78 NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



nature that appeals to children of this age. All the while 

 the activities of the children are brought into play in the 

 actual gathering and storing of vegetables, fruits, and seeds, 

 in planting seeds, and caring for their plants, clay model- 

 ing, making playhouses, sewing, etc. 



As children grow older their outlook upon the world 

 becomes broader. They begin to see interrelations and 

 interdependence among objects in the nature world. 

 They see themselves as a part of this living, working uni- 

 verse. As a result new relations are established between 

 them and their environment. They feel a consciousness 

 of power in the midst of their surroundings. They are 

 interested in the life of the community as well as in the 

 family, in the industries going on around them, in machinery, 

 how it works and how things are made. They are anxious 

 to make things themselves, to try new projects, to handle 

 tools. They are restless both in mind and body and are 

 desirous of working out the problems that come to them, 

 not by abstract reasoning so much as by manipulating 

 concrete objects. They do not mind hard tasks, but 

 they must feel the desirability of doing the things they are 

 asked to do. 



Nature study, if wisely and judiciously handled, may 

 guide these impulses and desires of the child so that the 

 results will be healthy, vigorous growth and development. 

 The garden, orchard, farm crop, and forest, with all their 

 accompanying wealth of animal life, as well as simple 

 physical phenomena and appliances encountered about 

 the home and school, offer abundant materials that seem 

 to fit the needs of the intermediate grades. This material 

 gives the children an opportunity not only to work with 



