This book provides an interesting and detailed look at what comes to live in and around a dead log – woodpeckers, squirrels, mushrooms, fungi, moss, molds, porcupines, foxes, snakes, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes, pill bugs, salamanders, ants, termites, and beetles. Includes many interesting color photos and details about each species, how to tell them apart and much more. The book also includes an index, a glossary and suggestions for further reading.

This is a teacher's manual of sorts for those "seeking a primary-level presentation less restrictive than a text", as the author states in the introduction. The author recommends using Childcraft: How and Why Library by World Book's editions predating 1980 and The Everyday Science Sourcebook to go together with this guide, along with library books. (Note: I found very inexpensive used copies of both of these resources available on the internet). The author also cross-references her suggestions here with stories from her volume entitled "Catholic Stories from Science 2", also available from CHC.

The eleven units are divided into two parts each, the first entitled "Find Out" and the second, "Faith". The first one offers suggestions of themes to read about, activities to do and interesting concepts to research about. Also, each unit offers three sets of topics for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades. I find this helpful especially if you have an emerging first grader and a more advanced third grader, let's say. The third grader will be ready for more intricate topics, while the first grader will be happy to be included, focusing on more basic topics.

For example: on Chapter 3, "God Gave me Five Senses", 1st graders topics are sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch; the 2nd grade topics are sound--waves and vibration--and taste; while 3rd grade students study vision as well as the basic structures of the eye and the ear. Under Find Out several activities are suggested: testing the children's sense of touch by feeling things in a box; testing the sense of smell by smelling different items while blindfolded, and also tasting things while smelling an onion to see how smell affects taste. The activities for studying sound waves and vision are directed towards the student instead of the parent which I think is a good idea. Experiments with sound waves' speed using loud noises on an open field, and an interesting experiment with after-images and low-light vision are suggested, which can be done easily at home. The layout offers generous blank side columns for jotting down book lists and "new discoveries". These side columns also offer the related stories from Catholic Stories from Science 2.

Continuing to use Chapter 3 as an example, under Faith the author offers a brief discussion of how we cannot always rely solely on our senses: that something exist beyond them, and that trust in God is necessary. Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson and St. Thomas Aquinas are both quoted, the latter with the Adoro Te Devote, the traditional Blessed Sacrament hymn that address exactly how our senses can be deceived. A very clever quote!

Easy as 1, 2, 3 can be a very useful curriculum provided this is what you are looking for: a guide to lead you through science topics during the year, perhaps with more than one lower-elementary school child, tying it all with our Catholic faith.

I've always loved looking at the stars, but have never been able to identify anything but the big dipper on a starry night. For many years, I've wanted to learn more, but with the busyness of life, this goal has long eluded me. Enter ... Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey. Over the past few weeks, my two oldest children and I have started identifying the constellations with the help of this book and The Stars: A New Way to See Them (by the same author). We've had a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm around 10:00 pm when I summon those children who are still awake to see if we can find anything. With flashlight and books in hand we step outside into the dark. We look up and start to focus. After studying the pictures ahead of time, several constellations start jumping out. We move back and forth between book and sky and the excitement increases. Well, we haven't learned lots yet, but we are now able to identify five or six constellations and are slowly increasing our base knowledge.

This simple book is very child-friendly and moves the reader back and forth between what the stars really look like and simple, memorable stick figures to help keep them (and their names) in our heads. One helpful feature in the carefully drawn charts is the differentiation between brighter and less-bright stars (a very important feature in identification). The book includes some quizzes to help children remember the constellations better and, again, differentiate between the stick-figure drawings and the actual "look" of the constellation. The author also includes: some of the stories behind the naming of the constellations; information about the changes in our sky view at different times of the night and different times of the year; tips for star-gazing; and overviews of the planets in our solar system and tips for viewing them. The book wraps up with some interesting information about what it takes to travel to the moon or to Mars as far as distance, speed and navigation goes. He takes this back to the idea of why it is a good thing to learn the constellations.

All of the information in this book is aimed at viewing the night sky with the naked eye rather than a telescope. There is an extensive index in the back which includes the Latin and Greek names of the constellations (such as Ursa Major and Bootes), but the text uses the English names (except for specific names of stars, such as Vega and Arcturus). The book has been revised numerous times since 1954 and the most recent edition includes location of the planets through 2006. Highly Recommended!