Nature Education Books for Kids - From Wooden Spoons

Start learning and exploring the big outdoors with the little ones around you with 30+ educational picture books for nature walks, homeschooling and exploring.

Spring is waking up the moving parts inside our home and family. The daylight savings time shifted and suddenly we are dazzled by the extra hour of sunlight in the evenings and tempted by the slivers of morning. Outside, things are waking up too. The first of the dandelions have transitioned to their white puffs, and robins are everywhere. I have done a load of laundry every day due to the abundance of “delightful” puddles my children find. Seeds we have begun to direct sow are peeking out, slightly yellow from their sleep under the soil. The garden is ready to be awakened.

Supplies for on the go Spring

Now that the days are warming, we find ourselves ready for more field trips outside the home, or at least, deep into the backyard. At the same time, the days feel more full than they have before. We include school time, and chores as a family. They are squabbles to break up and disciplines to focus on. We are less on the fly, but always prepared to go.

We stay ready by having our to-go items on the ready:

Small backpacks: one for each child to grab their belongings and to increase in responsibility
Water bottles: we stick to stainless steel to endure hot days, bangs and bumps and stay cool, fresh and clean.
To-go snacks: beef jerky, clementines, apples, banana chips, boxes of raisins, cheerios
Journals & crayons: simple brown paper journals with blank pages for doodles
Cars: something your child will use for imagination in nature; this could be Calico Critters or plastic dinosaurs.
Nature Books: picture books that make learning accessible to the little years

What Does Learning Look Like for Littles?

Observation: take the simple game of “I Spy” and expand it to new levels

Asking Questions: I see a butterfly. Where do butterflies sleep at night? Here’s a feather. How do feathers work? Look up at the moon. Why does the moon change shapes? Let them tell you their ideas and look for books that might answer them.

Drawing: creating documentation of what they have seen will add memory to the activity, as well as creativity as they observe on a different level. Matching colors to real objects may be the first start, or getting basic shapes in singular colors etc.

How Can You Teach Nature to Multiple Ages?

This is a skill that I haven’t yet mastered, and know that it becomes more complicated with more children. What I have observed, by watching other families and experimenting, is to bring big concepts to the table and narrow them by age.

For a concept like weather, and older child can create rain gauges, make a weather log, and draw the types of clouds. A younger child can learn a few drastically different looking clouds, track weather by coloring a chart and basic concepts of how weather affects seasons. A very young child can make cotton ball clouds, read picture books about rainy days and learn songs about rain.

nature education book with beetles and worms

Nature Education Books

Take along guides and picture books that expand learning for all ages with a few of our favorite nature education books. Doodle along with your kids, copying pictures from the books and comparing them to bugs and trees that you see in the wild. Enjoy the togetherness and the fresh air! We’ve included our recommendations as well as other titles by the author on similar topics: