Many adults know very little about the world of nature. Many are not highly skilled in crafts. Anyone, however, can develop a curiosity about what he or she sees on walks and trips, a willingness to learn something about it, an enjoyment in talking about it, and a moderate ability to use nature's storehouse of materials and supplies in making simple craft projects.
The making in this book is only part of the adult-child process of learning together. It is a result rather than a reason. The finished product may be pretty, or useful, or amusing, or experimental, or just-for-fun. The most important result is not the object made, but the enjoyment of finding out and talking about the materials being used - together.
For example, turning pinecones into bird feeders, or Christmas wreaths, or a Thanksgiving turkey is only a part of the real project. If it is combined with the fun of finding, collecting and identifying those cones, seeing the blue sky through the pine tree, watching a squirrel on a branch, walking on the springy pine needles under the tree, smelling them, identifying the tree by the number of needles in each little "bundle" - these are what give the real meaning to the craft project.
-- Virginia W. Musselman, Learning About Nature Through Crafts
(Photo taken outside the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine in Ashville, Pennsylvania)
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