DS, almost 4, has recently become extremely interested in ocean life, and especially animals of the very deep ocean. Anyone have any books, websites, or programs to recommend?

My oldest has loved marine biology since she was about three, so we have some resources but maybe not so much for deep ocean life.

Dd was particularly interested in sirenians (manatees, etc.) for a long time so we did take a look at some of the activities and information from the Save the Manatee Club's educator's guide: http://www.savethemanatee.org/ed_educator_resources.html

You might also want to take a look at some of the videos on WatchKnow: http://www.watchknowlearn.org/SearchResults.aspx?SearchText=deep+sea+life

or videos on the Futures Channel: http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/life_under_the_ocean/index.php

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

There is a great magic school bus on under sea life. Also DS 5 really likes the - ology series - oceanology has sort of a Jules Verne fiction take on it but it has some neat stuff if your kid likes a lot of stuff on a page.

DeHe

Hi ultramarina ~ My kiddos are still fascinated with the underwater world. Two shows my kids love are MonsterQuest and the Underwater Universe. If you go on the History Channel website, there are videos to watch and interactive sites under MonsterQuest to learn all about the giant squid, Nessie, eels, giant octopus etc...A great DVD is DK Eyewitness Ocean. My kids at age 4 loved all of this and made them even more passionate, but some of this might be a little too intense for other kids...( I don't know??), so I would probably check it out first

When I was young, I loved the book "Exploring the Deep Frontier", by Sylvia Earle; it's still available in that printing, and it looks like she has other "Deep Frontier" books available now.

There are some ocean-related early readers that DS6 enjoyed once upon a time. "Hungry, Hungry Sharks" and "Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid" come to mind. He's also enjoyed DK books related to the ocean. More recently, we got "The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss", which is a gorgeous book.

"Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" on DVD and Blu Ray contain some good deep-sea episodes.

There is a series called Dolphin Dairies for older. I'm not sure if their are any content issues for a 4 yr. old. But my sensitive DD at 6 or 7? loved these and then became very interested in dolphines.

The Jason Project- This is associated with National Geographic. I believe they have some live webcam type classes with interactions with underwater divers and similar experts. I think if you registar you can ask questions live. We have never done this but I have watched the archived footage. I think this would be geared to older but my 4yr old liked this sort of thing at that age.

Year-round underwater scientific expeditions providing educational materials, courses and workshops. Aims, multimedia educational materials, location of Jason network ...
www.jason.org

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/ There are videos, webcams,activities, games and interactive. A beautiful site.

Thanks! I am finding some good stuff on streaming Netflix-he's watching some Blue Planet right now and is practically hysterical with excitement.

Hi Ultramarina, My sons was obsessed with oceanography and aquatic life for a solid 3+ years around the same age your child. Anyway, when he was 5/6, we got a Wii and he loved Endless Ocean (there's a 2nd Endless Ocean game now, I can't think of it the title). Hope that helps. We also visited the beach and any aquarium within driving distance.

ALA has some websites and links that relate to ocean life on their science tab - http://gws.ala.org/category/sciences

I'd also suggest Curriki (http://www.curriki.org/) and entering ocean life as a search term with a preschool or k-2 grade. This should give you a range of information on ocean life from text and videos to webcasts, which you could filter using the media tab.

Magic School Bus series has some books on ocean life, but this may be a little advanced for son.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/games.shtml

http://naturalmothersnetwork.com/uncategorized/help-decode-whale-songs/

This looks interesting.

When my big girl was four, we made a deep sea diorama and learned about the sea life as we constructed the diorama.

I bet that was wonderful.

Just bumping this in case anyone has any new ideas or suggestions. This interest is going as strong as ever and DS is always hungry for more. We have pretty much tried out everything documentary and ocean-related on the Netflix channel that looked plausible (verdict: nothing beats Blue Planet). DS is reading on about a 3rd or 4th-grade level now. He went nuts for the Magic Schoolbus and Magic Treehouse ocean-themed books, but has read them all.

I'm going to get him that for Xmas.