Nature Study.. ideas, books, etc

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  • July 19, 2010 at 8:34 pm
    Misty
    Participant

    I want to get something set up for Nature Study this coming yeat.  I’d like to have about 7 different topics to cover.  I have all boys and it gets pretty cold here in the winter.  What suggestions do you have to do that we could work on inside during the winter?

    Also, how do you find living books for these subjects?  Or do you have suggestions of books I could use?  I really want the Comstock book but I can’t buy it this year, so I have to find other ways.  Thanks for your help. Misty

    July 20, 2010 at 3:39 am
    Cindy K
    Member

    I really like Katie’s Homeschool Cottage eBook Nature Study, Nature Journals, and Poetry Through the Year available at CurrClick. It is basically all 4 of her seasonal nature study eBooks combined into one volume. I love the poetry she includes for each season and the list of books to expand on a topic of interest. She would give you ideas for winter studies – that’s also one reason I bought it for this coming year. It wouldn’t be so bad with the cold here if it would just not be so windy! Smile

    July 20, 2010 at 5:42 am
    fivestones
    Member

    Here is a link to Barb’s site-home of the outdoor hour challenges.

    http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/p/handbook-of-nature-study.html

    She has tons of free links and stuff on her site.  Including a link to the Comstock book that can be read for free online.  She has stuff sorted out by seasons as well, so there are ideas and things for winter activities.

    Blessings,

    Vanessa

    July 20, 2010 at 8:08 am
    Jimmie
    Member

    Alot of the books Miss Mason suggested for natural science are in public domain and are free to download.

    See Nature Tales for links to many of them. We just got Kindles recently, and we’re enjoying being able to read free books such as these on the ebook readers. Well worth the investment (for us, anyway).

    July 20, 2010 at 4:06 pm
    Cindy K
    Member

    You say you got “KindleS”, as in plural. Did you get one for each child? I noticed that they have recently come down in price, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook is even cheaper now! I’m sure due to the release of the iPad. Wink

    Aren’t most free ebooks in PDF form? How do you load those onto your Kindle, which uses a proprietary format? I can’t even read PDF books using Kindle for the PC. Also, when you read those books from PDF, can you change the font size and have it “reflow” the text? I have noticed in the B&N desktop app that it won’t do that for PDFs – only for ePubs.

    I had thought that because of this “proprietariness”, that I would probably get a Nook instead of a Kindle, if/when I get one. Or I may wait for the ultimate tablet – a combined tablet/eBook reader that we should see on the market starting late this year.

    July 20, 2010 at 4:09 pm
    Cindy K
    Member

    Or I may wait for the ultimate tablet – a combined tablet/eBook reader that we should see on the market starting late this year.

    Of course, the Nook may be the ideal device for the boys – cheap and safe from the Internet! LOL!

    July 21, 2010 at 2:51 am
    Jimmie
    Member

    Cindy K,

    Yes, I bought two Kindles. One for me — Kindle DX, the bigger, more expensive one — and the Kindle 2, smaller one (the basic Kindle that is under $200 now) for my daughter.

    The DX can read PDFs natively, that is, no conversion is needed. You just drag it over to your Kindle via USB. Voila! The ability to read PDFs was a big selling point on the DX for me.

    To read PDFs on a regular Kindle (K 2), you do have to convert the file. I’ve not done that, but it is possible.

    Note — many of the Kindle’s features are not available within a PDF. For example, the search function and the dictionary function are not accessible within a PDF.

    I do admit, though, that the books purchased from Amazon are easier to navigate than any free books I’ve gotten from Gutenberg, Archive.org, and even the freebies at Amazon. So when you pay a dollar or two, you often get a linked TOC and such features. It’s a give and take, and we’re still experimenting with lots of options for our Kindles.

    I really, really like my big DX and do not regret the cost one bit. WELL worth it for US. (We also live abroad, so getting books is expensive and difficult and requires long waits).

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