MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION MANUAL of NATURAL EDUCATION By WINIFRED SACKVILLE STONER AUTHOR OF NATURAL EDUCATION With Diagrams and Illustrations INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1916 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH fc CO. BOOK MANUFACTURERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. WITH A HEART FULL OP LOVE I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO FATHERS, MOTHERS, TEACHERS AND OUR FUTURE CITIZENS THE CHILDREN 355245 This book has been written to be used in connection with Natural Education, telling the story of how I educated my child, and Facts in Jingles, giving educational and humorous jingles. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I WHAT Is NATURAL EDUCATION 1 The Principles of Natural Education Ob- jects of Natural Education Real Education, Not Merely for Diplomas and Degrees No One Can Be Thoroughly Educated EDUCA- TION Must Continue Through Life Getting a Diploma Is Not Education Too Many OLOGIES and ISMS What Should Be Learned in College Why Education Is Dis- likedThe First Public Schools Seven Step- ping Stones to Success Heredity and Envi- ronmentMothers' Duties When to Educate a Child What We Are Statistics Concern- ing First-Borns Aim to Help the "Bright Child" To Help Schools and Teachers-^ Children Not Made Democratic by Public Schools Mental Development With Physical Cruelty to Babies Lack of Observation Nature Abhors a Vacuum Brain Doubles in Children Between the Ages of Two and a Half and Three Years Naughtiness but Mis- directed Energy Mothers Cause of War Monument for Constructive Genius Thomas A. Edison Over-development of Mind Ef- fects of the Rod and Constant Preaching Moderation in All Things Well-balanced Par- ents and Happy Children Normal Children Blessed With Talents Great Men Showed Tendencies in Youth No Mind Injured if Child Be Interested Must a Genius Be Queer Jack of All Trades-^-Master of One Fear Cause of Half Earth's Woes Doing Away With Examinations Three Substitutes Op- posed to Diagraming Schools for Parents Children Should Rest in Adolescent Period CONTENTS Continued CHAPTER PAGE Winifred Now in Chrysalis Time of Life Long Vacations Education, Nourishing Fluid of Existence Children Take Pleasure in Ac- complishment Doctor Philander Claxton's Opinion Games to Educate Music Is Moral Law Expression Instead of Repression The Child's Age Doctor 0' Shea's Opinion Phil- ips Brooks' Opinion Daniel Webster's Opin- ion David Starr Jordan's Opinion Fairy In- terest in Schoolroom Follow Ruskin's Advice The Big Aim of NATURAL EDUCATION. II THE NATURAL EDUCATION BOOK SHELF ... 32 The Book of Knowledge Natural Education and other books in the Childhood and Youth Series The New Standard Dictionary Peter Rabbit O'Shea, Old World Wonders and Nursery Classics The Jatakas Tales of India MD'Shea-Kellogg Health Series Bulfinch's Age of Fable Asgard Tales Patrino An- serino (or Mother Goose in Esperanto} Historical Mother Goose Hornbrook's Book on Mathematics Facts in Jingles Play Songs (Bentley) Chansons' Poesies et Jeux Jason's Quest Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children Questions Asked by Children Which Are Answered in Some of the Books Listed Good Books for ,Parents to Read so as to Give Health and Strength to Their Children Good Books to Develop the Imagi- nationUseful Tools in Learning Esperanto. Ill How TO USE NATURAL EDUCATIONAL TOOLS . . 39 Natural Educational Tools for the Mothers' Use in First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year Fifth Year Sixth Year Not All Tools Necessary But All Useful Ball the Best Toy Learn to Scan With a Ball Bounc- ing Ball Useful in Teaching Counting The Balloon, Baby's First Toy Give Babies Love CONTENTS Continued CHAPTER PAGE and Amusement Amuse With Prism or Mir- rorBells of Different Tones and Sleigh-Bells No Children Naturally Tone Deaf Use of a Silver Dollar Celluloid Doll Sand Box Al- phabet and Number Blocks Top Noah's Ark Bradley's Villages Paper Toys Use of Scissors No Apparatus Necessary to Teach Buttoning The Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk Colored Pictures Box of Small Arti- cles Wotsat Games Invented by Adelia Hornbrook to Use With Small Objects- Making Designs With Objects The Sayre Method of Drawing Pets My Wonderful Canary Okikusan An Aquarium Stereo- scope The Victrola or Sonora Child Furni- ture Unsympathetic Parents Keeping the Playroom in Order Plasticine A Natural Educational Tree A Drum Beads Lotto- Parcheesi Dice Dominoes Maps Dissected Maps What Billy Walsh Does With the United States Map Marbles Jackstraws Magnet Perry Prints Abacus Magnify ing- Glass Tape Line, Ruler, Yard Stick Gold and Silver Stars Xylophone Kodak Scrap Book Keeping a Diary Gymnasium in the Home Rocking Horse Paper Dolls, Cellu- loid and Rag Dolls Stuffed Animals Toy Stores, Banks, etc. Household Toys Tea Sets Curios Coins Centaphrase and Span- ish Games Language Phone Records The Candoit Toys Louise Brigham's Box Furni- ture The Cincinnati Educational Card Games The Typewriter, Best Tool of All. IV TRAINING THE PHYSICAL PART OF THE CHILD'S TRINITY 81 Most Important to Have a Healthy Body ; Prenatal Influences Preparation of Nursery Exercise With a Stick Sense Training First CONTENTS Continued CHAPTER PAGE Lessons in Ball Playing Nurse Baby if Pos- sible Mother First Teacher and Nurse Train Mind in Cradle Training Baby to Take Care of Body Parents Patterns for Children. V CHARACTER BUILDING 86 The Power of "Character" What Doctor John W. Carr Says My Ten Commandments Never Give Corporal Punishment Never Scold Never Say "Don't" Never say "Must" ^Never Allow a Child to Say "I Can't" Never Refuse to Answer a Child's Questions Never Frighten a Child Never Ridicule or Tease a Child Never Allow a Child to Lose Self-Respect or Respect for his Parents Never Banish Fairies from Home, the Most Attractive Spot on Earth Character Develop- ment Chart. VI REQUIREMENTS FOR NATURAL EDUCATIONAL SCHOOLS 95 The Great Aim to Prepare for PARENT- HOOD Schools Like Homes Good Pictures Curio Cabinet Dynamic Instead of Static Schoolroom Following Japanese Customs Books on Window Seats Interest in Plants Live Things Use of Victrola or Sonora Candoit Toys Fairy Typewriter Seeking Knowledge Teaching Abhorrence of War Peace Tongue or Esperanto Individual Train- ing Rewards and Punishments Developing the Imagination Above Everything Teaching Children to Draw No Examinations General Information Books Moving Pictures No Patent on Natural Educational Tools. VII TEACHING THE CHILD TO READ, SPELL, PUNCTU- ATE AND RHYME 106 Teaching Children the Letters of the Alphabet Using Red Glazed Letters on a White Back- CONTENTS Continued CHAPTER PAGE ground 'Word Families The "At" Family Buzzing Bee Spelling Game Anagrams Use of Typewriter Two-Year-Old Children Writ- ing on Typewriter Typewriter a Substitute for Grammar and Spelling Book The Word "CAT" a Good Beginning Singing With the Typewriter as a Musical Instrument Punctua- tion Taught on Typewriter Reading With Expression Mark Unfamiliar Words Direct the Child's Reading Too Much Reading-^Lit- erary Goodies Book Keeping Personal Note- Books and Dairies Teaching Children to Make Rhymes Rhyming Games List of Rhyming Words Rhymes Made at the New York Scudder School of Natural Education. VIII GAINING A PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE OF MATHE- MATICS THROUGH GAMES 119 Mathematics Often a Tear-Bringing Science- Not Necessary to Work Many Problems-^ Teaching All Branches of This Science at One Time Making Geometrical Designs First Les- sons in Counting My Debt to Adelia Horn- brook The Happy Learning of Mathematics Teaching Prime and Composite Numbers? The Game of Witch Charts to Teach Num- bersCharts to Teach Fractions and Decimals s Teaching Odd and Even Numbers Game to Learn Odd and Even Numbers Teaching Foreign Currency To Learn the Value of Money Using Real Coins Lack of Financial Training Children Taught Use of Money a Teaching Roman Numbers Lotto Dice-^ Game With Throwing Large Dice Abacus- Mathematics in Daily Occupations Music in Mathematics r Games With Toothpicks and Jackstraws Designs Showing the Hexagon- Designs Showing the Pentagon < Making Cathedral Windows. CONTENTS Continued CHAPTER PAGE IX TEACHING NATURAL HISTORY AND BOTANY . . 139 Natural History Made a Delight Writing Stories About Animals Children Love Ani- mals Hugh Worthington a Naturalist at Four Years A Dog the Child's Truest Friend- Taught to Care for Birds Botany Fascinating to Little Children Jingles Helpful Story of the Magnolia. X TEACHING CORRECT SPEECH . 145 Herbert Spencer's Opinion of How to Speak Good English Judged by the Language We Use Rules and Diagrams Do Not Teach Cor- rect Speaking Use of a Typewriter to Teach English Tongue Slip Chart Game of the Wise and Foolish The Language House. XI TEACHING HISTORY AND LITERATURE .... 151 History Made a Delight Paper Dolls Help- Reading for a Purpose Card Games Plu- tarch's Lives English History Teaching Facts in History Through Jingles Teaching Children of the Lives and Works of Great People. XII TEACHING GEOGRAPHY 159 First Lessons in Sand Teaching About Hol- land Dissected Maps Games With Maps: Other Games Esperanto Jingles Scrap Books Walks Writing Descriptions of What Has Been Seen Teaching About India Learning Mathematical Truths Through Mt Everest A Lesson About Climates Lesson Dealing With Zoology Moral Lessons Learning About the Principal Cities of India Story of Taj Mahal Stories About Indigo, Cotton, Tobacco, Tea, Rubies, Copper, Tin, Lead, Mahogany, Teakwood, Bamboo, Ebony, Sandalwood, Zebu, Mangoes, Sugar, Silk, Rice, Ganges, Durbar Spelling INDIA Story of Little Black Quibba. CONTENTS Continued CHAPTER PAGE XIII TEACHING Music 174 No Appreciation of Tone Beauty Mistake to Force Children to Practise Use "Pieces" In- stead of Exercises Victrola and Sonora Teach About Piano Mothers Playing for Children Cat in the Corner No One Method Through the Ear Expression in Harmonies The Mothers' MagazineHow Music Helps Doctor Hirshberg First Hear Sounds- Winifred's Teacher Matilda Orr Hays Let Nature Help Lives of Masters in Jingles. XIV IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF LATIN .... 184 Latin the Basis for Language Study Relation of Latin to Practical Life Frances Ellis Sabin and Laura B. Woodruff on Practical Latin Putting Children to Sleep With Vergil's 2Eneid Teaching Latin Phrases Expres- sions in Latin to Be Learned in Childhood Days Teaching the Child to Form Simple Latin Sentences Playing Dinner Party Play- ing Zoo Teaching Scanning With a Ball Declensions in Rhythmic Exercises Teaching Etymology and Philology The Nutting Primer Excellent Tools for the Study of Latin. XV TEACHING ESPERANTO 195 Goethe's Opinion of People Who Know No Foreign Tongues Language Taught by Natu- ral Method Esperanto in Cradle Two-thirds of Our Lives Required to Learn Languages Need of an International Tongue Peter the Great Saw Need of Esperanto Volapiik, the Nightmare Tongue Wars Caused by Lingual Misunderstanding Praise of Esperanto No Difference in Accent Simple Verbs Like Spanish Jingle to Teach Esperanto Simple rules to Remember in Teaching Esperanto A Help in Teaching Latin What Doctor D. O. CONTENTS-Continued CHAPTER PAGE S. Lowell Thinks of Esperanto as a Language Builder. XVI TEACHING APPRECIATION OF ART 204 How Art Is Introduced Into North Carolina Schools by Doctor John J. Blair Perry Print Scrap Books Tracing Making Designs The Sayre Method a Great Help Visiting Art Mu- seumsThe Mirrorscope Game of What Is It Pencils Not for Scribbling Designs With Sticks Drawing in Sand The Chautauqua Desk a Help Drawing Encourages Expres- sion Kate Douglas Wiggin on Purpose of Drawing. XVII DEVELOPING THE IMAGINATION AND A SENSE OF HUMOR 211 Imagination Above Everything Imagination and Cold Facts Imagination Transfigures Arousing Imagination Smiles Go Miles De- veloping a Sense of Humor A Real Grouch Bug Doctor John Brashear as a Scientist and Humorist Laughter Contagious Nonsense Rhymes Smiles Bring Big Returns The motto of Natural Education, SMILE. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION CHAPTER I WHAT IS NATURAL EDUCATION The Principles of Natural Education Arc 1. Education from the cradle to the grave. 2. Training for parenthood. 3. Development of the child's mental-physical- spiritual trinity in the cradle. 4. Development of every normal child's talent by the parent. 5. Children taught how to play to a purpose. 6. Development of the five senses to serve as body protectors. 7. Children encouraged to use nature's informa- tion seeker the question. 8. Parents encouraged to answer children's ques- tions. 9. Developing the imaginative or creative faculty above everything. 10. Using MOTHER NATURE as the first teacher. 1 2 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 11. Encouraging expression instead of repression. 12. Encouraging children to teach what they have been taught. 13. Training each child as an individual and not in a class. 14. Giving children constructive instead of de- structive toys and teaching them to admire the giver of life rather than the taker. 15. Filling the child's mind with beautiful thoughts in the memory period (five to twelve) so that when the age of reason begins at twelve years he will have something upon which to reason. 16. Teaching all languages by the natural method before the twelfth year. 17. Developing the rhythmic instinct through EURHYTHMICS. 18. Teaching music through training of the ear before the eye. 19. Teaching important facts through jingles. 20. Giving practical knowledge to make efficient citizens. 21. Doing away with examinations through using the BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. 22. Giving teachers higher salaries, shorter hours and fewer pupils. 23. Encouraging the nurturing instinct in the young through making gardens and taking care of younger children. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 3 24. Using ESPERANTO to teach the roots of modern languages and to provide each child with an international medium of communi- cation. 25. Teaching how to read, spell, punctuate, speak good English and memorize via TYPE- WRITER. 26. Keeping the fairies, LOVE, SYMPATHY, GOOD CHEER, in the home and school. 27. Banishing the demons, HURRY, WORRY, FEAR. 28. Obliterating "I CAN'T'* from vocabularies and using "I'LL TRY." 29. Having high ideals. 30. Laying the five foundation stones of educa- tion, OBSERVATION, INTENSE IN- TEREST, CONCENTRATION, IMITA- TION, EXPLORATION, and seeking to become educated in the highest sense through learning SELF-CONTROL and the JOY OF SERVICE. The Objects of Natural Education Are: To found Parent-Teacher Natural Education Circles so as to bring fathers, mothers, teachers and children together in an atmosphere of love and sympathy, where fathers as well as mothers and teachers will have an opportunity to express their opinions con- cerning child training; and where the children will help teachers show parents how to give instruction. [ANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION To establish schools for parenthood training in every university and to give instruction concerning mental-physical-moral training of children in public schools and social centers. To make the acquisition of an education a joy through play to a purpose. To teach self-control and the joy of service. To make efficient citizens through practical edu- cation. To make love and interest rulers of home and school. Some people believe that education consists in going for a certain number of years to schools and colleges, thereby winning diplomas and degrees. I have no more faith in "sheepskins" as evidence of education than the young theologian named Fiddle .who refused to accept a degree, for, said he, " Tis enough to be Fiddle without being Fiddle, D. D." Recently one of the so-called educated men who was a college graduate and could speak a number of languages was arrested in Boston as a vagrant. He complained bitterly against his Alma Mater's lack of preparing students for practical work and said : "After I have become thoroughly educated I can not earn as good a living as an uneducated cobbler." Can any one become thoroughly educated ? Does making our minds the storehouse of other people's lumber educate us ? MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 5 Education Must Continue Through Life. Education began when the first man took his first deep breath and performed a conscious act in wrig- gling his fingers. Education will continue as long as there is life. "We can not," as Carlyle said, "stand still. We must either progress or retro- grade." This is not a finished world. It is but a place which we can improve as we improve our- selves. Getting a Diploma Is Not Education. Gain- ing a diploma does not prove that our education is finished, but rather that we have been shown the proper pathways leading to knowledge so that we may explore for ourselves. Too Many Ologies and Isms. I am not criti- cizing schools and colleges, but I believe with Doc- tor O'Shea that only about three per cent, of col- lege students get the full benefits for which colleges were created. I believe also that we spend too much time in studying "OLOGIES" and "ISMS" when we should be gaining practical knowledge to help make us efficient citizens ; and above all should be learning the art of what Doctor Stanley Hall calls "Good parenthood, supreme end of man." What Should Be Learned in College. Quot- ing again from America's most popular educator, Doctor O'Shea, I believe that college students should learn how to become good parents through courses relating to the nature and training of chil- jiren, the values of food and methods of making it 6 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION suitable for and acceptable to persons of different physical needs; the arrangement, decoration and sanitation of a house; and the financial, social and economic conditions of life, in addition to knowing something about history, the arts, sciences and an- cient and modern languages. At the present day there is much talk concerning the lack of efficiency among our men and women. There are greater educational facilities than the world has ever known and yet fewer great men and women. So-called education is despised by children and few of the rising generation delight in going to educational institutions. Why Education Is Disliked. Why should a good thing like education be so generally disliked among the young? Because we are killing the imagination and striv- ing to educate the world as masses instead of indi- viduals. Parents are neglecting to perform their duties to little ones by giving children their first mental-physical-moral training long before the school age begins. They wait until a child reaches the age of six years and then hand him over to the state for character training as well as instruction in arithmetic, reading and writing. The First Public Schools. China had the first public schools in the whole world, but she did not advance as an enlightened nation because all instruc- tion in the schools was given after the age of six years and to boys only. The mothers could not MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 7 Of A SQUARE VJo OF A SQUARE *Ao OF A SQUARE Made by Winifred to teach her pupils geometrical figures and fractions train these boys in the cradle because they them- selves had received no training. The best part of the child's life was thus lost, since character must be formed while the mind is like wax in babyhood. 8 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Seven Stepping Stones to Success. There are seven stepping stones to building a child into a tower of success. These are heredity, environment, health, character, equipment, ambition and reward. All of these stones may be laid for little ones by parents in comfortable circumstances if these par- ents prepare for parenthood in their early youth and provide proper environment during their children's babyhood days. Heredity and Environment. Luther Burbank believes that only through selection of the best in- dividuals through a 'long series of generations can any race of plants, animals or men be permanently improved. I believe with Mr. Burbank in the power of heredity, but this great building stone must be supported by another just as important that of environment. The two work together like two blades of a pair of shears. One is helpless with- out the other. We can take the most beautiful and most perfect plant and put it in non-productive soil where it will lose all its beauty. The little country of Greece produced more great men during one century than all other countries 01 the world because her mothers believed in prenatal influence and the power of environment. Doctor Kellogg says that the world is in crying need of a new aristocracy of Apollos and Venuses; whereas, instead, we are building up a nation of "lunatics, idiots, paupers and criminals which cost the government over one hundred million dollars a MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 9 year, and who are repeopling the earth with their kind and even helping to make the laws of our land." Mothers' Duties. We mothers must awake to our responsibilities. We must fight with sane men who are striving to make laws so that abnormal be- ings can not become parents. We must strive to shield our boys from the world even as we have shielded our girls so that both may come to the altar with clean wholesome bodies. We must fight the * 'black plague" even as we fight tuberculosis in the open. We must not laugh at men's wild oats, but rather shudder at them and protect our daugh- ters from marrying men "who have gone the pace." When to Educate a Child. Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the time to educate a child was three hundred years before his birth. Not all of us can count our education from that date, but if we are to have a better race of men and women our schools and colleges must begin now to-day to give coufses in parenthood whereby young men and young women will be taught how to care for their bodies and minds so that they may become healthy parents and know how to care for the children who bless their union. What We Are. We are what we eat and drink ; Also what we breathe and think. And, oh, how much is involved in this training 10 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION which must be done by parents while their children are in the cradle. Statistics Concerning First-borns. Statistics concerning the mortality and mental inferiority of first-born children are appalling. In Africa it is almost invariably the rule that the first-born child dies. In America one out of every nine first-borns is claimed by death. Why should the first baby born of parents in the first years of marriage, when life is said to be like "one grand sweet song," be inferior to its broth- ers and sisters? Because young parents must use the first baby as an experiment. If he survives, they know something about caring for infants and do better with "Number Two." Surely through proper education we can help young parents to know how to care for the first- born children even as well as the second- or third^ born. Aim to Help the "Bright Child." Another ob- ject of natural education is to help the so-called "bright child." Our public schools are organized to help the ordinary kiddies. There are plenty of sys- tems to help defectives, but nothing is being done to help the supernormal child climb to heights of fame. That is why we have so few great literary lights to make our age shine with the Elizabethan and Victorian eras. It is not because fewer intel- lectual giants are born, but because our "en masse" MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 11 ideas of education are killing originality and the spark of real genius or imagination. In many of our public schools all three classes of children must travel together. They may be com- pared to a worn-out old plug horse, an ordinary roadster and a high-stepping race-horse. The race- horse can not win because he is held back by the inferior steeds. To Help Schools and Teachers. I am not talking against schools or school-teachers. They are doing glorious work in the world. Any kind of school is better than none. But if we could have schools with not over ten pupils in a room, could pay our teachers respectable salaries and give them shorter hours so that they would have time to enjoy life and to improve their own minds, oh, what a glorious race of citizens Uncle Sam would have in the next generation ! They would be "really-truly" efficient men and women. They would be prepared to live on life's highest plane, and would continue to seek knowledge because they loved it, and not be- cause they were forced to go to its founts. George Ade has aptly said, "You can lead a boy to college, but you can't make him think." In order to bring about the happy day when school bells will not be rung, but children will run to seats of learning even as they now go to moving pictures, parents who can afford to teach their chil- dren at home should give this training beneath the home tree and thus relieve the congestion of the 12 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION schoolroom and give poor people's children a chance for more air space and individual training. Children Not Made Democratic by Public Schools. It is all nonsense to say that it makes children democratic to go to a public school. I have visited many public schools and watched the chil- dren at play. The ragged urchin has no more chance of social equality with the well-dressed boy or girl in school than he has in the home of children whose parents are in affluent circumstances. Some of the most democratic children of my acquaintance have never been inside of a public school. Some of the worst bits of childish "snobbery" I have encoun- tered are public-school children of well-to-do par- ents. If we train our children in infancy that "po- liteness is to do and say the kindest thing in the kindest way"; if we encourage them to be little knights and ladies, smiling upon all who cross their pathway, they will always be democratic, e'en though they may never sit in the next seat to an unfortunate lad afflicted with pediculosis. In my opinion it is somewhat dangerous to risk the health of our children, who must come in contact with dis- eased children, in order to give them a so-called democratic spirit. Mental Development with Physical. I be- lieve also that we have been making a big mistake in the past century through developing only the phys- ical side of our children in the cradle and waiting to develop the mental and moral after the child attains MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 13 a certain physical growth. In this respect we are in- ferior to the Indian mother who hangs her baby in the tree where he can hear the birds and see beauties of nature around him. Cruelty to Babies. According to the ordinary- physician's advice we put our children in dark rooms and let them sleep away the early days of their exist- ence so that they may have "strong nerves." We let them cry "for good healthy exercise and lung development." We refrain from kissing and loving our hearts' treasures "for fear of spreading germs." And thus we are producing a race of young sav- ages. Lack of Observation. I believe with Ruskin that for one thousand people who think, only one observes, simply because of the lack of sense train- ing in the cradle. Train your child to go through this world with seeing eyes and hearing ears. Nature Abhors a Vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum, and if you do not put something into the mind that is good and beautiful it will be filled with thoughts which you may not like, and as you know, early impressions are lasting. "As the twig is bent the tree's inclined." A child is a mass of impressions from millions of ancestors, and as Maud Perry Mills says: "He is a phonographic record waiting for his parents to put on the needle." There is nothing idle in all of nature's realms. Why then should we force our children in infancy MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION to be idle ? When the baby cries, he is hungry, un- comfortable, or wants to be amused. It is all non- sense about helping the growth of his lungs through tears and screams. He can get better growth through laughter. If parents smile at babies and show them how to laugh they will early learn this joy-giving, health-bringing art. The mother should give her child the cheer-heritage before birth and despite fears and heartaches she should continue to smile at her little one in the cradle. She should begin early to give him visual memory and to train all his senses which nature gave to protect him. She should show him (through example) self-control and joy of service in doing something for others. But when parents neglect to train their children's minds and spirits, providing only for the physical demands of these children, they make of them lop- sided beings who when they go to school do one of three things play hookey, get nervous prostration, or give it to the teacher. Why do children seek for information long be- fore the prescribed school age if nature intended that their bodies should attain a certain growth while their minds should lie dormant? When the child is from two and a half to three years old the brain doubles itself, and at this time the little one is so full of nervous energy that he is considered un enfant terrible unless he has something to do which he considers worth while. And yet the fam- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 15 ily physician prescribes No books, no administra- tion of useful knowledge, but rather plenty of der- mal stimuli a la Solomon. I agree with the little boy who said that no wonder Solomon believed in whipping children, because with his seven hundred scolding wives and three hundred fierce porcupines his life was such misery that he had to pick on some one. Surely in this enlightened age we can banish the rod as a relic of barbarism and introduce the fairies, Love and Interest, as the disciplinarians of our homes. Naughtiness Misdirected Energy. Naughti- ness is but misdirected energy. There is an old saying that bad boys make good sailors. In other words, boys full of life succeed when their energies are properly directed into channels where construc- tion can be wrought instead of destruction. This leads to another object of natural education that of teaching construction instead of destruc- tion in the nursery. Mothers Cause of War. At present we moth- ers stand in horror of battles and blame men for be- ing bloodthirsty when we are to blame for having made them lovers of war instead of peace. We give our babies toy swords and pistols when they are mere toddlers. We show them monuments erected to the soldier taker of life rather than to the con- structive genius giver of life. We send our little ones to school where they learn history from books s 16 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION filled with descriptions of battles and where they read from books full of poetry and prose describing scenes of carnage. Monument for Constructive Genius. We work and struggle to raise money for useless monu- ments to past warriors and do nothing for the con- structive geniuses of to-day in their struggle to help humanity. We give crowns of glory to the taker of a thousand lives and present a pewter but- ton to a great genius who saves the lives of hun- dreds and thousands. How, then, can we expect our sons to hate war ? It is my prayer that natural educational parents will help me raise a useful fountain or other help- ful monument to Thomas A. Edison, who has done so much for humanity, and thus give to our children an example of honor to construction instead of de- struction. Over-development of Mind. Returning to our subject of the child's trinity there are some parents so ambitious to see their children in the so- called "bright and cute class" that they work over- time to develop the mind and pay little attention to physical development. A child so trained is likely to become a replica of the old-time literary genius with round shoulders, begoggled eyes, hollow cheeks, pale bloodless face A REAL BOOK- WORM who lives on books, devours others' learn- ing but produces nothing for his fellow men. It is ridiculous to believe that a great man must look MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 17 sickly. Good blood makes healthy gray matter, as was shown in the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Julia Ward Howe and many other great producers who have enriched our world. Effects of the Rod and Constant Preaching. Again, those parents who strive above everything to make angels of their children by means of the barbarous rod and constant preaching of so-called religious teachings very often succeed in sending the poor kiddies to Heaven, or they drive them away from home and sometimes send them to the very place from which they are striving to keep them. Sometimes children of over-religious par- ents or fanatics end their days in insane asylums. In fact a large per cent, of the present inmates of these "hell-on-earth-institutions" are religious fa- natics. Nature intended MODERATION IN ALL THINGS. Well-balanced parents realize that every part of the child's trinity must be developed so that he may become a useful, happy being who will outradium radium in his electronic radiations of happiness through life. Normal Children Blessed with TalentIn addition to being born a trinity, I believe that every normal child is blessed with some talent and it de- pends upon the parents to discover this talent before the child reaches his sixth year. Often when I make the statement that children are born with talents, people ask: "If so many people are born 18 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION with talents why then do we not have more talented men and women?" Simply because these talents are not developed in babyhood days and they are choked by weeds of neglect. Sometimes the talent is so powerful that it refuses to be choked and grows into a joy-giving blossom, but if the parents discover the beautiful talent-bud and nurture it until it has strength to put forth its own shoots, it will grow into one of the marvel-plants of the world. Great Men Showed Tendencies in Youth. In my book, Natural Education, I cite many examples of great men who have shown their tendencies to greatness in early youth. Some people are always quoting exceptions. They argue that Goldsmith was a very stupid boy and had to be fed on ginger cakes in order to persuade him to do his sums. A RECTANGLE A rhombus !s a quadrilateral which has no right angles A rectangle is a parallelogram which has four right angles A pentagon is a five-sided figure A hexagon is a six-sided figure MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 19 An octagon is an eight-sided figure A decagon is a ten-aided figure A trapezoid is a quadrilateral with two sides parallel. A circle is a plane figure whose perimeter is a curved line, every point of which is equally distant from a point within called the center. The diameter is a straight line passing through the center and having both ends in the circumference. very clever book on this subject has been written recently showing the so-called "shorts" or those men who have become great but who did not care for certain studies in their youth. If Goldsmith had liked his teacher and had been asked to write a story instead of doing a sum, I am sure he would have outshone his fellow students, even without the gin- ger cake reward. Some children have been called stupid in school because they did not keep up with their classmates in arithmetic. In my humble opinion, we are wast- 20 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION ing many precious hours working over sums which can be done by machinery, when the little ones should be in the open, learning about live things of nature. In truth I do not blame clever children for detesting sums as taught in the ordinary, uninter- esting way of imparting instruction concerning the science of quantity. No Mind Injured if Child Be Interested. One of the drawbacks to early training of children has been the constant fear of parents that the child's mind was being overtaxed and he would find an early grave. No mind was ever injured when the child was interested. It is only when we force a child to study that he is injured, but it is true that many precocious children have died in childhood. Why? Because their special talent was developed to the nth power and their bodies were neglected. Most of these children have been of the tempera- mental, not intellectual, variety of genius. As mu- sicians or artists they have been dragged around the country and made to submit to irregularities enough to kill grown people, let alone children. Must a Genius Be Queer? It is unfortunate also that many great people have been over- and under-developed and this has led to the belief that there is a narrow line between the genius and the fool. A writer in a recent New York medical jour- nal says that nowadays no one dares aspire to lit- erary distinction without incurring the likelihood of psychological dissection by alienists. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 21 To believe that the real genius must have "wheels" is ridiculous, but there is truth in what psychologists say concerning the development of any one talent to its highest power, thus causing the owner to suffer more pain than joy from said talent, which makes him a dweller upon the housetop as an authority on one subject while he is in the dark on others. A human being can best be compared to a tree. When all of the branches are evenly developed it is a thing of beauty, but if one branch be de- veloped into a huge limb and the others remain dwarfed twigs the tree is but a deformity. Jacks of All Trades Master of One. I beg of you good parents, teach your children to be jacks of all trades and masters of one. I am striving to develop not so-called geniuses but a healthy, happy, well-rounded group of boys and girls who will be- come glorious specimens of manhood and woman- hood and who will be well equipped to give joy of service from more angles than one. As a born fighter ( for all people of real spirit are fighters) I am not fighting my fellow men, but I am fighting evil, filth, unhappiness, hurry, worry and fear. Fear Cause of Half Earth's Woes. Fear is the cause of half our complaints. Fear before the birth of a child injures the mother's health and also the child. Fear in school drives happiness from what should be a most interesting path to knowl- edge realms. And one reason for fear is that 12 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATIO] inquisitional torture which is called "EXAMINA- TION." Every year children commit suicide be- cause of fear owing to approaching examinations. In Germany, where examinations are very strict, the number of suicides is appalling. Recently, in speaking before a large convention of woman's clubs in Chicago, Doctor Sadler endorsed the belief which I have advanced for years, that half of chil- dren's nervous troubles are caused by fear of these so-called tests, and he declared that many college girls were nervous wrecks after the midwinter "exams." Doing Away with Examinations. Ben Frank- lin wisely said that we are all bound by chains of custom. Because our ancestors had examina- tions we must continue to have them although w r e know that they are no test of what any child knows. "But," you say, "please do not take away our old-time institutions and give us nothing in their place." As substitutes for examinations I am using three good tools a typewriter, a dictionary and a children's encyclopedia, The Book of Knowl- edge. Children are taught to seek for information in the dictionary and the young people's encyclopedia and to write the information gained on' the type- writer and put it in their General Information Books. Seeking for information and using the typewriter to impress these facts upon the child's mind makes such an impression that it is not MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 23 necessary to give weekly examinations to see how much knowledge has lodged in the gray cells and how much has evaporated. Opposed to Diagraming. I am opposed also to the usual method of teaching children grammar. No child learns to speak good English through dia- graming. We must have schools for parents and teach fathers and mothers to speak English if we hope .to have children become good grammarians. There are one hundred and sixty-eight hours in the week and the teachers have the children not over twenty-five hours. The mother and the streets have them the rest of the time. If teachers tell Johnnie to say "I saw a cat" and his parents say "I seen a cat," naturally Johnnie (despite the singing of many rules and the ability to diagram) will continue say- ing "I seen a cat." Schools for Parents. We must have schools to help teach the parents, and the easiest way to impress certain rules upon any one's mind is through writing upon a typewriter. If mother writes slowly on a typewriter, "I saw a cat," let us say ten times, she will not be liable to make the mistake again, and she will help Johnnie to keep from making it. But if she learns to memorize a number of rules and tries to diagram she will still continue to use her habit-bound "I seen." The same fairy typewriter is undoubtedly the easiest and most interesting helper in teaching read- ing, spelling, punctuation and memorizing. 24 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Seme people have accused me of wanting to stuff children in their babyhood days. I am not a be- liever in any stuffing process, but I am convinced that Professor James was correct in believing that the best time in life to memorize is before the twelfth year, when the so-called reasoning period begins. Before this period it is very easy for chil- dren to memorize. Why not fill their minds with beautiful thoughts at a time when they make these thoughts their own with no great effort? Then when they come to the evening of life they will remember the beautiful thoughts learned in early childhood and will bless their instructors for hav- ing given them these thoughts. Children Should Rest in Adolescent Period. I am opposed to children working in the adolescent period. At that time of life children are naturally sluggish and dreamy. They are in the chrysalis period when they are neither worms nor butter- flies, and naturally they prefer to dream rather than to act. If we have filled their minds with beautiful thoughts before this period and have given them a taste for good books they will not neglect to con- tinue their search for knowledge, but they should not have any set tasks. I am convinced that the reason we have so many neurotic men and women to-day is because of overwork in the adolescent pe- riod when NATURE intended that her children should rest. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 25 Winifred Now in Chrysalis Time of Life. Almost every day I receive letters from mothers asking me how my daughter, now in the adolescent period, is spending her time. Having started her on a royal road to learning, I know that she will not turn back into the darkness of ignorance. She loves good books as her dear friends. She loves music, art and nature. Having taken Herbert Spencer's advice to lead her gently to the fountain of knowl- edge and coax, not force, her to drink, she will always go to this fount as long as she has life. At the present time Winifred has no set tasks. She plays with her pets and reads along certain lines which I have suggested (reading without a purpose I believe to be the idlest of amusements) ; she writes stories if she feels inspired, takes long walks, finds delight in playing on the piano and violin and in sketching scenes from nature. She is never idle, but she has nothing to upset her nerves as there are no tasks which she must accomplish at a certain time. Long Vacations. The adolescent period is the only time for long vacations. Ordinarily I do not believe in children having lengthy vacations, as teachers tell me that the little ones forget all they have learned during said vacations and it takes sev- eral months to reteach the same facts learned in a previous term. I believe in having many holidays, but I do not believe in cessation of all study for months at a time. 26 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION There are many parents (sad to tell) who like to see their children in school just to get them out of the way. When school closes they send them into the streets to play anywhere to get them out of the home, where "they make dirt and a noise." Parents who are willing to sacrifice their lives for their children and their own pleasures in order to teach their little ones how to play for a purpose seem to be rather rare. Plants are not given attention for a certain length of time and then left without water to nourish them. Education is the nourishing fluid of our existence that which gives us growth; for without it we can make no progress. It should never be cut off from our daily diet. To be efficient we can not study for nine months in the year and then neglect to use our minds for three months. Satan will surely find some mischief for our idle hands and minds to do. If we grown-up people gave up all study, as the average child does for three months, w r e should be anything but efficient men and women. How then can we expect children to remember what they learned in school during one term after having had a long no-thought vacation? It is no wonder that teachers have cause to complain that when school opens they must spend at least two months drilling the children on facts that they w y ere supposed to have learned in a lower grade. Natural educationalists believe in school in the home or in the open during the whole year. Not MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 27, that teachers should not have long vacations. They need the rest, and vacations should be theirs at fre- quent intervals. Even long vacations from school work is good for them, as they can be gaining strength and new ideas for teaching. But children should have small doses of knowledge each day through games to a purpose, walks in the woods, visits to zoos, studying the sky and seeking informa- tion in the dictionary, The Book of Knowledge or other useful books of information. Children Take Pleasure in Accomplishment. Doctor Philander Claxton says that it is a mistake to suppose that children enjoy having nothing to do. They take pleasure in accomplishment. The satisfaction of having something worth while is as keen for them as it is for their parents. They pre- fer to have a definite task to perform and that is why they enjoy play to a purpose rather than aim- less games. When a child asks the oft-repeated question, "What shall I play now, mother?" he is not begging for amusement alone. Play is the medium through which he develops his mind as well as his body and spirit, and his request for sugges- tions from elders shows that he is striving to de- velop himself. Games to Educate. It is my ambition to in- troduce into the schools, games which I have already introduced into many homes. These games are gen- erally so interesting to children that I hope to see them played in every schoolroom and the interest so 28 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION aroused that children will continue to play them after school hours and in vacations. Into these games I have attempted to put as many important facts as possible and Winifred has put them in jingle form, knowing that a jingle will "stick" when prose is forgotten. Music Is Moral Law. "Music," as Plato said, "is moral law leading to all that is good, wise and beautiful." Ergo I am striving to put as much rhythm as possible into these games, while I am working for the five objective points of education observation, intense interest, concentration, imi- tation, exploration. Expression Instead of Repression. I am struggling to have expression in the schools and homes rather than repression, and I believe with Edwin Markham that if we are to have an efficient race of men and women we must educate the indi- vidual, not the masses, and we must educate by sympathy and intense interest. The key to the un- locking of a child's mind is interest, not compulsion. We must enlist the help of social forces that are molding the child's life. We must strive for har- monious development of body-mind-soul. We do not need lessons in pedagogical-anthropology, but rather in efficiency. We can not expect to make our children efficient by merely cramming their minds with facts, but they must know how to use informa- tion for good purposes. We must teach parents that quality is better than quantity and that a large MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 29 number of children underfed and of mental and physical inferiority means RACE SUICIDE, while a few children trained to efficiency means the pres- ervation of our race in a nobler form of men and women. The Child's Age. We have had a man age and a woman age and now, as Doctor O'Shea says, we have the children era, when people are awaken- ing to the fact that our children are the world's most valuable assets. As the child has the right to be well born so he has the right to be well reared; the right to be happy and to have a chance of ex- pressing spontaneously the joyousness of childhood and curiosity concerning the great works of nature. Philips Brooks said : "He who helps a child helps humanity." This truth must be brought home to Uncle Sam. It has been justly said that the United States government has spent many thousands of dollars telling farmers how to raise hogs and it is just beginning to take thought of the fiber of its future citizens. Millionaires who formerly built monuments to themselves are now donating money to the cause of real education, the leading out and drawing forth of latent powers within the child. We are all awakening to the truth fold by Daniel Webster that, "If we work upon marble, it will per- ish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal souls . . . we engrave 30 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION on those tablets something which will brighten all eternity." Mothers, fathers, politicians, teachers and preach- ers begin to see with David Starr Jordan that there is nothing in all the world so important as children, nothing so interesting ; and that any one who wishes to go in for philanthropy or strives to be of use in the world should do something for children. Those who spend their lives studying children agree with this educator that if people yearn to be wise they should study children. If people wish to remain young and be happy they must play with young happy people. Fairy Interest in Schoolroom. These stu- dents of childhood know that the fairy interest must be kept in the home and school, while the demons, Hurry, Worry and Fear must be banished. They realize with Shakespeare that "No profit grows where is no pleasure taken," so they understand Herbert Spencer, who long ago plead for play to a purpose in teaching the young. For, as he said, "The man to whom in boyhood information comes in dreary tasks, along with threats of punishment, is unlikely to be a student in after years." Follow Ruskin's Advice. We parents should follow Ruskin's advice and strive to make nests of pleasant thoughts for our children by giving them these thoughts in the babyhood days, when impres- sions are lasting. "None of us yet knows, for none of us has been taught in early youth what fairy MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 31 palaces we may build of beautiful thoughts proof against adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memo- ries, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts which can not disturb nor pain make gloomy nor poverty take away from us homes built without hands for our souls to live in." To build these happy palaces and thus produce efficient citizens for the coming generation is the object of NATURAL EDUCATION. CHAPTER II THE NATURAL EDUCATION BOOK SHELF The Book of Knowledge is an encyclopedia for children in twenty volumes. It contains informa- tion upon many different subjects, and any one who knows what is contained in these books is a well- informed person. Natural Education and other books of The Child- hood and Youth Series. These books, under the general editorship of Doctor M. V. O'Shea, have been written to help mothers with children of all ages and under all circumstances in training of mind-body-spirit. 'The New Standard Dictionary, being in one vol- ume, is easy for children to study, if placed in a window seat. No home is complete without a dic- tionary, and this work seems to be the most complete and yet simple lexicon on the market. Train the chil- dren to get the dictionary habit and to go to its pages for information when they are in doubt con- cerning the meaning of any word. Peter Rabbit is a classic for children which should be placed in every nursery. Its illustrations amuse the child and cultivate the sense of humor. Its text 32 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 33 is interesting and serves the excellent purpose of teaching children to read by allowing them to copy the text on the typewriter. O'Shea, Old World Wonders and Nursery Class- ics, may be used in the same way as Peter Rabbit. The Jatakas Tales of India are excellent to teach children morals without letting the little ones know that they are being "preached at." Many such stories used to express morals can not be told to children of mixed blood or of various countries, since religious and political differences cause the children to get different ideas of the stories being used to teach morality, but these Indian tales seem adapted to people of all nations and all beliefs. O'Shea-Kellogg Health Series are, in my opin- ion, the best health talks that have been written for children. They teach physiology and hygiene with- out letting the child know he is being taught, and the text is so interesting that I have known children to prefer reading in these books and looking at the objective pictures rather than reading fairy tales. Bulfinch's Age of Fable is needed on every moth- er's shelf so as to familiarize her with ancient Gre- cian and Roman myths closely connected .with art, history, music, literature, astronomy, etc. As gar d Tales tell of Scandinavian myths. Patrino 'Anserino or Mother Goose in Esperanto is the only translation that has been made of nursery classics into the international medium of communi- cation. Winifred, being a child with the child spirit 34 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION and yet having the knowledge of Esperanto, was perhaps able to make a better translation for chil- dren than any grown person could have done. Historical Mother Goose supplies a long-felt want for a jingle book of historical facts. In this book, as its author Ella Wheeler Wilcox says, "There is a wedding of Father History with Mother Goose and of course Music is invited to the wed- ding." Hornbrook's Books on Mathematics give mothers and children ideas of the relations of numbers to one another and show how arithmetic, algebra and concrete geometry may be learned through games which develop powers of observation and concen- tration. Facts in Jingles is Winifred's book in which she has attempted to help other children place facts in their minds through jingles, even as she has stowed away facts worth remembering. Play Songs, by A. E. Bentley, helps children to learn eurhythmies, to imitate and to become grace- ful. Chansons' Poesies et ]eux is a book used by all natural education teachers to teach children simple French songs while giving them exercises in eu- rhythmies. Jason's Quest, by Doctor O. S. Lowell, is a de- lightful opening to the classics. Mabel Powers has found some real American fairies for American children. Her Stories the Iro- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 35 quois Tell Their Children not only delight the child mind but unconsciously impress upon the child con- sciousness vital ethical truths. The so-termed savage has remembered what his civilized brother has for- gotten to provide for the moral training of the child in his story telling. The Iroquois Indians never punished their children. They told them a story to show them how they should do. Questions asked by children which are answered in some of the books listed : Why is the sea never still ? Where does the wind begin? What makes an echo? Why does a ball bounce? Why can't we see in the dark ? Why are tears salt? Why does the kettle sing? What makes a fog? Why does a stick float? Why do we go to sleep ? What makes a bee hum? Does a plant eat? Is a stone alive? What makes a watch go ? Could the sky fall down ? Why can not animals talk? What makes a whirlpool ? What is radium? Why is the sky blue ? Why do stars twinkle ? 36 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION What makes water boil ? Why is snow white ? Why is sugar sweet? What makes a cat purr ? Why has water no taste ? What is smoke ? Why is yawning catching? Why does salt melt snow? Of what is air made? Why does hair turn gray? What keeps the stars in place ? Why is foam white ? What makes us sneeze? Have fishes any feeling? Why don't we fall off the earth? How do flies walk on the ceiling? Why does milk turn sour? What makes us hungry ? Why do we dream ? What is the only liquid metal? What plant catches flies to eat? How does water make rocks ? How did men first tell time ? Why is the tiger striped ? Why do ants keep little cows? Good books for parents to read so as to give health and strength to their children: The Health Series, Kellogg & O'Shea (Macmil- lan Company). MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 37 Lessons in Physiology, Hutchinson (C. E. Merrill & Company). Louise Hogan's Diet for Children (Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers). Articles in The Child Welfare Magazine and The Mother's Magazine. Public Health Reports, issued by Surgeon-Gen- eral Rupert Blue, Washington, D. C. For children in the adolescent period there is no better book than that of Doctor Mary G. Hood, entitled, For Girls and the Mothers of Girls (Bobbs- Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Indiana). Good books to develop the imagination : Six Nursery Classics, O'Shea. Old World Wonders, O'Shea. Favorites from Fairyland, Harris. Peter Rabbit and other books of the Potter Series. Asgard Tales. Age of Mythology, Bulfmch. The Elm Tree Fairy Book, Johnson. The Fir Tree Fairy Book, Johnson. The Oak Tree Fairy Book, Johnson. The Water Babies, Kingsley. The Green Fairy Book, Lang. The Yellow Fairy Book, Lang. The Red Fairy Book, Lang. Fairy Mythology, Keightley. Fairy Tales, Grimm. 'Fairy Tales, Andersen. 38 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Flower Fables, Alcott. Fairy Tales and Their Origin and Their Mean- ing, Bunce. Slavonic Fairy Talcs, Naake. The Friendly Stars, Martin. Mother Goose, Fanny Cory. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe. Gulliver's Travels f Swift. Edited by Clifton Johnson. Useful Tools in Learning Esperanto. These may be obtained from the American Esperantist Company, West Newton, Massachusetts. The American Esperanto Book, Baker. The Esperanto Grammar, Kellerman-Reed. The Esperanto Teacher, Fryer. Patrino Anserino, Stoner, Jr. do, Stoner. MUlidge-Esperanto-English. Rhodes English-Esperanto. Himnaro, Butler. Tutmonda Anekotaro. Unua Legolibro. Krestomatio, Zamenhof. Universala Vortaro. Esperanto Key in Various Languages. Frazlibro. Esperanto Manuel. Julius C&sar. Cindrulino. Amerika Esperantist o (monthly magazine)'. CHAPTER III HOW TO USE NATURAL EDUCATIONAL TOOLS Natural Educational Tools for the Mothers' Use FIRST YEAR. Balloon; prism; mirror; sleigh bells; bells of different tones; rattle with bells; silver dollar; bouncing ball; celluloid doll; sand- box; Victrola or Sonora; Louise Brigham's toy furniture. SECOND YEAR.' Balls ; dolls ; alphabet and num- ber blocks; large red letters, numbers and musical notes; Noah's ark; Bradley' s villages; small birch- bark boat ; celluloid dolls ; building blocks ; top ; bal- loon; prism; bells; colored pictures; plasticine; sand-box; box of ivory finish and sandpaper figures ; color test yarns; scissors; shells; aquarium; Vic- trola or Sonora; a tree; gamut; Candoit toys; Louise Brigham's toy furniture. THIRD YEAR. Balloon; balls; celluloid dolls; alphabet and number blocks; anagrams; large red letters, numbers and musical notes; Noah's ark; Bradley's villages; small birch-bark canoe; building blocks ; mechano ; colored crayons ; colored pictures ; box of water colors; Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk; sand-box; box of articles to show qualities of 39 40 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION roughness, smoothness, etc.; plasticine; color test yarns; scissors; shells; box of beans, pebbles, but- tons, etc. ; aquarium ; pet dog ; kittens ; bird ; Victrola or Sonora; typewriter; tree; gamut; Louise Brig- ham's toy furniture; Candoit toys. FOURTH YEAR. Balloon; balls; dolls; alphabet and number blocks; anagrams; large red letters, numbers and musical notes; Noah's ark; cardboard birds and animals; Bradley's villages; birch-bark canoes ; mechano ; colored crayons ; dice ; parcheesi ; colored pictures; Chautauqua Art Desk; sand-box; box of articles to show qualities of roughness, smoothness, etc.; globe; drum; plasticine; beads; color test yarns ; scissors ; shells ; box of beans, peb- bles, buttons, etc.; aquarium; Victrola or Sonora; typewriter; lotto; dominoes; dissected maps; large hanging maps ; top ; marbles ; game of jacks ; Perry prints; jackstraws; magnet; abacus; pint, quart, peck and bushel measures; tree; gamut; Candoit toys ; Louise Brigham's toy furniture. FIFTH YEAR. Balls ; dolls ; alphabet and number blocks; anagrams; large red letters, numbers and musical notes; Noah's ark; cardboard birds and animals; Bradley's villages; birch-bark canoes; mechano; colored crayons; dice; parcheesi; colored pictures; Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk; sand- box; clay table; bead loom; raffia and rattan for weaving; boxes of articles to show qualities of roughness, smoothness, etc.; globe; drum; plasti- cine ; color test yarns ; scissors ; shells ; box of beans, MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 41 pebbles, buttons, etc. ; aquarium ; pets ; Victrola or Sonora; typewriter; lotto; dominoes; dissected maps; large hanging maps; top; marbles; game of jacks; jackstraws; Perry prints; magnet; magnify- ing-glass; abacus; pint, quart, gallon, peck and bushel measures; tape-line; measuring line; ruler; gold and silver stars; scrap books; kodak; tree; gamut; Candoit toys; Louise Brigham's toy furni- ture; language phone lessons; natural educational card games. SIXTH YEAR. Balls; dolls; anagrams; Noah's ark; cardboard animals and birds; Bradley's vil- lages ; birch-bark canoes ; mechano ; colored crayons and pencils ; pen ; dice ; parcheesi ; bagatelle ; colored pictures; Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk; sand- box; clay table; bead loom; sewing outfit; raffia and rattan for weaving; globe; drum; orchestra; bells or xylophone ; plasticine ; color test yarns ; scissors ; shells; box of small articles; aquarium; pets; Vic- trola or Sonora; typewriter; lotto; dominoes; dissected maps ; hanging maps ; top ; marbles ; game of jacks; jackstraws; Perry prints; magnet; magni- fying-glass; abacus; pint, quart, gallon, peck and bushel measures; tape measure; ruler; gold and silver stars; scrap books; kodak; artificial climbing tree ; garden tools ; small flags of all nations ; minia- ture household toys; see-saw sliding board; Centa- phrase French and Spanish games; educational card games; chess; carpenter outfit; mirrorscope; rocking-horse; stuffed animals; collections of post- 42 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION cards; stereoscope; toy store; scales; Japanese building puzzles; miniature house; small flags of all nations; paper dolls; tea set; various coins; curios; strings of beads ; electro set toys ; tree ; gamut ; Can- doit toys ; Louise Brigham's toy furniture ; language phone lessons. Some mothers, when they glance at my long list of tools, may become discouraged and think that their pocketbooks are not fat enough to buy all of these toys. If they examine the lists, however, they will find that many of the toys used in the first and sec- ond years may be used up to the school age and even after. Besides, it is not necessary to buy all of these tools. I have given a full list of my helpers in mak- ing the roadway to knowledge one of pleasure; but mothers can use those toys which give their children most pleasure, and a clever mother can manufacture toys which will be as helpful as any that are sold in toy stores. Home-made toys are always more interesting to children than mechanical wonders, which delight for a few moments and generally get out of order, if not broken, so that they cause more irritation to children than joy. Furthermore, these mechanical toys kill the purpose of play by destroy- ing the creative spirit. Ball the Best Toy. If I could have but one toy for my baby it would be a ball, the best helper in all sorts of games and the fairy which brings good health to old and young. This toy has been right- fully called "the medicine ball." MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 43 Very young babies like to see a ball thrown into the air and caught. They love to watch it being bounced and they show their tendencies as natural football and baseball players by trying to catch it when thrown and by kicking at it. When Wini- fred was a very small baby she found great delight in playing with a ball which I attached to a cord tied to two chairs. I placed the baby on an eiderdown quilt, which I laid between the two chairs from which the ball was suspended. All babies are nat- ural kickers and as Winifred began to kick she came in contact with the ball, causing it to swing to and fro. This amused her and after a time she began to aim at the ball as well as to indulge in simple kick- ing movements. This exercise helped her to co- ordinate mind and muscle and developed real muscle while keeping her amused. So great was her delight in this exercise that I have known her to perspire -from her exertions and to scream aloud in delight. I did not, however, allow her to indulge in this foot- ball game for more than ten minutes at a time, as she was too strenuous in her movements. Learn to Scan With a Ball.