oks and listens and learns
without the rules and boundaries which belong to real lessons. Its range
is not restricted within formal limits; it is neither botany, nor
natural history, nor physics; neither instruction on light nor heat nor
sound, but it wanders on a voyage of discovery into all these domains.
And in so far as it does this, it appeals very strongly to children.
Children usually delight in flowers and dislike botany, are fond of
animals and rather indifferent to natural history. Life is what awakens
their interest; they love the living thing as a whole and do not care
much for analysis or classification; these interests grow up later.

The object of informal nature study is to put children directly in touch
with the beautiful and wonderful things which are within their reach.
Its lesson-book is everywhere, its time is every time, its spirit is
wonder and delight. This is for the children. Those who teach it have to
look beyond, and it is not so easy to teach as it is to learn. It
cannot, properly speaking, be learned by teachers out of books, though
books can do a great deal. But a long-used quiet habit of observation
gives it life and the stored-up sweetness of years--"the old is better."
The most charming books on nature study necessarily give a second-hand
tone to the teaching. But the point of it all is knowledge at
first-hand; yet, for children knowledge at first-hand is so limited that
some one to refer to, and some one to guide them is a necessity, some
one who will say at the right moment "look" and "listen," and who has
looked and listened for years. Perhaps the requirement of knowledge at
firsthand for children has sometimes been pushed a little too far, with
a deadening effect, for the progress of such knowledge is very slow and
laborious. How little we should know if we only admitted first-hand
knowledge, but the stories of wonder from those who have seen urge us on
to see for ourselves; and so we swing backwards and forwards, from the
world outside to the books, to find out more, from the books to the
world outside to see for ourselves. And a good teacher, who is an
evergreen learner, goes backwards and forwards, too, sharing the work
and heightening the delight. All the stages come in turn, over and over
again, observation, experiment, inquiry from others whether orally or in
books, and in this subject books abound more fascinating than fairy
tales, and their latest charm is that they are layin