What Nature Exploring Can Do for Your Child [ 19 



We Learn from Nature 



Children with a practical turn of mind particularly enjoy 

 hearing about ways in which man has put nature's "inventions" 

 to use. Outstanding among these devices is camouflage, applied 

 so effectively by many birds and other animals for their own 

 protection. This principle pointed the way for the change from 

 army uniforms that made soldiers conspicuous targets to the 

 deceptive, neutral earth and leaf tones used in battle nowadays. 



Another debt we owe nature is the inspiration of bird flight, 

 which has been carefully studied in advancing our own conquest 

 of the air. Fish that swam in prehistoric seas, and many other 

 creatures, have benefited from streamlining another principle 

 that we have put to use only recently. Wasps were adept at making 

 paper from wood fiber centuries before human beings learned the 

 technique. Our recent invention of radar is an old story to bats, 

 which have a somewhat comparable system for getting their bear- 

 ings as they fly sightless through treacherous passageways. These 

 are just a few of the lessons that the practical-minded child or any 

 child will enjoy having pointed out to him as he becomes ac- 

 quainted with nature's ways. 



Overcoming Fear 



Exploring nature teaches children to overcome many baseless 

 fears. Occasionally you find a boy or girl showing more timidity 

 than enjoyment in encounters with animals. The reason for this 

 may be difficult to trace, for a child sometimes has experiences 

 of which his parents are not aware. I saw a case in point one day 

 in a woodsy stretch of a large city park where children were play- 

 ing unsupervised. A big boy, hand outstretched, started to chase a 

 little fellow, and was fairly hissing with menace: 



"Spider! Spider!" 



The smaller child was screaming in fright. My curiosity aroused 

 as to the size of the creature inspiring his terror, I approached the 

 older boy and asked if I might see the spider. He gave me a de- 

 lighted conspiratorial smile and showed me what was in his hand: 

 a small flower! 