- Through use of this same fairy ball I taught Winifred to count and to scan from Vergil. Vergil ball is a game which we still enjoy playing together. When she was a baby I seated her on her play rug and placed cushions around her so that if she lost her balance and toppled over she would not be hurt. I sat in front of her and spread out my feet in a very 44 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION undignified manner so that the ball would roll back to me instead of going across the room. I spread out the baby's legs in a similar fashion and rolled the ball gently to her. At first she could not catch it, but she tried to hold it with her chubby fists. Day after day for probably a week I kept rolling the ball to the baby and telling her to roll it back to me, and after a week's efforts I succeeded in training her to roll the ball to "mother." After a few weeks of roll- ing she learned to toss the ball in my direction, thus training the muscles of her eye as well as those of her hand. When she became more expert in ball- tossing so that she did not have to exert mental power in each throw we began to learn Vergil's JEneid. She was already familiar with the first ten lines, which her nurse and I had scanned to her from the day of her birth and when I began to scan (as I threw the ball to her), saying "Arma," she re- plied with "virumque," etc. Then I taught her new lines and thus in the first five years of our play together she learned to scan the whole of the first book of the Lneid. While bouncing the ball, I would count first to five, then to ten, etc. Of course the baby did not at first understand what I meant by "one, two," (the sound I made when I bounced the ball), but as she began to talk, she imitated by saying "one, two," while she played "bounce ball." Later on we used this bounce ball game in helping us to add numbers. First Winifred would bounce MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 45 the ball, seeing how many times she could strike it without missing, and singing (as she bounced the ball) some simple jingle which she and I invented. When she missed I would have a chance, and Wini- fred put on her score-card the number reached by her before she had a "miss." I did the same and after a certain time we added our numbers and found who made the higher score. Bounce ball has helped us also in learning to count in different languages and to make simple jingles with meter appropriate to the bouncing accompani- ment. We have used it in learning alphabets of various tongues, and Winifred uses it to teach young children to repeat the English alphabet. The Balloon. I have given much space to praise of the sine-qua-non toy of any home, but the ball was not Winifred's first toy. Show a ball to a six-weeks-old baby and he will pay no attention to it. But tie a bright red balloon, attached to a string, to baby's wrist and he will follow its movements (as he waves his hand to and fro) and find pleasure in so doing. If the mother talks to her baby and tells him that the balloon is red, round, light, that it goes up and comes down, all unconsciously he learns these characteristics of his first toy, and without any ex- ertion he learns how to direct the muscles of his hands to produce certain motions with this toy. Any baby will wave his hands and kick his feet, striving, as nature intended, to exercise his muscles. But this is a sort of aimless exercise to him, of which he soon 46 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION tires, unless he has some object in view. The bal- loon acts as an object. It is baby's first dumb-bell. Give Babies Love and Amusement. I am a firm believer in amusing children, or teaching them to amuse themselves. I can not understand how any loving mother can deny her child the love and sympathy he needs when he cries. Even the animal mother expresses affection and cuddles her off- spring when it shows signs of distress. Babies are so weak, so helpless and so lonely in the first months of their existence on terra firma. They want to feel the touch of a loving hand, to see smiling faces and to hear sweet sounds. If we treat them as intelligent beings instead of animated dolls, they will soon show through actions how they appreciate being with us and being loved and amused as well as clothed and fed. Amuse with Prism or Mirror. One of the easiest ways to amuse a young baby is with a prism or mirror. Hold it in the sunlight and let the dan- cing "light spirits" fly all around the ceiling above baby's head and sometimes on his counterpane. You may use this prism a number of times without his babyship paying any attention to the "light spirits" ; but if you persevere, he will be attracted by the quick motion and bright colors, and when he once sees these fairies, he will take great delight in their move- ments and try to catch them with his hands. Later on, when he can talk and walk, a moral les- son may be taught by the light fairy. Ask baby to MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 47 catch it. He tries and fails. Explain to him that not everything in life is tangible. He can not lay hold of everything he wishes. Bells of Different Tones and Sleigh-Bells. One of the physicians who believes in absolute quiet for babies experienced a great shock when he came to see Winifred, aged seven weeks, and found bells of different tones tied to the foot of her crib. When she kicked, these bells would ring, and I tried to train her musical sense by ringing certain tonecf. bells so as to play simple airs. Each bell was tied with a bright ribbon of a different hue, and I at- tempted to train her color sense by mentioning the bell by the color of its ribbon. When I would ring the bell attached to a red ribbon, I would say, "Red bell," etc. Through these colored ribbons Wini- fred learned to distinguish colors so that when she was six months old she could ring the red, blue, green, etc., bells at my request. A set of sweet-toned sleigh-bells, fastened to the foot of the bed and attached by ribbons to her feet, were of great amusement to my baby. Every time she kicked her feet the bells made sweet tones, and she soon learned to know that the more vigor- ously she kicked, the louder was the effect produced. Being fond of loud and inspiring tones, she kicked in such a vigorous manner that I could not allow her to play this game for more than a few minutes. Unfortunately, good mechanical music was not easily to be secured when Winifred was a baby, but 48 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION I used a sweet music box and let her hear the piano and other instruments in her waking hours. In these days almost any mother possessing average means can secure a Victrola or a Sonora and thus train her child's ear to appreciate sweet sounds, saving him perhaps from the dreadful affliction of being tone deaf. No Children Naturally Tone Deaf. A dear friend of mine who can not distinguish between the airs of Yankee Doodle and Nearer My God to Thee attributes his tone-deafness to not having heard any music until he was six years of age. Katharine Tingley, who begins musical training in infancy, says that she has never found a tone-deaf child. I am becoming more and more of a crank about babies hearing music, and recently in helping a pros- pective mother to prepare her nursery, I arranged a Grecian air harp with waxed strings above one win- dow, hung Japanese bells in different parts of the room, fastened bells of different tones to one of the doors and in addition to the bells and sleigh-bells to hang on the crib, I added a rattle with small silver bells. The baby for whom this nursery was prepared is now three months old. Despite predictions from a family physician that the "clanging of the bells" would give him "nervous fits" he is a happy, plump young individual, who does not seem to know that he possesses nerves. When the wind comes through MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 49 VioOFA SQUARE A BRICK IS A RECTANGLE IN SHAPE ! 7 /,o JSQUARES '/.OF A SQUARE I'/.SQUAJ */o OF A SQUARE ONE SQUARE Made by Winifred to teach her pupils geometrical figures and fractions the window upon which the waxed strings have been arranged, it makes a sweet sighing sound instead of howling notice of its arrival. When the door opens MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION and shuts, music accompanies the motion and the sound pleases our youthful knight. Again, when his mother amuses him by using his rattle, she does not shake it aimlessly up and down, but beats it to three- four, four- four, etc., time, and makes real jingling music for her cooing audience. She is try- ing the same experiments with this little lad that I tried with Winifred, and if he grows up with no sense of tone and is unable to pass the color-blind test for the army or navy, then it will be my duty to write a new book and acknowledge my mistake to the world. Silver Dollar. The silver dollar with a hole made in it is my pet instrument to help the baby coax his teeth through the gums. The dollar can be boiled and kept free from germs. It is bright and attractive to the little one as he sees it dangling from the chain and he can massage his gums at a great rate when he puts a portion of said dollar into his mouth. Besides, it is too large for him to swallow, so it will not be necessary to attach the toothing in- strument to a cord tied to the child's toe, as did old Mammy Chloe, upon the premise that if the child swallowed the thimble she had given him to bite then he would kick and pull it out of his throat. Celluloid Doll. A celluloid doll is most useful in amusing baby in his crib and in the tub. A child who hates the water can be taught to like it by putting a doll in the tub when he is to have his bath. He watches the doll float and tries to catch it, MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 51 being so interested that he pays no attenion to the scrubbing process through which his mother puts him. Winifred was always happy playing with a doll and a tiny birch-bark canoe. As she grew older she pretended that this doll was Hiawatha sailing in his canoe. I recited Longfellow's beautiful poem to her until she knew it and could recite it herself. Acting on the mother duck principle that ducklings should be led to the pond for a swim, not driven, I have tried to make the bath one of play and amuse- ment so that no tears have been shed when bath time arrived. In fact, Winifred, as a child, was so fond of her baths that we had to keep the bathroom door locked so that she would not take baths unbeknown to us. Sand-box. A sand-box is the heritage of every child. Most mothers are afraid to let very young babies play in the sand for fear they will make sand cushions of themselves. I have tried the experi- ment with twenty babies, holding their hands every time they tried to eat sand and have thus trained the little ones not to put things into their mouths. I try to keep little ones in ignorance of their mouths as a receptacle even for food. I believe if we feed babies and do not allow them to feed themselves until they are old enough to understand what can be put into the mouth and what should be left out we shall find it an easy task to keep the baby from making his mouth a receptacle for everything he finds. 52 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION The sand-box is the easiest and safest way of giving this training. Put the baby in the sand. If he makes any attempt to put the sand into his mouth, hold his hands. Every time he makes the attempt, take hold of his hands and he will begin to see that he loses his freedom when his hand goes in the direc- tion of his mouth. Fearing to lose his freedom, he will from that time on refrain from putting things into his mouth. The sand-box may also be used to teach geography, etc. Alphabet and Number Blocks. Blocks always delight babies, but there is no reason why a mother should not make these blocks a means of teaching useful information. Buy a number of large letters cut out of glazed paper of either a red or green shade. Paste these letters on sheets of white card- board and fasten them as a border around the nur- sery wall. Use red numbers and musical notes in the same way. These letters may be obtained from stores which sell kindergarten supplies, or from the Natural Education Company. For use with them, buy blocks marked with letters, numbers and notes. Do not attempt to teach baby all of the letters or numbers or notes at one time. Begin with the letter A. Point to it on the wall, then show it to the child on his block A. Let him become perfectly familiar with A before learning the other letters, although the mother may sing over the names of other letters to the air of Zu Lauterbach. By means of blocks the mother may give a child MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 53 its first impressions of the science of quantity. She can count out a certain number of blocks and give them to him to build a house. Then she can ask him for a certain number for her use. Baby feels very proud when his mother asks, "Please give me five blocks," and he counts out, "One, two, three, four, five blocks for mother." Top. Children of all races and of all times have enjoyed a toy which made the spinning motion. Explorers claim to have discovered a top with which little Moses once played, and children will continue to play with tops as long as children exist. A top painted with rings representing all of the colors of the rainbow is a fine toy to teach color sense. We call such tops vibgyors because they are marked with rainbow tints of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. When these many-colored tops are in motion they look pretty to the child and delight his fancy. When not in mo- tion they may be used to develop his chromatic sense. It is well known that boys are often lacking in this sense. They seem to be born with a keener sense of touch than their sisters, but do not compare with them in color tests. Many men lose excellent posi- tions by not being able to pass the color-test exam- inations. If these men had been given the proper training in infancy I believe that their chromatic sense could have been developed. All natural edu- cational mothers use vibgyor tops, color-test yarns, 54 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION colored crayons and artists' samples (such as may be secured from any paint firm) in their nurseries. The child is first attracted to the top by its mo^ tion. When it stops spinning the mother says, "Pretty top! See this lovely red color !' f Babies who have been trained with the bells hung with dif- ferent colored ribbons can easily find the red rib- bon or the red yarn in the color-test box, which matches with color on top. Babies who have not been so trained may not distinguish the colors at once. The mother should always begin with red after pointing out red on the top, among the ribbons, color-test yarns and in objects in the room. She should draw a red mark with the red crayon on white paper and let the child select a crayon and make the same color. It is better to draw a red house or some figure, as the child may not be attracted by an ordinary line. Other games to teach children the colors are described in my book on Natural Educa- tion and The Natural Educational Game Book. Noah's Ark. A Noah's ark has helped to make many good citizens for many countries. Na- ture's children love animals, or even poor represen- tations in wood or stone. And, oh, what a joy these wooden animals can be made through the mother's proper direction, telling children truths of biology, relating habits of the various animals, playing games of pretend-to-be lions, tigers, etc., and thus develop- ing the child's imagination while making him happy. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 55 In spelling games, these animals or those which may be bought in kindergarten outfits made of cardboard, are most useful to make spelling a joy. When the child spells "c-a-t, cat," he can illustrate his spelling with her catship. Recently I have found some very clever representations of various animals for sale in the ten-cent stores and I would suggest to mothers that they buy a collection to use for stage scenery in their intensive play games. Bradley 's villages, small celluloid dolls, Teddy bears are all useful in playing games and in enacting scenes from historic stories told to the children. Pro- fessor Raymond Gros of the School of Languages, Pittsburgh, uses the Bradley villages in teaching French to young pupils. He sets up a village and then talks about everything in French, pointing out the different objects to his pupils. I have often played similar games with children, and when I could not buy objects to illustrate my theme I cut them out of paper. Paper Toys. All mothers should learn how to cut out stiff paper chairs, tables, etc. Children de- light in these paper toys, and through imagination's help they sometimes get more pleasure from such paper toys than from those that are bought in toy shops. At an early age, give the child a pair of blunt scis- sors and show him how to cut out simple objects. He can soon learn how to cut out strange-looking 56 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION animals and people from folded paper, and he will be far more interested in his own work than in any you can make for him. Another good idea is to draw simple figures of people, etc., and let him cut them out of the paper. This teaches him to hold paper and scissors steadily and to gain coordination of mind and muscle. String games are also useful for this purpose, the parent making designs with strings and the child striving to take the strings from his parent's fingers. All babies love to play the old-fashioned string game of "see-saw," but they must learn how to hold their fingers steady and to put the strings on their own fingers before they can have the fun of pretending to saw wood and saw the string in two parts. No Apparatus to Teach Buttoning, etc. I am not in favor of any apparatus to teach children how to lace, button, etc., as I believe that they should learn to button and to lace their own shoes. The child must feel that everything is for a purpose and this purpose is of good service to some one. Again and again I say that all there is to education is learn- ing self-control and the joy of service or effort ex- tended for a purpose altruistic and not selfish. The Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk. This delightful toy or combination of toys carries out my ideas of everything for a purpose. Winifred is so sorry that this desk was not in existence when she was a three-year-old. She thinks that if it had been she would now be able to write shorthand at a MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 57 terrific speed instead of being but a beginner. She would have learned to draw without going to art school and how to send telegrams and write after the beautiful Palmer method without her mother's as- sistance. We use this desk in all our Natural Edu- cation Schools, and I should advise all mothers to use it in the nursery. Yesterday, while paying a visit to a friend who was going on a trip to the mountains, her little son, Henry, said to me, "We will leave my horse, Tom, behind, but of course we'll take our books with us and our desk, so we'll have something to amuse us on rainy days." This desk,* I neglected to say, can be folded like a book and carried in a trunk. It can be hung on the wall, set on a table or chair, or placed for the child's convenience on the floor. Even babies learn to turn the roller charts and see what will come next, and mothers who know how to direct their children's energy can keep their little ones occupied in doing things which pictures on the roll suggest. Crayons, water colors, rulers and other useful toys which I have always used to help make educa- tion's path one of pleasure, are in this desk. Colored Pictures. As babies will not pay any attention in their early days to objects which are with- out color it is necessary to show the young sprites pictures that are highly colored. If the mother tints copies of great paintings with bright colors * Produced by Lewis E. Myers and Company, Valparaiso, Indiana. 58 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION the baby will first be attracted by the beauty of color and afterward by beauty of form. Art books, pictures on the wall, colored photo- graphs and even postal cards will help the mother in her endeavor to give the baby some idea of art. Some form of a mirrorscope is good to have in the home, and after dinner in the evening the whole family can enjoy seeing pictures of far-away or at-home scenes. People who can afford the moving pictures are most fortunate. They are an education in themselves, but for some years to come, I fear that their price will make them prohibitive to the or- dinary home. A number of families might join to- gether and use them in a sort of social center way, thereby giving the children an opportunity to see educational pictures without going to public moving- picture theaters. Box of Small Articles. As children are little they like little things. Anything in miniature de- lights the childish eye. Winifred gave ample proof of this truth to me under the most trying circum- stances. At one time a friend showed her two foot- ball candy boxes one the size of a real football, the other not bigger than a walnut. The child knew that both were full of candy and her indulgent friend was sure that she would take the big box. The child looked at both boxes and then she said : "There is lovely candy and, oh, so much of it in the big football, but the little one is so cunning that I will take it, if you please." MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 59 Little things come in very handy in teaching children to count, spell and know the difference in quality of different objects through touch. If you can train a baby early in life not to put things into his mouth you can begin early in training his sense of touch through playing with small objects which are rough, smooth, sharp, blunt, etc. Begin with small animal forms cut out of card- board and sandpaper. Teach the baby that one cow is rough and the other smooth. Rub his little fingers on the rough surface and say "rough." Rub them on the smooth surface and say "smooth." Put a number of navy beans, buttons, shells, peb- bles, a few tacks, pins, grains of rice, small china animals (such as can be bought at stores where fa- vors are sold), dice, marbles, jackstraws, beads, cof- fee beans and coins in a large box. Blindfold the children and let them draw out one thing at a time and see if they can tell whether it is sharp, blunt, rough, smooth, etc. This same idea can be fol- lowed with older children on Hallowe'en when they may sit in a long row and some one may pass dif- ferent objects for them to name. Little children may be amused by separating the rough from the smooth or the sharp from the blunt objects and placing them in separate boxes, pretend- ing that these are trains being loaded. I have known children to beg for my box of "wotsat" and to find great fun in separating the rough-coated kit- tens from the smooth ones. One little friend, 60 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION named Marjory, called my rough kittens "the com- mon sort" and the smooth ones "the gentle, nice kitties." One little boy who had tendencies to commit sui- cide by eating tacks and pins, was trained to keep these out of his mouth through playing with the ob- jects in this same box. I gave him a uox and told him to put all of the bad sharp things which would kill little boys in one box and showed him the pins, needles, tacks, etc. He picked these out very gin- gerly so they would not prick his fingers, put them into the box and took them to his mother saying, "Bad zings; hurt Tommy. Tommy no put in mouth. Oh, no !" And he kept his word from that time on. With beans, pebbles and shells, children can find much amusement forming letters and different designs, even making bean people and bean houses. Imaginary ponds may be built from shells and little celluloid ducks and fishes placed in them to make them more realistic. Mrs. Adelia R. Hornbrook has invented some very interesting games to play "odd and even" with these beans. The mother takes a certain number of small objects in her hand. She says, "Odd or even?" The child guesses whether it is odd or even, and then mother and child count to see if the guess has been made correctly. Any mother can invent all sorts of counting games with these small objects, teaching the child MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 61 first how to count the number of objects he uses in making a certain design. Very young babies should be helped in forming designs by mothers drawing the outlines for them on a piece of paper. Pets. Pets teach children to be thoughtful of others while they furnish amusement and develop the bump of affection. It is true that some pets have given children disease, but I would rather run the risk of my child catching disease than to deprive her of the companionship of dogs and kittens. If there is some place in a home where the bird may be free to fly, I recommend having a pet canary, but if the bird must be always caged the child had better be de- prived of the joy of having a canary pet. We have a wonderful canary, Okikusan by name, who is given freedom in certain parts of our home and who, while I am now writing, sits on the car^ riage of the typewriter and sings to me. He proves, what love can do for any living thing if one begins in babyhood. Okikusan comes to me when I call him, and seems to understand what I say to him. He ha? learned to jump a rope. He sits on Winifred's shouk der, sings in perfect tune and dances up and down in a sort of rhythmic accompaniment when she plays on her violin. He loves to hear good music, but on one occasion when a little girl came to visit us and she was practising her scales, he became enraged. At first he did nothing but sit on the edge of the piano and scold. Virginia paid no attention to his discon- '62 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION tented peeps, and in order to make her discontinue playing, he jumped upon her fingers and pecked them. He knows our intimate friends and sits on their shoulders when they come to call. If I go away from home he flies all about looking for me, and when I return he sings such songs of welcome that I feel assured I have the one friend which Emerson says makes a person rich. It may not be convenient to have birds in every home, but all parents in moderate circumstances can provide an aquarium for the children. If fresh water be given to the fish each day and little food, there will be no difficulty in keeping goldfish. The reason that these fish die is because people handle them in changing the water or they give them too much food. I have kept a half dozen fish in a round globe for several years. Each day I let nearly all of the water run out of the globe, holding my hand at the side so that the fish would not fall out. Then I allow water from the cold spigot to run into the globe very slowly. In this way the fish are never touched and I am careful to remove any particles of fish food which they do not eat. An aquarium is not alone amusing and instructive to children, but it may be used also as a dining- table centerpiece and thus save the price of cut flow- ers, in addition to helping to teach children some- thing of ichthyology. Stereoscope. A stereoscope is useful to in- terest a child in photographs and pictorial cards to MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 63 which he would not be attracted without seeing them in an enlarged state. One of the teachers in the Shaw Natural Educational School of Pittsburgh takes her girls on a journey to some part of the world at least once a week through the use of the stereoscope and postal cards. The Victrola or Sonora. These producers of so-called "canned music" are more useful in the home and school than a piano or even a piano player. A teacher must be a real musician if she is to educate her children to love classical music as she renders it. She must take much time for practise and all of her attention must be given to her playing when pro- ducing music for the children. With the Victrola or Sonora the teacher can play with the children, teach- ing them exercises in eurhythmies and joining in musical games while a fairy machine does the work. Through this machine children may become fa- miliar with works from all the great composers and they may hear the voices of great singers. They may be trained "to go into the silence" and relax and rest by hearing sweet soft melodies, or inspired to march and dance through stirring airs and all without exertion on the part of their leader. One of my natural education mothers puts her baby to sleep with lullabies sung on the Victrola and she amuses him during the day by the use of lively airs when he rebels at being left alone. He accepts the music as good company and does not object to his mother leaving him. 64 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Child Furniture. One reason why children are naughty is because homes are not made to suit the child's needs. How seldom do we find homes which have been built to make children, as well as adults, comfortable and happy. In fact, I have never seen but one home which was built with that purpose in mind. The owner has three beautiful children who are being reared upon natural educa- tional principles; but long before he knew of my principles he believed that parents owe everything to their children, and that when little ones come into the world everything should be provided to make them happy. Accordingly he built a beauti- ful and artistic bungalow with low window-seats, where the babies could sit and look out of the win- dows or amuse themselves w r ith games and picture books. When he had a table made to suit himself and his wife he had one made for the children. When selecting chairs which were suitable for grown-ups he had similar chairs in smaller patterns made for his three boys, and he followed this idea in all of his household furnishings. A bath- room was built so that the little ones could stand before a small low lavatory and look into a looking- glass pitched at the proper height and angle while they washed their hands and faces. Everywhere in the home there is a place for the children and the whole upper floor is devoted to their use. It is a huge playroom containing a wig- wam and all sorts of toys and games which delight MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 65 the childish heart. Here on rainy days the kiddies play and feel the pride of ownership. Some children are made to feel that they are mere slaves who must ask permission to look at a one square one square 6/10 of a square Made by Winifred to teach her pupils geometrical figures and fractions 66 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION certain book and who dare not sit on certain chairs. Many boys have run away from home because of the constant nagging of parents concerning house- hold furniture, tracking in dirt, etc. I have a friend who tells me that he would not care to see his mother in Heaven. "For," he says, "if mother should meet me in Heaven, the very first thing she would say would be 'Jim, you go right back there and clean your feet/ " Although I have not been able to build a home suited to children, yet in the quarters provided for us by Uncle Sam, I have always endeavored to give Winifred some portion of each room and to set aside one room as her special playroom. Most of her toys are kept in the playroom, but she is not deprived of bringing her doll children, favorite books, etc., into any room in the house. The dolls, however, must be treated like real children and placed in com- fortable positions upon chairs, etc., while the books must be laid carefully upon a table or window-seat. Winifred has been trained to keep her playroom in order just as her father keeps his office in order, ex- pecting a visit from one of Uncle Sam's inspectors. As a baby she was told to use her ten fairy fingers to put everything in order after her day of play because Titania, queen of the fairies, paid a tour of inspec- tion each evening to said playroom and if she found tracks of the "careless" or "untidy gnome" she was much displeased and not inclined to put nice gifts beneath a little girl's pillow. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 67 Plasticine. A box of plasticine will save many mothers from worrying into the gray-haired state. All children love to make mud pies. We know that this sport is dangerous, since all sorts of germs make filthy mud their nidus. Plasticine is clean and answers the same purpose as the mud. Kiddies can make all sorts of pies, cakes, marbles, etc., out of this material, and better still try to make busts of those they see, or even little houses, furniture, animals, etc. Many rainy days have passed with- out troubling Winifred, a child reared in the open, because she was occupied with her modeline, which is material similar to what is now called plasticine. We used modeline to make little cakes for our bakery shop. These we ornamented with beads to make them look more attractive. We made diminu- tive potatoes and all sorts of vegetables to sell in our grocery store. We tried to design buildings, and Winifred modeled a very respectable bust of Shakespeare (still in my possession) when she was not six years of age. Each day she tried to make some new animal for her modeline zoo, using her cardboard animals for designs, and some of her representations are quite remarkable. Just now one of my two-year-old friends is seated near me, busy and happy, making a bird's nest. Winifred has made the mother and father bird for him and has placed them on a tree twig. He has made the nest and is now making the eggs. It is true that said eggs look more like the old-time 68 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION doctor's bread pills than hen fruit, but he is getting the idea and is happy in playing for a purpose. A Tree. And now I see mothers smile. Those who live in cities may experience some dif- ficulty in getting a tree and those who live in smaller places may not like the idea of having a common tree in their home. Recently a mother who earns her living by washing and ironing, wrote to me ask- ing if I could suggest some way in which she could keep her child amused while she was at work. She said that he kept her in constant misery by pulling open her machine drawers and climbing over all the furniture. And why should he not show his natu- ral curiosity and simian instincts? I told this mother to lock her machine drawers, give the child a box of inexpensive toys, such as balls, pebbles, blocks, etc., but above all to fasten a small tree to the floor, put cushions beneath it (so if he fell he would not be hurt) and let him enjoy his climbing instinct on the tree rather than on articles of fur- niture. A Natural Educational Tree will soon be on the market. This tree will be made of a stout trunk to which various round, smooth sticks will be adjusted at certain heights adapted to the size of the child. The trunk will be arranged on a small platform which will be fastened to the floor. This tree will not be an eye-sore in any nursery, and by placing cushions or an old mattress beneath it there will, be no danger of a child falling and injuring himself. