The Best Nature Study Supplies List for Kids
Inside: When you surround children with nature and give them quantifiable and dependable nature study supplies, they will be unable to avoid learning
When you surround children with nature and give them quantifiable and dependable nature study supplies, they will be unable to avoid learning. Kids are naturally curious and will start asking questions, examining, observing, and experimenting, usually without even realizing what they are doing, or that they are learning. I recommend making a nature supply kit with all our favorite supplies for exploring nature up close and personal.
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The Best Nature Study Supplies List for Kids
Let’s grab a backpack and pack a few things to add to your nature studies out and about. While you are in your own backyard you can run back into the house to grab things, but when you are at the local park, it’s a little harder. A few useful tools on hand can help motivate children to get outside to have fun learning, and turn a simple picture into a science lesson.
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Give your naturalists all the supplies they need to explore the natural world. Exploring nature is a great place for children to adults to learn about the world around them. You don’t have to buy high quality items, the Dollar Tree is a great place to source a lot of these things.
A Sketchbook
It doesn’t matter how you’d like your book to look. No matter your style, we have explored using a triple-ring binder with low-cost printer paper, clipboard boxes, and even a spiral-bound artist-quality notebook. My favorite style is a hardcover notebook, which contains many pages and allows you to write or draw on them, plus the hardback gives a little structure for writing our drawing in your own nature journal.
Drawing/Writing Utensils
Most of the time, our writing essentials include simply pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser. There are times, however, when we cart along watercolors, oil pastels, chalk pastels, colored pencils, and the like. Whether you stick with pencils or want to pack an entire set of various art media is completely up to you and your child.
Nature Field Guides
A good nature guidebook can help make the educational part of a nature walk a better experience. I have a series of nature guidebooks in the bookcase from many years’ worth of acquisitions, but I started by borrowing them from a library collection.
Binoculars and a magnifying glass
Nature study can improve your aptitude to magnify a subject. Once you wish to check out the pollen in flowers or check out the feathers of a bird high in a tree trunk, you will oftentimes find yourself wishing for binoculars or magnifying equipment. We tend to bring these with us on all our excursions.
Digital camera
Any kind of digital camera will do – even the camera on your smartphone – but you NEED a camera. Why?
First, to save incredible pictures of your children playing, you’ll want to capture moments throughout their childhood. As you walk through with these questions in mind, the images will allow you to make off-template pages for school research, guides in your nature notebook, printouts for your nature journal, and so many more.
Plastic bags and gloves
You shouldn’t be surprised that I mentioned a pair of gloves on my list of top 10 items because you never know what types of creatures your child might want to acquire hold of. Or, how many times they’re planning to use a sharp stick! Why plastic bags, though?
My nature explorers have always been keen to bring new prized possessions home with them, and bags made of plastic are very useful for extra-carrying, or carrying muddy shoes.
A Backpack to carry your supplies
With all this “stuff” you might (or might not) bring on your nature walk, you’ll want a sturdy bag.
Don’t load your bag full each time you step out the front door. As long as you’re carrying illness, the children will be jogging around you to make it simple for them. Your things will remain organized in the exact place if it has a dedicated spot, so you won’t have to struggle to hold containers together.
Water, sunblock, bug spray, hat, sunglasses
Now we’re down to the absolute essentials. Always be prepared (even if you just keep these things in your car) with outdoor safety supplies. I probably should include a first-aid kit, too.
The more prepared you are, the more fun and learning you and your kids will have.
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