Music of spring is filling our hearts as winter slowly fades away. The other day while walking outside my daughter suddenly stopped, paused, then boldly proclaimed, “Birds! They are singing!”. It had been a long time since we heard such sweet sounds. The uplifting notes reminded me of nature study and how far away I had strayed from that glorious subject. It was time to bring it back.
Last year we read Thorton Burgess’ Bird Book for Children and enjoyed it immensely. After discovering his books my daughter devoured any Burgess Animal Book she could get her hands on. Yes, we once did a very exuberant happy dance when we found a copy at a used bookstore. Nature study was introduced to an unassuming crowd that day. I now need to reintroduce it to myself.
The Burgess bird book for children
We rely heavily on Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study, but I have lost focus in terms of observing. Simple observations. My silence, my daughter’s mind in action. I’m a checklist, organized, list devotee. Observation with a list would soothe my mind. An Outline for Observing a Bird would be phenomenal! The book To Accompany A manual of Bird Study includes an outline with 19 questions to guide a bird observation.
The words To Accompany in the title caught my attention. Is there more? Yes! The outline is to be used with A manual of bird study : a description of twenty-five local birds with study outlines. Ohhh…another book!
A Manual of Bird Study offers:
- ideas for questions to ask
- study topics
- suggested outline for observations
- bird diagram with parts labeled
- descriptions including items such as food, song, nest
- line drawings of 25 birds which could be printed out and colored
Upon investigating these books I noticed the publishing company was the Comstock Publishing Company, the same company that published A Handbook for Nature Study. Hmm..that explains why I like them so much! Imagine an abbreviated version of A Handbook for Nature Study.
Thanks to these books, Nature Study is going to look different for us this term. Guided observation will lead us to melodious delight!