Preparation for Yellowstone

In late June we'll be going to Yellowstone!  We're all excited--Miss L is still not 100% on the concepts of calendar time and keeps asking if we're leaving "next week".  Sorry, sweetie.  The plan is to keep going with our usual homeschool stuff through the month of May, then break in June to focus our studies on Yellowstone--history, geology, animal life...I can't wait.  May might feel like a long time. 

I've been pulling together our books and things in preparation.  The list, as it stands today.

Guidebooks and Overviews:

• For my beginning reader, Yellowstone (Ready to Read Level 1) and for slightly older, Yellowstone National Park (A True Book) by David Peterson. Unfortunately the latter is a bit in-between the two kids' reading levels but it'll be ok as a reference.
• For the grownups, Rough Guides Yellowstone & Grand Teton.

Maps and Hiking:

• To introduce basic map reading to the youngest, There's a Map on My Lap! (Dr. Seuess Learning Library).
• A thin book on day hikes Mr. K can flip through, and help plan our individual days: Best Easy Day Hikes Yellowstone.
• A good topographic map.  Essential.  We love the Trails Illustrated series, and the one of the whole Yellowstone park that we picked up during our trip there pre-kids will probably do fine.  They also make more detailed ones for the individual trail quadrants, but I don't think we'll be doing a lot of backcountry hiking.  If we end up needing one of those we can probably pick it up at a visitors' center at the park.
• Tim Cahill's Lost in My Own Backyard, a collection of his essays on hiking Yellowstone.  This is a slim book we'll probably bring along to read-aloud while we are there.

History:

• Yellowstone Moran, by Lita Judge.  Storybook about Thomas Moran, a painter who explored the area in the early days.  Moran's paintings were influential in convincing the government to set the area aside as the first National Park.
• The Land of Curiosities, Book 1: Adventures in Yellowstone, 1871-1872 by Dianna Neil.  Fictional chapter book set in the early days of white settlement in the area.  We'll do this as a read aloud in the weeks leading up to our trip.  If we like it, we'll take Book 2 along to read while we are there.
• Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness, by Paul Schullery, an interdisciplinary book on the history and ecology of the park that I'll be reading.  I'm also considering Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone, by George Black.

Wildlife and Ecology:

• Who Pooped in the Park? Yellowstone. The kids like this narrative of animal tracking for other national parks we've visited. 
• Buffalo Music, by Tracey Fern.  A storybook about a woman who raised Bison and eventually became an early herd in the park. 
• The Wolves Are Back and The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George.  Lovely childrens books about the disappearance and reintroduction of wolves and buffalo in the area.   I want to also let my kids know that these reintroductions are also controversial and that wolves are causing problems for many farmers in the area.   I'll find a way.
• Wildfires by Seymour Simon.
• We'll probably pick up a wildlife/nature guide or three in the park.  I'll update this here afterwards!

Geology and Geysers.  This is my bag, baby, so we get kinda technical here.  This list increases in difficulty as you descend.  There are not many books written specifically for kids on the geology of the area, but the ones near the top can be understood by the bright and interested elementary student.

• Geysers: What They Are and How They Work by T. Scott Bryan.  One of the few children's titles.
• Roadside Geology of Yellowstone by William Fritz
• Geology Underfoot in Yellowstone by Marc Hendrix.  Highly recommended and well-written narrative.
• Geysers of Yellowstone by T. Scott Bryan
• Windows Into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks by Smith and Siegel
• USGS Professional Paper 729-G, The Quaternary and Piocene Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana  Free PDF!  But I have the hard copy because I'm a nerd and I don't want to print those big maps.

Grab bag random stuff:

• Yellowstone's Hot Legends and Cool Myths by Robert Rath.  Graphic novel that includes some Native American myths as well as stories from early "mountain men" and the 1988 fires.  I just left this one lying on the coffee table, and it worked a charm in getting the kids interested in some of the other topics. 
• Ginger Bread Tracks and Pine Needle Pasta: A Savory Guide to Yellowstone National Park.  A kid's cookbook that also teaches yellowstone science!
• Photographer's Guide to Yellowstone & The Grand Tetons by Joseph K. Lange.  You don't think I'm going to go without my camera, do you?
• Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park.  The first chapter, on deaths that have been caused by falling in hot springs, is both nausea-inducing and fascinating.