by Bob Walch

Oct. 1, 2010 — The Nature Connection: An Outdoor Workbook for Kids, Families and Classrooms (Storey Publishing, $14.95) by Clare Walker Leslie is an excellent guide that will help teachers and parents create a new excitement about nature for youngsters of all ages.

The author invites the reader to step outside and look around. With a little bit of guidance, you’ll notice all sorts of interesting things that you just overlooked before. You don’t have to wander far from home. Start right in your backyard or at a nearby neighborhood park as you use this book to explore the wonders of Mother Nature.

After the two introductory chapters on “How to Be a Naturalist” and “Learning the Sky,” the author presents a month-by-month guide with suggested activities.

Among the suggestions are looking for and identifying local grasses, creating a collection of rocks found in your area, collecting seeds from plants which are ending their growing cycles, or taking an evening walk and recording what you see, smell or hear — bats, perhaps?

This interactive book provides space for jotting down notes, drawing pictures, and keeping records of things such as sunsets, tide fluctuations and animal sightings.

Draw a tree that grows near you — or take a photo, or cut out pictures from a magazine — and put it on the blank page provided. Then, as the seasons change, add other pictures of the tree to show how it changes, also.

The author’s approach centers on heightening the child’s observation skills, encouraging questions and listing various resources where the answers can be found. A practical, engaging and inexpensive guide that makes nature study fun and relevant to everyday existence, The Nature Connection is a book that will get the entire family involved in discovering all the exciting things taking place outside the house.