CM Series in Modern English

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Charlotte Mason in Modern English

Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them freely--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio

Home Education

Preface to the Home Education Series

The future of education looks rather bleak both at home [in England] and overseas. Experts say that, in order to make education more effective, we should focus on science. Foreign language and math need major reform. Nature and vocational skills should be used as ways of training the eye and hands. Literature and history should be used to teach students how to do their own writing. Experts say that education should be more technical, and should be a means of preparing students for the workplace. But there is no one unifying goal, no specific aim, no real philosophy of education. A river can't rise any higher than the source it comes from. In the same way, education can't rise any higher than the foundational thought behind it. This may be the reason why our educational system is such an utter failure.

Those of us who have spent years studying the vague, elusive vision of Education see that there is a law behind education, but that we haven't yet fully grasped that law. We sense the vague outlines of that law, but that's it. We know that it touches every part of a child's life at home and at school, and, like an illuminating light, that law has a way of showing what the value system is behind our educational systems and plans. Besides being like a light, that law is also like a yardstick, setting the standard by which our educational efforts must be measured. The law is not strict, it admits whatever things are true and good without limit, except where too much would be harmful. The law seems to lay a path out before us that goes on like a continuous and progressive road through life, with no set lines marking where childhood stops and adulthood begins except that the student begins to walk the path independently when his training makes him more mature. When we look into this law, we find that the Germans Kant, Herbart, Lotze and Froebel were right when they said that knowing God is the most important thing a child should learn. There is something else we'll recognize when we finally see this law of educational freedom clearly for what it is--it is so true and wise that it will pass every test we can think of to give it in every area of life.

Since as yet we don't have a clear print-out of this law to read, we'll have to rely on Froebel or Herbart, or, if we subscribe to another theory of education, on Locke or Spencer. But we still aren't fully satisfied. We are discontented with our system of education. It could be that our discontent is from God, but it is there and any workable solution would be hailed as a great deliverance from our confusion. But before a great solution is found, we will probably encounter many attempts that focus on part of the problem and seem like an educational philosophy, having a central idea with programs putting that idea into effect.

Such an attempt would necessarily need to go along with the worldview of the age. It would also have to relate to every facet of life, not segmented off from real life, but as much a part of the cycle as birth, marriage and career. And it must result in the student being attached to the world at many different points of contact by having interests in many things. It's true that educationalists are determined to cement students' interests in their own pet areas, but there is no one line of thought to make it applicable to all of life.

The naive sometimes rush in with their own solution, unconscious of the complexity of the problem. Many suggestions have been offered that have gotten us closer to a full understanding of the nature of education, and that gives me courage to offer my own suggestion. The central idea on which my suggestion is based is this: that children are as fully and completely persons as we are, with all the possibilities and potential for what they might become already in them. Some of the educational notions and practices that stem from this idea have been used in other educational methods, and have their roots in plain common sense. One resulting notion that might be new is that 'education is the science of relations.' This idea, that everything is connected, seems to solve the question of a curriculum since it means that children need to be in touch with as many things as possible in nature and in thought. If you add a key or two to a child's knowledge of his own human condition, the educated student will go forth in the world with an idea of how to control himself, some practical skills and many life-enriching interests. I have two reasons for offering my own educational suggestion, however humble and fleeting that suggestion may be. First of all, I have worked ceaselessly for 30-40 years to establish a working, philosophical theory of education. And, second, every practice that I have tried as a result of my educational theory has come from a step-by-step process of inductive reasoning and has had success that has been verified with various tests. I humbly offer my suggestion because I know that many others more qualified than I have worked hard and still not arrived at any solutions, so why should I feel that I have a solution of my own?

I am including a short summary of my theory, which is detailed more fully in the six volumes of the Home Education Series.

My educational method is not a system of rigid steps, but just a bit here and there. This seems more useful to parents and teachers. The essays included in my books were written over the years for the National Parents Education Union in hopes of presenting a coherent body of thought to members.

Whichcote said that the end result of truth is so great that we must be careful to make sure that what we live by is, indeed, the truth.

1. Children are born persons--they are not blank slates or embryonic oysters who have the potential of becoming persons. They already are persons.

2. Although children are born with a sin nature, they are neither all bad, nor all good. Children from all walks of life and backgrounds may make choices for good or evil.

3. The concepts of authority and obedience are true for all people whether they accept it or not. Submission to authority is necessary for any society or group or family to run smoothly.

4. Authority is not a license to abuse children, or to play upon their emotions or other desires, and adults are not free to limit a child's education or use fear, love, power of suggestion, or their own influence over a child to make a child learn.

5. The only three means a teacher may use to educate children are the child's natural environment, the training of good habits and exposure to living ideas and concepts. This is what CM's motto 'Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life' means.

6. 'Education is an atmosphere' doesn't mean that we should create an artificial environment for children, but that we use the opportunities in the environment he already lives in to educate him. Children learn from real things in the real world.

7. 'Education is a discipline' means that we train a child to have good habits and self-control, both in actions and in thought.

8. 'Education is a life' means that education should apply to body, soul and spirit. The mind needs ideas of all kinds, so the child's curriculum should be varied and generous with many subjects included.

9. The child's mind is not a bucket to be filled with facts that bunch up into thought-groups, as Herbart said.

10. The child's mind is also not a bag for holding knowledge. It is a living thing and needs knowledge to grow. As the stomach was designed to digest food, the mind is designed to digest knowledge and needs no special training or exercises to make it ready to learn.

11. This is not just splitting hairs; Herbart's philosophy that the mind is like an empty stage waiting for bits of information to be inserted puts too much responsibility on the teacher to prepare detailed lessons. Students taught this way have lots of knowledge taught at them, without getting much out of it.

12. Instead, we believe that children's minds are capable of digesting real knowledge, so we provide a rich, generous curriculum that exposes children to many interesting, living ideas and concepts. From this principle, we can deduce that--

13. 'Education is the science of relations,' which means that children have minds capable of making their own connections with knowledge and experiences, so we make sure the child learns about nature, science and art, knows how to make things, reads many living books and that they are physically fit. Our job isn't to teach everything about everything, but to inspire interests that will help children make connections with the world around them.

14. Children have two guides to help them in their moral and intellectual growth--'the way of the will,' and 'the way of reason.'

15. Children must learn the difference between 'I want' and 'I will.' They must learn to distract their thoughts when tempted to do what they may want but know is not right, and think of something else, or do something else, interesting enough to occupy their mind. After a short diversion, their mind will be refreshed and able to will with renewed strength.

16. Children must learn not to lean too heavily on their own reasoning. Reasoning is good for logically demonstrating mathematical truth, but unreliable when judging ideas because our reasoning will justify all kinds of erroneous ideas if we really want to believe them.

17. Knowing that reason is not to be trusted as the final authority in forming opinions, children must learn that their greatest responsibility is choosing which ideas to accept or reject. Good habits of behavior and lots of knowledge will provide the discipline and experience to help them do this.

Principles 15, 16 and 17 should save children from the sort of careless thinking that causes people to exist at a lower level of life than they need to.

18. We teach children that all truths are God's truths, and that secular subjects are just as divine as religious ones. Children don't go back and forth between two worlds when they focus on God and then their school subjects; there is unity among both because both are of God and, whatever children study or do, God is always with them.

End of Preface

Preface to the Fourth Edition

In this volume, I hope to suggest a method of education whose foundation is Natural Law, and, with this in mind, to discuss a mother's duties in regard to her children. In speaking to mothers, I defer to their own final judgment, since God Himself has given mothers insight into their own children's characters, their strengths and weaknesses. It is her insight that mysteriously works to make education more effective than all the rules and regulations ever devised. But even with her God-given insight, I think all mothers will agree that there is a need to know certain general principles that apply to children as a whole. This scientific side of education does not come naturally, since God does not usually bestow as a gift that which we can get by ourselves.

I hope that teachers of young children will also find this book useful. Between the ages of 6 and 9 are the best time to lay the foundation for a generous, varied education and to develop the habit of reading. In these early years, children should enter the world of learning by being exposed to many subjects, but in a relaxed, orderly way rather than with the stress of lectures. I hope that teachers will find this new approach interesting and stimulating. I hope this fresh perspective will be helpful and give teachers inspiration to find their own ways of implementing it.

This particular volume will focus on the effects of developing good habits upon education--why certain physical, moral and intellectual habits are valuable and how to develop them. I am indebted to Dr. Carpenter's book Mental Physiology for the information I used in the two or three chapters about habits. And I would like to thank again my medical friends who helped revise the parts of this book that deal with physiological matters.

Much of this book was given as 'Lectures to Ladies' in 1885, and published in a book of that name in 1886.

Lectures VII and VIII and the original appendix have been transferred to other volumes in this series. The whole series has been carefully revised and new material has been added, especially in Part V, 'Lessons as Instruments of Education.' That section is now a nearly complete introduction to methods of teaching children ages 6-9.

The remaining sections of this volume deal with education from birth to 9 years.

C. Mason
Scale How, Ambleside, 1905

End of Preface

Home Education

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Part I

Some Preliminary Considerations

One sign that women have gained more status in the world is the desire to use their education by going to work. [Remember that Charlotte was writing around the turn of the century, before the women's rights/equality movement.] The world needs the contributions of women who are educated, and, as education becomes more common among all classes of people, more and more women will be entering the work force, having regular hours and getting wages. Even those women who don't work out of financial need will find pleasure in doing something useful.

Children are a Public Trust

The work that is the most important in society is raising and teaching children. That makes school teachers important, but, even more, those who care for and teach children at home are important, because it is the influence of home life that has the greatest impact on a child's character and future. Being a parent is the most important job and the greatest honor a person can have. Even those raising just one child don't know whether their cherished pride and joy may be the one person who finds the cure for cancer. But being trusted with such an important task

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means that parents are not free to raise their children however they want. Really, their children are not their personal property, but sort of a public trust, and parents must raise them in such a way that they are a blessing to society. And this important job isn't divided equally between both parents; it falls mostly to the mother because she is usually the one at home with the children in their earliest, most impressionable years. That's why great men often credit their mothers for their success, for taking their responsibility seriously and not giving the job of raising their children to others, such as daycare workers and nannies.

Mothers Owe an Educated Love to Their Children

Pestalozzi said that mothers were qualified by God Himself to be the greatest influence in their children's early lives. The mother owes it to her child, and to God who entrusted her, to have a 'thinking love.' God gave children the same kind of hands, heart and mind as ours, and mothers must ask themselves, 'How shall I train my child to use those gifts? For whose benefits shall those gifts be used?' The answers to those questions may determine the future of her beloved child, whether his life is one of misery or happiness. A loving mother is the most important part of what a child will become.

As mothers become more educated and read more, they will understand the importance of their task and feel like such a grand mission can't be left to anyone but themselves. And mothers will take up their duty seriously,

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with the same care for detail and commitment they would give an outside, paying job.

In order to understand more about her role in raising her children, mothers should have more than popular notions about educational theory and the underlying understanding of the nature of children that those theories rest on.

The Training of Children is Defective

Herbert Spencer, in his book 'Education,' said that the way children are brought up is terribly lacking physically, morally and intellectually. Mostly, that's due to parents not having the knowledge they need to do the job correctly. What can you expect when those who are entrusted with the most important job of raising the next generation have barely considered the foundational principles upon which child-rearing techniques are based? To make shoes or manage a ship, one must go to school. A child, a living person, is so much more complex than shoes or ships, so why shouldn't parents undergo some kind of training? Since the process of teaching and raising a human being is more complicated, it's crazy not to prepare oneself for the job. It would be better to sacrifice the satisfaction of being accomplished at one's career to get this training. Parents need to understand the basics of child psychology to understand how to bring up children. Childhood development follows specific laws, and unless those laws

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are followed at least a little, the child will die. ['Babies need to eat regularly' might be the most basic law.] If the laws aren't followed to a great degree, the child's development will be stunted [for example, neglecting to show affection will cause emotional problems]. Only when the laws are followed completely will the child mature fully. So you can see how important it is for parents to know what those laws are.

How Parents Usually Proceed

Parents generally begin by thinking of their newborn as a blank slate and resolve to make grand designs about what to write on those slates [in-utero classical music, phonics flashcards, politeness in role models, exposure to a second language...] But then the child begins to show his own individuality, and his little displays of personality are a delight to his parents. His joy at greeting Daddy and his sympathy when Mommy is sad are rightfully wonderful for us to see. But parents soon begin to take their child's individuality for granted and are not so astounded when their child later shows a preference for books or sports and has his own tastes and desires. Parents naturally stop doing every little thing for their child as they see that he can feed and dress himself, and they encourage him to do more for himself as he is able. The parents are delighted to watch their child's personality develop, but the more a child begins to do for himself, the less the parents feel the need to do for him beyond feeding him, clothing him, and showing affection.

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With these things the parents only need to provide them. The child can eat and dress himself; the parent's main concern is that what they provide should be nourishing and wholesome, whether it's books, school lessons, the influence of friends, nutrition, or discipline. This is how most parents understand education--focusing more on nutrition, discipline, culture, depending on their own understanding. For the most part, they let their children develop in their own way according to their own environment and hereditary traits.

This leaving alone, or what Charlotte Mason calls 'Masterly Inactivity', is a good thing for the most part. Children should be allowed to develop according to their own nature, and as long as parents don't allow the child to become spoiled, this masterly inactivity can be fine. But this philosophy of letting children be covers only a part of raising children. It does not cover the most serious task of the parents, which includes the continual guidance and guarding of influences according to their understanding of the laws of child psychology so that their child grows up to be the best he can be.

Nothing that concerns a child is trivial. Even his offhand words have underlying meaning if we listen. Children don't always express themselves accurately, and it's up to parents to try to understand what children are thinking behind what they communicate. Being able to interpret our own children's personalities [and learning styles] by working to understand them will help us to know how best to educate them.

A great teacher in Charlotte Mason's day always said, 'the family is the unit of the nation.' It's not about the individual but the family. An individual is no greater than the family that he is part of, and, in this same way,

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the child's actions will contribute to society, for better or worse. It's the parents' responsibility to raise their children to be a blessing to their society; they must not raise them any way they want. Legally, parents have a lot of leeway in choosing how to raise their own children, but they must remember that children are a national trust. Raising children should concern everyone, even those who are single or childless.

I.--A Method of Education

Traditional Methods of Education

Now more than ever, parents need to consider education and all it includes. In the past, parents simply did what had always been done, raising their children the same way their parents and grandparents did. Tradition tends to form the basis of child training for most people.

But science is causing a revolution in the way we understand education. The old ways have been proven less effective. We don't yet fully understand what is the very best way scientifically, so, for now, parents must read and learn and find the best method for themselves.

For example, a mother might have done as her own mother did and occasionally used her slipper to discipline her child with success. But current opinion, which may or may not be correct, holds that the child is sacred

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and hitting or spanking is abusive.

Another example is that parents used to think that plain food was best and hunger was all that was needed to make a child eat. But now, parents are expected to provide a variety of foods prepared in temping dishes and, within reason, the child's own preference and cravings are allowed to dictate his diet. In previous times, children were expected to repress their personal food desires.

It used to be that children were taught to endure discomfort. One little boy, watching a torchlight procession in wet, freezing weather, turned down an offer to watch from a warmer shed. He said he'd never be a good sailor if he couldn't endure wind and rain. But these days, parents take diligent care so that their children stay warm and don't get over-tired.

In the past, children were expected to quietly obey, study their lessons dutifully, and play only when there was no work to be done. Now, parents are more concerned about whether their children are happy than how much work they do.

Before, children had no rights. They were seen and not heard. Today, adults bend over backwards to provide just the right environment for their children.

English parents rarely go so far as to arrive late for a dinner party as one couple in a magazine did because their three-year-old didn't want them to go, so they had to pretend to undress and go to bed and then sneak out after she was asleep. But that extreme is where parents are headed. Whether our new theories of child psychology are wise

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and kind, whether science proves them true, and whether they cause child-worship rather than sound practice, are questions that should be taken seriously.

At any rate, a parent who does not consider carefully the goal of his child's education and the necessary steps to get to that goal will fail to fully fulfill his obligation to raise his child properly.

A Method is a Means to an End

A method has two parts: a goal and a way to get there. The method is the steps you take to get to the end. To follow a method implies that you have some set goal, or end, in sight. What is the goal you have for your child's education? Once you see the end clearly, you will find unexpected ways to naturally use those things around you to accomplish your goal. This will happen almost effortlessly because, with the end in sight, everything becomes a tool to be used in attaining that goal almost without you even realizing it. Without even thinking about it, everything your child does--eat, play, work--will be seen as a way to get closer to your goal. But those steps, that method, can become mindless steps that are no more than an empty system if the focus of the goal is lost. The Kindergarten

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Method, for example, was conceived by teachers who had a wonderful vision of enlarging the lives of little persons, but when practiced by those who don't understand that goal, it becomes nothing more than an artificial system of lessons and busywork.

A Rigid System Is Easier than a Method

A 'system' sounds impressive. A system of education with all its steps and rules may sound more scientific than a method because each step has measurable results that can be used to calculate progress. It can be tested. Systems can be used successfully to learn skills such as dancing, shorthand, or accounting.

A system that uses separate steps to achieve a goal is so good at getting measurable results that it's tempting to confine all of education to a scientific system.

If people were machines, systems would be fine for educating them. The teacher could simply set a system in place, follow the steps, and the result would be predictable and successful.

But people are not machines. The teacher has to deal with a real, unpredictable child with an individual personality and his job is to minimize the bad tendencies in that child, make the most of every good tendency, and prepare that small person to be the best he can be before he takes his place in the world.

A system may be very useful as one tool in education,

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but as the entire basis of education, it merely produces outward behaviors rather than real growth in a person.

It is important to understand the difference between a system and a method, because parents all too often become enamored of a system that promises development in one area--but which misses the overall growth of the entire person. A system is easier because you just follow the prescribed steps, like a recipe. But a method requires constant watchfulness over the whole being of the child, it demands more of the teacher. Who is qualified for such a mammoth task? Even the most loving, committed parent isn't physically able to be on the alert to make the most of every educable moment 24 hours a day. But education may not require a 24-hour effort; the child is learning all the time and a few basic principles put into effect will cover the whole of the child's education. Once the parent understands these principles, he will find it natural and easy to let circumstances fall into place to fit these principles. In the next chapters, I [Charlotte Mason is speaking] will explain these principles, but first, let's consider a couple of questions.

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II--The Child's Estate

The Child in the Midst

First, let's think about the child who is entrusted to his parents. Is he a blank slate to be written on? A twig to be bent, or wax to be molded? Maybe, but he is so much more. He is a living, breathing person in a higher place than we adults, like a prince entrusted to mere peasants. Wordsworth wrote a poem [Intimations of Immortality from Reflections of Early Childhood] about the child's estate that says we were in heaven before we were born, and our birth is like forgetting that wonderful place. But a newborn still has some of that heavenly aroma still around him. His body may be small and unimpressive, but inside is a soul newly arrived from heaven with some heavenly atmosphere still hanging around him. Wordsworth's poem shows almost as much insight into

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the special innocence and wonder of children as the Bible does. Jesus also had a special place in His heart for children: 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' 'Except ye become as little children ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.' 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' 'And He called a little child, and set him in the midst.' Such is God's opinion of children. Parents should consider every scripture in the gospels that talks about children. Jesus was not talking primarily about adults who became as innocent as children, He was talking about literal children. Exactly what Jesus meant is too complex to discuss here, but He meant more than even Wordsworth did when he talked about children 'trailing clouds of glory. . . from God, who is our home.'

Biblical Reference to Our Code of Education

Parents may be surprised that Jesus laid down a code of education in the gospels. It can be summed up in three commands telling adults what not to do to harm children: Be careful that you don't offend, despise or hinder even one little child.

These three educational laws, taken separately, cover everything we adults should do and should not do in the training of our children. We can first consider what these commands

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tell us not to do in order to start our educational considerations with a clean, blank slate. Once we understand what not to do, we can then see more clearly what we can do, and what we must do. Although, actually, what we can do is included in these laws about what we can't do because we are obligated to actively do what we can to avoid hurting children.

III.--Offending the Children

How We Offend Children

The first two commandments seem to cover what we do to children, and what we don't do for children. We offend them by doing what we shouldn't, and we despise them by not doing what we should for them. An offense is literally a stumbling block. Mothers know to clear the floor of obstacles that may make a toddler fall. A piece of furniture, or a toy mislaid on the floor makes a newly-walking infant fall and cry and we kick ourselves for not removing it from the baby's path. But a young child going out into the world is like a newly toddling baby going in all directions. There are obstacles out in the big world that are not as easy to move out of the way as a footstool, but must be moved to keep the child from stumbling.

Children are Born Understanding the Concept of Right and Wrong

When a mother chides her baby with, 'Bad boy!', the baby looks sad and guilty. Some people

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think it's cute or funny and will tease and say 'Bad boy!' when the child isn't doing anything wrong, just for the amusement of seeing the baby look guilty and viewing the pure soul of the child. What does the child's display of guilt show us? Even before he is old enough to have been taught right from wrong from his parents, he displays a conscience. This proves that a sense of right and wrong is born into the child. That is why Jesus warned us not to offend children. We all know older children who have not yet learned that there are duties they are obligated to do; the only rule they know is 'I want' or 'I like.' Pity the parent and child who are like that!

How can a baby who was born with a sense of right and wrong before it can even speak come to have a lawless heart that only knows the rules of 'I want' and 'I like'? It happens little by little, as all good or bad character happens gradually. The mother says, 'No, no!' when her two-year-old is caught red-handed taking a cookie from the cookie jar. His little eyes search her face to see how far his mother will let him go. When the mother is taken in by how cute he is and laughs and lets the child off, she has unwittingly taught her child a lesson. She has put a stumbling block in the child's path, an offense: he has learned that something he knows is wrong may be done

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without punishment, and he builds onto this knowledge. And thus begins the process whereby a mother's 'No!' is disregarded and her rules challenged until she yields. The child learns that everything is as allowable as his mother lets him get away with. And if every act is merely up to the mother to decide on, then why shouldn't she be worked on to decide in the child's favor? And if Mother can decide what's okay to do based on her own whims or her child's persuasion, then why shouldn't he be able to decide what's okay to do, too, so long as he can get away with it? And from then on, the child's life is a struggle to get his own way; in this struggle, the mother is sure to lose because she has lots of responsibilities to think about, but her child has time to be persistent in wearing her down to get what he wants.

Children Must Understand That Those Over Them Are Also Under a Law

Where does this break-down have its source? It begins because the mother lacks a sense of duty--she thinks she is free to choose for herself what her child can and can't do, as if the child were hers alone to do with as she likes. The child never comes to realize that his mother is bound to a higher law than her own whims--he never learns that she can't let him break his sister's toys, or stuff himself with cake, or make everyone around him miserable, because it isn't right. The child needs to see that his parents are bound by the same codes of right and wrong that he is. Their 'no' isn't to please their own whims but because they cannot allow him to do wrong. When children understand that, they generally comply willingly. To have to reason with a child to win his compliance is usually a bad idea and compromises

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the parent's dignity. If a child understands from his mother's tone and facial expression that she cannot allow a thing as a matter of principle of right/wrong, he will sense that her mind can't be changed and he won't try to challenge or persuade her.

Parents may Offend their Children by Disregarding:

A. The Laws of Health

Allowing a child to get away with doing wrong is only one way that loving mothers offend their children. When a mother doesn't know any better, or, worse, doesn't care, she may do her child the disservice of compromising his health by feeding him a diet of junk food, letting him sleep and live in poorly ventilated rooms, and disregarding other simple rules of healthy living. Really, in an age when science is making all kinds of discoveries and information is readily available, ignorance is no excuse for letting a child's health go.

B. The Laws of Intellectual Life

Almost as bad is the way children's minds are allowed to develop a distaste for learning with dry, tedious school lessons where real learning isn't expected. Many girls [in Charlotte Mason's day, girls didn't have the educational equality that they do now] learn nothing more from their school lessons than that learning is boring, and mental challenges are to be avoided. So a girl grows up and reads nothing more than trashy novels and chatters incessantly about clothes.

C. The Laws of Moral Life

What about the affections of the child? Most parents raise their children to love and be loyal to family, but what about outsiders?

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Is popular thought allowed to discourage our children from reaching out to strangers? Even worse is when a child is less favored in her own family because she isn't pretty, or as smart as her sister. She is ignored while her parents lavish affection on the other children. Who can blame her for feeling no love for her siblings who got the share of the affection she was entitled to? And who can blame her for resenting her parents? So many children suffer hurt from this kind of neglect, and many lives become bitter as a result. One woman talked about how her childhood was made unbearable because her mother doted on her little brother, but ignored her. She could never get over her feelings of rejection. Although her mother was kinder to her after she had grown, she never could feel natural with her mother. And it affected her relationship with her brother, with whom she might have been close if not for her hurt feelings.

IV.--Despising the Children

Children Deserve the Best of Their Mothers

How is it possible that a mother can despise her own child? Despise means to undervalue. As much as adults may delight in children, we do tend to have a low opinion of them. How else is it possible for a mother to leave

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her precious children in the care of unconscientious care-givers during their most crucial years? Every act a child sees, or word he hears, leaves an impression in his mind in the same way that light leaves a permanent image on a roll of film. It isn't that a nurse [or daycare or babysitter?] is totally bad for a child; it is not always good for educated people to have their children around constantly. That might be too stimulating for the child, and the mother is more refreshed if she can enjoy time with other people, discussing things unrelated to children from time to time. But children should have their mother's best; her freshest, most alert time of day. The mother should also choose care-givers carefully, train them herself, and be vigilant about knowing what goes on while her children are in the care of someone else.

Caregivers

A harsh, rude caregiver causes permanent damage to sensitive children. Many children in the care of others lose their sharp moral sense of right and wrong and pick up a feeling of distance from God that they never get over. Children are born with a keen sense of justice and pick up the slightest hint of unfairness or deception. If his caregiver says, 'Be a good boy and I won't tell,' then the child learns that his mother, with whom he should be completely honest and keep no secrets, is someone he can deceive. The child may not even feel guilty about such compromises. Since he assumes that grown-ups know better, he accepts the deception as normal and shapes his own character accordingly. Because of his own sin nature, it will be more natural for him to pick up bad habits than to resist them. If his caregiver is rude, cruel and dishonest, even the youngest child will pick up those traits.

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Even Tiny Children's Misdeeds Should be Taken Seriously

Another way parents despise children is by not taking their faults seriously. A little child may show greed in eating his sister's treats, or vindictiveness in biting a friend who angers him, or lying to get out of trouble. The mother knows the trait is ugly and sinful, but hopes he'll grow out of it. If he doesn't, she figures she can deal with it later when he's a bit older. But life would be easier for herself and her child if she would nip it in the bud in the first place. The child is fully aware that he has done something wrong and, by letting it go, the child is learning that sin is okay. Even a grieved look can be enough the first time to show the child that his little sin is not acceptable, but if the offense passes unchecked, it will become a habit that has to be replaced later with more effort. To make light of little offenses because the child is so little will cause trouble later.

V.--Hindering the Children

A Child's Relationship with God

The worst way to despise children is to overlook their relationship with God. Jesus said, 'Suffer the little children to come

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unto Me.' It's the normal, natural thing for children to come to God--unless they are somehow hindered by grown-ups. In the same beautiful way that babies who can't even say 'mama' know enough to turn to her, and that flowers turn to the sun--children naturally turn to God with delight and trust, even though they don't yet understand the doctrinal implications of what they're doing.

Tiny Tot Theology

But this is what children hear all too often: 'Bad boy, how can God love you now?' or 'God will send you to hell with the demons if you keep acting like that!' For some children, this is all they ever hear about God. They never hear how God loves them and delights to bless them. If you add long prayers in dry King James English, debates about doctrine in their presence, casual use of holy, reverent terms, and few obvious visual signs that God means more to his parents than their worldly concerns, then it's no wonder that children hesitate to 'Come unto Me!' Yet, some of these same children have parents who are committed Christians and deeply value their spirituality. This is what happens when parents assume that children are too young to understand spiritual things and withhold proper discussion about God until they think the child is ready.

VI.--Conditions of Healthy Brain-Activity

Now that we know what not to do, what does the mother need to do to educate her child?

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Any Work that the Mind Does Puts Wear on the Brain

The parts of the child that we educate--his intelligence, his will, his moral feelings--are controlled in the brain. In the same way that the eye is what sees, the brain is what thinks, wills, loves and worships. Nobody is quite sure what part of the brain does what [at least, not in Charlotte Mason's day!] but we do know that actual physical activity takes place in the gray matter of the brain when a person does anything. Brain activity isn't just a concern for research scientists, because the brain needs certain conditions to operate properly. The brain needs exercise, rest and nutrition, just like any other part of the body.

Exercise

We all know of silly or bizarre people who make us wonder if some people were born with less brains than most people. Everybody is probably born with the same amount of brain power, but without daily mental challenges, the brain gets no exercise. Children need to get into the habit of daily thinking activities and sustained acts of the will, otherwise the brain grows as lazy and flabby as an arm carried in a sling for years. A brain cannot stay inactive; without regular work, it creates work on its own, reaching out its own lines of thought. That makes the person eccentric because the brain can't work sporadically in a haphazard way. It needs to work under

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some order. It has been suggested that poet William Cowper, who had attacks of derangement and depression, may have been the cause of his own suffering because his brain needed more to do than writing poems.

