22 ] What Nature Exploring Can Do for Your Child 



and the Silver Skates and other writings, fondly recalled her 

 father as a companion on nature jaunts. One of her most vivid 

 recollections in adult years was of a trip with him to the Botanical 

 Gardens in New York where some plant experiments were ex- 

 plained. The next day, with her father's interested approval, Mary 

 started "a little botanical garden" at her bedroom window a 

 sweet potato in a hanging vase, and seeds planted in old teacups 

 filled with different kinds of soil. 



Herbert Hoover was an outstanding geologist and mining 

 engineer before he became President of the United States. He 

 was an "outdoor boy" from babyhood on, and only the worst sort 

 of weather could keep him in the house. His parents took him 

 often to his grandfather's farm where he could herd cattle, plant 

 corn, and tend chickens. Though his father died when the boy 

 was small, his mother found time in her busy life for picnics and 

 other outdoor excursions. It was on these outings that Herbert 

 started collecting rocks the introduction to his absorbing lifelong 

 interest in geology. By the time he was seven he knew how to fish, 

 forecast storms, and track animals; he loved learning about the 

 ways of birds, snakes, and all other small creatures of the woods. 



As a friend of the Hoover family puts it, "Bert read his fairy 

 tales in stones, the everlasting hills, the dawn of creation, the 

 fashioning of a universe." This heritage of nature appreciation 

 has been passed on to Herbert Hoover's sons and grandchildren. 



In all countries, men and women have achieved eminence after 

 evincing an early and continuing interest in the world around 

 them, and particularly in nature's ways. Their awareness of nature 

 has brought greater contentment and happiness into their own 

 lives. Indeed, they have enriched the lives of all of us with those 

 achievements of the inquiring mind that has been trained by 

 close and habitual observation. 



Why Nature Is Important to Your Child 



Modern schools have excellent programs of nature study; but 

 even the best programs cannot take the place of family participa- 

 tion in nature interests. On the other hand, any child whose parents 