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 69 The kiddie will not get dirty, as when climbing natural trees, and there will be no danger of hurting his hands or eyes with rough bark and twigs. Ladder. A small ladder is also useful to amuse the children and to develop the muscles of their limbs. The Gamut. Another useful toy which I hope to see soon manufactured is what I call the gamut. It is made of light-weight blocks two inches wide and one foot long. The child or parent lays these blocks in a row, using as many as the length of room will permit (fifteen come in each set). Then the child tries to run on top of these blocks without stumbling. I begin this exercise by first drawing a chalk line on the floor and seeing how well the baby can manage his steps to march on this line. Then he tries the gamut and this leads to walking the rope. This exercise should be given in the open, using a rope very near to the ground as a beginning. At first the mother holds baby's hand and helps him to walk across the rope. Then he tries to balance himself and, as a trainer in Barnum's circus told me recently, "The little tots with some practise each day soon learn to balance themselves as easily as if they had four legs." Globe. Anything that is round seems to be more pleasing to a baby than that which is square. A little baby will try to hold a globe and find pleas- ure in turning it around. The individual globes which hang from a string and have something in- 70 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION side which rattles are very popular with children. We use these globes in our schools, as children love to feel that they are individuals and it is more inter- esting for each child to have a small globe than for all of them to have one large one. We have the large one in the center of the room and the teacher shows the children some particular place on the globe. Then she asks him to find this place on his globe. After finding a certain place, a story is told about this place, or song sung, so that the children are interested and want to learn more. Sometimes travel games are played by teacher and pupil pre- tending to go to certain points and using a tooth- pick as the traveler journeying from place to place. A Drum. A drum is the easiest instrument for small children to learn how to play in order to get some idea of rhythm. After they grasp this idea the drum may be used in playing marching and rhythmic games. Beads. Beads ever give delight to civilized as well as to savage babies. All children like to string beads, and these same little fairies may be used as I have suggested in playing with plasticine and in teaching the child to count and to learn the qualities of various articles in the Wotsat Box. Lotto. This game is useful in teaching chil- dren the numbers and in gaining accuracy in adding. Parcheesi. A most useful game to give babies their first idea of counting. Instead of using the parcheesi disks the game may be made more inter- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 71 esting by the use of small figures of any kind. A little girl to whom I am teaching this game uses tiny rabbits and imagines that the rabbits are hop- ping along to the home nest. Dice. Large dice are most useful in training children to count. Dominoes. Very young children may learn something of the relations of numbers to one an- other, and how to count to ten by playing the game of dominoes. Maps. Hanging maps can be made as inter- esting to children as comic pictures. By means of these maps imaginary journeys may be made from one country to another and children can grasp the relative distances of one land from another. Dissected Maps. The dissected maps or map puzzles amuse any intelligent child if the parent first teaches him something about the different parts of the map he is trying to put together. Some of these puzzles are of little use in teaching the child, because the blocks of which they are composed do not rep- resent any particular country or state. I am always particular to select the maps where states or coun- tries are represented by their proper shape. In using the map of the United States, I show the child Texas as the largest state and Rhode Island the smallest. I point out Pennsylvania as being almost like a rectangle, etc. Winifred's star pupil, Billy Walsh, is so fond of this constructive game that he persuades his parents MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION to play a game with him almost every evening so as to see who can put the United States in shape during the shortest period of time. Marbles. Marbles are useful in teaching many counting games and in training the muscles of the eye and hand. Jacks may be used in the same way. Jackstraws. Jackstraws, or common tooth- picks, help in many games of fractions and in giving children some idea of geometrical figures. Magnet. A magnet is useful in entertaining the child while teaching him scientific truths con- cerning the laws of attraction. Perry Prints. Perry prints may be used in teaching little ones of the works of the great mas- ters. They may make, scrap books with these pic- tures and color them so as to become familiar with their outline. Stories should be told of said pictures to keep up the interest. Abacus. This old-time counting instrument which was used by the Chinese and Japanese for many centuries is a great helper in teaching children to count, add, subtract and multiply. Magnifying-glass. A magnifying-glass is use- ful in showing the children different parts of the flowers and in explaining to them certain laws of physics. Tape Line, Ruler, Yard Stick. These meas- uring implements should be in every nursery where the little ones can early be taught the science of MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 73 distance and contents. Pint, quart, gallon, peck and bushel measures should be used also in the home school so that the little ones may learn to know the relation of one quantity to another. Gold and Silver Stars. Cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of a knight's escutcheon, and when a child is very good, give him a golden star. If he be just tolerably good he receives a silver star, but if he be naughty no star is given to him to paste on this knightly emblem. The escutcheon and my character charts are being used in many homes, in- stead of the rod, and with better results. Xylophone. Through playing on a xylophone children gain a love of music and grasp the idea of pitch. Kodak. If mothers are to help the peace god- dess they must be careful to introduce into the nurs- ery constructive instead of destructive toys. How can we expect our sons to grow up lovers of peace if we encourage them to take life by giving them for their first Christmas present a toy sword and pistol, and as they grow up allow them to have guns with which to take life. How much better to teach them to shoot at their bird and beast friends with a kodak instead of a gun. One of the best gifts to present to a young mother at the birth of her first-born is a kodak which she can use to take pictures of the baby from his earliest days until he reaches manhood. These pictures are always a delight to both mothers and children. 74 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Scrap Book. One of America's noted men re- cently told me that the deepest regret of his life was that his mother had never kept an account of his early sayings and had made no scrap books with pictures showing him in the childhood state. Be- ginning with the baby book, in which mothers tell about baby's first tooth, first step, etc., mothers should continue this system of keeping scrap books and diaries, and their grown-up children will some day feel deeply grateful for such mementos of child- hood. It is a good idea also to train very young children to keep such books. Winifred has a book in which she has pasted certain cards, valentines, letters, pic- tures, etc., which she admired in her baby days. As soon as she could write she kept a diary, and these early diaries will be more interesting to her when she reaches the grandmother stage of life than they are now. Gymnasium in the Home. A small sliding board, see-saw, rings from which to hang and a trapeze can be placed in almost any home where one large room is devoted to the children. Rocking Horse. A rocking horse is useful to give the baby some notion of how to become an equestrian in leaping on the horse and in sitting erect and holding the lines properly. Paper Dolls, Celluloid and Rag Dolls, Stuffed Animals. Paper dolls may be used in playing all sorts of games in history, literature, etc. Cellu- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 75 loid and rag dolls are necessary in enacting various scenes and in playing keeping house or going to school. Stuffed animals which can be cleansed in gasoline add to the interest of these games. Toy Stores, Banks, etc. The Stearn Toy Company of Cleveland sell a very useful toy store which contains a miniature scale and small packages of rice, flour, etc. Such a store is most useful in playing games in arithmetic and in learning some- thing of domestic economy. Household Toys. Any household toys which teach children how to keep house or tools which show them how to make useful articles, such as are found in carpenter's outfits, and in outfits furnished by the arts and crafts people, give amusement and show the child how to play for a purpose. The little girl is far more interested in weaving a basket out of rattan and raffia than she would be in mousing through her mother's bureau drawers ; and the young lad is happier striving to make a picture frame than if he were engaged in sawing the piano legs. And as for the parents, I am sure that they are much happier to see their children engaged in useful occupations than to have them working out their surplus energy, which must be expended in some way, through destruction of property. Tea Sets. These toys are useful, not only in amusing children and showing them something of domestic science, but in training them to coordina- 76 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION tion of mind and muscle. The baby, who early in life pretends she is a lady pouring tea from her tiny teapot, is careful not to spill a drop, and she learns how to control her eyes and her hand. Curios. Curios furnish a foundation to teach many lessons upon many subjects. Through cor- respondence with foreign Esperantists, mothers may secure many curios by sending objects representa- tive of America to people in other lands and receiv- These cats can be easily drawn by any child with a fifty-cent piece and a quarter ing foreign curios in exchange. Geography may be made a live topic in front of a curio case. Coins. American coins are a great help in playing store and in showing children the real value of money. They may be used also in drawing vari- ous designs. Foreign coins teach children to be- come familiar with foreign currency. Centaphrase French and Spanish Games. For mothers who can not afford to employ a French or Spanish teacher these games are most helpful, MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 77 Language Phone Records. Although the lan- guage phone records are perhaps too expensive for every mother to use in teaching her children for- eign tongues, yet they cost less than paying a foreign teacher, and they teach one to speak with a perfect accent and to use correct speech. I would suggest that several mothers buy these records in partnership and instead of playing bridge for amusement try to learn a language which they can teach to their little ones. The Candoit Toys. These groups of little toys, illustrating the classics of children's literature, have proved invaluable as a medium of oral expres- sion for the child. They place before him a clear image of the story he is telling, causing him to for- get self -consciousness and in no way hindering his imagination. The toys lead to constructive ideas. All children enjoy putting the parts together, and after hearing the stories connected with these toys they love to tell one another said stories. The inventor, Miss Edwina Fallis, has arranged the following stories to be used in toy form : The Three Goats, Gruff, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Journey to the Mountains, The Three Little Pigs, The Building of the Home, Tom Scott's Circus Wagon, Santa Claus and His Reindeer, Lit- tle Red Riding Hood. Louise Brigham's box furniture toys are also use- ful to teach construction to children. 78 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Storiator toys teach little ones construction, give them something to amuse them when they have no playmates and teach them how to express their thoughts in story form. The Cincinnati Educational Card Games. These games upon many subjects are a great help to both teachers and pupils. From their use chil- dren may become familiar with most of the wild animals, birds, trees, flowers, stars, etc. The Typewriter. I have left the best fairy of all until the last, like the little girl who saves her best t id-bit to eat after dinner. In the line of an educational toy there is no doubt that the typewriter is the most useful. Beginning with little children two years of age, they may be taught to know their letters and num- bers, yes, even punctuation marks, through striking the keys on a typewriter. They have no difficulty in learning to read simple text, by copying same on this machine, and there is no better way for any one to learn how to become a good speller, to master the approved methods of punctuation and to mem- orize anything that is worth remembering, than through writing on the typewriter. It also strengthens a child's fingers so that he is able to play better on the piano or violin than if he. had not had this training. With the help of a fairy typewriter I have taught a number of children to read simple stories, such as MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 79 Peter Rabbit and O' Shea's Nursery Classics, in less than two weeks. I can safely guarantee that any normal child can be taught to read simple sentences through the typewriter route in ten days. Recently I have experimented with a typewriter, using script type to teach the children to read writ- ing and to give an idea of the formation of letters and how they look when used in writing letters. I place the typewriter in front of the Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk, show the child "A" on the machine. He strikes and makes an "A" for him- self. Then I show him the written "A" on the Chautauqua chart. After writing a few words or letters, I remove the typewriter, give him a piece of paper, and let him try to make the letters he has written on the typewriter, which are before him on the desk. Regardless of his interest in this writing game, do not allow him to try to write for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. Writing on the typewriter will not cause nervousness to any child, but trying to write with a pencil is more difficult and discour- aging. If the child makes too many attempts to hold his pencil properly and write "A" at his first lesson he will feel irritable and know that "he has nerves." Older children may write long letters in script on the typewriter, read them aloud and copy them. This is excellent practise in learning how to read script easily and also how to produce it. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION The children in Natural Educational Schools first learn to write on a typewriter with type showing printed letters. As soon as they can write short stories or letters I show them how to use a pencil in writing their own names so that they may sign letters they write and send them to their friends. I use a box of script letters as designs. The children pick out the letters which spell their names, place them together, forming the desired name, and thus get an idea of what the name should look like. Sometimes they trace the letters on paper and some- times they play games with both printed and script letters, showing two letters representing a certain letter of the alphabet. The teacher writes a child's name on a piece of paper and he tries to copy it. Later on he uses the typewriter having script type, and he thus learns to read both print and script. CHAPTER IV TRAINING THE PHYSICAL PART OF THE CHILD'S TRINITY THERE is nothing so important in the develop- ment of the child as to give him a healthy body. Of what use is an abundance of knowledge and a keenly developed spiritual nature if the en- lightened mind and spirit must dwell in a sickly body ! The body, which is the most wonderful piece of machinery in existence, is not appreciated by par- ents and children to its true worth. If we neg- lected our automobiles as we do our bodies the ma- chines would refuse to do our bidding, and as a consequence of self -neglect we are not the race of healthy beings nature intended us to be. Prenatal Influences. Mothers and fathers should think of the health of their unborn children by taking care of their own bodies through habits of right living. A mother does not eat green pickles and drink champagne after the birth of her child when she is nursing him, but she sometimes indulges in indigestible food and drink before the little one is born. She should think of her diet as religiously before the child's birth as after, and she should give him a heritage of smiles and good cheer. 81 82 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Preparation of Nursery. His nursery should be prepared along hygienic lines with simplicity and yet with objects of beauty to develop the esthetic sense within him. From the hour of his birth he should live in an atmosphere of love and his five senses which nature gave for his protection against many dangers should be developed as keenly in his nature as in that of his savage brothers. Exercise With a Stick. To develop the muscles of his back, begin when he is about six weeks of age to let him hold to a stick. Rely upon his simian instinct and raise the stick slowly while he will hold to it. Have pillows beneath him so that if he falls he will not be hurt. But I have sel- dom seen babies who would let loose from a smooth stick by which they were being lifted. Sense Training. In my book, Natural Educa- tion, I tell how Winifred's senses of hearing and of color were trained through having a set of bells of different tones and tied with different colors hung at the foot of her bed. I would ring the red bell and while holding it up so as to attract the baby by sound and by sight I would say, "Red bell." In the same way I showed her the other bells. At first she paid no attention to the bells, but gradually she began to observe and to find delight in both the bright colors and sweet tones of the bells, and soon she learned to know them by color and to be able to ring them herself. In the same way she found pleasure in sitting up in her bed and driving imagi- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 83 nary horses with a pair of sleigh-bells which she loved to shake ^-vigorously. First Lessons in Ball Playing. Give your baby fresh air through open windows and walks in the open. Try my plan of training him to be a foot- ball player through kicking a ball suspended from a string attached to another string fastened to two chairs. Give him daily baths, alcohol rubs and simple exercises such as letting him hold to your fingers and pulling his arms gently back and forth. Nurse Baby if Possible. If possible, nurse him. If not, consult the best physician as regards the best diet for him. Always remember that what is meat to one person is poison to another and that no one can prescribe a certain food which will be a benefit to all babies. Mother, First Teacher and Nurse. Nature in- tended that the mother should be her child's first nurse and teacher, but there is no reason why the mother, if her purse can afford it, should not have a nurse or governess to help her care for her child. Some wealthy people pay high prices for cooks and ladies' maids but employ cheap help for their chil- dren. When children are ill, parents send for the best- known physicians, regardless of price. I can not understand how they are willing to trust their inno- cent babies with untrained, untutored nurses. I am striving to educate a number of mothers' helpers 84 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION who will be fitted mentally, physically and morally to help mothers care for their babies. Train Mind in Cradle. Do not be afraid to have the child's mind trained in infancy. The brain of a baby does not double its size from two and a half years to three years of age for nothing. It is then that he has the keenest mind and he should be given food for thought. Fill his mind with beauti- ful thoughts for use in old age and train him to be a busy unit of society, a producer as well as a con- sumer. Gaining knowledge does not destroy his childhood and does not injure him as long as he is interested. It is only when he is forced to use his mind that the brain suffers, and with it the body and the spirit. Training Baby to Take Care of Body. Train him to care for his body and to glory in cleanliness. Impress upon his mind the importance of keeping his teeth clean, for as Doctor Woods Hutchinson says, "We are just as old as our teeth." Show him self-control by not giving way to temper. Teach him the joy of service. Keep him at some good work and he will be healthy and happy. The mind does not suffer from good healthy exercise of the body and the body does not suffer when the mind works for some good end. Parents Patterns for Children. If parents want good, healthy, happy, intelligent and useful children they must act as patterns for their children, MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 85 and if the little ones are led, not driven, by their parents, they will grow up into improvements upon parental patterns. CHAPTER V CHARACTER BUILDING A SHORT time ago I saw an advertisement showing a powerful bull striving to pull a rope from the hands of a child. His efforts were in vain, because the rope was fastened securely around a stout oak tree which the artist called "Character," and the light touch of the child at the other end of the rope held the powerful beast se- curely. If we give our children good characters, we give them strength which can not be taken from them. The welfare of every individual and of society at large depends upon the character of each man, woman and child. Some mothers may ask, "What is character?" Doctor John W. Carr, president of the Character Development League, says it is self-control and self- giving and that the first great object in teaching character is to awaken a desire to do something for somebody else. This can be taught only through concrete illustrations of self-devotion, self-sacrifice on the part of teachers who wish to develop noble 86 MANUAL OF! NATURAL EDUCATION 87. characters in children. This is the object of natural education. To develop character I have adopted TEN COM- MANDMENTS, which should be used with self- control' to make children happy useful members of society. My Ten Commandments Never give corporal punishment. Never scold. Never say "Don't." Never say "Must." Nerer allow a child to say "I can't." Never refuse to answer a child's questions. Never frighten a child. Never ridicule or tease a child. Never allow a child to lose self-respect or respect for his parents. Never banish fairies from home, the most attract- ive spot on earth. Never Give Corporal Punishment. I look upon whipping as a relic of barbarism, and scolding has driven more children from home than the lash. [The very air of some homes is reeking with the word "DON'T." It is not necessary to use this word in speaking to children. When you wish them to stop doing something which is not to your liking direct their energies into other directions. Give them something positive to do and avoid negative forms of speech. 88 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Never Say Must. I consider the word "must" as a tyrant's expression. Why should we say to Mrs. Jones, "Will you kindly bring me a book?" and to our dearly beloved child, "John, you must pick up your toys." If we are living examples of polite- ness in the presence of our children and always address them in polite terms they will respond by being polite to us, and polite means kind. Never Allow a Child to Say Can't. "I can't" is a coward's word which parents should avoid using. If parents say "I'll try" instead of "I can't," children will do likewise, and the I'll try fairy will help them to walk along paths of success upon which users of the word "I can't" will never tread. Never Refuse to Answer a Child's Question. All parents find it difficult to follow my sixth com- mandment never refuse to answer or at least try to answer all questions asked by children. Every bright child is a living interrogation point. He is eagerly seeking for knowledge which he gains through his explorative tool, the question. Some- times parents are in the dark and can not answer his questions. In the early days Winifred asked me many questions that I was unable to answer without considerable research. Now I use the chil- dren's encyclopedia which answers practically every question a child may ask. Never Frighten a Child. It seems hardly pos- sible to believe that there are loving mothers in this world who will break my seventh commandment MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 89 concerning frightening a child, but I have found such mothers. They use this means of subduing children full of energy and thus plant seeds for nervousness and unhappiness not only in childhood but for years to come. Never Ridicule or Tease a Child. Few moth- ers break the eighth commandment forbidding the teasing or ridiculing of children, but the best of fathers are often guilty. Big boys like to tease little boys, husbands enjoy teasing their wives, and the trait sometimes brings about disastrous results. If we tease a dog we make him vicious and if we tease a child he is liable to become irritable, and even a criminal. Never Destroy a Child's Self-respect, or Re- spect for its Parents. The breaking of my ninth commandment has caused rivers of tears to be shed by young people. Some parents forget that young children have self-pride and deserve respect shown to them ; such parents will scold or even whip their children in the presence of strangers. Thus they destroy the child's self-respect and when that is gone he is lost. If we continually tell a boy that he is bad and ugly he will lose respect for himself and live up to the reputation we give him. If we tell him that he is good and beautiful in our eyes he will strive to put himself in the picture we paint of him. If you wish to control your child you can never allow him to lose respect for you by your actions, speech or manner of dress. Many boys and girls MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION suffer anguish because other children make fun of their parents, who are slovenly in speech or clothes. A mother who gives everything to her child and goes like a rag-bag is not respected and admired by the child, who is often ashamed of this sac- rificing parent. .We must keep neat and clean in appearance and up to date in knowledge of what is going on in the world if we are to maintain con- trol over our children through keeping their respect for us at the top notch. Never Banish Fairies from the Home. In my tenth commandment lies the strongest point for making good citizens and producing national ef- ficiency ; for producing great inventors, poets, artists and men of worth in all walks of life that of keep- ing fairies in the home, which should be the most attractive spot on earth. In the home where fairies are banished and nothing but plain cold facts are allowed, where imagination is not courted through games, music, beautiful pictures, works of sculpture, and smiles radiating from love, there can be no cre- ative spirit, no great joy; and children who can not sing, dance, play cards and have a good time at home will go somewhere to enjoy themselves; and sometimes this somewhere leads to destruction. I am not a believer in spending hours playing bridge or in dancing until one is exhausted, but a game of cards (not necessarily so-called playing cards, but those which are instructive) and dancing and sing- ing in the home can lead to no more harm for MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 91 grown-up children than can fairy tales injure the little ones. Fairies develop the creative faculty through which inventions are made, discoveries brought about, music composed, painting inspired, and all of the beautiful and good things of life are made to be of service to mankind. It is fairies who whisper to us to do good deeds, fairies who banish sorrow, fairies who bring us our highest hopes and inspirations. If we do not become acquainted with these sprites in childhood, we shall never learn to love them, and we shall go plodding along to life's end without once getting on the heights of Imagina- tion. I appeal to you, good mothers; court the fairies! Keep them by your smiles in your home and encourage your little ones to lead good pure lives through telling tales of what the good fairies have done and can do. I have always used these sprites to help me keep order and discipline in my home. They were charm- ing substitutes for the rod, and they assisted me often in quelling noises caused by Winifred expel- ling quantities of nervous energy. Little Quiet Fairy would come to visit us and bring some nice gift, if we would rest and relax for a few minutes so that not a sound could be heard. Queen Titania came at night and changed coffee beans placed be- neath Winifred's pillow to candy, and sour lemons placed in the corner of her nursery were changed to sweet oranges or applies. If Winifred had been a naughty girl during the day she was punished by 92 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION the consequence of her own act, and she knew that the good fairy could not come to see her. Thus she felt no bitterness toward her mother, but was sorry that she had been naughty. If this same little girl had been careless and left her dolls on the floor, Neat Fairy came and hid the dolls where Winifred could not find them for sev- eral days. Another help to keep the rod away and yet main- tain discipline in our home has been escutcheons upon which golden stars were put each evening for good conduct, cheerfulness, neatness, self-control, etc. It has always been our habit to examine these escutcheons every Saturday night; to make new resolutions if the charts did not bring rewards, and then either to destroy or put them away so they will not bring unhappiness for the coming week. Many of my natural education mothers and teachers are using these character charts and getting wonderful results. The mother of five children, being reared a la natural education, writes me that her four- year-old boy is so proud of his escutcheon that she has to nail it to a block, so that he may carry it around with him while he is playing. At night he brings it to his mother with the hope of gaining a new star, and when he receives a star he is as happy as Alexander conquering new worlds. There are few mothers who adopt the Solomon rule to whip their children for moral growth. They ;\vhip only when they are angry. After the anger MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 93 * * * * * * * * * -1C * * * * 5 94 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION cools, they kiss the delicate flesh of the spanked baby and feel like criminals, while the babies think that they are martyrs. Nature intended that we all must suffer from the consequence of our act, but she did not intend that we were to be driven into right paths of living with the rod. Parents must guide their little ones through example, and if these little ones show perversity then they must suffer from some deprivation until they are willing to fol- low the straight pathway leading to eternal truth and happiness. CHAPTER VI REQUIREMENTS FOR NATURAL EDUCATIONAL SCHOOLS NATURAL Educational Schools aim to pre- pare for the great object of life parenthood. Most of our colleges give students information upon all subjects tending to make them efficient men and women except the most important subject of how to prepare for parenthood. First-born children are used as experimental mate- rial for young parents. Rearing children is too serious a problem to be left to chance. It is our duty to know how to care for the mental-physical-moral trinity of our children before we bring them into the world, which