need a children's feild manual or science guide

[Momma Aimee]

we are headed to 6 weeks at the beach.

I want to get the boys a book or two to take and use -- to ID sea shells, to talk about the diffent animals -- simply text good pictures.

4 to 8 age range.

sturdy so we can haul them around in our bag.

i THOUGHT the "eyewittned" books from DK would work:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...fix=eyewitness

but the beach and ocean ones are both 9 to 12 age level and look a lot more in depth than i want / need.

i just want a sturdy book with good pictures and some basic data for a 4 year old 9and the 2 yo to see pictures).

Any suggestions?

[Marimami]

I'd recommend this book: One Small Square: Seashore

[moss]

1. pocket naturalist guide (or other sturdy laminated brochure) for the area you're going to visit~~we find ours at outdoor outfitter type stores. they're not specifically geared towards children, so i do a lot of the reading for ds but he loves them.

2. we really like the lone pine field guides--again they have good pictures, but the text is not geared specifically towards children. i really love the seashore book for our area, i skim thru and read the interesting parts to ds. the text is witty and intriguing, the pages hold up really well to beach conditions

3. a loupe, or other magnifying apparatus

these are our beach tools, and we will often end up with a large crowd of children gathered around asking us to look things up for them

(usborne has beautiful easy reader for the seashore, but it's not sturdy at all)

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by moss

1. pocket naturalist guide (or other sturdy laminated brochure) for the area you're going to visit~~we find ours at outdoor outfitter type stores. they're not specifically geared towards children, so i do a lot of the reading for ds but he loves them.

2. we really like the lone pine field guides--again they have good pictures, but the text is not geared specifically towards children. i really love the seashore book for our area, i skim thru and read the interesting parts to ds. the text is witty and intriguing, the pages hold up really well to beach conditions

3. a loupe, or other magnifying apparatus

these are our beach tools, and we will often end up with a large crowd of children gathered around asking us to look things up for them

(usborne has beautiful easy reader for the seashore, but it's not sturdy at all)

great ideas. We will be on the coast of GA -- any idea which ones would be the best to get?