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By Mari Almon
Taking a short walk through your own backyard can be an antidote to stress at any age. Remember that old saying: “Take time to smell the roses”? Exactly—take time! Life can be so busy that it’s difficult to see anything but the tasks on the “to do list.” As I take my focus off the things that overwhelm my thoughts and concentrate more on God’s beautiful creation around me, my senses become alive again and a whole new universe becomes evident.
Once hidden to me by my “busyness.” the world around me begins to reveal a vast, unexplored beauty. The living things I see call me to look closer at their intricate details. The greenery and flowers, birds, squirrels, and insects all begin to take on new significance as I hear the twittering conversation of the birds and feel the gentle breezes.
How It All Began . . .
Several years ago when I began backyard gardening, I started noticing subtle changes in the wildlife seasonally. Because my husband and son frequently helped me in the garden, they also became interested as we noticed various birds and/or other creatures. We often would take the time to stop and appreciate their beauty, and in some cases we would even try to create a habitat that would attract them.
As I became more interested in the migration of birds, I started to keep an informal field guide. My goal was to learn more about the birds and animals that interested me, in hopes that I could create an environment that would keep them returning year after year.
What Is a Field Guide?
Field guides are books that contain photographs or accurate illustrations, along with clear descriptions of plants or other groups of organisms such as insects or birds. Field guides are used by scientists, students, and amateurs to help them identify species that they encounter but are unable to identify initially. Field guides can be very detailed and structured or very general and informal.
Anyone can create a field guide—almost any age person from preschool to well, you know—old. The details you decide to incorporate should be determined by your age and capabilities and the overall goal of the guide. My original goal for keeping a guide was to identify the birds I liked so that I could find ways to encourage them to return year after year. Other individuals might simply want a record of all their backyard visitors or a detailed account of insects and plants that attracted the creatures. Creating a backyard field guide is an activity that can be shaped to fit within a specific range of study or used strictly for pleasure.
Why Should Your Children Create a Field Guide?
The benefits of having your children create a field guide are numerous. Enhance your child’s natural curiosity by reinforcing it with activities that involve language arts, science and nature, classification and observation skills, and visual arts.
The creation of a field guide provides many opportunities for learning, and it can be built on year after year. For example, as a means to develop the character quality of patience, your preschooler can learn to sit quietly and observe living things, create simple sketches, and dictate a story about what he sees. You can write this down for him, and these observations can then be organized into a book about backyard creatures—for reading later or even publishing.
By the time your child is 6 or 7 years old, he has probably had lots of experience in classifying objects, and even words, according to their colors, shapes, sizes, spellings, and other attributes. He may even know a bit about how to classify living things into groups: plants and animals, insects and spiders, reptiles, mammals, birds, fish, etc.
At this age children’s writing skills are also blossoming. As they are learning how to write both fictional and informational accounts, the creation of a field guide as a teaching tool is a natural way to explore topics such as science and nature appreciation, weather, and arts and crafts. Use of a field guide also can be used to encourage the use of good grammar and to refine note-taking skills. Your older children can use this activity to hone their skills in areas such as creative and factual writing, biology, botany, entomology, meteorology, photography, and digital media arts.
How to Make Your Own Field Guide
I want to share with you my simple recipe for making a field guide. I hope you and your family will enjoy doing this together as you experience the beauty of God’s creation all around you.
Before beginning, you’ll need to have access to non-fiction resource books, field guides, and/or online field guides. My favorite resource is the iBird Explorer, an interactive field guide application for iPhone that was developed by the Mitch Waite Group. To identify a bird, select specific characteristics and features until iBird Explorer narrows the choices to a small group from which you can identify the particular bird you are looking at. It also offers detailed information about the natural habitat, diet, and behavior of the bird. This tool even gives examples of birdcalls—all on your iPhone!