So, don't let children spend a day without some kind of real mental effort, whether it be intellectual, moral or an act of the will. They need to stop and figure things out in their minds, they need to make themselves do what they don't feel like doing, they need to determine to do something that costs them sacrifice in pleasure or comfort, and, most of all, they need to exercise their brains with regular mental activity.

Rest

Rest is just as important as exercise. Just like the rest of the body, when the brain is working, blood is diverted to send energy there. The body has a limited supply of blood and should only have to support one strenuous activity at a time--first the arms and legs, then the digestive tract, then the brain, one at a time. The body sends all the blood it can spare to the part of the body that is working the hardest.

Rest after Meals

After the child has eaten dinner, the heaviest meal of the day [in CM's day, this would have been the midday meal],

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his blood is diverted to his digestion for 2 or 3 hours. If the child goes for a walk right after dinner, his blood is diverted to his legs and half his food is left undigested. If this becomes a regular habit, the child will be plagued with digestion problems. Sending a child to do his homework right after dinner is just as bad: all the blood that should have gone to digesting his meal will go to his brain.

So it makes sense that lessons should be scheduled carefully after periods of mental rest, such as after sleeping or playing, when the blood is not engaged in working on some major activity. Since breakfast is usually a light meal and requires less energy to digest, the time after breakfast is a good time to plan lessons. If the whole afternoon can't be spared for play, then constructive light tasks can be done, such as sewing, drawing or practicing music. A child's mind is fresh enough to do mental work in the evening, but that can interfere with sleep if his mind gets too alert and excited from his work, and it can cause him to have restless dreams and a fitful night's sleep. If there is no way to avoid homework at night, then there should be an hour or two right before bedtime for pleasant socializing. Best of all is not to have any homework at all in the evenings.

A Change of Occupation

Huxley said that there was no clear proof that

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certain parts of the brain were responsible for specific activities--no part of the brain specifically for exercising caution, or for playing music [remember, CM wrote this back in the 1800's before x-rays and MRI scans!]. But anyone knows that, if you work too hard at some mental task, your brain becomes tired. If a child does very challenging math, his mind will get fatigued and he will start to have trouble and make silly mistakes. But if you switch activities and let him read some history, his mind is fine for that task. Using his imagination to picture history apparently uses a different part of the brain than doing math and, since it was dormant during the math, it is well-rested and ready to work for history. Schools often schedule lessons to mix up types of brain activities during the day, but parents often don't know that it's important to do this.

Nourishment

The brain can't do its work without nourishment. Someone once calculated how many ounces of brain activity it took to do a certain activity, such as writing Paradise Lost, or writing music. We don't need to know the exact calculations to know that any kind of thinking uses up some energy in the brain tissue. The blood works to bring energy to that area for nourishment. The blood must be healthy and well-fed if it's going to provide energy effectively to the brain. The brain is only going to be as well-nourished as the quantity and quality of the blood.

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What Affects the Quality of the Blood

There are three or four things that can affect the quality of the blood. Food that is healthy and easy to digest will make the blood more vital and life-giving. The diet should be varied so that all the various micro-nutrients are included. Children are never still and all their comings and goings and even their chattering expends energy little by little. It's healthy for them to move and exercise, but it means they lose energy that must be made up for by eating. Children are more active than grown-ups, and their minds are all a-flutter and busy all the time. The human brain takes up only a fortieth of the weight of the body, but it expends a fourth or fifth part of the blood's energy to function. And not only does the child use energy moving and thinking, but his young body is also growing and needs building material for this growth.

About Meals

Therefore, children must be well-fed. Half the people who complain of low energy were not adequately fed during their childhood, and that was usually

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because their parents didn't understand what their child's nutritional needs were rather than because of poverty. Regular meals at regular intervals is a good, common-sense practice. A midday dinner should be no more than five hours after breakfast, and animal protein should be served once a day or twice if one of them is a light form. It isn't how much food is eaten, but how much gets digested that counts as far as nourishing the body and brain. There are so many aspects of digestion; we'll just name a couple of the most obvious. Everybody knows [at least, they did in CM's day!] that children should not eat pastry, pork, fried meat, cheese, rich food, highly flavored food, sauces and spices such as pepper, mustard, vinegar, new bread, rich cake, and jam that still has leathery skins. Milk that is not too warm and which may be mixed with water, or cocoa, is the best drink for children. They should learn not to drink during meals, but only after meals. A good breakfast might be fresh fruit, oatmeal with molasses, and the fat of toasted bacon [but not the bacon itself??]. A glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night helps promote regularity [but might not be the best idea if you have a bed-wetter!]

Mealtime Conversation

It isn't just rules of nutrition that affect how much of the meal is actually digested. Emotional

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considerations must also be taken into account. Digestive juices are only secreted freely when the mind is content and unstressed. If a child dislikes his meal, he may swallow it, but it won't digest very well. If the meal is strained with uncomfortable silence, the meal likewise won't digest very well. So, providing meals in pleasant surroundings isn't a matter of pampering and spoiling, but a matter of health. And too much excitement is also bad for the digestion. Every effort should be made to make mealtimes around the family table the happiest times of the day. If possible, children should sit at the table with their parents [in CM's day, children sometimes ate in the nursery or in the kitchen] unless the parents are having a late supper. Mealtime is an excellent opportunity to teach children proper manners and morals, to have family bonding, and to teach healthy eating habits such as thorough chewing.

A Variety of Foods

Pleasant environment and high quality food isn't enough, children's food should be plain, but it should also be varied. Mutton served as leftovers all week won't adequately nourish the child if

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he gets so tired of mutton that he loses his appetite. The mother should plan a meal rotation so that no dinner is repeated more than once every two weeks. Fish as the main dish is an excellent change of pace because it is rich in phosphorus, which is good for the brain. Puddings can be a good choice because they don't often like fatty foods, but they will eat sweet, starchy puddings. But even their puddings shouldn't always be the same kind--think variety. A wise mother should never say, 'I always give my children such and such for tea.' There should be no 'always' when it comes to children's meals, every meal should have something different. But won't this make children overly concerned about what they eat and drink? No. It isn't well-fed children who are greedy, but underfed children who can't be trusted with special treats.

Air as Important as Food

The quality of the blood depends on good, fresh air as well as good, varied food. Every two or three minutes, all of the blood circulates entirely around its circuit in the body, returning to the heart to be re-oxygenated by the lungs. The change that oxygen makes in the short time it's in contact with the lungs is so drastic that even the blood's color undergoes a dramatic change. It enters the lungs spoiled and unable to sustain life, but leaves as life-giving fluid. But blood is only fully oxygenated when the air

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contains plenty of oxygen. In a room, every living being and flame takes some oxygen from the air, depleting it. So it's very important that children spend time every day out in the fresh air exercising their limbs and lungs in fresh, pure, fully oxygenated air.

Children Should be Outside Every Day

A mother brags that her children are outside for a walk at least one hour a day. Perhaps that's better than nothing. A little girl uses her lunch money to buy aniseed candy drops; we might say that's better than nothing, too. But children can't thrive on candy and they can't thrive on just an hour outside every day. The human animal wasn't meant to survive in an artificial environment of walls any more than plants were designed to live in glass houses. Countries such as France, Germany, Italy have an advantage in that their people practically live out-of-doors and are happier, simpler and healthier for it. Charles II said England had the best climate for being outside. Man can't live on food and drink alone. It's true that you can't

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live on air, but if we had to choose between air, food or drink, air would sustain us longer. You can survive days or weeks without food and water, but only a few minutes without air. We are so used to that knowledge that it no longer holds our interest. Every schoolboy knows how the blood circulates and is brought to the lungs for oxygen.

Oxygenation has its Limitations

We're so familiar with our knowledge of oxygen that we don't even think about it anymore, but even the miracles oxygen can do are limited. It can only work where it is--if the air has been depleted by fire and candle and others breathing in the room, how vital can it be? Air should be 23 parts oxygen per hundred parts, but with all those things taking oxygen out of the air,

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and the air in a room not vented or circulating, the air gets stagnate and has little life-giving oxygen left. And then imagine how many fires and candles and pets and people are in a city, taking oxygen from the air, and what do you think is the result? People only feel fully alive when their blood is well-oxygenated by breathing fully oxygenated air. Those who live cooped up in poorly ventilated houses can't possibly be as alive as those who live mostly outside in the open air. In cities where the air is depleted, people subsist at low levels of health and energy, their growth is stunted, and they get respiratory diseases that kill them before their time. Yes, we need shelter from the weather and a place to sleep at night, but we lose when we make our homes so comfortable that we never want to leave them to go outside.

Unchanged Air

Pale city children who spend too much of their days cooped up inside are not as healthy in one way as street children who scavenge for food in the garbage--at least they get lots of the most essential element: fresh air. Even a city street in the slums has better air than a closed-up home. But even city air

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isn't the best. What's even better is delicious country air. It's even more important for children than adults to breath country air because they move and play and breath more air, and they are also growing and developing new tissue. The body needs high-quality blood to keep up with all of this activity. A child's brain, too, is growing and needs the best material it can have to make new tissue.

'I feed Alice on beef tea.'

A parent might go out of the way to research the healthiest diet and spare no expense or effort to provide it for their dear child, but if the child spends most of the day cooped up in the house, they may still be starving for oxygen. The nutritionally superior food isn't being converted into energy as well as it should be because the body isn't working as efficiently as it should and has inferior blood to work with.

