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Burgess Books & Handbook of Nature Study: Do we really need them & How to work them in?
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For our upcoming school year (starting the day after Labor Day), I have stuck pretty closely to the recommended schedule on SCM. Nature Study is only listed for one day. I plan to encourage daily time outdoors and free use of a Nature Journal. But, I figured the “scheduled” Nature Study would be for reading something nature related & I plan to work that into our Morning Basket Time.
Currently, we own the complete set of Christian Liberty Nature Readers (K-5). We are starting with the 1st Grade reader (which I expect my daughter to breeze through). I also own a vintage hardcover of Manual for the Study of Insects (Comstock & Herrick) which I got for an amazing deal on eBay while looking for The Handbook of Nature Study. (I’m unsure if I will even get much use out of this).
Anyways, I have had my eyes on Comstock’s Handbook as well as the Burgess books (animals, birds, sea life). (And I’m guessing the Burgess books are stories, not reference, right?) But, I don’t want too add more than we can or will use. So are they must haves for our homeschool? And if so, would I just read from them once per week (and use Comstock’s handbook as needed to look stuff up)?
Also, should I work things like bird recognition flash cards into our Nature Study time? (I read about this in More Charlotte Mason Education by Levinson).
Last year we used the Burgess Bird Book once per week and this year we have started using the Burgess Animal Book once per week. My son absolutely LOVES these books. They are a must have for us but that could just be us – i consider them gems.
We have used the Handbook of NS as a reference in the past but this year I hope to actually put it on the schedule to use after our nature walks. I consider this book also a gem (we just ignore the evolution content or may discuss sometimes how it is inaccurate).
That’s just my .02. HTH!
We listened to the audio of Burgess Bird book from LibriVox while riding in the van. And we watched the DVD Birds in your Backyard to help with bird sounds and identification. We have not used the nature guide much. My kids use various nature guides and books, depending on topic.
The Burgess books are must reads when your children are young! We have the best memories from reading those books and still call many birds by Burgess’s names for them-i.e. Sammy Jay. 🙂 The bird book is my favorite but they are all so good.
Thanks guys! Regarding the Burgess books, do you read from it during scheduled nature study time or during scheduled literature time? Do you use any of it for copywork? Just trying to figure out where to fit it in.
Also, I just discovered that our library has tons of Burgess readers. Are these stories different from what’s in the Bird, Animal & Sea Life books or are those books a collection of all of the individual readers?
We use The Burgess Bird Book for science. The other Burgess books are a little different. My kids have adored the ones we have read, especially The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad. We read BBB separate from Nature Study and outdoor time.
We read the Burgess books as part of our science/nature study. The Burgess story books are different-more akin to Beatrix Potter. They are very sweet though and my kids enjoyed them just for fun.
What ages do you read The Animal Book and the Bird Book to?
We have the Animal Book (not reading now) and while it is a more ‘fun’ way to teach science, we found it does get a little ‘too’ descriptive for the age of the child who would be interested. For example, my 10 yo could follow with the descriptions of the different squirrels, but didn’t like the book, thought it was to ‘young.’ The 6 year old who LOVES everything animals, couldn’t follow. So, not sure what the AIM is here>
For science, we do Apologia for the older grades 7th, 5th, 4th….But I am new to CM, and they have NEVER heard any of the Burgess books. My PK and 1st sure will. WOndering if I can have them all listening (dreaming, I’m sure) Apologia Anamoty is a lot!
I wish I would have done these great things with my older children when they were little, I feel pressured to ‘catch them up’ with these missed readings. Hard to let go of that…..Because I am reading Apologia to the older, we do not do science with the littles…. 🙁
Rethinking…..
BlessedMommy & kellywright006 – I grew up reading the Burgess story books. My children have all read my collection and adored them. Though they are written for younger children, there is no reason why the older ones could not listen and enjoy them if they would accept them as they are, so to speak. Just because a book is written to a younger audience does not mean that older listeners, including adults, won’t benefit from them. 🙂 Also, you may find that your children learn quite a bit about various animals from the story books. My children did as did I when I first read them. However, as others have said, the BBB, etc. are really more “science-nature-y”.
We used the Burgess Animal book when my kids were starting written narrations. We would read 1 chapter about a certain animal, orally narrate about it, then look up the animal in a mammal reference book I had, then they would write about that animal, often with a picture they drew to illustrate it. This was our science for as long as it lasted as well as English and writing. We never got to the bird book, but wish we had. It would work great this way too. There is also the sea creatures that would be good too.
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