are available as free ebooks through Homeschool Freebie Of The Day, but the Girl book is focused more on arts and games).  The Handy books are divided into seasonal activities which makes it easy.

 

You might want to check around town, too, and see what classes are available.  My son attended a weather class put on by some of the people who work at the station/early detection storm folks and was able to discern more details about the upcoming thunderstorms before the rest of us.  He would not have gotten the same applicable information from a book.  A lot of areas do what are called "brown bag classes" where they're 45 minutes to an hour over the lunch period either at a city hall building, museum, or the library. LOL We even found a canning class at our local art museum, because they had the space in their meeting room.  Most of these classes are free and just request your time. 

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