And if the child's body is listless and pale as a result of being in the house, imagine how the alert, curious mind of the child must be stifled without real things from nature to handle. Children can't fully grasp the words--mere symbols of things--until they have something real in their mind to relate it to; therefore, mere lessons without the experience of being out in the real world with real things will be largely wasted.

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The Wordsworth poem 'Three Years She Grew' is quoted in which a girl grows up close to nature and nature herself smiles on the girl and blesses her with the 'silence and the calm of mute, insensate things.' The girl finds peace among the beauties of nature and the peace of nature adds its own beauty to her face.

Indoor Airings

Out-door airings will be discussed later, but indoor airings are just as important. The damage of hours spent inside with depleted air can't be undone by spending a couple hours outside. With a couple of people, a fire and other things using air in a room, it becomes de-oxygenated pretty quickly unless the room is well-vented. We've all experienced the stuffiness of entering a closed room after being outside, but after a few minutes, we don't even notice the stuffiness anymore. Thus, we can't depend on our senses to tell us when a room needs ventilation.

Ventilation

Therefore, we need to have a plan to keep the room ventilated regardless of

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whether anyone in the room thinks the room needs it or not. Windows must be kept open at least one inch at the top day and night. That will allow enough air to circulate because light, depleted air rises and will escape out the top of the open window, while fresh air can seep in from cracks around doors, windows and floors. An open chimney is not enough ventilation, but stopping up the chimney in a bedroom is 'suicidal.' Children should get used to sleeping with the window open an inch or two all year, and even more than that in summer.

Night Air is Healthy

Some people think night air is unhealthy, but it actually contains as much oxygen as day air. In fact, since there are less things going on to use up oxygen (fires are put out at night), night air is actually healthier. When children are away from their room is a great opportunity to throw open the doors and windows and give it a thorough airing.

Sunshine

It isn't just fresh, clean air that makes healthy blood. Healthy blood has a high number of red blood cells which are produced in the blood itself. People who spend a lot of time in the sun have ruddy faces

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because they have so many red blood cells, but people who live in dark cellars and alleys have pale, paper-white faces. It follows that light and sunshine are necessary for making red blood cells; therefore, children's rooms should be on the sunny side of the house, on the south, if possible. The whole house should be kept bright by removing trees and outbuildings that obstruct light from coming in the windows, especially in the children's room.

Free Perspiration

There's one more thing needed to make sure that the blood that nourishes the brain is the best quality. One of the functions of the blood is to carry waste from the various parts of the body and get rid of it. One of the most important ways the body expels waste is through the millions of pores in the skin in the form of perspiration.

Insensible Perspiration

When there is lots of waste expelled through the pores, we notice perspiration on our skin. But even when it's too light for our notice, our body is constantly getting rid of waste through perspiration. If anything hinders the body's discharge of waste through the pores, perhaps by coating a large part of the skin so that no moisture can get through, death will be the result. That's why people can die when large parts of their skin gets burned even though no vital organ is injured--many pores through which waste should be carried away

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are gone and the remaining skin's pores and the waste organs [kidney, liver] have to pick up the slack, but may not be able to keep up, causing a pooling of fluid that can't get out of the body. If the blood is going to nourish the brain, the pores all over the skin must be unrestricted to allow wastes to be carried away.

Daily Bath and Porous Garments

Two factors affect the pores. First, daily bathing and vigorous skin rubbing. Just as important are clothes that breathe. Perhaps delicate women who felt faint at church had their fashionable sealskin coats to blame. And that may be why people who sleep under thick bedding wake up unrefreshed--all that covering restricts their perspiration so their blood can't expel impurities. We might be surprised by how many people go through life fatigued simply because of their choice in clothing. The best clothing for children is breathable wool, flannel and serge [serge is cloth made from twilled wool, or silk twilled to be like wool], heavier weight for winter, thinner for summer. Wool is more porous and therefore better than cotton and linen. Wool also holds in heat in the winter and absorbs perspiration so the skin doesn't feel clammy

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like it sometimes does after sweating. We'd all be better off if we slept in light wool sheets instead of cotton or linen.

There is much more that might be said about the various aspects of nourishing the brain, but it is enough if the awareness of one or two rules of health are made so plain and clear that one can't help implementing them.

These may seem like the least interesting details of education, but the foundation of good nutrition and health is the ground on which everything else rests. Every part of our being--our thinking, our mood, even our spiritual life--is affected by our physical condition, by how healthy and alert we are. This doesn't mean that a person with a toned body is necessarily brilliant and good, but a brilliant and good person has necessarily invested years of reasonably sound health practices to enable him the health to develop his wisdom and morality. If you doubt whether physical health affects your mind, ask yourself, is it easier to be friendly, kind and outgoing with or without a headache or acute, painful nerve spasms?

VII--'The Reign of Law' in Education

Common Sense and Good Intentions

Even though all these physical considerations are just the groundwork, the same principles can be applied

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to all of education--the principles of orderly, regular progress under a specified law. The reason that education has so much less effect on the person than it should is because 90 percent of parents rely on their own 'common sense' and good intentions. But common sense must be well-informed, and good intentions must be according to actual laws of nature, which are divine laws that are found more often in life than in the scriptures.

A Person who Lives Ethically May Be More Successful than a Religious Person

It is really pitiful that many people who pride themselves on not knowing God live purer lives with less character flaws and selfishness than many professing Christians! Our children won't be able to escape notice of that fact and we will need to be prepared with some explanation of that phenomena. If the secular person they see should happen to be a beloved, respected person in their lives, it will speak more to them than years of doctrinal teaching. The biggest threat to religion isn't all the wickedness around us, but good that comes from a source refusing to acknowledge God.

That is the reason why I say the little I do about religion, because I sense the danger and I know that educated parents need to be aware, since they are

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the best and most competent persons to deal with it.

Mind and Matter Are Both Governed by God's Law

So, what do we make of the morality of non-believers? The world of the mind, just like the world of matter and nature, is governed by unwritten laws. A child blowing bubbles or reflecting on flitting little thoughts in his mind cannot do so outside of that Law. All safety and success happens because of obedience to these Laws [for instance, we stay safe while walking along a cliff's edge because we heed the law of gravity.] There are natural laws of thought, morality, the physical world and spiritual life. Anyone who recognizes, respects and heeds those laws will reap the reward of obeying those laws, whether he attributes those laws to God or not. Anyone who obeys God's laws will experience the blessing of that obedience even if he doesn't know the Author of those laws, just as anyone who steps into the sunshine will be warmed whether he acknowledges the sun as the source of the warmth or not. Even if he closes his eyes and refuses to see the sun, it warms him nevertheless. On the other hand, those who don't bother to learn what those laws are can't experience the blessings of heeding them even if they are Christians who will inherit the eternal gift of salvation and heaven.

Some Christians Don't Live as They Should

Sometimes the gift of eternal life is so wonderful that a Christian doesn't seek for anything else. He breathes in deeply, enjoying the freshness of his new spiritual life--but he breathes in the spiritual laws only, completely missing the laws of nature and almost treating them with contempt, or resisting them as belonging to the secular world [an example might be Christians who scoff at laws of conservation and environmental responsibility, relegating them to 'new age thinking.']

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Such a person might care nothing for the wonderful way in which he was created, or how the brain works, or the subtle ways that the mind develops in accordance with natural laws. They think that these earthly matters are worthy only of the attention of nonbelievers, as if it somehow dishonors God to focus on the way He displays His character in the laws of this world. They refuse to have anything to do with any laws except the blatantly religious ones. Meanwhile, the secular person seeking to discover how the world operates most efficiently finds that things work better when he adheres to certain natural laws--physically, mentally, morally; in fact, all of the various facets of God's interests except the spiritual one. Don't forget that, although Esau gave away his spiritual birthright, the inheritance he did receive was also a blessing of God. When secular people heed God's natural laws and Christians don't, is it any wonder that the children of Christians ask, 'Why does it seem like non-believers are better off than we are?'

Parents Must Familiarize Themselves with the Principles of Physiology and Moral Laws

Christians parents shouldn't set up their children to have to face this difficulty. They have no right to pray that their children would be honest and have integrity while neglecting the principles and scientific details that go into teaching and training children to be honest and have integrity. These principles and scientific details are just as divine as God's spiritual Laws. The principles and laws of the natural world won't help us enter into a true knowledge of God Himself, which takes priority over anything else and makes life worth living. But these natural and scientific laws play a part in the

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education of all persons, and parents may not neglect them without paying the price. In these volumes, I will attempt to roughly lay out a method of education that adheres to divine natural laws and thus will result in divine blessings and success. Anything I can offer in this short guide will be imperfect and incomplete, but I hope it will be enough to get thoughtful parents focused on the proper lines of thinking in regards to the education of their children.

PART II

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Outdoor Life For Children

I.--A Growing Time

Meals Outside

Country dwellers already know what wonders fresh air can do for a person. Their children practically live outside when they aren't eating or sleeping. But even country people don't make the most of their opportunity--when the weather is warm, why not eat breakfast and lunch outside? We are so stressed from our hectic lives, but time spent in the open air is great for the mind and body and could even prolong our lives. Those who have been sick with fever and headache and felt soothed by the deliciousness of fresh, cool air often make it a rule never to be indoors when they can be out.

Besides the benefit of an added hour or two of fresh air, meals eaten outside are often delightful, and there's nothing like happiness to convert food and drink

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into healthy blood and bodies. And, meanwhile, children are storing lots of glad memories of a happy childhood. In their old age, the memories of the shadows playing on the white tablecloth, the sunshine, laughter, hum of insects, smells of flowers are being filed away in their minds to gladden their thoughts later.

For Those Who Live in Towns and Suburbs

But not everyone is lucky enough to live in the country where they can eat outside. So, what about those of us who live in the city or suburbs? How much time should we dedicate to making our children stay outside? And how can we pull it off? With all the pressure to give our children a good education and adequate socialization, it's good to remember that a mother's first duty should be to provide a secure, quiet early childhood. For the first six years, children should have low-key schedules so they can just be and grow, and they should spend most of their waking hours outside enjoying the fresh air. This is not just good for their bodies; their heart, soul and mind are nourished with exactly what they need when we leave them alone in a stress-free environment among happy influences that give them no reason to rebel and misbehave.

