Children of nature

“ From her somewhat varied experience in the different grades, she grew profoundly conscious of the significance of the early impressions upon the plastic mind of the child, and knowing how children love nature, she believed that it should be the constant study of the teacher to bring into the schoolroom as much of nature and nature suggestions as can be appreciated, thus to fill child life with pure wholesome thought from the overflowing well-spirit of nature, and ideally mold child character. ”

“ Our civilized surroundings, meadows, and gardens, as well as the constant action of the educative forces of example, soon carry the child beyond the savage in this particular.
How far can children be said to have the germ of a feeling for Nature, or, to use the more comprehensive modern term, cosmic emotion? It is a matter of common observation that they have not the power to embrace a multitude of tilings in a single act of contemplation. Hence they have no feeling for landscape as a harmonious complex of picturesquely varied parts. ”

“ Nature Diaries.--As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child. Every day's walk gives him something to enter: three squirrels in a larch tree, a jay flying across such a field, a caterpillar climbing up a nettle, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider dropping suddenly to the ground, where he found ground ivy, how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, how bindweed or ivy manages to climb. ”

“ For instance, I should think most of ‘our’ mothers would feel disgraced if her child of six were not able to recognise any ordinary British tree from a twig with leaf-buds only. It’s Nature’s lore, and the children take to it like ducks to the water. ”

“ Method in education follows Nature humbly, stands aside and gives her fair play.
System leads Nature: assists, supplements, rushes in to undertake those very tasks which Nature has made her own since the world was. Does Nature endow every young thing, child or kitten, with a wonderful capacity for inventive play? Nay, but, says System, I can help here; I will invent games for the child and help his plays, and make more use of this power of his than unaided Nature knows how. ”

“ Children learn to love nature just as they learn to love a picture, a dog, or a swimming hole, through experience with it that gives joyous results. The country lad, whose Saturdays and vacation days are associated with cowslips, dragon flies, and quiet hours beside a trout stream casting a line for the elusive catch, is not likely to find schoolroom nature study a dull subject, because, through hours of enjoyment, [180] he is equipped with an emotional and imaginative background that gives color to every fact presented. ”

“ Now the knowledge of Nature which we get out of books is not real knowledge; the use of books is, to help the young student to verify facts he has already seen for himself. Let us, before all things, be Nature-lovers; intimate acquaintance with every natural object within his reach is the first, and, possibly, the best part of a child's education. ”

“ The most fortunate children in the world are those whose first lessons in life have been learned on the lap of Mother Nature. Taught by her to know and love all the beautiful things of the glad green earth ”

“ I think of my own joyous childhood, spent in the sweet companionship of fishes, brooks, and butterflies, birds, crickets, grasshoppers, whispering trees and fragrant wild flowers, and the thousand and one playfellows of Nature which the good God has placed within reach of the happy country children. ”

“ I've tried to find out something of what Nature means to her—what pictures mean Nature to that fresh young mind. It seems to her, Nature is a kind of presiding mother to all things, possibly something like a God-mother—to kittens and trees and butterflies and roses and children. ”

“ One reason why the wild children of nature attract our eyes, and give us an inward, subtle satisfaction in watching them, is because they seem so confident that their own way of doing things is, for them at least, the best way. ”

“ Do children love nature? How shall we instil this love into them? How and when did I myself acquire my love for her? etc. In reply I said: The child, in my opinion, does not consciously love nature; it is curious about things; about everything; its instincts lead it forth into the fields and woods; it browses around; it gathers flowers; they are pretty; it stores up impressions. ”

“ Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.
Mental Training of a Child Naturalist.--Consider, too, what an unequalled mental training the child-naturalist is getting for any study or calling under the sun--the powers of attention, of discrimination, of patient pursuit, growing with his growth, what will they not fit him for? ”

“ We endeavour that all our teaching and treatment of children shall be on the lines of nature, their nature and ours, for we do not recognise what is called “Child-nature.” We believe that children are human beings at their best and sweetest but also at their weakest and least wise. ”

“ Men's hearts instinctively go out to Nature, and in consequence they see Beauty in her. As children they love flowers and love animals. And the most primitive races have the same feeling though they are just as callous in their treatment of animals as children are in their treatment of one another. ”

“ To this Song of Hiawatha!
A happy, sympathetic love for the sights and sounds in nature is a fortunate beginning of nature lore. The imaginative interpretations are common to all the early races and in full harmony with the temper of childhood. Even from the standpoint of nature study, this early poetic joy in nature descriptions is profitable. The matter-of-fact, analytic study of natural science in succeeding years need not begrudge the children this happiness, this interpretative play of the imagination, this music of field and forest. ”

“ NATURE STUDY AND NATURE'S RIGHT.
There is another study which should go hand in hand with nature-work—nature's rights, people's rights. Too many little feet are learning to trespass; too many little hands are learning to steal, for that is what it really is. Children are young and thoughtless and love flowers. But does loving and wishing for things which are not ours make it right to take them? If the teacher can develop the love of nature, can she not develop the sense of honor also? Cannot the moral growth and the mental growth of the child develop together? ”

