Mason believed that intimacy with nature makes for personal well-being (Vol. 1. pp. 54-72). Children should know the names of plants and where they grow. They should know the names of trees and the differences between them, their leaves, flowers and fruit (Vol. 1. pp. 51-52). They should learn from natural things in their own places, not from books and they should work outdoors, ‘but pray, let it not be a grind.’  A child can learn a great deal in this way without feeling under pressure. (Vol. 1. p. 55). Children should learn to classify plants, the similarities and differences between them (Vol. 1. p. 64) and in doing so their vocabulary increases. She regards classification as one of the highest qualities of the human intellect. Through such study, she said, a child learns concentration, discrimination and reverence for life. A child, she says, learns through the senses: taste, smell, touch and hearing. A Great sense of beauty comes from early experience of nature, an aesthetic sense of the sublime and the harmonious, without verbal instruction. . . . She says, ‘thinking comes with practice . . . a child must get in the way of thinking why he should think for himself . . . every walk should offer some knotty problems for the child to think about (Vol. 1. p. 153) and ‘Any teaching which does not leave a mental image—an idea—has missed its  mark. Ideas generate new ideas (Vol. 1. p. 173). Children should learn about commonly used tools. Geography outdoors nourishes the mind and furnishes the imagination, the mind with pictures, and becomes a charming occupation of the child’s day. Plans must be carefully used as children develop a sense of place (Vol. 1. p. 276).

Source: Charlotte Mason, History and Outdoor Education and Her Relevance Today (Hilary Cooper, 2023, Vol. 51. No. 2, University of Cumbria, Institute of Education, Carlisle, UK, p. 192)