Possibilities of a Day in the Country

A mother may brag, 'I make sure to send my children outside, weather permitting, for an hour every day in the winter and two hours in the summer.' That's a good start, but it's not enough. First of all, the mother shouldn't send them, she should take them. If at all possible, she should take them outside, because, although they need to be left to themselves much of the time, there are still things that she needs to make sure get done, and things she needs to prevent during their long days in the open air. And they should be long days spent outside--

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not two, but four or even six hours on every tolerable day from April til October. But a stressed, overworked mother may see no way to give her children more than an hour on the neighborhood sidewalks. Well, long hours in fresh air is the ideal for children. It may not be practical for every family, but when mothers understand the good that a measure can do, they will often work miracles to provide it. A twenty minute trip with a picnic lunch can make a day in the country accessible to almost anyone, but why do it just one day? Why not do it lots of days? Or even every nice day?

But suppose we have those long days in the open air, what is to be done with them so that they are pleasant days? There must be a plan, or else it will be all work and no fun for the mother, and the children will be bored. There is a lot to get accomplished in this large block of time. The children must be kept in a good temper if they are to get the most out of the refreshing, strengthening atmosphere of the great outdoors. They must be left to themselves for a good part of the day to take in their own impressions of nature's beauty. There's nothing worse than children being deprived of every moment to wonder and dream within their own minds because teachers and adults are constantly talking at them, not leaving them a moment's peace. Yet, the mother must not miss this opportunity of being outdoors to train the children to have seeing eyes, hearing ears and seeds of truth deposited into their minds to grow and blossom on their own in the secret chambers of their imaginations. In addition to increasing their powers of observation, children should spend an hour or two in free, active playing, and a lesson or two should be done.

No Story-Books

Once the mother and children have arrived in a pleasant, breezy area, it is not the mother's duty to entertain the children. No reading aloud or storytelling--in fact, there should be as little talking from her as possible, and what little there is should have a definite purpose. After all, who worries about entertaining children with story books during a puppet show, or at the circus?? And the great outdoors has lots more to offer than either of those. A wise mother, upon arriving at their spot, first sends the children off to run wild and play and make as much noise as they want. No difference needs to be made between big and little kids. In fact, the little ones tend to copy the older kids in lessons, playing, and picking up anyway. As for the baby, when he is put down, he will kick and crawl and grab at the grass, loving every minute of his freedom as he takes in nature in his own way. He should be dressed in something comfortable that can handle a bit of dirt and play.

II.--Sight-Seeing

Soon the children return to their mother, and, while they are still fresh and alert, she sends them on an exploring expedition to see who can spot the most, and tell the most, about a farther hill or

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brook or thicket. This game delights children and endless variations can be used. It's a fun way to teach exactness and attention to detail.

How to See

The mother looks herself at what she's sent them to look at while they're gone. When the children come back, they will excitedly tell what they saw: 'There's a beehive.' 'Lots of bees were going in it.' 'There's a long garden.' 'It had sunflowers.' 'And daisies and pansies.' 'There were lots of pretty blue flowers with rough leaves; what do think those were, Mom?' 'Probably borage, it's an herb that attracts bees.' 'Oh, and there were apple trees and pear trees on one side, and a path in the middle.' 'Which side were the trees on?' 'The right. No, the left, wait, which hand do I write with? Yes, the right.' 'The apple tree had a million apples on it!' 'A million??' 'Well, maybe not a million, but a whole lot!' And so on, so that the mother gets the complete details little by little.

Educational Uses of Sight-Seeing

This is just a game to the children, but the mother is actually doing some very valuable teaching, training the children's powers of observation

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and their ability to articulate precise details. She is increasing their vocabulary by giving them the name of the thing they need at the right moment, when they ask, 'What was that?' She is also training them to be accurately truthful by seeing that they tell exactly what they saw without leaving out any details or exaggerating. A child who gives lots of details in his description such as, 'A tall tree ending in a point with roundish leaves; it wouldn't be good for shade because all the branches go up,' deserves to be told the name of the tree and any facts about it that the mother knows. But a careless observer who doesn't even know whether the tree was an elm or beech shouldn't get any reward. The mother shouldn't move an inch to even look at it or allow herself to be drawn into talking about it until the child becomes discouraged and goes off to inspect and report more accurate detail, such as whether the bark is rough or smooth and how the leaves are shaped. Then the mother can show more interest and allow the child to lead her to see it.

Discriminating Observation

Little by little, the children are learning to pick out important details about every feature of the landscape around them. Imagine what a treasure they will find when, years later, they're able to pull out memories etched in full detail of the beautiful scenery from their childhood home! The sad thing about most peoples' childhood memories is that they are too vague and blurry to bring much enjoyment. Why? Not because they were forgotten, but because the details of the scene were never thoroughly seen. Even at the time, the memory was only a hazy impression that certain main objects were there. So, naturally, after

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decades, not much can be recalled because the child wasn't paying enough attention to record the memory well at the time.

III.--'Picture-Painting'

The Method of Picture Painting

The ability to take a mental picture of the beauties of nature is so fulfilling that it is well worth teaching our children how to do it. Keep in mind that children tend to focus on what's right in front of them and have to be coaxed to notice what's more distant. Have children look thoroughly at some landscape, then ask them to close their eyes and bring up the image in their minds. If any part of their image isn't clear, then they should take another look at the actual landscape to fill in details, and then try again. When their mental image is complete, have them describe it, like this: 'I see a pond, it's shallow on the side closest to me but deeper on the other side. There are trees along the water on the deep side and you can see a reflection of the green leaves and branches so clearly that it looks like there's a woods under the water. Almost touching the trees in the water is some blue sky with a soft white cloud. When you look up, you can see the same white cloud but there's more sky because there are no trees up there. There are also beautiful water lilies in the far edge of the pond and two or three of the leaves are turned up so that they look like sails. Near where I am, three cows have come to get a drink. One is already in the water nearly up to her neck,' etc.

Strain on the Attention

Mental picture painting is a game that children enjoy, although it takes a good bit of

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concentrated attention and is therefore tiring. It should only be done once in a while. Still, it's good to have children memorize some scenic landscape images because, while making the memory requires effort, the habit of looking more closely at detail is learned as an unconscious by-product when children are asked to make detailed mental images every now and then.

Seeing Fully and in Detail

In the beginning, children will need help to get them started. So the mother might show how it's done by saying, 'Look at the trees reflected in the water. What do the leaves standing up remind you of?' until children notice the main details. She should memorize a couple of mental images and impress her children by closing her eyes and describing it from memory. Children are such little mimics that they will copy her example, even using variations of her own minute details in their own versions.

Children will enjoy this game even more if the mother introduces it by describing 'a wonderful gallery I've seen,' and then she goes on to describe individual pictures of different landscapes, children playing, an old lady sewing--and then she explains that these pictures don't have frames and aren't painted on canvas. This gallery goes with her everywhere inside her mind, and, every time she sees a pretty picture, she studies it until she can make a mental image to add to her collection. So now,

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these pictures are hers forever, wherever she goes, to look at anytime she wants.

A Means of Solace and Refreshment

The habit of storing mental images can't be overrated. It can comfort us and refresh us. Even in our busiest times, we can stop and take a mini-vacation in our own piece of nature to be refreshed and gladdened by 'the silence and calm of things that can't speak or feel.'

This kind of break is available to everyone, but not everyone is able to carry away an impression strong enough to last. Only some can revisit scenes from memory that have enough detail to stir the blood, feel in the heart and bring peace. Yet this isn't the gift of a few special poets; anyone who tries hard to really see can have it, and parents can train their children to do this.

However, mothers must be careful not to spoil the child's innocent delight in making mental pictures by showing him off in front of the neighbors or Dad and making him perform from memory. She would be better

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not to say anything to anyone, even if the child has a poetic knack for it, at least not when the child can hear.

IV. Flowers and Trees

Children Should Know Local Field Crops

While doing the mental image exercises, opportunities will come up to make children familiar with rural tools and jobs. If there are farms around, they should learn about meadows, pastures and crops like alfalfa, potatoes and corn, in every stage from plowing the field to harvesting the crops.

Wildflowers and the Life-Cycles of Plants

Myrtle, jewelweed, black-eyed Susan, every wildflower that grows in the neighborhood should be well-known to children. They should be able to describe the shape, size and placements of their leaves and whether the flowers have a single blossom or a head of them. When they know the flower so well that they could recognze it anywhere, they should take a look at the area it grew in so that they'll know what kind of terrain to look for it again in the future. 'We should be able to find wild thyme here!' 'This is just the kind of place marigolds grow in; we must come back here in spring to see if there are any!' If the mother lacks a knowledge of plants, a good field guide will be indispensable, especially if she can find one that includes little facts and fun things about the plants. To

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collect flowers, press them and glue them to cardboard with the name in English, what kind of habitat it grows in, and when it was found. This is fun and educational. Even better is to have children make careful watercolor paintings of their favorite flowers, or of the whole plant.

The Study of Trees

Children should also become familiar with trees at an early age. They should pick about six in the winter when the leaves are gone, perhaps an elm, a maple, a beech, etc, and watch them during the year. In the winter they will see the color of the bark, the way the branches grow and the thickness of its build. They don't need to learn the name of each tree yet, that can wait until leaves appear. They may notice that the branches get stiffer and more alive-looking as spring approaches and life stirs in the leaf buds. They can watch as the leaves unfold, revealing many waterproof layers. Each species has its own unique way of wrapping its leaves. The lime tree's buds are reddish, the ash bud resembles a deer's foot and is not green but black. Tennyson's poem, The Gardener's Daughter, refers to eyes 'more black than ashbuds at the beginning of March.'

