Mrs. Franklin's Address 155 



come into relation with nature. We should not think 

 of talking all the time that a child is with us at a 

 theatre. Why should we always intrude ourselves 

 when he is trying to learn some of nature's secrets? 



Then, for town children especially, one should not 

 neglect such trivial aids to Nature-study as the gather- 

 ing of tree-twigs with leaf-buds, germinating acorns 

 and chestnuts, and the rearing of frog spawn, &c. To 

 watch the unfolding of a leaf and flower in a tumbler 

 in the nursery is a good introduction to the joy of 

 seeing the bursting leaf-buds in the gardens on the 

 children's walk. 



I am not a very great advocate of too much collect- 

 ing, though I think for the quite little ones it forms 

 a help to remembering names, and there is great 

 training in neatness, &c., in arranging the specimens. 

 If collections are made after the children are seven 

 or eight, I think it is well to adopt some definite 

 method, as is well exemplified in some of the best 

 collections in this exhibition. Also, it is advisable 

 for different members of a family party to collect a 

 special genus; this adds much to the interest. 



I have dwelt specially on flowers and trees, but I 

 think we ought to be equally careful to introduce 

 children to an intimate and living knowledge of birds, 

 insects, and, in fact, all natural objects. In some such 

 way as this the mother will be using these early years, 

 which are so specially her own, in giving children a 

 joy in nature that will become a possession for life, 

 and meanwhile they will have learnt to observe, not 

 by having their powers of observation deliberately 

 trained, but by observing, just as we learn to walk 

 by walking. 



