Great outdoor education books

Your book list looks wonderful; thanks for sharing it. I look forward to exploring the ones I don't know.

renee, wonderful inclusions! we have a number of these as well. my educational background is biology. my brother's is marine bio, so the kids get a lot of from exposure to that and interest in science on the part of me for supplemental education. i, too, love thoreau. john muir, as well. nicola Which Name?

oh...i love that your husband reads to your family in the evening. that image completely warms my heart.

I love Walden. However, it is a really easy book to completely kill the interest of. It is dry if you read it straight through. Thoreau didn't have an editor, he was self-published, and thus there are parts which get long or are redundant. The first time I read it my Honors American Lit class in high school was required to listen to the entire book on tape. Many of us, including myself, completely fell asleep.

Later in life, I re-read Walden after realizing how wonderful it was. This time, I read it in chunks about a week apart. LOVE the book that way. LOVE the insights he has to nature, the cultural commentary it poses, the idea that much of our society is a microcosm of nature, the idea that you don't need the rat-race or the "stuff" and are usually happier without it. That kind of thing. If you are going to read it to your kids (which is highly cool) I would suggest little chunks and then discussion. Some of the book gets a little heady at times. It isn't above kids, they just might need some discussion to be able to break it down and process all of it into ideas they can then express. It would be a cool dinner table discussion kind of book. You could also talk about it as you hiked and saw things from the sections.

My son's dad is an English teacher. We recite classical poetry while we hike. Walking Through Woods on a Snowy Evening has always been one of the Barracuda's favorites. He isn't big enough for full chapter discussions yet, but Walden is definitely in our future!

Hi there. I enjoy reading your outdoor posts! Don't apologize because it's Thoreau-ly entertaining! Sorry, about that. I am a meteorologist not a comedian. Stick to what I know, right? Well, anyhow, thanks for the inspiration. I'm loving the new look!

I love Walden - I actually read it on a trip to Walden Pond a few years ago. It was summer, and I spent the day on the beach at the lake reading. It was lovely, and so interesting to be able to actually go see the house (or at least its location, the house isn't actually there any more) and the landscape and imagine what it must have been like for Thoreau. I am going to have to check out Henry David's House, maybe I'll bring it to read to the kids on our next trip to Massachusetts!

Oh, thank you SO much for this list. I'll be referencing this early and often as we march on into spring. What a gift.

We had the pleasure of a snowy trek through Walden Woods last winter. Our friends live right on the edge of it, in Concord. Now I am homesick for a winter walk in the woods- what happened this year!? I never got one in!

Renee, I have a hard time finding field guides that aren't atrociously priced. I'm sorry, but I have a really hard time spending $25 on a book, I mean, that's a nice grocery bill.

Do you have any recommendations for finding affordable field guides and other books that would be awesome for Nature Study?

Lol, I hear you there. Yeah, I usually spend $75-$100 a week. It's hard work feeding black holes. sobs and they haven't even hit puberty yet! Heaven help us!

I THOUGHT I had read your posting on SH, but I guess I just looked at Simple Mom. (I got lost in browsing the natural beauty product posts last night) Heading over there now. :) Thanks!

Wonderful list!! We have many of these, and I would never have thought to place them in a nature category. Duh. This will help us make even more connections, which seem to be a big point in why my kids are learning better at home, all those connections from one thing to the next. I am really looking forward to your post on how to find time from your perspective. Because let's face it, as vegetarians, somehow veggies in a crock pot all day do not have quite the same effect as meat in there all day. :) You have seriously inspired me to pare down my life in order to persue what's important, and to take a look at what happiness truly is. It's likely not found in making more money or acquiring new things.

(Alisha) I find tons of good books at Goodwill. Field guides included - in perfect condition, and even one with an unopened bird call CD included. Granted, it helps to go at least weekly. I find that having a plan for the next few months helps me know what I am looking for. Almost all of our classic children's literature has been acquired from Goodwill, in lovely condition. This affords me the great books that I don't find, guilt free, on amazon, knowing I've tried first to search them out second hand.

(Renee) Thanks for the sweet comment about my daughter. She is growing up beautifully and far too quickly! The photography... let's just say I have my work cut out for me in that department! It is fun though.