Seasonal Changes Should be Followed

So many wonders appear in spring that it's hard to keep up. There are dangling flowers, and red-centered flowers on the hazel--both clusters of flowers on the same tree! There are the festive

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leaves bursting out on all the trees, learning the shapes of the leaves, the names of each tree, and learning to recognize them by observing differences in them. And then come the flowers, each enclosed in a pretty little bed of a bud, wrapped as intricately as the leaves but less carefully guarded since they wait to come out until the ground is warmer and the sun is out to welcome them.

Leigh Hunt on Flowers

Leigh Hunt said to imagine: What if we had never seen flowers, and they were sent to us as a reward for our goodness? Imagine how carefully we'd watch the growth of the stem and every unfolding of each leaf in wonder. And then imagine our astonishment when a bud appeared, and began to unfold in all its delicate, colorful beauty. Well, we have been seeing flowers for years--but our children haven't. Flowers are still new and wonderful to them., and it's the fault of grown-ups if every new flower they see ceases to delight them.

And what about those six trees that the children were watching since winter? Now children will

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see that they also flower, although those flowers may be as green as the leaves. Some trees don't get their leaves until the flowers have blossomed and fallen off. Soon there is fruit, and children witness first-hand that every plant bears 'fruit and seed after his kind.' This is old news to grown-ups, but a good teacher will present all knowledge as new and exciting by imagining himself in the place of the child and being amazed with him. Every small miracle that ceases to amaze us is like a new discovery to our children, as exciting as the discovery of gravity to Newton.

Calendars

It's a great idea to have children keep a calendar to record when and where they saw the first oak leaf, the first tadpole, the first primrose, the first ripe blackberries. Then next year they can pull out the calendar and know when to anticipate seeing these things again, and they can note new discoveries. Imagine how this will add enthusiasm for daily walks and nature hikes! A day won't go by when something isn't seen to excite them.

Nature Journals

As soon as a child is old enough, he should keep his own nature notebook for his enjoyment. Every day's walk will give something interesting to add--three squirrels playing in a tree, a bluejay flying across a field, a caterpillar crawling up a bush, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider suddenly dropping from a thread to the ground, where he found ivy and how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, and how ivy manages to climb.

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An intelligent child will think of millions of little things to record in his nature notebook. At age 5 or 6, he can illustrate his notes with watercolors. At first he may need a little help with knowing how to work the medium in general terms, but he should be left to figure out the rest in whatever way he wants. If he asks how to make purple, we can tell him to use red and blue, but he should be allowed to mix it in the proportions he wants to get the right shade. The skill of drawing may be addressed in some other way, but not in his nature notebook, that should be for him to fill as he sees fit. A six year old will add pictures of dandelions, poppies and irises with enthusiasm and accuracy for no other reason than because he wants to record what he sees.

An exercise book with a stiff cover can be used as a nature notebook, but the paper inside should be suitable for both watercolor and drawing.

'I Can't Stop Thinking'

One little girl said, 'I can't stop thinking, I can't make my mind sit down!' She speaks for many children. And we adults have very little imagination; we think that a child's mind will rest when we send him out to the yard to play after his lessons. But a child's mind is constantly busy with ideas coming in and out, like a millstone turning and turning that, if it has nothing to grind, will begin to gring up itself.

A child should be given work to do to provide something for his mind to grind, but he should be given

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things rather than abstract symbols, real things from nature in their true habitat--in the meadows and woods and shorelines.

V. Living Creatures

Nature is a Field of Interest and Fun

Live animals are always interesting to children. Pets become beloved friends even to children who live too far from the country to see squirrels and wild rabbits. And usually one can find a pond nearby, even if it takes a car drive to get to, where children can catch tadpoles, carry them home and watch them change as their fins disappear, their tails get shorter and disappear, and the tadpole is suddenly a frog. Turning over any rock can reveal ants. Everyone knows how wise it is to consider the ways of ants. If you need more persuasion, read ant specialist Lord Avebury's account of a twelve-year-old ant. Bees are also interesting. One teacher was giving a lesson based on the poem that begins, 'How doth the busy little bee,' but the children weren't interested because none of them had ever seen a bee! A child who has never known a bee or birds or flowers is missing a lot, but

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children living in slums may be so unfamiliar with nature that they wouldn't know a wasp from a honey bee!

Children Should be Encouraged to Watch Nature

Children should be encouraged to quietly and patiently watch the bee, spider, ant, caterpillar or other wildlife that crosses their path. If this seems dull to them, they just need to watch more closely, because their alert eyes can catch the smallest ways of insects in ways that grown-ups can't without magnifiers. Ants can be watched at home by making [or buying] an ant farm. Take twelve ants from an ant-hill (not red ants, they may bite!), some eggs and a queen. The queen is easy to spot because she's bigger than the other ants. Take some dirt from the ant hill and put it into the ant farm with the ants. Leave a hole in a top corner plugged but accessible. The ants may be restless for a couple of days, but will then begin to resettle and start arranging the dirt. Once a week, remove the stopper

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and put 2 or 3 drops of honey on it. Every 3 weeks, add 10 drops of water. In the winter, the ants hibernate and won't need food or water. An ant farm can last for years.

If children are terrified of bugs, it's usually because they caught the fear of adults around them. Charles Kingsley's children ran after him carrying creatures such as 'a lovely toad' or 'sweet beetle' in their bare hands. Yet even Kingsley was horrified by spiders. A child who spends an hour watching a grub won't be scared of it. Everything he learns should be added to his nature notebook by him or, if he's too little to write, his mother. He can include where he saw it, what it was doing, its color, how many legs, etc. Someday he will hear its scientific name and it will seem like an old friend.

The Power of Impression in the Home

Some children are born naturalists, but even those who aren't were born with natural curiosity about the world should be encouraged to observe nature. Most children are influenced by the opinions of those around them and if their parents don't care about nature, or are disgusted by little creatures, they will pick up that attitude and all the wonders of nature will pass them by. The book The Natural History of

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Selborne would not exist if Gilbert White's father had not taken him on daily discovery walks in Selborne. John Audubon said that as soon as he began walking and talking, his father constantly pointed out objects in nature. His father would bring him birds and flowers and show him details such as the birds' elegant movement, or the softness of the feathers, or how they showed fear or pleasure, or their perfect form. He would talk about their seasonal migrations, where they lived and how they would change. It was this early influence that excited Audubon and inspired him to make birds his life's work and think about the God who created them

What Town Children Can Do

Children who live in town can watch sparrows by leaving them breadcrumbs. There are lots of fun things to be done with sparrows. A man in the garden of Tuileries tamed them to eat from his hands and come when he called a

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specific individual bird, even though most people couldn't tell them apart.

A child who can't tell the difference between a thrush, a swallow, a blackbird or a skylark is as sad as those children who had never seen a bee. A nice first acquaintance with a critter is to find a furry caterpillar shuffling along looking for a quiet place to rest. He can be put in a box covered with netting that can be seen through. He won't need food because he'll soon spin a cocoon, split his skin, and enter the cocoon, where he'll stay for months. At last, he will break out of the cocoon as a butterfly. Most six-year-olds have done this type of science project. It isn't just fun, it's more educational than a whole science book, or lessons in geography

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or Latin. It's no good when children get their knowledge of science from books. They get so used to reading about marvels of nature and never seeing it for themselves that nothing interests them. The way to cure this is to let them alone for awhile and then start something totally different. It's not the children's fault that nature bores them; they are naturally curious and eager to explore the world and everything in it. There's a poem that says that the person who can best appreciate God is the one who is familiar with the natural world He made.

Nature Knowledge is Most Important for Young Children

Adults should realize that the most valuable thing children can learn is what they discover themselves about the world they live in. Once they experience first-hand the wonder of nature, they will want to make nature observation a life-long habit. All people are supposed to be observers of nature and there's no excuse for living in a world so full of amazing plants and animals and not be interested in them.

Mental Training of a Child Naturalist

Besides appreciating the world, observing nature develops other mental powers--ability to focus, to tell things apart, to patiently seek answers. These things are useful in every facet of life. And, for the person who observes nature, life is so

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interesting that there's no time to develop mischievous characteristics that come from being bored. How can a person be irritable or sullen or stubborn when he's always preoccupied with nature?

Nature Observation Especially Valuable for Girls

Nature study is even more important for girls because girls are more apt to fall into ugly moods because they have so much time on their hands. Girls have less mental challenges and therefore need an absorbing passion to keep their minds on. Their weaker bodies need the strengthening of the great outdoors. Also, girls and women tend to be self-centered and spend all their time thinking about petty matters and worthless admirations, and nature study can lift their thoughts onto bigger things. It's good to get girls thinking of something outside of themselves since they're the ones who will be raising and teaching the next generation.

VI.--Field-Lore and Naturalists' Books

Reverence for Life

Should children study biology, botany and zoology by dissecting and taking things apart? Not usually; a child younger than 6 or 8 years old shouldn't be pulling flowers apart to study them at a time when they should be learning to revere and protect life rather than destroy it (mosquitoes and other pests excepted!) An awe for

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the precious gift of a life that can be destroyed by a cruel child, but can never be brought back, is an important lesson for children. A poem says that we should grow in knowledge, but it's more important to grow in reverence.

The child who sees his mother reverently and softly kiss a snowdrop flower is learning something that no book can teach him. When they are older, they will understand that all science is merely a study of God's creation and that sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of knowledge for the good of others. Then, all the things they have seen, and all the facts they have collected will form a great foundation for studying science. Until then, let them 'consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air.'

Rough Classification Should be Made First Hand

Children should know the correct name for parts of things, such as petals, sepals, etc, to help them describe what they see. They should be encouraged to group things together by leaf shape, or leaf vein pattern, or number of flower petals, or whether they keep their leaves all year, or animals that have a backbone, or animals that eat grass or eat meat, etc. Collecting and sorting plant specimens is fun and good practice

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in noticing similarities and differences in things. Any beginning book of botany should be helpful in classifying leaves and flowers.

