field guides for nature study?

[workingmom]

We implemented Nature studies last year with walks in the local park and outdoors. Sometimes we drew what we saw other times we just commented on the different characteristics of the various species we saw.

 

We have never used field guides and I want to implement them or some logical way to identify what we see. Are carrying field guides practical? Should you pick one subject at a time? How do you do internet searches about the animal if you say only know its a bird with some specific coloring?

 

I'm cautious about spending a lot of money on field guides if we don't know how to use them properly or end up not finding them useful. I prefer the option of checking out books from the library or buying used books if they are really beneficial.

 

Any suggestions on how to implement follow ups from our nature walks? What has worked for you?

[NanceXToo]

We've never carried or bought field guides. Usually we will take pics and then go home and look up (for example) trees of northeastern Pennsylvania and try to find a website that shows pics, and then see if we can match what we found to one. Same with birds- or we might google "small brown bird with white on head" or some such if we have trouble identifying it the other way- there have def. been times where it's been a time consuming pain in the butt to try to identify something though lol- and in the end, we sometimes weren't even positive we identified something correctly! But we did our best.

 

As for follow up ideas, we identify things, we draw pictures of those things, we might do a little writeup describing what a particular thing was doing or what it sounded like or what it felt like or what it smelled like etc (depending on what it was).

 

Sometimes my daughter liked to make and paint clay models of some things we saw.

 

You could get library books, of course.

 

Once we collected pine needles from a white pine and tried to make pine needle tea (fun to try but not very tasty- then again, we're not tea drinkers to begin with).

[mcconnellboys]

I like Little Golden Guides for our area (birds, trees, flowers, insects, etc.). They are small enough to carry along; you can split them up between each person in the group; and they have very good photographs or color illlustrations.

[Maverick_Mom]

We have used this one and loved it. It has very helpful descriptions, charts, and short articles. Without any prompting on my part, my son the nature lover has taken to using it himself to identify things he finds.

 

This series (National Audubon Society) has many guides on different aspects of nature and on different geographic areas.

[Maverick_Mom]

 

We have never used field guides and I want to implement them or some logical way to identify what we see. Are carrying field guides practical? Should you pick one subject at a time? How do you do internet searches about the animal if you say only know its a bird with some specific coloring?

 

 

You'd be surprised how much info you can find online just by googling "identify birds by color." Here's one site: http://www.whatbird.com/browse/attribute/birds_na_147/110/Color/

[workingmom]

We've never carried or bought field guides. Usually we will take pics and then go home and look up (for example) trees of northeastern Pennsylvania and try to find a website that shows pics, and then see if we can match what we found to one. Same with birds- or we might google "small brown bird with white on head" or some such if we have trouble identifying it the other way- .

 

 

i guess this may work, we'll have to be disciplined enough to look it up rather than run home and start playing legos or jumping into another activity.

 

thanks for the ideas. i did see "pocket naturalist series" which looks good but I'll have to track it down later

[songofmyheart]

We have enjoyed the guides by Peterson, Audubon, and the little Golden Guides. I picked up several used guides by various publishers for our nature club at Half Price Books for good prices. The main things I look for in a guide are nice color illustrations, easy-to-understand format, and nothing too huge and overwhelming. I like to have them small and simple. You could also check some out from the library to see which ones are a good fit for you and your children.

 

I sometimes look things up on the internet, but I really do prefer to take a guide with us and make the connection/identification during our nature walks...especially if we're going to a park or somewhere other than our backyard. We sort of lose the moment if we find something we want to identify and then Google it after the drive home, but that's just my own personal preference.

 

We usually just draw in our nature journals what we've found or spotted, and then label it, date it, and make a note of where we found it and the weather conditions that day.

 

We've also done some of the Outdoor Hour Nature Challenges over at the Handbook of Nature Study blog. These are really well done, and we've enjoyed them. I hope to do more of them this year.

 

Have fun enjoying nature with your kids!