is but a stepping-stone to future worlds and eternity, Schools Like Homes. In our Natural Educa- tional Schools we strive to teach parents to care for the physical side of their children and we show them how to develop the mental and moral side of youth through playing games and telling stories to the little ones and also through personal example. In good weather all instruction is given to the children in the open, but in bad weather we play in 95 96 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION our schoolrooms, which have no resemblance to the old-time static seats of learning. Everything is ar- ranged to make these rooms look like home. There are good pictures on the walls to give the little ones Made by Winifred to teach her pupils geometrical figures and fractions an appreciation of art in early childhood, since we believe that this will help them to go through the world with eyes open to the beauty of art in all forms of nature. With the same object in view, we have a few MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 97, copies of great works of sculpture on brackets, man- tels and shelves. Curio Cabinet. In each schoolroom we have a curio cabinet. Until war cut off our correspond- ence with people of all nations through Esperanto, we received many of these curios from foreign Esperantists to whom we sent little tokens from this country. Such a curio cabinet gives the teacher many opportunities to interest young children in people of other lands and to teach the little ones something about foreign countries from both the geographical and the historical standpoint. Dynamic Instead of Static Schoolroom. There are no stationary desks or tables in our schoolrooms. Each child has his own light chair, which he can carry with him, and our tables are so light that they can be moved to different places. The Louise Brigham furniture is ideal for nurseries and schoolrooms, because of its lightness, adaptabil- ity and practicability. Instead of blackboards, which fill the air with choking dust, we use large sheets of manila paper, upon which we write with colored crayons. The schoolrooms are never touched with the old-time janitor's broom and dust-cloth. Vacuum cleaners and mops are substituted. Following Japanese Customs. Believing that the European and American fashion of wearing the same shoes in the house that are worn in the street is a filthy and dangerous custom, I encourage the children to leave their street shoes at the door and 98 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION to wear slippers when they enter the natural educa- tional playroom. I have taught them to admire the Japanese children who follow this custom, and also to adopt the Japanese habit of smiling, never say- ing disagreeable things, and being tactful or polite to every one. Books on Window-Seats. There are low win- dow-seats in all of these schoolrooms, and on these may be found such books as The Book of Knowl- edge, The New Standard Dictionary, the delightful books of Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, etc.), and Six Nursery Classics edited by Doctor O'Shea. Interest in Plants. To interest children in plant life, we encourage the little ones not only to have gardens of their own, but to plant seeds in boxes which we put in window-seats. Where we have not much space we use Mr. Bigelow's wonder- ful plant food and keep flowers growing in water. We wet sponges, sprinkle canary seed over them, and find great delight in watching the seeds grow. In some of our schools the teachers have made col- lections of peculiar plants which are always most in- teresting to children, Winifred takes pleasure in sending teachers samples of the marvelous Venus fly-trap which is indigenous to the flora of our pres- ent home in North Carolina. Live Things. All motion arouses interest in children. An aquarium containing goldfish and small turtles, tadpoles, etc., furnishes inspiration MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 99 j to teachers and food for thought among the chil- dren. Use of Victrola or Sonora. We use the tools or toys described in another chapter. A Vic- trola or Sonora is indispensable. Through these instruments we can teach eurhythmies and dancing in connection with songs in foreign languages. A piano is a valuable adjunct to any schoolroom, but when the teacher must play this instrument she can not lead the children in eurhythmic work. Candoit Toys. I have found that the Can- doit toys are a delight to all children. They prove my best helpers in teaching children ideas of con- struction. Fairy Typewriter. The fairy typewriter oc- cupies a most important place in every natural edu- cational schoolroom, and through its help children gain a knowledge of reading, spelling, punctuation and good English without any hard work. This good machine helps them also in memorizing beauti- ful thoughts of great minds and in strengthening the fingers so that they can play with greater ease on the piano or violin. Seeking Knowledge. When children tire of active games they are encouraged to sit on the cozy window-seats and seek for knowledge in The Book of Knowledge. When questions are asked by the children, which the teacher does not know, both teacher and pupils run to the children's encyclopedia to seek for the answers. I believe with Socrates 100 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION that interest must be aroused in pupils to seek infor- mation through questions and this information given by answers. Teaching Abhorrence of War. In each school we have at least one copy depicting a Verestchagin scene of war horror. We do not encourage the chil- dren to look at this picture constantly, since we be- lieve in keeping the cheerful things uppermost in his mind, but we teach him to abhor the "War De- mon" by showing him the devastation wrought by hatred of one nation for another; and each day we preach universal peace in our stories and in our games. If we are to have peace in this world we must train young children to abhor war, and this training must begin in the nursery and be carried on in the schools. "We are as our ideals." If we make warriors ideals of manhood, children will strive to become warriors and w r ar will go on forever. If we teach ideals of peace and love through self-con- trol, lack of bigotry, and admiration for the con- structive genius we are leading to the reign of peace. Peace Tongue Esperanto. To encourage children in a love of all mankind, we teach them the peace tongue, Esperanto, the international medium of communication, which I believe will help to break down barriers between nations; and as soon as the children learn to write in this language they send postal cards and letters to children living in foreign lands. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 101 Individual Training. Believing that each' child should receive individual training if he is to develop the talent or tendency nature gave him, we allow but ten children in each school. And knowing that children can not concentrate their energies for more than fifteen minutes we never play any game over ten minutes, so that we stop playing while the interest is keen and the little ones call for the same game on the next day. Our teachers are encouraged to smile, regardless of any heartaches, and to play with real spirit with the children. School lasts but two hours, and as we are constantly changing our games there is no rea- son why either teacher or pupil should become weary. Rewards and Punishments. Each" day we offer some reward for good behavior, as I believe that it is a natural impulse to work better when some bright prospect is in view. Some of our greatest financiers acknowledge that efficiency in their help comes from offer of reward. We are all working for some reward on this earth or in the world to come, and the promise of some prize is particularly inspiring to little ones. It is only just also that a child who has been told the consequence of a wrong act should suffer from the consequence. This is nature's law. We steer clear of the whipping Scylla and scold- ing Charybdis and use Love and Interest as spurs, MANUAL OP NATURAL EDUCATION but we show our displeasure when children are naughty by banishing them from the roll of knight- hood or leaving their escutcheons without golden stars. Developing the Imagination. Above every- thing we strive to accomplish is developing the imag- ination or creative faculty through fairy stories, pageants and playlets. No one can be a natural educational teacher who does not believe in fairies, and we use these little sprites to help us in all of our educational games. We believe that children should have freedom, but we do not believe in throwing them into a pond and telling them to swim. We believe it is better to follow Mother Duck's plan and show them how to swim. Believing that the memory age closes at twelve years and that the mind is keenest from the age of two and a half (when it doubles in size) to the sixth year, we encourage parents to begin in- tensive play leading toward learning different lan- guages when babies are but two years of age. All languages are taught by the natural or direct method of training the ear before the eye, and music is taught in the same way through eurhythmies. When mothers can not speak languages they may use lan- guage phone records. Teaching Children to Draw. As one of the best ways for a human soul to express itself is through drawing, our children all learn something of this art. First by drawing on a sand board made MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 103 by wetting sand and rolling it; next by gathering leaves and laying these leaves on white pieces of paper and outlining them ; next by copying geomet- rical figures which they first make with sticks, and finally by striving to make original sketches show- ing their opinions concerning the sky, sea, etc. The Chautauqua Industrial Art Desk is a great help in this work. No Examinations. In my endeavors to intro- duce natural educational ideas in homes and schools I am not criticizing teachers, who deserve crowns of glory, but I am fighting against some of the in- quisitional tortures which exist in the schoolroom and lead to the wreckage of nerves, happiness, and, in some cases, death of innocent children. Chief among these tortures is that of examinations. They are no test of what a child knows and often cause him untold anguish. Fear of not passing and being considered an inferior person has even led to suicide and insanity. When a teacher talks with a pupil each day she surely ought to have some idea of how much he knows. General Information Books. In our schools we use question boards. Each morning the chil- dren come to school and ask questions concerning things they want to know. The questions are read aloud to all the children and when no one can answer them we turn to the children's encyclo- pedia, The Book of Knowledge. Children who can write have General Information Books in which 104 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION they put down each day the information they have gained beneath the date and subject, "What I have Learned." They write in these books instead of having regular writing lessons or copy- ing set phrases. They are very proud of their books, try to keep them neat and do not feel lack of interest when writing because they know they are writing for a purpose. At the end of the month the books are examined, and according to neatness, completeness, accuracy, etc., they are given rewards of golden stars. Every star is counted during the year, and the pupil gaining most stars is crowned queen or king at the end of the term and given a prize. We encourage our children to Keep their General Information Books as a help to them, should they become parents or teachers, and we find that the knowledge we give them is retained far better than it is in pupils who cram for examinations. I believe that it is just as cruel and as useless to give examinations as it is to dig up plants to see if their roots are growing. Sometimes the plants die as a result of such digging. Moving Pictures. In time we hope to intro- duce moving pictures into all of our schools and through them teach children of different customs in various lands, stories of history, geology, elemen- tary chemistry, botany, etc. No Patent on Natural Educational Tools. There is no patent on any games used in our schools. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 105 Any parents who are willing to study for a short time with a trained natural educational teacher can found a school in their own home ; or two or three families may join together to form a neighborhood school. All that is required for a Natural Educa- tional School is good environment and teachers who love children, know how to smile and have the abil- ity to arouse interest in the pupil as well as to give information through cooperation with him in devel- oping observation, concentration and the power to imitate and to explore for himself. CHAPTER VII TEACHING THE CHILD TO READ, SPELL, PUNCTUATE AND RHYME I AM a firm believer in a child learning the letters before he puts them together in words. Any two-year-old baby can be taught his letters through games with blocks and anagrams and by showing him the letters on the typewriter and asking him to find them "for mother." I used large red glazed letters, which I pasted on white cardboard and placed as a border around the nursery, to give my child her first ideas of letters. I began by showing her letter "A" and asking her to point out "A'' among her blocks and "A" with her anagrams. We talked of "A" and only "A" until she knew that letter perfectly. Then we exam- ined "B" with two humps on his back and learned to know him wherever we saw him in books or on sign-posts in the streets. We knew the sound of all letters from singing them to the air of Zn Lantcr- bach, but we became acquainted with the letters by learning to know them by sight, one at a time. Word Families. After Winifred knew all of her letters as individuals we began to form them into families. We would take a box of anagrams and, using a number of small pill boxes, we put all of the "a" letters by themselves, the "b" letters in 106 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 107 another box, etc. Any -baby finds this great amuse- ment, but do not let the little one work until he is tired. Help him with his task so that not much time will be expended in this game. Then teach him about the family of words beginning with the simple The child should learn his letters AT family. One of .Winifred's correspondents has sent her a number of keys which he uses in teaching children to spell, and we are using his idea for our family of words. We have one large key which we hang on a nail and call it FATHER AT. Then a number of small keys arc marked bat, cat, fat, gat, hat, mat, nat, pat, rat, sat, tat, vat.. 108 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION The mother asks her child to find cat, which belongs to the AT FAMILY, rat, etc., and to hang the keys marked with these words on top of FATHER AT. All children like this game, and it ..can be played with different large keys, each marked ,for some other family, as an, ad, ox, etc. Instead of keys, rings may be used. Buzzing Bees Spelling Game. In my book, Natural Education, I describe a spelling game which Winifred and I call "Buzzing Bees." We would arrange the alphabet in a perpendicular line, and then, following each letter, we would see how many AT bees we could make. We found that we 'could use b to make bat, c to make cat, but we could do nothing with d, so we put a mark on him and called him a drone. We found that he had lots of company with e, g, i, j, k, I, n, o, q, u, w, x, y and #. The working bees we named a, b, c, f, h, m, p, r, s, t and v, as they formed at, bat, cat, fat, hat, 'mat, pat, rat, sat, tat, vat. Then we counted our workers and found there were but eleven, while there were fifteen drones. In playing "Bee-Hive" we found that there were generally more drones than workers. This Buzzing Bee game can be tried with many combinations of letters, and after words have been formed it amuses children to make simple rhymes about the words they have spelled. Anagrams. Anagrams lend their aid to the parent-teacher in helping her to give her pupil an )N MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 109 idea of letters in many combinations of words. "Building Word Castles" delights all young chil- dren, and this is a game which even grown-ups en- joy. At least the Stoner family find delight in playing with anagrams and seeing who can form the longest words, or in making the most stepping- stones. In this game each player draws a letter from the anagram pot in the center of the table. Each letter is placed in front of player and each player, in turn, takes another letter, trying to form a word with his own letters or by taking letters from his companions. The game continues until a certain goal is reached by one player having made a word of an agreed upon number of letters or by the one making the greatest number of stepping-stones out of words. In forming word castles with very little children I often use blocks and celluloid animals, such as one may purchase in the ten-cent store, or the cardboard animals, bought at any kindergarten supply shop. After the child spells the word cat with his ana- grams or writes it on the typewriter, I illustrate the word with a picture. Use of Typewriter. Children learning to read on the typewriter are allowed to copy but a few letters at once so that they will be intensely inter- ested. If they copy a line from Peter Rabbit sev- eral times on the machine and then play spelling bee either with other children or with their parents they learn to spell the words as well as to read them. 110 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION In order to impress certain words upon the child's mind I have written a number of pages which I have illustrated with amusing drawings concerning the different domestic animals. On the cow page I re- peat the word COW in every sentence so that the ,baby will see COW as the word to remember. On this page let us say we shall use the following sentences : The COW gives milk. The C O W eats grass. The COW says "Moo !" The C O W has horns. In familiarizing the child with the word CAT, I use a page with the picture of a cat and the sen- tences : The CAT laps milk. The CAT eats rats. The CAT meows. All of these games are useful in showing children- how to build words after they know their letters, but I have found no more fascinating way to teach reading than through the typewriter. One of my two-year-old pupils amazed a Pitts- burgh audience in a natural educational demonstra- tion by writing the letters of the alphabet as his mother dictated. He was so fascinated \vith the typewriter that he paid no attention to the audience, and his mother tells me that since he began learning to write on this fairy machine she has had no trouble in keeping him "a good boy." Each morning when MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 111 he awakens he says, "Frederick is such a good boy to-day. He will write on the typewriter just now." Typewriter a Substitute for Grammar and Spelling-book. Henry Hardesty, a four-year- old natural education kiddie, taught himself all of the names of different grains by copying them on the typewriter. I have never found a child who was not interested in this machine. At a number of pub- lic demonstrations I have taken children, who had never before seen a typewriter used, and have shown them the letters in "Peter" and asked them to find these letters on the machine's keyboard and to strike. IP, every case the child was so interested as to be ob- livious of the audience and having seen "P" in the book he would find it on the typewriter and almost scream with joy after striking the letter to find an- other one like it on the white paper. And not only children but grown-ups can learn to become good spellers through writing on a type- writer, copying selections from the classics. I have found this machine invaluable in helping me to put my thoughts into concrete form. Speak- ers who wish to present their subjects without using notes will find it much more simple to speak upon any subject after having written with the typewriter the chief points upon which they wish to speak. It is my earnest hope that typewriters will be sub- stituted in the public schools for grammars and spelling-books, and that they will be considered as necessary as the piano and sewing-machine. 12 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Recently a college graduate who was trying to secure a position as a private secretary said : "It is a sad truth that we college graduates do not have as much chance to secure good positions as secre- taries or in offices, as girls who have attended busi- ness college and have not had a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science course. We have never learned the typewriter, and although we think that we have more intelligence and are far better fitted to do a secretary's work, yet because we do not know how to pound a typewriter, we are left to hunt positions easily secured by girls without our training." "True," I replied, "but girls with superior train- ing can learn to do something which a two-year-old child can do. And you should use your efforts to persuade all colleges to train their students in the use of this practical machine, since, more and more, all letters will be typewritten and less and less writ- ing will be done with the pen. The old fogy no- tion that it is not polite to use a typewriter in friendly letters is already dead. People realize that the pen is but an instrument to convey thought, even as the typewriter, and that the latter instru- ment is by far the safer thought conveyer." Punctuation Taught on a Typewriter. There is certainly no better way to teach a child to punctuate than by means of a typewriter. Last winter when a visitor came to see my school in Pittsburgh I asked Winifred's pupil, four-year- bid Billy Walsh, to copy something on the type- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 113 writer. Billy copied a page from his favorite book, Peter Rabbit, and in my pride to show how well he could write, I pulled the sheet from the type- writer before he had added a semicolon to his last line. "Oh, Patrino Stoner !" cried little Billy in a grieved tone, "why didn't you wait until I wrote the semicolon?" I am safe in saying that not many children of Billy's age know the difference between a period and a colon or even trouble themselves to know what a period is. All unconsciously and with no mental exertion, Billy has learned to punctuate simple sen- tences by copying short stories a on the typewriter. When children begin to read, I believe in giving them short and interesting stories for reading ma- terial rather than the disconnected sentences often found in reading books. Reading with Expression. In order to teach the child to read with expression, read a page to him and see that he thoroughly understands the meaning. Then when he reads this page or the por- tion assigned to him, he will read it in an under- standing and expressive rather than a sing-song voice. One of the best ways to teach reading with ex- pression and to develop the imagination is to en- courage the children to dramatize what they have read and to impersonate the different characters. The Aldine readers are written for this purpose and also to teach children to make original rhymes. 114 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Mothers can help their children to read by select- ing books with large print and by reading aloud to the little ones while pointing to the words being read. The children will follow the mother as she reads and soon they will know many of the words and recognize them when seen on other pages. Then the mother should let the child help her read, and when he comes to words he does not know, she should help him over the stumbling blocks. Mark Unfamiliar Words. In reading books it has always been my habit to mark any words with which I am not familiar and, after seeking for their meaning and derivation in the dictionary, to write this information on the margin of my book. Wini- fred does not approve of my method of making marginal notes in books, but she seeks for the same information and writes it in her General Informa- tion Book. Direct the Reading. From the first reading days parents should direct the course of reading pur- sued by their children. It is not Iwiv much we read but how well we read and what we read. We must all agree with Bacon that there are but few books out of the many thousands published yearly which are fit to be masticated and digested. If the others are not worthy of digestion, then why should we waste our eye-sight and time in reading them? Too Much Reading. Not long ago a man boasted to me that he read a different magazine each day. He was such a hollow-headed fellow that I MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 115 felt no hesitancy in asking him what he gained by this prodigious amount of reading, and I was not surprised when he answered: "Oh, nothing at all. I don't read them for information, but for amuse- ment." We can not account for people's tastes. r (S>ome people enjoy going to funerals.) But we can direct our children's reading so that they will learn to love the best that is in literature and not waste their time in reading trash. Let us train our little ones to become acquainted with good books and show them that these books will remain their life-long friends. During the past year Winifred has commenced making a collection of sentences, passages and even chapters from certain books which delight her. With these she has her favorite poems, and she finds much happiness in having what she calls her "Literary Goodies in a Nutshell." As time goes on and she adds to this book, I am sure it will become a source of great joy to her. There are many books of select quotations and extracts, but no one can make a book with all of our favorites. Each of us has a distinct opinion and therefore we must make our own "Literary Goodies Book." Keeping Personal Note-Books and Diaries. I am a great advocate of personal note-books with collections of one's own ideas and bits of general information. 116 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Samuel Pepys in the pages of his diary has given us more real inside information of the history of his day than most historians, and I believe that every child should gain pleasure, practise writing and learn to express his ideas by keeping a diary in which records are made of the important events of each day. A child who can not write well with a pen can use the typewriter and thus learn to express his thoughts in written form even while he is yet in babyhood state. Teaching Children to Make Rhymes. The past century was an exoteric age and poets were not in high favor. Some men who reached high places on Fame's ladder, through inventions or business routes, went so far as to revile the writer of verse and to look upon him as a "long-haired fool." Now the world is changing its opinions and poets are once more in favor. The master minds realize that the highest forms of thought expression are in poetic dress and that the greatest and best literature of all ages has come to us in this guise. "Woe be to the land where one no longer sings !" Goethe spoke truly when he said : "Wer der Dichtkunst Stimme nicht vernimmt, 1st ein Barbar, er, sei auch wer es sei." (And who the voice of poesy disdains Is a barbarian, be he who he may.) MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 117, I am a firm believer in teaching children poems of the great masters just as soon as they can talk and in encouraging the babies to make jingles about the dog, pig, hen, doll, etc., \vhich can be easily rhymed. Rhyming Games. Winifred has made a rhyming game for herself which she enjoys very much. Into a box she has put a number of inch cards cut from pasteboard upon which she has type- written many words which, as' she says, "belong to the same singing society." As an example Ant, Tjant, cant, chant, grant, pant, plant, rant, slant, decant and discant all belong to the same chorus. Cap, chap, clap, dap, flap, gap, hap, Jap, lap, map* nap, pap, rap, sap, scrap, slap, snap, strap, tap, trap, wrap belong to another singing bee. All of these words are thrown carelessly into the chorus box and each player draws out a word as in playing anagrams. When a player is lucky in get- ting a word which rhymes with words she has already drawn she must make some rhyme of two lines, bringing in the rhyming words at end of each line or she has to throw back both words upon cen- ter of the table and give next player a chance to make the jingle. The player who makes the most jingles wins the game. Sometimes it is surprising what good ideas of meter children have without a real knowledge of prosody, and there is no better way to train the metric sense than through this game. 118 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION List of Rhyming Words. The following list of rhyming words made by Winifred for ner games may be a help to mothers and teachers : Bab, cab, crab, dab, drab, grab, nab, scab, slab, stab, tab. Back, black, crack, hack, jack, knack, lack, pack, plaque, quack, rack, wrack, sac, sack, sfyack, slack, smack, stack, tack, track, alack, attack, nick-nack, almanac, bric-a-brac, cardiac, maniac, zodiac, de- moniac, hypochondriac. Ace, base, brace, case, chase, face, grace, lace, mace, pace, place, race, space, trace, abase, apace, debase, deface, disgrace, displace, efface, embrace, grimace, misplace, outface, out place, replace, unlace, interlace, interspace. A great favorite with children is the AT family of rhyming words. At, bat, cat, chat, fat, flat, gat, gnat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, spat, tat, that, cravat, acrobat. Another favorite the OG family. Og, bog, clog, dog, fog, flog, frog, gog, grog, hog, jog, log, prog, catalogue, decalogue, demagogue, dialogue, epilogue, monologue, pedagogue, syna- gogue. The IT family. It, bit, chit, fit, flit, grit, hit, kit, knit, lit, pit, quit, sit, skit, slit, spit, split, twit, whit, wit, acquit, admit, befit, commit, emit, omit, outwit, permit, refit, remit, submit, tid-bit, tomtit, transmit, unfit. . CHAPTER VIII (GAINING A PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE OF MATHE- MATICS THROUGH GAMES MATHEMATICS, the science which has caused many students to shed tears, can be made the most fascinating of studies. What we need is less problem solving, fewer theorems to be demonstrated, and more axioms or self-evident truths and practical routes of arriving at them to be given to our children. I believe that it is fallacious to teach a child only arithmetic in the grade schools, keeping all knowl- edge of algebra and geometry from him until he reaches the high school. Some children forget all that they have learned about arithmetic when they study algebra ; and again algebra is forgotten when they study geometry. In fact I have known children who seemed proud- s to have forgotten the arithmetic problems they learned in a lower grade. One little lad boasted to me that he never thought of fractions nowadays because he was working in decimals. It is foolishness to spend hours solving problems and to study many theorems if we are not going to make use of them in life. Education in its real sense is to fit us for life's work. 119 120 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Teaching All Branches of Mathematics at One Time. There is no reason why very young chil- dren should not learn about geometrical figures and be taught to seek for them in the objects around them. Simple problems in algebra can be worked by children in the grades as easily as long questions in multiplication and addition. Some of my pupils find great pleasure in working simple problems in algebra even before they are able to solve difficult problems in arithmetic. They delight in talking of the mysterious unknown X and are able to solve mentally such questions as the following : If John has 10 marbles and Peter has two times as many as John, how many have both boys to- gether? x 10 John 2x 20 Peter Both 3x 30 or the number that both boys have. Tommy has three times as many oranges as James and together they have 32. How many has each? Let X be the number of oranges Tommy has. 3 X is the number James has. 4 X is the number both have or 32. Then X or Tommy's number is one-fourth of 32 or 8. And 3X James* number is 3 times 8 or 24. