So what do we get a boy who buys a bird feeder with his Christmas money and helps fill up his great grandparents' feeder all winter? Bird stuff of course! This is what we settled on . . .
The Identiflyer
has been great! It's easy for him to use and has a picture to see the bird. I like many app options available for the phone for me, but this is great for him. He's carried it around in his backpack for a week or so. The Audubon Plush
birds are super cute. He ended up with two (one from grandparents) and has been playing with them in the house a lot. A few times I might have wanted to hide one, but overall they are cute and promote "play"--maybe that's why he wanted to hug the robin! While these are not entirely accurate as they are stuffed animals essentially, there are great details to distinguish the birds. We've had several bluebirds at our feeders about a month ago, so we opted for the bluebird.Several people recommended this Birds of Indiana Field Guide
. Since he is just reading very basic words so far, I wondered about his use of it. There are color tabs along the sides to help identify birds. I will say I've used it lots this last week! He also has been finding birds and then telling me about them and asking questions about others birds. It is super adorable when he says, "Great Horned Owl" rather than just refer to owls in general. He notices the differences between the different types. This will be a great resource for him and our family!
He even was using the Identiflyer at Woodlawn Nature Center!
Lest you think we only allow our son to have nature related educational material, he did get a few Rescue Bots toys and bought some on his own, too! We also had fun visiting the Natural Playground at Granger Commons!
toys and bought some on his own, too! We also had fun visiting the Natural Playground at Granger Commons!