“ Children love intensely the forms of nature—the clouds, the trees, the flowers, the animals—all of the great beautiful world outside of themselves, and it is their impulse to become acquainted with this world ”

“ Intimacy with Nature makes for Personal Well-being.--But to enable them to swim with the stream is the least of the benefits this early training should confer on the children; a love of Nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour. ”

“ They should not cease with early childhood; but should be so kept up during youth, as insensibly to merge into the investigations of the naturalist and the man of science. Here again we have but to follow Nature's leadings. Where can be seen an intenser delight than that of children picking up new flowers and watching new insects ”

“ Never tell children that which they may find out for themselves. Let them count the fingers on the hand of the cat, and then the toes. Have the children watch the activities of the ant nest and then tell the story of their observations in the school-room and at home. In this way the child develops initiative, resourcefulness and the power of expression, while others share in his interesting knowledge and discoveries. The child himself and his development is the chief aim of nature-play. ”

“ Stories of animals, birds, pets, trees, plants, flowers, mountains, seas, and other expressions of nature are very popular with children from their earliest years. But these stories need adaptation and strengthening with the growing years. They may be used to teach the habits of animals or the laws of plant life, thus stimulating scientific interest in the animal and plant world. ”

“ Object-lessons and Nature-lessons, one point insisted upon was that the
Nature-lesson far surpassed the Object-lesson because it dealt with
life.
We have learned now that we should as much as we can surround our children with life and growth. Even indoors it is easy to give the joy of growing seeds and bulbs and of opening chestnut branches: without any cruelty we can let them enjoy watching snails and worms and we can keep caterpillars or silkworms and so let them drink their fill of the miracle of development. ”

“ Besides, too, we must not forget that children seem to have a peculiar love for all natural objects, often finding pleasure in looking at some wayside flower, or in watching the movements of some tiny insect, which in after-years do not bring them the same interest. The fact, indeed, that the young mind is a true admirer of nature in all probability accounts for many of those pleasing rhymes which constitute much of the child's folk-lore. ”

“ But perhaps their chief attraction is due to their representing the child as living in brotherly fellowship with nature and all creatures. Trees, flowers, animals wild and tame, even the stars, are represented as the comrades of children. ”

“ The day of the object lesson is past, and to young children the nature lesson must become nature work.
It is in the term "nature lesson" that the root of the mischief lies: nature is not a lesson to the young child, it is an interest from which he seeks to gain more pleasure, by means of his own activity: plants encourage him to garden, animals stir his desire to watch, feed and protect; water, earth and fire arouse his craving to investigate and experiment: there is no motive for passive study at this juncture, and without a motive or purpose all study leads to nothing. ”

“ This is why we value so much a life free from restraint, and in contact with nature, for little children. Contact with the trees, the rocks, the birds, the flowers, and association with other children mean possibilities of learning for the child which no amount of instruction or exercise of authority can equal. ”

“ Such especially is the case in the works of nature, and in a country ramble with children their little voices are generally busy inquiring why this bird does this, or that plant grows in such a way—a variety of questions, indeed, which unmistakably prove that the young mind instinctively seeks after knowledge. Hence, we find that the works of nature enter largely into children's pastimes ”

“ But the voice of Nature has repeated its protest in the yearnings of every new generation. Our children still long for outdoor life, for active exercise, for the free development of every bodily faculty; and, if we cease to suppress those instincts, the regenerative tendency of Nature will soon assert itself, and the time may come when man will be once more the physical as well as mental superior of his fellow-creatures. ”

“ In his association with nature, the child is led to observe more closely and to know and to be fond of what is truly beautiful in life—beautiful surroundings, beautiful thoughts and beautiful deeds. He is inspired with reverence for law, order and truth because he sees it constantly reflected in all works of nature. The social instinct is highly developed and even the parents are often bettered through the agency of their children. ”

“ When I come to the Earth, all the Earth’s children tremble. I breathe upon them, and they cry out. The trees drop their leaves. The birds fly away. The forest children creep into their holes.”
“Ah,” cried the youth, “when I come to the Earth, the Earth’s children laugh and clap their hands. I breathe upon them and they dance with joy. The trees put forth their leaves. The birds come back. ”

“ The child has truly a great deal to do before he is in a condition to 'believe his own eyes'; but Nature teaches so gently, so gradually, so persistently, that he is never overdone, but goes on gathering little stores of knowledge about whatever comes before him. ”

“ By the observance of these simple and practicable suggestions, it is believed that, while the children are being trained in the art of reading, their powers of observation and of reasoning will be developed, [Pg 4] and that they will be inspired with a lifelong interest in nature. The child’s mind is peculiarly alive to the charm of nature when she is studied in detail, and through her it can be trained to observe accurately and to reason logically. ”

“ Thrice happy is the country child, or the one who can spend a part of his young life among living things, near to Nature's heart How blessed is the little toddling thing who can lie flat in the sunshine and drink in the beauty of the "green things growing," who can live among the other little animals, his brothers and sisters in feathers and fur ”

“ Who expects a boy in petticoats to lift half a hundredweight? But give the child work that Nature intended for him, and the quantity he can get through with ease is practically unlimited. Whoever saw a child tired of seeing, of examining in his own way, unfamiliar things? ”