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 121 Let the children copy these designs; learn the names of the figures they represent; and after cutting out their copies, let them try to form a square Very small children find more pleasure in draw- ing geometrical figures and distinguishing equilat- eral triangles from isosceles and learning the dif- ference between a right angle, obtuse angle and acute angle than they do in working sums. Making Geometrical Designs. Winifred has made a large box full of all sorts of geometrical figures for Billy Walsh. He has a railroad train which he builds out of powder boxes, such as can be purchased at a drug store. On these boxes are marked the names of various figures, and he de- lights in putting all of the squares into the imagi- nary car marked "Squares," "right angles" into car marked "Right Angles," hexagons into "Hexagon car," etc. He has become perfectly familiar with these figures just as he has with musical notes and his letters. At present he is making a number of these figures for himself and is grasping the relation of different 122 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION figures to one another. The last time that I saw Billy he explained to me that a square had four right angles and so had a rectangle. "But, you see, Pa- trino," he said, "all of the sides of a square are the same size, while only those across from each other are equal in the rectangle." We had not taught him this fact, but he had learned it by real reasoning or comparison. He makes circles with dollars, bottles, glasses, etc., and divides them into various parts, and he has much fun in trying to make designs with said circles and other geometrical figures. All of the children in our Natural Educational Schools are taught truths of higher mathematics from the very beginning. They do not waste time in working out abstruse problems, but learn the practical things of life, all of which are mentioned in the game which Winifred has written to help her remember necessary information concerning mathematical truths. First Lessons in Counting. I gave Winifred her first knowledge of numbers by pasting large red figures on a piece of white cardboard and putting it on her nursery wall. I pointed to the figure 1, told her it w r as called "one" and meant just one thing, as one finger, one piece of candy, one block, etc. Then I pointed to "two" and showed her two fingers, two blocks, two pieces of candy and so on until I had pointed out and explained all of the numbers to ten. Each day I would bounce a ball MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 123 and count as I bounced it or I would throw it to her and count as she and I threw it to each other. When I brushed her hair I chanted the jingle about "One, two, buckle my shoe," but was careful to give just two strokes for fear of puzzling the child as to the exact meaning of "two." When we took walks we counted flowers, birds, children, etc., and after having learned to count to one hundred in English we practised counting in other languages. I gave Winifred some idea of the relation of numbers and quantities by teaching her to count bites as she ate fruit or cakes and by playing with her blocks and dolls through taking away and adding different numbers of the objects. Unfortunately, the study of mathematics had been the bete noir of my early days, and although I had little trouble in teaching Winifred to count and to make change, I could not keep Fairy Interest as my helper when I tried to teach the tables to my little girl. She refused to sing "Two ones make two," and I am afraid the doorway to realms of "Matematiko" would have remained closed to her mind had I not met the noted mathematician, Adelia R. Hornbrook. When Winifred was five years old she made a tour with me to help gain converts for Esperanto. At that time she had written both jingles and prose stories which editors of magazines and newspapers considered worthy of publication. She had made a translation oj: Mother Goose in Esperanto which attracted the attention of educators all over the 124 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION world. She could express herself in eight different languages, scan the whole of the first book of the JEneid, give lengthy recitations in a number of lan- guages and make impromptu speeches in Esperanto. She was conversant with the principal constellations in the heavens, knew all of the Scandinavian, Gre- cian and Roman myths, had a very respectable knowledge of history, literature and botany, besides knowing something of the various "ologies" and "isms"; and yet she knew almost nothing concern- ing the science of quantity. As my object in life was to make her a well-rounded happy being and as she rebelled against learning her tables I was dis- couraged and began to think that she was lopsided. At Chautauqua, New York, where Winifred was tested by a number of educators to whom she taught Esperanto, I met Mrs. Hornbrook. To her I con- fided my fears concerning the child's "lopsided- ness." She asked me to leave Winifred alone with her, and after talking with the child she told me that the teacher, not the pupil, was lopsided. She explained to me that with my love of music, litera- ture, languages, etc., I could keep Fairy Interest with me in imparting knowledge concerning these branches, but, as I disliked mathematics, I had not been able to attract the Interest Fairy. Where this inspiring sprite does not go, there is no love, no advancement along knowledge pathways. Being a veritable missionary in striving to teach children to love mathematics, Mrs. Hornbrook con- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 125 sented to teach Winifred through the mail. Each week for many months she sent me an outline of lessons, and while I tried to give these lessons as she directed, I began to be interested in mathemati- cal truths and to see interest in knowing the rela- tion which one number bears to another. The lessons contained many interesting games which I enjoyed developing in my own way in teaching Winifred. These and many other games, and the philosophy underlying them, are contained in a book which Mrs. Hornbrook is now writing, entitled, The Happy Learning of Mathematics. Teaching Prime and Composite Numbers. The sieve of Eratosthenes, noted Grecian mathe- matician, who lived in the third century before Christ, is very useful in teaching children about prime and composite numbers. I have had a num- ber of these sieves printed, and give them to chil- dren to see if they can mark out all composite num- bers with red ink and then count the primes which are left standing. Through this game they learn that there are 25 Mr. Primes in 100, not counting Mr. One, whose standing is well-known, since he can be divided only by himself. All other prime members of the prime number family can be divided only by themselves or 1, while the composite can be divided by other numbers. They are more com- mon, being 74 in number. The Game of Witch. I use the aforemen- tioned Hornbrook chart to play a game called 126 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION "Witch." The child chooses a certain number and writes it on a piece of paper. The paper is folded and put beneath a plate. The number he has chosen is an odd or even number in a certain column. Three chances are given to guess this number, and if no one guesses aright, the chooser may select another number. If the number is guessed, the guesser is allowed to select a number to be guessed. Charts to Teach Numbers. In teaching very young children to know the numbers, I employ a large chart upon which I mark the numbers after the Hornbrook Chart design. In the first column I use the numbers up to 10. In second column up to 20, etc. In a box I place numbers cut out of red card- board or the small wooden blocks which come with sets of Lotto and ask the young student to find the number in the number box which matches with the number of the chart. I have found two-year-old children who could match all of the numbers after a few trials, but I have never allowed any little one to continue playing this game more than ten minutes at a time. Charts to Teach Fractions and Decimals. Similar charts may be used to show children some- thing of fractions and decimals by cutting the chart into strips of ten each, and working with the tenths until children understand the value of tenths. Then cutting the tenths into halves and finally reducing the chart into one hundred squares. Each of these squares should be marked with a number, as little MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 127 Two right-angled triangles forming one square. A square. ' Four isoceles triangles in one square. One hundred little fairies making a square. Ten soldiers in each line. Ten lines of soldiers, making one hundred In all. j A square with one hundred baby squares. Ten divisions and ten in each division. Made by Winifred to teach young pupils in natural education classes geometrical figures 128 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION ones delight in picking out the numbers and laying them on the table so as to form a new chart. Teaching Odd and Even Numbers. To learn odd and even numbers, it is an excellent idea to play games with children only one of whom is without a partner ; or to use paper dolls, pretending that the dollies are going to a party. Two start the proces- sion. They are even. Behind them comes a lonely maid NUMBER THREE, who is odd, but when another doll marches by her side she is happy and together they make the even number four. Follow- ing this same idea children can play with chairs and dancing games and thus realize the difference be- tween a number which can always be divided by two and one which can not be so divided. Game to Learn Odd and Even Numbers. Cut out small squares from different colored card- boards and print odd numbers on some and even on others. Make an imaginary railroad train of pill or powder boxes, marking odd on some and even on others, asking the children to put all odd in car box marked "Odd" and all even in the box marked "even." The little ones think this great sport and learn to distinguish odd and even at sight. The same game may be played with an imaginary fish pond formed from a big bowl. Cut a num- ber of fish from cardboard. Mark "Odd" on some and "Even" on others. Let the odd fish be prize winners, and after all the children have had a cer- ^M MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 129 tain number of turns in pretending to fish, the one who has the most fish marked "Odd" wins the game. Teaching Foreign Currency. Foreign cur- rency may be learned by showing children coins or making cardboard coins and telling them the values as compared with American coins. Games can be played to go shopping in different lands where the children buy toys, dresses, etc., and pay for them in French, German or other foreign currency. The following table will help to keep in mind the value of foreign currency. (This table shows the approximate values) The Pound Sterling of England $4.8665 One Penny 02 One Franc of France, Belgium and Switz- erland 19 One Reichsmark of Germany 23 One Crown of Denmark, Sweden and Nor- way 25 One Lira of Italy 18 One Peseta of Spain 12 One Florin of Austria 37 One Piaster of Turkey 01 One Dollar, Mexican 35 One Ruble of Russia 48 To Learn the Value of Money. In order that children may learn the value of money let them play 130 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION A coin tower with real coins and pretend to buy and sell different articles. Small children delight in tracing designs with different coins, and often I let little ones amuse MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 131 themselves -by drawing a coin tower like the accom- panying one. Different animals and many other de- signs may be made with these coins to help form outlines. Lack of Financial Training. Few people have financial training as children, and that is why we have so much trouble with finances as we grow older. In the school, children are made to work problem after problem in arithmetic, rather than to learn the value of numbers with which they are working. There are women who grow up without learning how to write a check properly, and they have not the faintest idea of what finances in the broad sense of the term mean. Not knowing the value of money, many sons of rich men throw away their health and happiness in foolish and riotous living as soon as they inherit their parents' wealth. Many poor people will spend a dollar given to them by charity workers for some foolish bit of extrava- gance. Children Taught Use of Money. If children be taught the use of money and the difficulty of earning it, they will realize its importance. Encour- age little ones to give some of their pennies to help poor children, and to put others in the bank for a rainy day. Teach them to compute interest and they will find delight in watching the growth of their nest egg. A question of compound interest proves a delight to children if they have money in 132 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION the bank, but a child who has no money can not interest himself in working such questions. Each child should have a regular allowance given to him at the first of the month. And although his parents should cleverly direct him into proper spend- ing paths, he should be made to feel that he is free to spend the money as he wishes, and to use his own judgment concerning good investments for this money. Teaching Roman Numbers. It is easy to teach Roman numbers by showing the clock, and asking little ones to read dates on buildings, monu- ments and even tomb-stones. A visit to the ceme- tery is not very inspiring, but it helps to impress the meaning of certain Roman numbers if you take a few walks in the "city of the dead" and show the children how to read the Roman characters on grave-stones. Lotto. The game of lotto is most useful in teaching children to read numbers quickly. These games may be purchased in any five- and ten-cent store. Dice. Large dice furnish the groundwork for many games to teach mere babies to count. Any child enjoys rattling dice in a box, and when he is taught to count the spots on each side and to see how many spots are on the side he throws up- ward, he finds new delight in these useful toys. I had the pleasure of giving little two-year-old Homer Hardesty, of Akron, Ohio, his first lesson in count- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 133 ing through dice-throwing, and I was myself almost intoxicated with delight, while the baby screamed with joy as he discovered that he was learning to count. I showed him the one-spot on a big dice, and then the two-spot, while saying, "One, two." When he threw "one" he would point Game With Throwing Large Dice MOTHER WINIFRED 10 5 6 5 16 16 14 134 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION with his chubby fist and say, "One," and when he was lucky to throw "two" he screamed with de- light. In this way he soon learned to count to twelve, and could play parcheesi with his elder brothers. This game is excellent to teach little ones to count, and it may be made more exciting by placing small ducks or animals on the board to mark the position of each player. A game of dice which delighted Winifred when she was small was throwing dice in turn and putting down under columns marked "Mother" on one side and "Winifred" on the other, the results of our throws. We began with but two dice, and each of us took two turns. Thus there were only two figures to add to see who was winner. Through this simple game, using more dice as we progressed, and adding longer columns of figures, we have both gained proficiency in adding at sight. Abacus. In the learning of numbers, as Mrs. Hornbrook has so ably pointed out, our chief ob- ject is to get clear ideas of numbers in their rela- tions to one another. Some of the ways employed by Mrs. Hornbrook to teach this relationship is through an abacus with ten instead, of twelve rows of beads. This useful instrument has been em- ployed by the Chinese and Japanese for centuries to help in their counting, and all children delight to move the beads and to see how many are in certain rows, and how many more "four" are than "two." Through using this toy (to be obtained at any five- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 135 and ten-cent store) the teacher can show her pupil plainly that "four" is just twice "two," and that "ten" is two times "five." She can teach him sim- ple truths in fractions, showing that "three" is one- third of "nine" and "two" one-fourth of "eight." She can show him how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and by playing that the beads are different colored fairies the child will find great delight in thus gaining knowledge. Mathematics in Daily Occupations. I believe in striving to impress children with the relations of one quantity to another by allowing them to count the seeds in fruit, leaves on branches, pebbles in the sidewalk and other objects they see in their daily walks. Let them take a certain number of bites from a cake or an apple and count each bite, striving to see who can take the most bites out of one piece of fruit or bit of cake. This teaches the child to eat slowly while helping him to learn the science of quantity. Music in Mathematics. Music helps in all studies and the simple air of Yankee Doodle has helped many children to learn their tables. We sing our tables to this air while marching around the room and all unconsciously we have impressed upon young minds the relation of two to one and four to two. Games With Toothpicks and Jackstraws. Toothpicks and Jackstraws are invaluable to show relations of one number to another and to point out 136 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION geometrical figures to children. In Winifred's class of children at the Pittsburgh Shaw Natural Educa- tional School she would dra\v a picture of a triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, decagon, etc., and ask the children to make similar figures with . Drawn by Winifred employing the hexagon MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 137 their sticks. The children were taught that a hexa- gon is a plain six-sided figure. The word hexagon was written on the board in large letters. One child then wrote it on the typewriter, and the other chil- dren spelled it. After the children were thoroughly acquainted with the ordinary hexagon having six sides, Wini- fred would draw many pictures illustrating hexa- Drawn by Winifred employing the pentagon 138 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION gon houses, shoes, faces, etc., and the children found delight in seeing who could make the most hexagons of different form. At other times the little ones played going on a hexagon, pentagon, etc., hunt. They would go all over the house looking for these shapes in carpets, curtains, on the walls and in pictures. Thus they became familiar with geometrical figures which are so important in architectural designs. Making Cathedral Windows. Another game, which always delights children, is to give them a number of squares, triangles, trapezoids, rectangles, etc., which have been cut out of cardboard of differ- ent shades and let them try to make cathedral win- dows or designs for carpets, rugs, etc. When any design is unusually good we allow the child to paste it on cardboard and hang it in the schoolroom. CHAPTER IX TEACHING NATURAL HISTORY AND BOTANY NO OTHER study proves such a source of de- light to children as natural history taught in the natural way. Instead of telling children plain cold facts without illustrations, take them to the zoo or to a museum where they can see the animals and birds about which they are studying. Parents who are not fortunate to live where they can have access to such educational institutions must fall back on illustrated natural histories. By going to the woods children may learn to know the bird inhabitants and become interested in Mother Nature's feathered children. Writing Stories about Animals. Instead of giving the little ones aimless subjects upon which to write, take them to the zoo, describe character- istics of certain animals, then ask the children to write stories about these animals, which, after being neatly typewritten, can be placed in each child's scrap book, which he can call My Book and may be kept as a souvenir of his early attempts to express thoughts in written form. 139 140 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Children Love Animals. Natural tendencies lead all children to love animals and insects. Babies have been known to play with snakes and to find delight in their companionship. Anything that is alive and moves delights his babyship. An older person may scream with fear at the sight of a little mouse, but baby will coo with delight as he watches the rodent in action. Every child is a little Hiawatha eager to learn the names and habits of his animal brothers. Pets in the home are amusing and instructive, while through caring for these helpless creatures children learn to have a sense of responsibility. One of my young friends, Hugh Worthington, son of Admiral Worthington, U. S. N., became a naturalist and philosopher before the age of four years, through caring for all kinds of pets. A canary delights the baby and I have known chil- dren under a year of age to find great delight in watching fish, snails and other amphibious pets in an aquarium. A dog is the truest friend that any child or grown person can have, and a dog who is kept clean and guarded from infection, even as the baby is guarded, makes an ideal companion for the little one. All little children should be taught, as the chil- dren in Norway, to save crumbs from the table and to feed the birds, especially when there is snow on the ground. At our home we keep a small shelf outside the kitchen window, and each morning MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 141 Winifred places bread-crumbs for her wild feath- ered friends. They are learning to know her and on several occasions have perched on her shoulder. Taught to Care for Birds. Children who are taught to care for birds, learn to love these beautiful creatures, and when they grow to the adolescent (which some people call "the devilish") period they have no desire to rob the mother birds of their nests, or to shoot at these bird friends. Botany Fascinating to Little Children. Gain- ing facts about plants is a fascinating study to any child. Botany, as taught in many schools and semi- naries, leads to analyzing backward and is nothing but drudgery. Botany is one of the liveliest of all sciences, but some desiccated professors who are as sober as the town pump and as domestic as the house cat, but devoid of imagination and thrills of delight through just living have made botany a study to be hated by nearly all high-school girls and boys. Jhrough going to the woods, showing children plants and trees and letting them see the different parts of flowers beneath a magnify ing-glass, little four-year-old children can gain some real knowledge of the science of botany. Last summer I was amused to hear a sixteen- year-old high-school boy talking with a five-year- old naturally educated lad. The high-school boy asked the little chap what they should do to amuse themselves and the little chap said: "Oh, let's go 142 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION botanizing." "Great Caesar, no!" said the larger boy. "I've just been through botany at school and I never want to hear another thing about analyzing flowers." The little boy was greatly surprised to hear the larger boy, whom he considered a hero, showing dislike to plants. He said nothing, but went to the garden and pulled several flowers. He brought them to the swing where the wise high- school student was seated. Then he began to talk about the lovely calyx and still prettier corolla, the strange-looking pistil, and the stamen, until the high- school boy actually became interested and deigned to examine flowers brought to him for his inspec- tion. The little chap had showed him that the true science of botany is a live subject and not a dried-up one covered in the pages of scientific books. Jingles Helpful. Jingles may be made that will help children to remember facts worth knowing in botany, and games will help to arouse interest among young children. Encourage children to write short stories on the typewriter concerning the various trees they see in their walks or about which you have told them stories. The following description of magnolia trees was written by Winifred when she was eight years old: Story of the Magnolia. "Unlike oak trees, magnolias will grow only in a few places, chiefly in the subtropical countries of Asia and the eastern MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 143 part of North America. There are but fifteen dif- ferent branches to the magnolia family, which is a small number compared with the seventy-two vari- eties of the oak. The magnolia, however, holds the palm for being even more beautiful than the ma- jestic oak. At least that is the opinion of most people concerning the large-flowered magnolia, which grows from sixty to one hundred feet high and from two to three feet in diameter. It has leaves which are sometimes twelve inches long and four inches wide, and I often fasten these leaves together with bits of baby ribbon and make very pretty fans, "The flowers are large, white and waxy. They exhale a delightful odor, but if one dares to touch the heavenly flower with his sordid hands it turns brown and ugly just at the touch. This is also true of the bay flower and other flowers which are white and waxy in appearance. "It is a good thing that the wood of magnolia trees does not make good lumber or fuel because lumber- men let these beautiful trees grow and cut down other trees which are not quite so beautiful, but yet have stronger wood. "One member of the magnolia family lives in Japan. It differs from the magnolias in this part of the country, as it has purple instead of white blossoms. The Chinese use the flowers of mag- nolias which grow in their country for pickles, while 144 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION they use the buds to flavor their rice, and make a lotion out of the seeds which doctors prescribe for inflamed eyes. "Some people who live in the Allegheny Moun- tains, where the pointed leaved magnolia grows, gather the cones and steep them in whisky to make medicine for prevention of chills; the bark, seeds and cones of the magnolia Glauca are used to make medicine for rheumatism. Therefore this beautiful tree can not be accused of being made only for show, as it helps people even as less handsome trees of the forest do." CHAPTER X TEACHING CORRECT SPEECH HERBERT SPENCER said: "Teach a child good English in the cradle and he will speak it to the grave." This great man never opened a grammar until he was sixty years of age, and then out of curiosity. To him, grammar was the eti- quette of words, and as the late Elbert Hubbard has aptly said, "The man who does not know how prop- erly to salute his grandmother on the street until he has consulted a book is always so troubled about his tenses that his fancies break through language and escape. Grammar is the appendenda veriformis of pedagogics; it is as useless as the letter q in the alphabet, or as the proverbial two tails to a cat." A great many men who are noted for their liter- ary style believe that an extensive study of gram- mar, as grammar, obliterates individuality and we all know that there is no more irksome study to any child than plain grammar as taught by rules, pars- ing, diagraming, etc. Judged by Language. Parents can not be too careful about the language they use when talking to their babies, and every mother who wishes to give 145 146 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION her child the right start in life should be sure that she does speak good English before the child is born. We are all judged by the way we speak. Early impressions are lasting and we often hear school-teachers and college professors lapse into vulgarisms learned in childhood. Rules and Diagrams Do Not Teach Correct Speaking. Habits bind us all and the sponta- neous child who loves to run and to play, to pour forth its ideas in fountains of speech with little thought of the vehicles which convey these ideas, resents being forced to say "I have seen" when he learned to say "I seen" in the cradle. Some children go to school, learn all rules per- fectly, are able to diagram and to parse difficult sentences and yet say "It is me," "Ain't it so?" "Every one likes their own way;" "I have saw;" "He has got," etc. Their grammars have taught them that seen needs an auxiliary, but habit clings to the plain seen learned in babyhood. There are a number of simple text-books which show correct and incorrect forms of speech. Par- ents should study these and aim to speak good Eng- lish in giving baby his first talking lessons. Use of a Typewriter to Teach English. If a child has learned to speak English incorrectly I have found that the FAIRY TYPEWRITER is one of the best means of correcting this habit. Let us take the sentence "I seen a cat." Tell the child that "seen" is such a weak verb it can never stand alone MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 147 and ask him to write the correct sentence, "I have seen a cat," ten times on the typewriter. Then let him use the word "seen" with other verbs, such as "I am seen, I was seen, I will be seen," etc. Another help is to read good English aloud and ask the child why the author used certain words in certain ways. If a child persists in saying "ain't" after you have told him that there is no word "ain't" in any diction- ary, let him search through The New Standard, (which you can truthfully say contains all English words) and see if he can find this "abomination." Show Tommy that when he says, "Mary don't love me," he is saying, "Mary do not love me," which will sound so ridiculous to him that he will strive not to use don't in the third person singular again. Show Elizabeth that the verb "to be" belongs to a class of verbs called "Intransitive," which never have an object, so she can not say, "It is me." Tongue-slip Chart. We use a "Tongue-slip Chart" in our home and find it a help to all mem- bers of the Stoner family. We divide our chart in three sections marked, "Daddy-Mother-Wini- fred," and it is my object to put a black mark be- neath Daddy's or Winifred's name each time that either one makes a mistake. They in turn are watching for my mistakes and at the end of the week the one who has the fewest black marks wins a prize which must be contributed by the losers. Jhe one who has the greatest number of marks is 148 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION compelled to contribute twice as much toward the prize as the other loser. Game of the Wise and Foolish. There is an excellent little book called Better Say which has been a great help in our home in settling disputes concerning best forms of speech. With the help of this little book I have invented a game called "The Wise and the Foolish." On one side of the room is the kingdom of Queen Minerva, where wise peo- ple dwell; on the other side is the land of King Stultus, where foolish and slovenly people reside. Put all of the children in a row. Begin with any sentence or phrase. Let us take "Between you and I." The first child is supposed to say that this belongs to the Stultus realm, but if he thinks it is a Minerva sentence he must be banished to Stultus. We give the next child "I done it." He recognizes the mistake and declares that the sentence belongs to Stultus. He is therefore declared wise and goes to Minerva. After all of the children have been assigned to either realm they exchange places as they make mistakes or give correct answers. Sometimes cor- rect sentences are given and sometimes incorrect. The children are supposed to be on the qui vive and the teacher to explain why certain phrases are in- correct. At the end of the game either Stultus or Minerva wins. If the former the children are dis- appointed; if the latter they rejoice and call them- selves "Wise ladies and gentlemen." MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 149 SU3A 8U3AOV 8H3A 9M3AQV 9W3A 150 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION This same idea can be carried out by older chil- dren in making note-books. The Language House. This is a game which amuses any child and teaches the parts of speech. Draw the picture of a house. Explain that the large foundation stones are nouns. The smaller bricks resting on the stones and which may be used as the stones to hold up the house, are pronouns. The pillars supporting the house are verbs. What lets light into the house? The windows. Adjectives and adverbs give light in the sentence. Therefore we use the doors and win- dows as adjectives and adverbs. What shows rela- tion? The one gable of this house to the other. We call said gables prepositions. The shingles on the roof are joined together and known as conjunctions. The chimneys act as interjections, as they are used to let the smoke out of said house and we people use interjections when we wish to give vent to our feel- ing The LANGUAGE HOUSE may be used as a picture puzzle by cutting out a number of cardboard bits the shape of noun foundation stones, verb sup- porters, interjection chimneys, and allowing the child to build a house for himself. Complete lan- guage house outfits are sold by the Natural Educa- tional Toy Company. CHAPTER XT TEACHING HISTORY AND LITERATURE HISTORY is always a delightful study and the least difficult to make interesting to children. When the children are very young they may be told tales from histories of all nations; and to make these stories more interesting, the mother should act the incidents of the stories she tells. If there is but one child in a family, dolls may be substituted for other characters, and I suggest that celluloid or rag dolls make the best actors because they generally survive after the most strenuous scenes. If there are not enough rag or celluloid dolls to take the various parts, paper dolls may be used. I have amused Winifred for hours by cut- ting out paper images to represent Sleipnir, the eight-legged steed of Odin; Fenrer, the monster wolf; Thor, with his monstrous hammer; Hoder, God of Darkness (cut from black paper) ; Freya, on whose neck we would hang a bead necklace; Loki, God of Fire (cut from red paper) ; Balder, the Sun God (cut from yellow paper )V Paper Dolls Help in Teaching History. On a rainy day I brought happiness to my little girl by tell- 151 152 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION ing her ancient Roman, Scandinavian, or Biblical stories ; and as I told the stories I intensified her in- terest by making the characters. These paper dolls were not made and thrown away after one game, but kept in large envelopes, to bring out on stormy days and arrange for plays concerning these ever inter* esting characters. Through these games, qualities of the imagina- tion were developed. Winifred looked upon Fen- rer as a real wolf. Sometimes she feared that the chains which I crocheted for him out of silkaline would not hold, and that he would do dreadful things, like his namesake. She insisted that I cro- chet very strong chains for him, so that he could not cause destruction as did the Fenrer of Odin's court. Through these games the child became perfectly familiar with characters whose names are so often used in history and art, and concerning whose lives, legendary or actual, something must be known if we are to appreciate art and understand history. She named her dolls for various mythical, Biblical, or historical characters, and talked as freely of Apollo, Balder, and Romulus, Caesar, Moses, etc., as she did of Mother Goose characters. This knowl- edge helped her to appreciate many great works of art when she visited museums and to understand the allusions in many great poems. Her mind was trained to admire the classics and to be interested in history rather than in fiction MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 153 without a purpose. Reading without a purpose is but idle amusement, and that is why so many of us are not well informed. We waste years and years reading light trash which gives us no thought, whereas if we had been trained in infancy to learn what to read we would find greater enjoyment in our reading, save ourselves from becoming spec- tacled in youth, and be well-informed beings. Having awakened a thirst for facts of this kind and having laid a platform upon which Winifred could build up interest in all subjects pertaining to the classics, I have pointed out good books for the child to read and have thus opened avenues for a broader education. Reading for a Purpose. At the present time Winifred keeps a yearly book, called What I Have Read (giving the year). Each year, on Janu- ary first, she starts a new book, and in it she puts the subject, author, chief characters, principal events described and thoughts gleaned. At the end of 1914 she was permitted for the first time to see the old year out, and she was de- lighted to compare her 1914 reader with that of 1913. These books will be a fund of information to her in years to come. Last year we were planning to give lectures in order to help a Japanese friend in his school work. He was to help us illustrate our talks. We read everything we could find on Japan so as to become conversant with the history, customs, etc., of this 154 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION ever-interesting country. Through this year's read- ing we both learned so much about Japan that we could make a speech on the subject at any time, and we felt as if we understood the Japanese. This year we are striving to familiarize our- selves with everything about Germany, and we keep EQUI- LATERAL MRIANGLE An equilateral triangle has all sides equal A right-angled triangle contains a right angle ISOSCELES TRIANGLE An isoceles triangle has two equal sides A scalene triangle has no two sides equal A square is a quadrilateral which has four equal sides, four right an- gles and two right-angled triangles. A parallelogram is a four-sided figure with opposite sides equal and parallel. Drawn by Winifred to teach young pupils in a natural education class geometrical figures. