Nature in a Nutshell for Kids: Over 100 Activities You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less

Nature in a Nutshell is a handy book for parents who want to inject some educational experiences in their child's daily learning routine. The book contains one- hundred and twelve total activities relating to nature and education and most of them can be performed quickly and easily, using items available inside or immediately outside of most homes. The activities offered in the book are mostly simple and there are few materials necessary. Some activities are more complex, but most are basic and can be completed in a matter of minutes. The activities are divided up based on season and while this is a good way to organize, I think it would be better to organize based on difficulty level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This way, parents could slowly build up, from the easy to the more challenging, and increase their child's learning and confidence in the process. The book is recommended for children between the ages of eight and twelve, but I don't see why parents would want to wait this long to introduce their children to these learning activities. Younger children, in the four to eight age group, will enjoy the activities also. I admit that the explanations offered for the outcomes of these activities are likely going to be too complicated for children in these younger age categories, but children will still enjoy them and even if they retain only a small amout of information, they will have a head start over other children their age when they eventually enter school. I like that this book includes a reference section in the back, but one fact that puzzled me at first is that the list of important nature- oriented organizations doesn't include any web site addresses. All you get is the name of the organization, the address of the organization's headquarters, and its phone number. A little research confirms the reason: The book was published in 1995. That explains the lack of web sites, but the publisher still deserves a small amount of criticism for not offering an updated version of the book in such a long period of time. Nature offers much to learn about and Nature in a Nutshell for Kids is a very good guide for young children who are eager to learn more about the world around them and parents who want to encourage education. The activities in this book are generally quick and simple and they all offer an important lesson about the natural world. Don't wait until your child reaches elementary school age- introduce your young boy or girl to the activities in this guide at the preschool level, and provide them a jump- start toward a life of education that will improve knowledge and instill the love of learning at a young age.

The book is full of short activities that answer some natural questions that youth often ask. The activities tell information with wonderful graphic sense. Good for scout leaders, teachers, home school parents, camp counselors and outdoors families. Preparation and materials may take ten minutes to gather. Reading the activity can use up five to ten minutes. Yet, with such a wide variety of activities, each tuned to a particular season of the year, there are lots of options to do or not do. Very pleased with the thoughtful and "hands on" aspects of these activities. A motivated reading student can do most of them with out supervision.

My kids are always looking for something interesting to do, so when I saw this book on line. I decided to get it with the hopes that it would keep my kids out of trouble while teaching them! THIE BOOK SURPASSES all of my expectations. I have copied one activity per week and let them go outside and explore. They have learned so much!The one activity that they really liked was the sanil one. They studied the snail for hours! Then my youngest one was thrilled with being able to identify the sounds of different birds...that lead us on a further exploration of birds. I higghly recommend the book....and did so to our school. They now have three copies that are dog eared! The kids love the book!

This is a book we use throughout the year. Every month we get it out and do several activities. I have had this book for several years and my children still do not tire if it. It is full of fun activities to do out of doors any time of the year. It also encourages children to protect nature. There are so many fun activities to do, that the book never tires. I like teaching children the science concepts to. I am going to look for more books by Ms. Potter.

I am a Home Educating mother of two. We have gone through literally dozens of Science books, some with sensational full color. However, this black and white back-to-basics book "Nature in a Nutshell for Kids" has been a knock-out with my kids! It's simple and the experiments/projects use things you already have in your home. The activities require that the kids get in touch with the world around them by getting outside and getting their hands dirty, so to speak. We checked it out at our local library, but now I'm purchasing one for our home library.