Nature Girl

Our daughter is seriously intrigued by science, and it is an interest that we try to encourage whenever and however possible.  We try to watch a lot of nature shows with her, because animals are hugely popular in her world at the moment.

Ditto for dinosaurs.

We watched a National Geographic documentary last week on paleontologists and how they study fossils -- from finding a skeleton in Mongolia to its transport back to the US to be assembled and studied at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.  (Since we visited there a couple of  years ago, it was very exciting because the dinosaur exhibits there were a huge hit, and you got to see a brief glimpse of them in the documentary.)  It was fascinating to watch the start to finish dinosaur discovery to assembly, and even more so to see how mesmerized she was and curious about so many of the things that occurred.

The whys and hows are really interesting for her, and her love of learning continues to grow -- which makes us really, really happy.


Since our driving vacation to Yellowstone got canceled this past summer, I've been trying to come up with more local ways to do science trips with her.  We had planned, as part of the trip, to tour the Dinosaur National Monument where you get to see actual paleontologists at work -- something I thought (and still think) she would absolutely love.

Instead, we made a trip to Pittsburgh for her birthday last year, to visit the Carnegie Natural History museum and do a docent tour of the dinosaur exhibit, complete with touching actual fossils:  a T-Rex tooth, some stegosaurus defensive plates, fossilized dinosaur poop (a big hit with all the kids on the tour, let me tell you), an egg with a tiny piece of dinosaur beginning to peek out of the shell as it barely had begun to hatch.

She still talks about how fun it was, especially the hands-on exhibit that allowed the kids to "dig" for dinosaur bones in a pit made out of a chalky, easy-to-remove substance.  Fun stuff.

We go to the Pittsburgh Zoo whenever we can, and try to do other nature and science-related things when we can find something going on locally that is of interest.

But it occurs to me that we perhaps ought to be doing more hands-on, "experiment and explore in your own yard or neighborhood" types of things.  And I'm wondering if folks have books or some other materials to recommend to a momma who wants her daughter to grow up really enjoying learning and becoming comfortable with scientific method and inquiry?

I know she's only 8, and I'm not trying to push her into prodigy-level insanity on this.  What I do want, however, is to help her find her way on a path of her choosing which, right now, includes a hefty helping of love of science.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  I'd love it.

Also, if anyone has a suggestion on a good starter microscope that would withstand some serious hands-on time from an 8 year old, I'd love it.  Someone has already put that on her "things I'm asking for from Santa" list, and has mentioned it several times now as the thing she absolutely wants.  Apparently having to share microscope time with others in science class is supremely unsatisfying because she doesn't get to fully study cells.  That's my girl!

(Photo via ferran pestaña.)