I was expecting a lot more from this book; it seems so sweet and wholesome in the advertising, but I am very disappointed with the quality of the content. It's such a slim little book for the price, more of a pamphlet really, and contains not one single new or useful idea.

If you have read even one Waldorf book, and have a passing familiarity with the natural world you could easily write a more useful and enriching lesson plan for yourself in about 45 minutes. (And I encourage you to do so!)

My oldest child at 2 seemed to have a great deal more knowledge of and love for the natural world than the author evidenced anywhere in this book. Every single Waldorf, Homeschooling, or Unschooling mailing list I have ever seen offers more and better ideas everyday for free than this book contains.

It's nice to support WAHMs, but for the same $20+ you could get a magnifying glass AND a good pair of organic wool hiking socks from WAHM's, either of which will offer more assistance to your children enjoying the natural world than this book could ever hope to.

If you really need to be told that it's a good idea to take your kids out to play in the rain now and then, well, you need more help than this book can provide. Luckily it's not a difficult task at all to find help for that - check out your local parks department, state parks, search on "kids nature" and you will find plenty of free resources that will prove useful. Or ask any Waldorf parent, gardener, farmer, or artist with the slightest interest in the natural world. Or get help from your own children! Take them outside, spend time letting them play and be available to listen to their observations of birds, insects, plants, and weather, allow time to enjoy the natural world by being in it with your children and you will realize this kind of book is superfluous; nature offers lessons for free with great beauty and joy. At 2.5 my daughter could spot and identify about a dozen birds, not because I wasted money on this lesson plan, but because we spent time outside together. Time spent reading this book is time you are not enjoying the outdoors with your kids, and I frankly saw nothing to justify the expense of that time or money in this text.

I assumed that a book called "Naturally Three" would provide at least *something* to enrich or inspire us: a hint, tip, cute fingerplay, something, but found not one thing I could use, and nothing I even enjoyed, which is kind of amazing.

I can't see how it justifies the label "Natural" or "Waldorf". Look at a Waldorf favorite like "Children of the Forrest" - beautiful illustrations of gnomes interacting with real creatures - identifiable plants and animals. Ms. Carnes' book OTOH never speaks about real animals but mentions "bugs" and says "if you are really interested, look for more books at the library". Which is hardly advice I would choose to pay money for. It does reference a very small number of other books, none of which I had not seen suggested elsewhere. Any librarian will offer you better suggestions for free.

I was hoping for some additional homeschooling hints on such "nature" subjects as: presenting and responding to questions about animals' life-cycles in a gentle Waldorf manner, avoiding and balancing the tendencies of the mainstream world to present "nature" subjects in terms of sad / worrying conservation approaches that are valid for older learners but totally inappropriate for very young children's early exposure to nature, free play outside while minimizing risks inherent in outdoor activity, etc. Nothing like that is even mentioned, which would be fine if the lesson plans were useful, or beautiful, but they were not.