If the children enjoy so intensely the colour of the leaves and flowers they will be glad to have the opportunity of painting them; this is as much a part of nature work as any other, and it should be used as such, because it emphasises so strongly the side of appreciation of beauty, a side very often neglected.  It is here that the individual paint box is so important.  If children are to have any sense of colour they must learn to match very truthfully; there is a great difference between the blue of the forget-me-not and of the bluebell, but only by experiment can children discover that the difference lies in the amount of red in the latter.  By means of discoveries of this kind they will see new colours in life around them, and a new depth of meaning will come to their everyday observations.  This is true observation, not the “look and say” of the oral lesson, which has no purpose in it, and leads to no natural activity, or to appreciation.

It is difficult to satisfy the interest in animals.  In connection with the Nursery School the most suitable have been mentioned.  The transition and junior school children may see others when they go for excursions.  At this stage, too, children have a great desire to learn about wild animals, and the need often arises out of their literature:  the camel that brought Rebecca to Isaac, the wolf that adopted Mowgli, the reindeer that carried Kay and Gerda, the fox that tried to eat the seven little kids, Androcles’ lion, and Black Sambo’s tiger, might form an interesting series, helped by pictures of the creature in its own home.  It is difficult to say whether this may be termed literature, geography, or nature study.  The difficulty serves to show the unity of life at this period.  Books such as Seton Thompson’s, Long’s, and Kearton’s, and many others, supply living experiences of animal life impossible to get from less direct sources.

As children get older, and have the power to look back, they will feel the necessity of keeping records; and thus the Nature Calendar, forerunner of geography, will be adopted naturally.

Another important feature in nature experiences is the excursion.  Froebel says:  “Not only children and boys, but indeed many adults, fare with nature and her character as ordinary men fare with the air.  They live in it and yet scarcely know it as something distinct ... therefore these children and boys who spend all their time in the fields and forests see and feel nothing of the beauties of nature and their influence on the human heart.  They are like people who have grown up in a very beautiful country and who have no idea of its beauty and its spirit ... therefore it is so important that boys and adults should go into the fields and forests, together striving to receive into their hearts and minds the life and spirit of nature.”  It is evident from this that excursions are as necessary in the country as in the town, where instead of the “fields