PREFACE. THIS book is intended as a primary text-book in Science and Reading. The motive in it is to introduce teacher and pupil to a mutual love for the woods and fields, to the study of animals and plants, to the observation of real things in life, and to the methods of a true naturalist. It should take teacher and pupil out of doors, into the open air, and to the heart of nature. it will doubtless lead to the acquisition of the power to read and to a taste for the quiet and elegant literature of a pastoral writer. Incidentally M. E. BURT, Editor. Thanks are extended to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for such extracts as they have permitted from their copyrighted editions of the Essays of John Burroughs. PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. WHEN the first edition of Little Nature Studies was presented to the public many of the best teachers in all parts of the United States were asked to criticise it that the revised edition might meet every demand of the schoolroom. The book was received with great enthusiasm especially by those teachers who are allowed to work in the light of their own intelligence, and those educators whose work is based on pedagogical principles. From schools where phonic drill was an item of greater interest came requests that more notice should be given to diacritical marking. Also that more of the simple lessons should be placed in the front of the book while the longer and harder lessons at the back, should be bound in another cover for the higher grade. These suggestions have been accepted. I have followed Webster's International Dictionary in the diacritical marking and have edited many new lessons from what I remember of conversations with the author rather than from his published works, that the lessons might be as simple as if they were made by a professional manufacturer of first reader sentences. M. E. BURT, Editor. |