Some excellent resources I have on my shelf include these:
• Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife by David Mizejewski
• National Audubon Society Field Guide Series (published by Alfred A. Knopf)
• Peterson Field Guides
• Peterson First Guides Series
• Go Outside!: Over 130 Activities for Outdoor Adventures by Nancy Blakey
• I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature by Jennifer Ward
• The Joy of Hiking: Hiking the Trailmaster Way by John McKinney
• Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth
Field Guide Supplies
Here is what you will need to get started:
- Loose-leaf paper
- Three-ring binder
- Pencil and eraser
- Clipboard
- Digital camera (optional)
- Markers, crayons, or colored pencils
- Baggies (optional)
- Stapler
The particular location you select for study is not as important as how convenient it is to go there. You need to be able to go there often, at different times of the day if possible. If you don’t want to use your own backyard, the park or a nearby wooded area will do just fine.
Let’s Get Started on Your Field Guide!
Because a field guide can be used to record observations of any living thing, begin by helping your child set a few limits. Have him ask himself, What specific things do I want to record in this field guide? He could choose to record his observations about birds, insects, flowers, or trees. Establish a reasonable goal for the number of living things you’d like to put in your field guide. Three to five is a good starting point. You can always add more later.
Ask younger children to draw or sketch the animal or plant they’re observing; they can use the blank paper and their pencils or markers to do this. Be sure to emphasize the importance of patience and of looking closely at details. For example, if you are looking at an evergreen tree, you might guide your child with questions like these: Does it have cones or berries? What do they look like? What do the needles and bark of the tree look like? How many needles are in a group? Gathering and bagging a small sample of a plant or leaf can be helpful too.
Observe the behavior and/or sounds of animals and birds. Noticing tiny details will prove important as you attempt to identify the plant or animal. Children should try to write down everything they observe as they explore nature using the senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell. (Occasionally, with your close supervision, they may also be able to use the sense of taste!) As they create their field guide entries, encourage the use of good handwriting and grammar.
Older children may want to use a digital camera to take pictures of the plant and animal life they see. Their observations should contain more detailed, informational writing and samples when possible. They, too, should write neatly and with correct grammar.
Gather More Information
Assist your young children as they turn to supplementary resources, such as books and Internet field guides, to identify the living things you and they have observed. An excellent online source is www.enature.com. Encourage your children to carefully review the notes they have taken, as well as their sketches, drawings, or digital photos, to recall details in order to identify individual species.
After your child has identified a species and read a little about it, it’s time to create a page or two about that creature or plant for a field guide. The layout possibilities are really endless, so encourage your child to be creative and have fun! He or she will want to include general information about the plant or animal, such as its name and classification, where it lives, what it eats, and how it grows.
It’s also fun to include lesser-known facts about it too. Is it poisonous? Is it a source of food for certain animals? Have your child record this information in a paragraph or two on a piece of paper, or he could simply make a list of facts. You may want him to site the resources he used, at the bottom of the page. Be sure to encourage good handwriting and the use of correct grammar. Your child may wish to use his initial sketch or drawing (cut and paste, if necessary), or he may prefer to create a new one. He can even include additional photos found online or in old magazines.
The Field Guide Binder
Add each newly created page to a binder. As more pages are added over time, your child may want to rearrange pages in the field guide according to their classifications, such as organizing it into a section on plants and a section on animals and so on. A Table of Contents page may be in order too.
Older children may want to make digital presentations instead of using a written, binder approach. They may even turn their field guide into an E-Book or video eventually!
Whatever form the guide takes, encourage your child to share his or her field guide with visitors and friends. Your children will be sharing much more than just information. They will be sharing their writing and research skills, as well as their love and understanding of God’s beautiful creation!
Author Mari Almon, Director of Advertising Sales for TOS, lives in northern Atlanta. Married to Steve, they are both thrilled that their two children, Liz and Jon, had the opportunity to graduate high schooll from home. In her spare time, Mari enjoys traveling, making homemade crafts, and perennial gardening. To reach Mari, email her at
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Copyright 2010. Originally appeared in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine®, Summer 2010. Used with permission.
Visit them at http://www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com.
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