The ability to group things together by type and find differences is one of the higher orders of intellect, and every opportunity to use it first-hand should be encouraged. Learning classifications from a book takes no mental power, except maybe rote memory. If the skill of rote memory is deemed necessary, then the child might just as well memorize some phrases in a foreign language to satisfy that requirement!

Naturalist Books

If children don't need to learn Latin names of things, then does that mean they don't need books about nature? No, but their nature books should be the kind that reveal the wonder of nature and inspire in children a wish to make their own nature discoveries. Some examples of these are books by Arabella Buckley, Thomas Seton and William J Long. Although some of them are written by highly educated scientists, they are fun to read and can be understood by laypeople.

Mothers and Teachers Should Know about Nature

A mother should read these kinds of books herself, not just to collect little bits of knowledge to pass on to her children as they come across things she's read about, but so that she can learn enough to answer their questions and help the children with their observations. Not only mothers, but anyone who spends

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time with children should learn about nature. Children will love a person who knows the things they want to find out about and such a person may influence a young mind to have a passion for nature that will be retained for life, and might even make a discovery that will benefit the whole world.

VII.--The Child Gets Knowledge By Means Of His Senses

Nature's Lessons

A child watching something totally new to him, such as a farm plow at work, is as intently focused as a nursing baby. In fact, he is taking in nourishment--the kind of mind food that his brain needs. A young child uses all of his senses to find out every facet of knowledge he can about everything new that comes his way. Everyone has seen how a baby, given a spoon to keep him quiet, will look at it, feel it, put it in his mouth, and finally bang it to see what kind of noise it will make. This is like school for him, and he learns at a surprisingly fast rate when you consider how much there is just in the act of seeing alone to a baby who still doesn't know the difference between a flat object and a round one. Everything is new to him and some concepts, such as flat and round, can only be learned by experience.

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At first, a tiny baby will grasp at the air until it makes contact with an object. That's how he learns where things are, since direction means nothing to him yet. And the moon looks close enough to grab. He has no idea that a horse or a housefly aren't toys--far and near are foreign concepts to him, and it takes trial and error to understand the relationship between what he sees and where things are. But he learns naturally at his own pace, never tiring, and slowly learning just what he needs to know about the world around him.

And this is exactly what a child should be doing for the first few years. He should be getting familiar with the real things in his own environment. Some day he will read about things he can't see; how will he conceive of them without the knowledge of common objects in his experience to relate them to? Some day he will reflect, contemplate, reason. What will he have to think about without a file of knowledge collected and stored in his memory? A child who has witnessed the sun high in the sky on a summer's day at noon, and how much lower it is at noon in the winter, will understand why a vertical sun makes the tropics hot, and how the latitude of the horizon effects climate.

Too Much Pressure

Many people worry about putting young children under pressure and stress with too many lessons. It is true that formal lessons may be too much for a very young child because

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that's not what his mind is ready to handle yet. It would be like expecting a toddler to bench press a hundred pounds. But his mind is alert and active and has no problem handling what Nature intended. Children never get tired of finding out, in their own way, about new things. This is just the kind of thing they hunger for because that's what their minds need to grow on.

Object Lessons

Young children crave knowledge about new things. But how do we satisfy their hunger? Preschools and kindergartens use object lessons, which are as meager as trying to feed a hungry horse on one bean a day. A child going about his daily routine at home comes across lots of new things, although with less formality than a school might schedule. Yet neither schools nor most homes make a point of exposing the child to the kind of feast his eyes crave.

A Child Learns from Real Things

Grown-ups are more mature and have been educated at school to get most knowledge from words--either conversation or reading. But when we try to make a child learn that way, he is slow to catch on because he doesn't have enough life experiences to attach real meanings to very many words. Most words are like the vocabulary of a foreign language, known only by hearsay. But put a real object in front of a child, and he knows more about than most grown-ups. His mind is made to absorb that kind of knowledge. As his experiences with real things grows, his knowledge of words grows because language is mankind's attempt to express what we know. This is why

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children ask endless questions. They aren't trying to learn about objects; they are trying to learn the words with which to express what they already know. How sad that any child, with such a drive to learn, should be confined within the walls of a house or humdrum streets of his neighborhood. Even a child allowed to run free in the country won't learn as much as he might if he just gets random observations with no plan or direction. All that potential is wasted.

The Sense of Beauty Comes From Early Contact with Nature

Children can learn an unlimited amount of things that they'll never forget before even beginning school. A child is ten times better off if he knows where to find the prettiest birch trees, or the four best ash trees in his neighborhood, than a boy who doesn't even know the difference between an elm and an oak. He is not only likely to be more successful, but happier, too, because the beauty of nature affects our feelings. Dr. Carpenter said that, when our minds have contact with nature, our sense of sublime beauty and order is touched. Dr. Morrell said that people who have learned to appreciate form and beauty credit exposure to beauty in their infancy, before they could even talk.

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Most Grown-ups Lose the Habit of Observation

Mary Ann Evans (pen name George Eliot) owes her father for letting her go on long business drives through the country with him. She would stand between his knees, quietly observing everything. She used her memories of those beautiful rural scenes when she wrote Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss. Wordsworth grew up on the mountains and wrote poems about nature. Tennyson used imagery from his childhood. Dickens, speaking philosophically in David Copperfield, said that he was a very observant child. Before children can even speak, they're able to form images from their surrounding. The ability to remember details comes naturally to children; a few retain that skill as adults and keep a sense of freshness and contentedness as well.

VIII.--The Child Should Be Made Familiar With Natural Objects

An Observant Child Should be Exposed to Things Worth Observing

What good is it to be observant if

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nobody bothers to make sure there are things around to observe? And here is the difference between town streets and the rich atmosphere of the country. Towns have lots of things to see, and children who live in town get street-smart, to be sure. But the kind of knowledge one gets of the streets are bits and pieces that don't relate to anything else in the wide world and are a dead end of information. Knowing one's way around town might be convenient, but a person isn't really larger-minded for knowing which side of the street Walmart is on, and how to get to the grocery store.

Every Object in Nature is a Member of a Set

But take any object from nature, and it relates to others like it, variations in a species or group. Whatever you learn about it can be applied to the science of all the others like it. If you break off a twig in the spring, you'll see a ring of wood around the pithy center, and you have witnessed right there one of the distinguishing characteristics of many plants. Or, pick up a pebble and note that it's smooth and rounded from being worn by the weather and water--and you have witnessed the concept of erosion, which is responsible for most beautiful landscapes--valleys, canyons, and hills. A child who spends time with nature doesn't need to have erosion or dicotyledonous [two-leafed plants] described to him; he sees it for himself. Difficult abstract ideas that he might not have come face to face with will be easily illustrated to him by their effects on very familiar objects.

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Power will Increasingly Pass into the Hands of Scientific Men

Mothers are obligated to make sure their children spend time with nature and to help them develop the love of investigation. Charles Kingsley said that those who understood science would rule the world because nature would have taught them their own true ignorance in light of the vastness of the universe. And familiarity with the laws of nature would be knowledge that would help them act wisely.

Intimacy with Nature Encourages Personal Well-being

But preparing them for a place in society is only one benefit of early nature study. A child who loves nature will have an interest that will enrich his life forever and keep him healthy. Kingsley also said that he knew of some uncontrollably wild and reckless people whose thirst for adventure was channeled into constructive pursuits such as hunting for wild birds' eggs. A girl can escape the vanity of silly, trivial luxury by keeping her mind occupied on collecting shells,

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fossils and flowers. Thus, her mind and soul are protected from worldliness by 'considering the lilies of the field, how they grow.'

IX.--Out-Of-Door Geography

Small Things May Illustrate Bigger Things

We detoured from our topic to impress on mothers how important it is to inspire a love of nature in their children. A passion for natural objects can be like a wellspring of refreshment to a dry heart. Meanwhile, what about that mother from a few chapters back, who has been outdoors with her children? What is she to do next? She mustn't neglect teaching topography in her attempt to get children outside, as one teacher did, who when asked how she had time to fit it all in, said, 'Oh, I leave out subjects of no educational value; I do not teach geography, for instance.'

Pictorial Geography

But a mother knows better. She will find lots of ways to sneak in geography lessons. A duck pond can illustrate a big lake. A small brook can be like the Nile River. A little hill can be the Swiss Alps. A copse of trees can be the Amazon rainforest. A reedy swamp might be the rice fields of China. A meadow could be like the western prairies. A field of purple flowers might be the cotton fields of the south. Every kind of geographical type can be illustrated casually this way. The concept of maps can be taught in later years.

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The Position of the Sun

Children should also learn to tell the time by the sun's position in the sky. They will undoubtedly ask if the sun ever gets tired, and then the mother can talk about the relative sizes of the sun and earth and about the orbits of bodies in the heavens.

Clouds, Rain, Snow, and Hail

Clouds, rain, snow, hail, wind and fog are all wonders of God that mothers will be asked to explain to their children in simple terms. If children are to understand any concepts of maps and geography at all, they will have to begin by learning about what's right in their own environment.

Distance is something that children must first learn at home, and it's fun for them to learn it. A child's pace [one step] can be measured and compared to the paces of his siblings. Then he can count how many steps it takes to walk to a certain point and multiply to get the distance--so many steps equals so many yards distance. Various walks around the home can be measured in this way. The time it takes to walk one hundred steps can be calculated and used as a reference to estimate other distances walked. If it takes two minutes for him to walk one hundred yards, he can calculate

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how far he's gone after walking for 30 minutes or 35 minutes, and he can figure out how long he has to walk to go one mile. The longer the legs of a person, the bigger their pace. That's why most grown-ups can walk a mile in just twenty minutes.