Nature Studies Bag!

When the boys got home from their grandparents' this week, I laid out a scavenger hunt for my (now official!) homeschooling kindergartener to find his long-awaited, long dreamed-about Nature Bag.  Oh. my. goodness.  The boy has been so looking forward to these school supplies.

The kids often receive something and lose interest in it after a few hours, but I have loved watching how carefully he puts his things away in his bag and tucks it carefully in a corner in his room, and gets it out first thing after breakfast the next morning to go make observations and illustrations of "curious things" he can find outside.

So, what to put in a nature bag?  Anything that encourages exploration!  In ours, we have:

• Magnifying Glass
• Petri Dishes and pipettes (for pond samples)
• Tweezers
• Colored Pencils
• A Blank Nature Journal
• Containers for bugs or nature treasures

The Golden Guide books fit perfectly in small bags and small hands, and have a great variety of species in them.  We have already identified several Texas birds in the Birding book!  These are inexpensive and cover several different species/types of land.  (If you're interested in purchasing these, thank you for using my affiliate links below.)

Pond Life
Birds
Insects
Reptiles and Amphibians
Mammals
Fossils
Weather

...Oh and the bag! - in case you are interested in this particular one, I found it homemade on Etsy at Nature Kits.  We got ours by itself, but she also creates kits with some of her bags.  It fits smaller bodies perfectly and my son was really excited about the trilobyte.

I can already see this time exploring is building in my boys a deep fascination with and respect for creation...  and I believe that what is all about wonder and imagination now will one day help them be the kind of people who will protect these precious gifts around us.

What has supported your own childrens' nature studies?  What books or guides would you recommend?  I'd love to hear!