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 155 our eyes open for information concerning this coun- try in all our reading. We do not read many magazines, but keep our- selves informed on current events through the Lit- erary Digest, the Independent and London Public Opinion, The Ladies' World y Mother's Magazine, and Child's Welfare. Card Games. To help impress historical facts in an interesting way, I give some of my historical games in the Natural Educational Game Book. Others may easily be made that will prove far more interesting to the maker. I have used Bible games in teaching the so-called "worse boys" in Sunday- school, and they have often been so interested that their behavior greatly improved. In the first place, I was careful to offer a reward to the lad who won the game. Then I designated the boys as both teacher and pupils, guiding them without their knowledge. The game is written with a series of questions cover- ing the entire Bible history, and when they know the game they know the Bible as a story. Being a game of chance, there was always some excitement in it to keep up the interest, and we never played long enough to let this interest flag. Mothers can try this with the history of the whole world, not giving too many dates, but picking out those impor- tant facts which educated people are supposed to know. Plutarch's Lives. When I have suggested to some parents that they give their children Plutarch's 156 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Lives to read, they have laughed at me. The idea seemed so absurd that little ones could enjoy any- thing written by a philosopher who lived hundreds of years ago. But Plutarch was a true master of word painting and knew the most interesting char- acteristics of people. He wrote over a hundred books and, as some great writer has said, "was never dull." Plutarch's Lives, edited by John S. White, will prove interesting and instructive to all children, re- gardless of age. His stories of Theseus, Romulus, Lycurgus, The- mistocles, Camillus, Pericles, Demosthenes, Cicero, Alcibiades, Coriolanus, Alexander the Great, Ar- chimedes, Pompey, etc., are full of historical facts and interesting truths of nature. English History. Tell the children stories from English history concerning the Landing of Caesar (55 B. C), Queen Boadicea, Caedmon, the English singer; King Alfred the Great, William, Duke of Normandy, who conquered England, 1066; Thomas a Becket, Richard the First and the crusades, the hated King John, Robert Bruce, Joan of Arc, the invention of printing, the discovery of America, King Henry Eighth, Queen Mary, Queen Mary of Scots, Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, Shake- speare, King Charles First, Oliver Cromwell, the story of the plague, the great fire, the story of Queen Victoria's life. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 157 Teaching Facts in History through Jingles. One of the best ways to teach children important facts in history is through giving them these facts in jingle form. Winifred has written histories of nearly all the European countries in jingles, and thus fixed in her own mind dates and happenings that she wished to remember. She has also written a number of jingles about the history of the United States, but recently when we found Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Historical Mother Goose we saw that these jingles were so much better than those of the Stoner variety and we decided to use them as our United States history memory helpers. Teaching Children of the Lives and Works of Great People. Teachers and parents should be- gin when children are very young to tell them some- thing about the lives and works of great men and women through stories of important happenings to these thought producers. When Winifred was three years old we played many games with paper dolls named Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, etc. I would recite something writ- ten by these great men, and Winifred would pick out the proper author and let him stand on a small box, which she used as a rostrum, while I talked. Then we would both talk to our literary character, Winifred generally asking the questions and I try- ing to answer. After a time the child became so 158 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION familiar with the poems, which I quoted, that she would pretend' to make some of the characters talk, repeating the poems herself. Each time that we played with these character puppets I told her interesting stories about their lives and showed their pictures in books. Thus she gained quite an extensive knowledge of the world's great writers without hard-work study. Later on we played the old-fashioned game of authors and a game which was written along plans of my Roman History Game. Having become interested in these characters, the child was eager to learn more about their lives and their works and has added to her knowledge through reading stories of biography and autobiography. CHAPTER XII TEACHING GEOGRAPHY THE study of geography may be made as fas- cinating as fairy-lore if the teacher finds inter- est in this study and brings it to the child's door as a live subject, pertaining to his every-day life. First Lessons in Sand. My little girl has ac- quired her knowledge of geography by playing in the sand, by playing card games, by traveling and seeing rivers, mountains, oceans, deserts, volcanoes, geysers, glaciers, etc. She gained her first insight into the study of geography through playing in the sand. First we made little rivers and mountains, while I explained the meaning of a river and a mountain. Often we spent happy hours making villages supposed to be cities in various countries. A favorite was Amster- dam, in Holland. We made little canals and tiny rustic bridges out of twigs of trees. We laid out gardens and put in paper tulips of various shades and many other flowers. On our imaginary canals we launched boats made out of stiff paper of red and blue and green shades. 159 160 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Teaching about Holland. The Dutch, as we all know, are very fond of bright colors, and Wini- fred had Dutch likings when she was a baby. There- fore, the more colored boats and flowers, the better pleased was my young lady with her village. I made windmills of paper and small rainbow-colored houses. I dressed a number of small celluloid dolls (which I bought at the ten-cent store) in gay costumes, wasting a lot of energy putting on the aristocratic number of sixteen and eighteen petti- coats. We pretended that our Dutch dolls skated, danced in their wooden shoes, scrubbed, trimmed trees in various designs, milked our paper cows, made butter and cheese and painted lovely pictures. Through playing this game W r inifred became per- fectly familiar with Holland as a country and with its inhabitants. We did not make a Dutch village each day until Winifred was weary, but after playing that we were in Holland for several days we traveled to France or to Germany and made French or German villages. We had tiny flags to represent all nations, tiny dolls, diminutive china images, such as can be bought as favors in most stationery stores, toothpicks, pebbles, shells, navy beans, twigs from trees, leaves, paper flowers and other small objects as our constructive material. After becoming interested in the various coun- tries, I taught W 7 inifred to draw maps by wetting the sand and smoothing it down \vith a rolling- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 161 pin. We drew the maps witli sharp-pointed sticks, while I talked about the chief points of interest con- cerning rivers, lakes, etc., which we were drawing. Dissected Maps. Another help to Winifred in gaining a knowledge of the shape and size of various continents and countries has been the put- ting together of dissected maps. Some maps are mere puzzles, not having the shapes of states or of countries, but aiming only to get the shape of a certain continent or country by putting a number of blocks together. This game is of no use in giving instruction and sometimes makes children nervous. In selecting a dissected map of the United States be sure to see that the pieces represent the various states. Games with Maps. An interesting way to give a child some idea of the various countries and their situations is to lay a large map on a big table. Start a tiny china or celluloid man on a voyage and travel with him as he crosses oceans in paper boats or travels in paper railroad carriages or automobiles. Winifred has always loved to take these map trips ; and when she was a wee kiddie she enjoyed also the journeys we took on chairs turned upside down. Sometimes she would be the captain and we would sail around the world, stopping at coaling stations and big seaports. Again, she was the conductor on a train going from New York to San Francisco, or from Canada to Mexico, or some other long journey, We had many accidents and were even 162 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION waylaid by robbers, but we managed always to get safely back home. Other Games. With the help of our Fairy Plasticine we had many games which made coun- tries of distant lands seem very near to us. As Winifred grew older I invented a curious question game, a game dealing \vith plain geograph- ical facts, a game concerning all of the people of the earth, and in the evenings we played these games with her father. She enjoyed the spirit of chance involved in these games and she learned something worth while every time she played a game. Esperanto. Esperanto was a great help in giving us geographical knowledge, as we corre- sponded with children in many foreign lands and asked them to tell us interesting facts about their countries and themselves. Jingles. Jingles and acting stories told in these jingles or in prose tales were a delight in our home, and I find that nothing gives the children of our Natural Educational Schools more pleasure than these geographical jingles. Scrap Books. The making of scrap books with pictures of different cities and peoples of vari- ous countries always amuses children and helps the mother or teacher to give useful information. Cut pictures from magazines, old books, railroad guide books, etc., and give them to the children to paste into scrap books. Tell interesting stories about said MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 163 places to the children and let the little ones write what they remember beneath the pictures. These pictures may be used also by children for their General Information Books when they write a report of what they have learned each day. Walks. Many important facts concerning physical geography may be taught by taking chil- dren for walks and showing them rock, soil, waters, shells, etc. When we lived on Puget Sound, in Port Town- send, Washington, Winifred and I had an excellent opportunity to study the various formations of the earth and water. Along the sides of the long flight of steep steps leading from our home to the down-town district there were huge rocks covered with soil, flowers and grass on top, but showing the different stages of rock decaying and forming soil. One morning, when taking a walk, I told Winifred to pull some grass from the top of the rocks and to feel the dirt around its roots. She rubbed the dirt in her hand and in answer to my question as to how; it felt, she replied : "It has a gritty feeling." I explained that all of this dirt was once solid rock, as she could see below, and showed to her that the dirt was still composed of tiny grains of rock which will even scratch glass. I found a bit of glass and allowed her to rub the dirt on the glass as proof of my statement; and then I showed her deep crevices in the rock that had been made by 164 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION. water, the other great rock destroyer who assists plants and earthworms in making rock into dirt. In all of our Natural Educational Schools, teach- ers are cautioned not to say, "Let us have geography for a half-hour." When we are studying geography we learn facts in history, and the same with history. In fact, a visitor to our schools could not tell, upon entering our playroom, just what we were studying. If grown people were told that they must sit down and study geography for one-half hour and not think of anything but geographical facts during that half -hour I am sure that they would not enjoy their study period, but when given freedom to learn inter- esting facts culled from all sciences pertaining to that subject there is nothing more interesting than geography. Before learning facts about far distant lands I urge my teachers to teach children about their na- tive towns, to take them for walks, show them the natural bodies of land and water and point out all historical buildings. Writing Descriptions of What They Have Seen. When they return to the school encour- age them to write simple descriptions of what they have seen in either prose or jingle form. There is no better way to gain a real knowledge of the world and its inhabitants than through travel. Winifred has been fortunate in having the advan- tages of extensive travel, but I know a little cripple MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 165 boy who has never been out of the four walls of his bed chamber, and yet, through Esperanto, the world has been brought to him, and in imagination he trav- els to every known land, guided by descriptions written to him by his friends from all countries. Teaching about India. A number of Wini- fred's geographical jingles are very amusing to chil- dren and help parents to arouse their child's inter- est in various lands. A jingle to teach little ones about India is written to the air of We Won't Go Home Till Morning. The children sing while dancing round in a ring : To India we now will go (three times) To see a monkey show (one time) ; To India we now will go (three times) To see a monkey show (one time). In our schools we use small individual globes, which can be purchased at the ten-cent store, in addition to a large globe. I first show the children where India is on the big globe. Then I give each child a globe and he shows me where the country is situated. I show the children that it will be impos- sible to get to this country by railroad trains, and so we'll have to sail. We turn some chairs upside down, put up an English flag, pretending that we are going to the land of which England is master, and away we go while singing: 166 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION We can not travel there by rail And so we'll have to sail. Now we land and see the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, which we learn is twenty- nine thousand and two feet high, more than five miles in the air and about the distance from our home to We show the children a foot measure, tell them the story about this measure's origin. Let them measure the room, or several rooms, until they have measured twenty feet. We then tell them that a mile is five thousand two hundred and eighty feet long, and Mount Everest is over five miles in the air. This gives them an idea of its height. Tell them about Mount Blanc, but explain what a stubby fellow this great king is compared with the taller Mount Everest. Then teach them the following lines and have them bend the knee to some imagi- nary mountain : And there Mount Everest we'll see And lowly bend the knee. These three verses will be enough to give to any child for one lesson, but I shall give several verses and explanations of same, so as to show mothers and teachers how interesting these jingle geography lessons may be made. Explain to the children that India is very hot. It MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 167 two squares four squares two rectangles in one square four squares two rectangles in one square four square made g from one three squares two squares Made by Winifred to teach young pupils about geometric figures 168 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION is a tropical country with jungles rilled with huge wild beasts and poisonous snakes. Then sing: In India the sun's so hot iVVe may melt on the spot. While singing these lines the children may shade their eyes as if from the burning sun. And when it rains great torrents fall To soak the great and small. Gestures indicating the falling of rain make these lines more interesting. In India we'll have a fright If cobras try to bite. Or even worse, a crocodile May come too close and smile. If we escape his awful jaws We may feel leopards' claws. Let some of the children represent the cobra, croc- odile and leopard while the other children try to get away from them. Show pictures of these animals and tell something of their habits. For the next day's lesson tell the little ones the story of the Juggernaut and explain about the differ- ent religions in India, where mothers once thought that it was their duty to throw their babies into the Ganges River to be eaten by crocodiles, and where MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 169 many little girls were widows and treated most cruelly because they were blamed for the death of their baby husbands. Tell how the English con- quered this country and did away with many cruel customs, but have not as yet succeeded in persuad- ing people that it is foolish and unhealthy to drink the water of the River Ganges and to look upon it as a precious liquid when it is in reality filthy water. After showing pictures of the Juggernaut and scenes in India, let the children sing the following verses : But I am glad as I can be No Juggernaut we'll see. And no harm will come our way If fairies with us stay. We have now learned that India is so situated that we must reach this land by way of a water route. We know that the climate is hot and that there are great downfalls of rain. We have learned that monkeys, crocodiles, fierce snakes and tigers live in this country, which has the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. Now we must learn some- thing about the cities of India, the wonderful things to be seen in this land and something about its products. Then we sing : Agra, Calcutta, old Delhi, And Bombay we will see. 170 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION But I'm so sad we can't behold ^The peacock throne of gold. Still we may see the Taj Mahal Called beautiful by all. Explain to the children how Delhi was once the most famous of all cities in India, and there in the long, long ago was a wondrous peacock throne cov- ered with all sorts of precious stones and worth as much money as Mr. Rockefeller owns. A warrior from another city came and conquered this city so that he might have the precious throne. He sold the jewels to those who would pay large sums for them and thus destroyed the beauty of this great throne. Tell the little ones about Taj Mahal, in the city of Agra. Explain that this is called the most beautiful tomb in the whole world and it was built as a loving remembrance to a sweet Hindu lady, the wife of a great Mogul named Shah Jehan, who is buried by her side. Now, show the children samples of cotton, indigo, tobacco, tea, ebony, sandalwood, bamboo, mahogany, silk, copper, tin and lead. Then sing: Indigo, cotton, tobacco and tea In India we'll see. We'll find in Burma rubies red And copper, tin and lead. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 171 Mahogany and teakwood, too, And plenty of bamboo. With ebony and sandalwood And other trees as good. And here we find the humped zebu .Which makes a funny moo. If there be a zoo in your neighborhood take the children to this educational institution and show them a zebu, once considered sacred in India. Ex- plain to them that foolish people in the long ago worshiped cats in Egypt, elephants in Siam and stu- pid cud-chewing cows in India. For another lesson on India sing the following verses : And in this pearl of the far East On mangoes we will feast. And lots of sugar we will eat, Our rice we'll make so sweet. And lovely silken robes we'll wear. With turbans round our hair. But in the Ganges we'll not wasK, For that is silly bosh. 7 2 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATIO] Instead we'll take an elephant ride Upon his trunk astride. Tell the children about the Durbar, and let them arrange a number of chairs with coverings over them and pretend that they are having a Durbar and riding in a glorious procession. Spelling India. On the following day teach them to write the word India on the typewriter so that they will all know how to spell the name of the country, which interests them. Then let them form the word India with their anagrams or jack- straws, trace it in the sand and write it in printing and script form. They will never forget how to spell the word, neither will they forget the chief points of interest concerning this country, and they can all find it on the map. Story of "Black Quibba." Read to them the story of Little Black Quibba , by Helen Banner- man. This story is most amusingly illustrated, show- ing a mango tree, a big snake and an elephant. A moral is taught in this story, as little Quibba w r ent to seek for mangoes and endured all sorts of hard- ships, not to get something for himself, but to pro- vide medicine for his mother. The story has a happy ending, which all stories for children should have, and the little ones feel almost as happy as the imaginary Quibba and his mother, who danced for joy. For a reading and spelling lesson give this book MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 173 to very small children and let them copy the text so that they will become perfectly familiar with all words used in the story. While studying about India read stories from Kipling's Jungle Books and The Jatakas Tales of India. CHAPTER XIII TEACHING MUSIC THE man or woman who reaches the age of twenty-one without having learned to appreci- ate the sweet sounds to be heard in the sighing of the breeze and song of rivulet, as well as in the songs of birds and of men, is indeed to be pitied. In most cases he can attribute his lack of musical sense to lack of training in early childhood. He did not hear music when he was a baby, and he grew to man- hood with no appreciation of beauty of tone. Mistake to Force Children to Practise. Some children have been driven to hate music through the way in which they were given lessons and made to practise. A famous authoress, in writing to me re- cently, said : "I certainly agree w 7 ith you concern- ing your opinions expressed in Natural Education against driving children to practise exercises on any instrument. As a child, my mother made me play two hours each day on a rickety spinet, whose sound almost drove me frantic and whose strings had a fashion of breaking with such force that I feared one would strike and hurt me. Each day my mother sat over me as a taskmaster and compelled me to 174 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 175 play exercises for a certain number of times, and the bitterness I felt toward her for this action estranged me so that I did not love her as a daugh- ter should love her mother through life." Use "Pieces" Instead of Exercises. The old 1 fogy idea that children must practise nothing but hideous-sounding exercises for two or three years before "getting a piece" has deserted the mind of the modern music teacher. He sees that beautiful melodies may be used as pleasing exercises. He is awakened to the truth that the study of the piano may be made most fascinating by teaching the child musical games and by telling him stories about the notes as if they were fairies. Victrola and Sonora. In an introductory chap- ter I have told of the use of the Victrola, Sonora, and various wind instruments in the nursery. These instruments may continue a delight to children of all ages, and the mother should encourage a love of music by singing songs and playing games for a few minutes each day with her little ones. Teach about Piano. One reason that chil- dren do not love a piano is because they are con- stantly told to keep their hands off of it and they know nothing about its mechanism. Lift the piano lid and show them the wires, some of which -are long and thick and others short and thin. Show them how the long thick wires are at one end and the little thin baby wires at the other. Show how the hammers act when the keys are struck and what 176 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION kind of a sound is made when the hammer hits the long thick wire or short thin wire. Play the game of three bears by showing the low full sound representing Papa Bear's voice, the mid- dle length tone, Mama Bear's, and the high thin sound, Baby Bear's. Explain the use of the sounding-board back of the wires, which helps to send the sound all over the room just as a reflector behind the light of an automobile lamp throws out broad rays of light. Show the children the felt-covered hammers and let them see how by touching the ivory keys on the keyboard the hammers move and cause the strings to vibrate. These wires vibrate or move to and fro over a certain point of rest some fast, some slow. Low C vibrates only thirty-two times in a second and our highest C four thousand ninety-six times. Young children should not sit at the piano upon stools so that their legs dangle. They should rest their feet upon a footstool and have an extension of wood fastened to the pedals so that their feet touch the pedals without difficulty. Let the children examine the pedals and learn that the left one is a lever which, when pressed, softens the tone by re- ducing the number of strings struck by hammers, and the right lifts the dampers and gives us a full sound. Mothers Playing for Children. Children as well as animals are rhythmic by nature, and before MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION a baby has been taught to play on any instrument the mother should instil a love of rhythm by play- ing lively musical airs and telling him to act just as the music speaks. Some children will respond at once, moving their bodies in perfect rhythm to the music, now fast, now slow, now with spirit, now quietly. Others require training, but with a little practise all will learn something of the grace of motion and beauty of sound. Cat in the Corner. Musical "Cat in the Cor- ner" was a favorite game with Winifred when she was a baby. I would strike G below natural C and call it "Papa Bear," first D above middle C, "Mama Bear"; A, "Sister Bear"; E, "Baby Bear." Each note was represented by one of the four cor- ners of the room and as I struck one of these notes the little girl would run to the corner designated. Through this game I have discovered several chil- dren with a real talent for music whose mothers did not realize that nature had given them this rare gift. A short time ago I received a letter from a lady whose little boy, while at a natural educational demonstration given in Cleveland last winter, showed such a keen tone sense that I persuaded her to let him take violin lessons. She writes that the boy has made greater progress in a few months than most pupils make in a year, and she is encouraged to believe that he will be a musician of note. No One Method. In teaching 1 children to play on the piano, no one method can be applied to 178 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION all. Children are of different temperaments, and we can not expect to get exactly the same results with Johnnie that we do with Mary. The great Leschetiszky and other composers have often said, "I have no method." Through the Ear. Some people think that music is a mysterious art to be learned through eye training. They forget that "There's music in the sighing of the reed, There's music in the gushing of a rill; There's music in all things if men had ears-^ The earth is but an echo of the spheres." Byron in Don Juan. Expression in Harmonies. There is music in all forms of life, but we must listen to hear it. Some music teachers are so immersed in what they call "technique" and so afraid of a child "playing by air" that they give him nothing but unmusical exer- cises and tell him to practise them for several hours each day and not to dare to try to get any airs out of the piano. No wonder that we have so many mechanical piano players who can not play the sim- plest melody without their notes. Rather let the child neglect the so-called "technique" and express his thoughts in simple harmonies. To encourage children in expressing these har- monies let them hear music of the great composers which is full of sense stimulus. Professor Mary B. Ehrmann, in a recent number of The Mother's Mag MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 179 azine, suggests the following composers for this de- velopment of sense impression: Wagner, in whose music we hear the sound of Siegfried's hammer and see the evening star ; Gounod helps us to smell flow- ers in the garden; Lehman's music interprets for us the song of the cuckoo and the wren ; Gottschalk calls to our minds the colors of a beautiful sunset in his Softly Now the Light of Day; Greig helps us to hear the dancing feet of elves, as we listen to his In the Hall of the Mountain King. How Music Helps. Music can be used also to fight pain and discontent. When Mad Anthony Wayne had to have one of his legs amputated he commanded that two soldiers play the drum and fife. ^Esculapius, the Greek physician, claimed to restore health through letting sick men hear "sweet harmony and concert of voices," and often when a child is nervous and irritable his nerves can be calmed and he can be made comfortable and happy through hearing sweet music. Verdi and other great musicians are said to have ' cured the pangs of hunger through the Music Fairy. This same fairy has been known to calm savages and, as Doctor Hirshberg says, "restrain the roar- ing lion and the ravening wolf. Its silver, snarling trumpets have changed cowards into dashing he- roes." Now it is claimed that music affects the flow of the thyroid glands, and thus has a most important effect upon a man's general condition. This theory 180 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION has not been proved, but from experiments I know that babies cry less in homes where there is music than in homes where this fairy is not heard. Mothers should always speak in gentle voices when addressing their children, as there is music or discord in the voice, and babies' ears are sensi- tive to harsh sounds. Let us all use our "smiling voices." And if mothers want to have good happy babies with bodies attuned to the sweet sounds of the spheres they should certainly introduce some kind of music into the home to be heard by the baby in his cradle days. First Hear Sounds. The love of music must be instilled into the soul. It is not a system of notes and certain times. It is ridiculous to imagine that we can make a child understand music through teaching him to read musical characters. All music must reach him first through the ear, not the eye; and yet we begin his training by showing him cer- tain characters and telling him that they represent certain places on the piano and must be struck in a certain way. First let him learn the joy of hearing sweet sounds before he is introduced into the means of producing them. And as Winifred has said in a little jingle writ- ten for her music teacher, Miss Matilda Orr Hays, of Pittsburgh, Pa. : Where is Nature's music heard ? In hum of insect, song of bird, MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 181 In wailing of the wind at night, In splashing of the wavelets bright, In angry howls when breakers roar Against the rocks upon the shore. 