These photos are almost 2 weeks old now, hence the snow in the background. At the time I wanted to write a little "pond study" post to go along with them but then thought how fun it would be to collaborate with Mariah at Playful Learning. Her educational blog posts have links to resources, books and even how-to videos. If you have young kids you are parenting or homeschooling I recommend you check it out.

So, anyway (I ramble) we decided to do a collaboration and it took us a couple weeks till we were both ready to post. For my part I am mostly interested in sharing pictures and a couple good books.

The kids and I have enjoyed reading the following pond related books:

• Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems - Oh, this is a good one - science, poetry & fantastic illustrations.
• Around the Pond: Who's Been Here? - Another "Who's Been Here" book by Lindsay Barrett George, great nature stories.
• Butternut Hollow Pond - A story from dawn to dusk at the pond with beautiful watercolor illustrations.
• Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond - A counting book for younger children. We actually owned this book when the kids were little.

If you want to do some pond study of your own grab a couple plastic dishes, pipettes, nets, magnifying glasses, maybe some identification books and head to the nearest pond.

If you live locally you can find pipettes at the Share Center in Auburn and a great pond is at Pineland in New Gloucester. Of course this time of year you can find ponds in many places.

For more resources and pond study ideas visit Playful Learning's pond post. And now get out there and have some fun!