Abstract Some our studies on the sense of animism proved that sense of animism,not thinking of animism,is one of the personality traits and belongs to not only children but also the aged throughout all life in Japan. Until now, the developmental studies show that the animism is immature thinking many children possess, and decreases with appearance of decentration. In this paper, the sense of animism was discussed that it was a immature personality trait as well as the thinking of animism which decreases with developing many abilities such as cognition,thinking,sociality and emotion. In comparison with comics and animation, it was suggested that the sense of animism was not necessarily immature, but one of the adjustment styles which everyone possesses from child to the old.

Abstract From 2011 to 2013, we compared “experience in nature” of girls from three public high schools in “F” prefecture. The frequency of activities in nature of high school girls in city with populations over one million was similar to the frequency of experiences of high school girls with a scale of 200,000. Parents' nurturing attitudes common to the high school girls who frequently experienced in nature were “to entertain children”. Their values of “perspectivetaking”, “ability to fantasy” and social skills were high. In high schools in urban areas, there was no significant difference in the frequency of the activities in nature regarding sociality. In small and medium-sized cities, the sociality of the group with the highest frequency of the activities in nature was extremely high and significantly different.

Abstract In a broad sense, the significance of plant cultivation activities in terms of the educational philosophy depicted in Froebelʼs Mother-Play and Nursery Songs may be interpreted as articulations of the importance of horticultural therapists. The songs appear to contemplate the value of contact with plants in reducing stress in children and in the formation of a holistic personality. Therefore, it is necessary to foster the acquisition of knowledge about plants and cultivation techniques in nursery teachers. Nursing capabilities should be developed in current nursery sites to build skills pertaining to the use of this horticultural knowledge to reduce stress among children in nursery care. Furthermore, the fostering of nursery teachers who are qualified horticultural therapists may also be significant for the realization of Froebelʼs educational philosophy, which forms the prototype of modern nursery care.