'Tis in the Storm God's tearful moan; In human voices, every tone. When Jupiter's loud thunder rolls Tis Nature's music bell that tolls. But only those with perfect ear True sound of Nature's music hear. Let Nature Help. Take your little ones to the woods or sit with them beside a running brook. Tell them stories of the fairy breezes and water sprites. Ask them to be, oh, so quiet and listen if they can hear Mother West Wind and her little breezes calling, or if they can detect the silver note of Triton calling to his nymphs. In the evening, call their attention to the song of the cricket, the gentle murmur of the night wind, and the song of the sea, and the fairy whispers in a sea-shell. Teach your child to distinguish the dif- ferent notes of different birds, open the door of his ear to the great throb of music which pulsates throughout the earth. Often on a warm afternoon when Winifred re- belled against taking a nap I have put her in a ham- mock beneath a shady tree and she and I would 182 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 5 /.o SQUARE'S ri 1 1 1 1 1 it VioOFA SQUARE fet*fytWlrl| */eOFA SQUARE 8/10 of a square Made by Winifred to teach her pupils geometrical figures and fractions MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 183 listen for sweet music notes until the lullabies of drowsy little breezes or the hum of insects had sent the rebellious kiddie to the peaceful land where she could rest and gain strength. Communing with nature has been a great help to me in training Winifred's rhythmic sense and has instilled into her a love of true poesy as well as of music. Lives of Masters in Jingles. I believe in teaching young children to revere great musicians, as well as other great masters, and while Winifred was very young I told her the lives of the old mas- ters. Last summer she spent much of her time in reading about all great musicians, and in order to remember the most important facts concerning them she has written their lives in jingles. These jingles have been published in her book, Facts in Jingles. CHAPTER XIV IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF LATIN J\S Latin is a good basis for the study of lan- JL\. guage in general, we should all have some knowledge of the Roman's tongue. If this knowl- edge be given to children when they are very young they can make practical use of it through life. A knowledge of Latin grammar helps us to learn Eng- lish grammar and makes the English language more intelligible, since we are constantly meeting with Latin expressions concerning whose meaning we can not afford to be in the dark. Relation of Latin to Practical Life. A most interesting book on The Relation of Latin to Prac- tical Life has been written recently by Frances Ellis Sabin and Laura B. Woodruff, in which the authors tell us how Latin helps us to see the real meaning of our English words, while giving us the roots of the romance tongues French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Roumanian. A number of English words are given and with them the Latin derivative. Examples : Carbuncle comes from the Latin word carbo, which means a live coal. 184 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 185 Secretary is derived from secretarius, meaning a keeper of seer eta, or secrets. Trivial comes from trivialis, which means be- longing to the cross-roads Tres via or public streets ; hence, commonplace, trifling. Most interesting information concerning the num- ber of Latin words used in describing our bodies is given in this excellent book. We are told that out of the two hundred six bones in the human body, two hundred have Latin or Greek names; that we can not sneeze without using fifty-five pairs of mus- cles with Latin or Greek names, and that our laugh- ing and weeping muscles have Latin names. In the study of zoology we must have some knowledge of this tongue, since the scientific names of all animals are either Latin or Greek. Examples : equus (horse), felis (cat), cams (dog), mus (mouse), vulpes (fox), lepus (rabbit), leo (lion), tigris (tiger), capra (goat), ovis (sheep), sus (pig). To study chemistry, botany, astronomy in fact, all of the sciences intelligently, we must know something of Latin, and this knowledge is in de- mand when we pursue courses in art or music. The lawyer, doctor and physician each needs this infor- mation as much as the linguist and professor. The Latin fairy even helps us to become good spellers as well as etymologists and philologists. Professor Sabin, in this eye-opener to Latin ben- efits, gives a list of Latin words which we now use and which have not been changed since the time of 186 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION the Romans. Some of the words in this list are : census, interim, dictum, ultimatum, superior, infe- rior, consul, actor, agitator, animal, cantata, con- servator, dictator, doctor, error, honor, horror, hu- mor, minus, plus, senior, victor, orator, pendulum, murmur. Putting Children to Sleep with Vergil's ",32neid." In my book, Natural Education, I tell of my success in putting Winifred to sleep through scanning the first ten lines of Vergil's JEneid. Vergil has long been famous as a poet, but I yearn to give him added glory as a baby pacifier. A baby will get drowsy (even as some grown-ups) when he hears Latin verse scanned, but he will also get some idea of rhythm, and to Winifred's hearing Vergil in the cradle I attribute her ability to make rhymes of respectable meter when she was yet a baby. Many so-called educated people are constantly getting into trouble because they do not know the meaning of various abbreviations and of short Latin phrases which are in daily use. Teaching Latin Phrases. Children of four and five years of age can be taught such Latin phrases as are found in the back of the dictionary, on coins, tombstones, monuments, buildings, etc. At an early age the little one learns these phrases with no trouble, and best of all he remembers in old age what he learned in babyhood. When the adolescent period arrives and he is in MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 187 the high school translating Caesar and Cicero he will find this memorizing much more difficult. If Latin is to be of practical value, I believe that it would be far better to teach children the general construction of this language through committing to memory beautiful passages in Latin verse and sayings from the old philosophers, rather than to make them translate passages from the Latin class- ics and learn all the rules in the Latin grammar. I am very grateful to my father for having taught me sayings from the old masters and phrases which are used in law, medicine, botany, etc., and I have tried to give Winifred a practical knowledge of the Latin tongue through playing games or teaching her Latin names of the objects around her. Expressions in Latin which well-informed people are supposed to know, and which children can easily learn : Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) E pluribus unum (One out of many) Fade in pace (Go in peace) Vanum et mutabile semper femina (Woman is ever fickle and changeable) Verbum sat sapienti (A word to the wise is suf- ficient) Magnum bonum (A good thing) Prima facie (At first sight) . Modus operandi (Method of working) Bona fide (In good faith) 188 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Sub rosa (Under the rose privately) Inter nos (Between ourselves) r Ad nauseam (To disgust) 'Alter ego (Another self) Casus belli (That which causes war) Cum grano sails (With a grain of salt) Dei gratia (By the grace of God) Deo volenie (God willing) Mirabile dictu (Wonderful to say) In toto (In whole) Ante bellum (Before the war) Post mortem (After death) Sine die (Without a day being appointed) Vox populi (The voice of the people) Carpe diem (Seize the present opportunity) Audaces fortuna juvat (Fortune helps the bold) Festina lente (Make haste slowly) Maxime vero (Yes, indeed) Euge (Bravo!) Adde gradum (Hurry) Bene est (It is well) Longe (Far away) Statim (At once) Novus homo (An upstart) Tempus fugit (Time flies) Terra firma (The firm land) Terra incognita (Unknown land) Sine mora (Without delay) Sic transit gloria mundi (Thus passes away the glory of the world) MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 189 Sic semper tyrannis (Ever thus to tyrants) Vive sine invidia (Live free from envy) Dux femina facti (Woman leads the way) In nuce (In a nutshell) In dubio (In doubt) In hoc signo vinces (In this sign thou shalt con- quer) Fac simile (Exact imitation) Gaudeamus igitur (Therefore let us rejoice) Ad rem (To the point) Alma mater (Kind mother) Amor patriae (Love of country) Pro bono publico (For the public good) Vincit omnia veritas (Truth conquers all things) Vide et crede (See and believe) Et cetera (And the rest) Vulius est index animi (The countenance is the index of the mind) Lares et penates (Household gods) Si Deus nobiscum qui contra nos (If God be with us who shall be against us?) Teaching the Child to Form Simple Latin Sentences. If the child be a little girl, teach her to say "Parva sum, magna sum, mala sum, bella sum, faceta sum, alba sum, nigra sum, obesa sum" If a little boy is learning his Latin lesson he will of course say: "Parvus sum, magnus sum, malus sum, bellus sum, facetus sum, albus sum, nigrus sum, obesus sum." Now give the child a few nouns in the first de- 190 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION clension, and let the little one build larger sentences, as : ff Puella pan'a sum, puella bona sum, or "Parvus puer sum, bonus puer sum" Next give the child the verb "to be" in the third person singular and with it a few proper names and pronouns so he can talk about various characters, as : "Cornelia puella mala est, Julia puella bona est," etc. It will be easy for the young student to learn the other parts of the verb "to be" after he knows how to say sum and est. Teach him to conjugate the verb "to be" in the present tense of the indicative mood. Sum (I am), es (thou art), est (he is), sumus (we are), estis (you are), sunt (they are). The pupil is now ready to learn something about the six cases, but he should become familiar with the nominative and accusative before learning of the others. To gain this knowledge, give him the verb Habeo (I have) and with it a number of nouns which interest children. 'He can easily form such sentences as Pilam habeo (I have a ball), Simiam habeo (I have a monkey), etc. Playing Dinner Party. Some of my pupils like to play dinner party. They learn that a table is mensa, and on it they put bella rosa. Then one child pretends to be a chicken and says Pullus sum; others say Vacca sum (I am beef), 'Aqua sum (I am water), Porous sum (I am pork), Piscis sum (I am fish), Pants sum (I am bread), Fructus sum (I MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 191 am fruit), Caseussum (I am cheese), Dukes sum (I am candies), Nuces sum (I am nuts), Sal sum (I am salt). Playing Zoo. Another way to amuse and teach the children is to give each one the name of an animal. The child who plays the part of Leo (lion) leads. Each child must say his name before he can join the procession of Latin animals. Thus Leo sum (I am a lion), Tigris sum (I am a tiger), Capra sum (I am a goat), Ovis sum (I am a sheep) , Sus sum (I am a pig), Vulpes sum (I am a fox), Mus sum (I am a mouse) , Cams sum (I am a dog), Fells sum (I am a cat), Equus sum (I am a horse), Lepus sum (I am a rabbit), Vermls sum (I am a worm), Ursus sum (I am a bear), Elephantus sum (I am an elephant), Simla sum (I am a monkey) . After children learn the verb "to be" and the verb "to have" and a few nouns we may teach them a few conjunctions and adverbs so as to build longer sentences. I would suggest the use of in (in), cum (with), ex (out of), et (and), nam (for), non (not), ibi (there), fortasse (perhaps), statim (at once) . Teaching Scanning with a Ball. All boys love to play ball, and while tossing a ball back and forth they can be taught to scan selections from Vergil's JEneld. Declensions in Rhythmic Exercises. Chil- dren can early be taught the Latin declensions as a sort of rhythmic exercise. Last winter while I was 192 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION coasting down a long hill with Billy Walsh he and I sang the declension of "rosa" and we had as much fun as if he had gone down the hill in the ordinary squealing fashion. In teaching declensions, however, be sure to se- lect words which interest children and not the words usually given in the vocabularies. In my book, Natural Education, I tell how Wini- fred has made a number of what she calls "Baby Books" from words of Latin parents. She finds this seeking for "babies" in her favorite dictionary, The New Standard, a delight even to this day, and in her study of philology this work in etymology proves a great help. Teaching Etymology and Philology. Show the child some Latin word, such as Circular e. Then lead him to the dictionary and show him all of the words in English which are derived from this Latin parent. Naturally he will become interested in the study of etymology and this will lead him to the dictionary habit, which jvill make him better in- formed day after day. After learning the Latin root, if he is of an in- quisitive mind he will wish to learn more words in other languages derived from this root and thus be- come a student of philology. Winifred delights in filling small note-books with words derived from Latin roots. At the top of the page she places the mother Latin word ; directly be- neath, all the baby English words; and in another MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 193 column she puts Esperanto, French or other words derived from the same mother. Some of the mother words which I, find in one of Winifred's books are: Bellum, magnus, donum, memoria, regina, parva, virtus, post, amare, circu- lare, femina, pecunia, hortus, diligent a, nauta, sa~ nus, tabula, herba, superus, bonus, pater, mater, frater, multus, mains, simia, puer, regina, aqua, umbra, equus, tabula, albus, longus, silva, porta, columba, terra, ursa, uva, luna, stella, culina, vinum, ovum, ramus, locus, villa, ignis, hora, annus, dies, vox, rex, manus, primus, stilus, domus. All of these words Winifred found in her favorite Nutting Primer and each of these words has a goodly number of children, both in English and in other tongues. The Nutting Primer. Latin has been made a torture to children through the usual method of in- struction by means of set rules and translation of old-time classics. Professor Nutting has proven that a Latin primer can be made as interesting as one in English; and if the teacher plays games with her pupils, and shows them the practical value of a knowledge of Latin, they will soon make the Ro- man's language a living tongue. Excellent Tools for the Study of Latin The Beginner's Latin Book (Collar and Daniell). The First Latin Book (Collar and Daniell) . First-Year Latin (Collar and Daniell). 194 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION Lewis's Elementary Latin Dictionary. Smith's English-Latin Dictionary. Andrews' Latin-English Dictionary. Hill's Vest-Pocket Latin-English and English- Latin Dictionary. Anthon's Latin-English and English-Latin Die- iionary. Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar. Harkness' New Latin Reader. A First Book in Latin (Tuell and Fowler). A Latin Primer (Nutting). The Relation of Latin to Practical Life (Sabin and Woodruff). CHAPTER XV TEACHING ESPERANTO GOETHE says : "Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt weisst nicht von seiner eigenen" (A man who has no acquaintance with foreign languages knows nothing of his own). We must know some- thing of our brothers' tongues if we are to under- stand thoroughly our native language. This knowl- edge should come to us be fore, the twelfth year, as up to that time, covering the memory period, a child can learn foreign languages with little trouble. If parents can not afford native teachers, they can use language phone records to learn the pronunciation. Language Taught by Natural Method. All languages should be taught by the natural or direct method. Attempting to learn foreign tongues, through the study of grammar, never brings a real speaking knowledge of any language. I have known students to study French for years at college and when.visiting in Paris to call a cocker a cochon or to make equally ridiculous mistakes. Their eyes were trained to read and to translate, but when they heard French spoken they could not understand its mean- ing. A little child, who spends a few months in 195 196 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION France or Germany and plays with the native chil- dren, learns to express his ideas in the foreign tongue without knowing anything about the scien- tific construction of the language. It is all very well to know how to read and translate foreign tongues, but the chief use of any language is for conversational purposes, and the grammar method certainly does not lead to this end. Esperanto in Cradle. I think that it is a great mistake to wait until the high-school age before teaching children Latin and foreign tongues and then to give this information through grammar, a hideous nightmare to most students. If all children were taught to speak Esperanto while they were still babies and then given a speaking knowledge of French, German and Spanish before high-school age they would be equipped for life's w r ork without trav- eling the painful grammar route. In fact it would not be necessary to teach a child any language but his native tongue and Esper- anto if we could persuade all parents of other countries to teach their children this language in addition to their native tongue. Then we would have an international medium of communication which would bring knowledge of science, literature and art to our very doors and save us many years of study in gaining other languages. Two-thirds of Our Lives Required to Learn Languages. Nearly two-thirds of an educated person's life must be spent in studying languages, if MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 197 he is to have what is considered a really broad edu- cation; but think of the work he could do along other lines if he were provided with a fairy tongue as a sesame to the fount of universal knowledge ! Need of International Tongue. Ever since the Babelization of tongues in the Land of Shinar, people have realized the need of an international language and many hundreds of so-called universal tongues have been invented. The Egyptians had a language called the Demos or tongue of the common people which was known by all people who traded in Egypt. It was through this language, as it ap- peared on the Rosetta stone, that the hieroglyphics were deciphered. The Indians have always had a common tongue called Chinook, and the Pigeon English of China has been understood by traders from various coun- tries for many years. But these languages can not express higher thoughts. They are used simply to express a few thoughts concerning trading and the more sordid things of life. Peter the Great Saw Need of Esperanto. Peter the Great was the first European ruler to realize the great need of a sort of code sign lan- guage. As he traveled about, striving to gain in- formation concerning other countries, he was se- verely handicapped in not being able to speak in various tongues. When he returned to his native land he offered the largest reward ever offered by stingy Peter for an international tongue. None of 198 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION the languages submitted to him was satisfactory, and he died without gaining his great desire. After his time, many other monarchs offered similar re- wards, but no language became universal because of international jealousies. Volapuk, the Nightmare Language. In the past century over one thousand international lan- guages were invented, and one of them called Vola- puk spread over a considerable part of Europe. It was invented by a great linguist, Bishop Schleyer, after he had eaten an indigestible supper and dreamed this nightmare tongue. It was so difficult that only scholars could learn it. But now we have a language so simple that its general principles can be learned in a few hours, and having such a language, it is our duty as Chris- tian men and women, mothers and fathers, to mas- ter this language and to teach it to our children in the hope of bringing peace into the world through a better understanding of our foreign brothers. Wars Caused by Lingual Misunderstandings. Wars have been caused by lingual misunderstand- ings, and we can never settle our differences at a general peace tribunal while we must employ inter- preters. We must have a peace tongue, and I be- lieve that Esperanto, which was invented by Doctor Zamenhof as a messenger of peace, will eventually be the peace tongue used at international confer- ences. It has already played a very important part in many international meetings, and at the Esper- MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 199 anto Congresses, which have been held in a number of countries, there have been representatives of all nations who found no difficulty in conversing with one another. Praise of Esperanto. The beauty of Esper- anto is that it is not a Frankenstein tongue, but is founded on two hundred of the most aristocratic roots. Knowing these roots and sixteen simple rules, any one will be able to converse, read and write in this language. [Tolstoi learned to read Esperanto in one hour. Max Nordau grasped its meaning in less than two hours. We may not have the brains of a Jolstoi or Nordau, but we can easily gain a knowledge of the formation of this language so as to ask for the ordinary things to eat and express simple thoughts in two weeks. No Difference in Accent. Another delightful feature of Esperanto is that people of all nations speak it with very little difference in accent. At one time I had representatives of seventeen nations on the stage at Carnegie Institute. Each spoke in his native tongue, saying, "I love you." The com- mingling of sounds was almost equivalent to groans and grunts of many animals. Then Winifred spoke to each in Esperanto, and when all said, "Mi amas vin" (I love you) in Esperanto there was little to distinguish in accent. Simple Verbs. Nearly all languages have dif- ficult verb constructions, but in Esperanto any baby ca'n learn to conjugate the verbs, as they do not 200 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION change in the different persons. We say Mi amas (I love), Vi amas (You love), Li amas (He loves), Ni amas (We love), III amas (They love). Like Spanish. The vowel sounds are eupho- nious, being like those of Latin, and the diphthongs are simple. Any one knowing Spanish can read this language without difficulty, and the student of French and German has little difficulty in translat- ing much of this general tongue. Jingle to Teach Esperanto. The following jingle has been written by Winifred to show the pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs and the simplicity of the verbs. Learn it, and one-half the battle toward knowing how to read Esperanto has been won : Esperanto Grammar in a Nutshell (Written in 1910) All the nouns must end in O, Akvo (water), banto (bow), While adjectives all end in A, Bona patro (Good papa), And adverbs end in letter E, Rapide (in a rapid way). Soon I'll teach the vowels to you, Saying, "Pa, may we go, too ?" And the diphthongs, au, aj, oj, We pronounce as "Thou, my boy." Best of all the charming verbs, They can never wreck our nerves MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 201 With exceptions cruel, unkind. For the same you'll always find Blessed AS, IS, OS, US, U, Endings that are ever true. Simple Rules to Remember in Teaching Esperanto All nouns end in o patro ( father) . All adjectives end in a patra (paternal). All adverbs end in e patre (paternally). The present infinitive of verbs ends in i ami (to love). Present tense of verbs as in all persons mi amas Kllove). Past tense is mi amis (I loved). Future tense os vi amos (you will love). Conditional us ni amits (we should love). Imperative u amu min (love me). Plurals end in /. When we use nouns in the objective or accusative case we add an n to show the case. Thus we say : "Mi havas libron" (I have a book). Book is the object and is there f6re in the accusative case and shows its case by the objective ending n. The accent is always on the next to the last syl- lable. The vowels a, e, i, o, u are pronounced ah, ay, ee f oh, ooh, as in the sentence : Pa, may we go too? Dipthongs au, af, of, eu, ej are pronounced ow, 202 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION as in now; i, as in my; oy, as in boy; eh-ooh; a, as in fate. The letters b, d, f, g, li, k, I, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, and y are pronounced as in English. A is like a in father. C is like ts in tsar. Q, W, *, y are not used in the Esperanto alphabet. There are twenty-eight letters. Two c's, two g's, two h's, two fs, two s's, two u's. The second sound of these letters is represented by an inverted caret being used over them or by the letter h following them. Thus do or chio is pro- nounced Chee-oh; logi (lo-ghee). In speaking of the letters they are pronounced as follows : A (ah) H (hho). P (po) B (bo) I (ee) R (ro) C (tso) IJ (yo) S (so) C (cho) J (zhoy (sho) D (do) K (koy T (to) E (ay) L (lo) ' U (ooh) F(fo) M(mo)' tr(ooh-oh) G (Go) N (no)' V (vo) & (Jo) O (oh)' (zo) H(ho) These letters may be easily learned by singing them to the air of Zu Lauterbach. A Help in Teaching Latin. The noted Latin scholar, Doctor D. O. S. Lowell, of the Roxbury MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 203 Latin School, has experimented with students and finds that they learn Latin more readily if they first learn Esperanto, which is composed of many roots from this classic tongue. CHAPTER XVI TEACHING APPRECIATION OF ART THE progressives in the educational world are awakening to the idea that it is ridiculous to wait until the high-school age in order to teach children something of art. A few days ago I vis- ited the ward schools of Wilmington, North Caro- lina, in company with the superintendent of city schools, Doctor John J. Blair. As a progressive and a lover of children, he believes in having copies of the best works of art in all the grade schools, and he has contributed a number of beautiful paintings to several of these schools. The children are en- couraged to look at the pictures, to pass comments, and to give their opinions as to the best pictures in each school building. Perry Print Scrap Books. If parents can not have expensive pictures, they can at least have good prints from copies of the masterpieces, and children may become familiar with the works of great mas- ters through the Perry pictures. I know one little girl who arranged a scrap book with these pictures, and she finds the greatest delight in coloring them 204 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 205 and in asking questions about the artists and the meaning of his pictures. All unconsciously, with- out any mental strain, she is gaining a good educa- tion in art and the beauties of nature, while her imaginative qualities are developed through hearing about many of the ancient Roman, Grecian and Scandinavian myths, depicted by masters. Try to make your children interested in the lives A hexagon design 206 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION of great artists by telling them stories dealing par- ticularly with the childhood days of these artists. Tracing. Children may begin early to have some idea of the shape of objects about them by tracing them. They can trace leaves and the vari- ous geometrical figures to be found in any home, such as the round inkstand, glass, saucer, cup, plate, square boxes, books shaped like rectangles, etc. They love also to make tracings of leaves on blue- prints which they can paste in scrap books. As I have shown, they can learn to make many geometrical designs from coins of different sizes and from small squares, angles, rectangles, hexa- gons, pentagons, octagons, etc. Making Designs. Several of my pupils have made excellent designs for wall-paper and carpets, using nothing but geometrical figures. Winifred finds special delight in making designs for windows. She has made a number of large doll scrap books, and some of the windows in the various rooms are iquite remarkable for originality if not for great beauty. Visiting Art Museums. To open the chil- dren's eyes to the beauty of art, show them good pictures and pieces of sculpture and take them as often as possible to visit art museums. While visit- ing in these museums do not try to impress the child only with the beauty of the work before him, but first arouse his interest by telling him the mythical or historical tales connected with these works of art. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 20/3 Tell him of the celestial bodies named for some of the Greek figures he sees immortalized through the works of sculpture. Interest him in the life of the sculptor who made these great works, and if you have the time, let him sit down near one of the great works of art and try to make a duplicate of a bit of plasticine When we lived in Pittsburgh, Winifred spent a 'few hours each week in the beautiful Hall of Sculp- ture, given to Vulcan's City by Andrew Carnegie. She would attempt to draw copies of these great works, and she succeeded in making quite a number of good plasticine models. In our Natural Educational Schools we spend a little time each day looking at copies of great works These designs made by Winifred Stoner, Jr., when five years of age 208 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION of art or postals representing works of architecture through the stereoscope. The same plan has been tried in teaching geography. The Mirrorscope. Winifred has a mirror- scope and in the evenings she often invites her young friends to see works of art, while I give short talks about artists and their subjects. Game of What Is It? To familiarize children with the work of the masters, use the Perry prints and play "What Is It?" Count out the position of the different children, making one the head and the others second, third, etc., until the foot is reached. Show head pupil a picture. If he can name it and its author he gets it to keep; if not, Number Two gets the chance to try to win the picture for a trophy. At the end of the game the pupil who is at the head wins the game if he can name the subject and author of all pictures he has won. Pencils Not for Scribbling. Many children work destruction to wall-paper and woodwork in the home by scratching with pencils on everything they can reach. Teach your child that a pencil is a. useful drawing instrument with which he can write his name or draw nice pictures on a piece of clean white paper. The child will thus be inspired with the desire to write his name. He will take pleasure in striving to make imitations, to create some design, and he will associate the pencil with white paper and not with house furnishings. MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 209 Froebel says : "The things a child can make May crude and worthless be ; It is his impulse to create, Should gladden thee." The first drawings of a child may not delight the parents, but they show, desire to create and should be encouraged. Designs with Sticks. Before the baby can hold a pencil in a steady fashion he can begin to make designs through placing sticks of various colors in different positions. Playing with these sticks leads to a knowledge of geometrical truths; and also develops an idea of form and structure. Drawings in Sand. Our ancestors made their first drawings on sand, and baby can be taught to create forms upon a sand-board before he learns to use a pencil. Wet the sand and smooth it with a rolling-pin. Then give baby a pointed stick such as a manicuring orange-wood stick or a pen-holder, show him how to draw a box, a daisy, or the letters. He will find great amusement with his sand slate, just as little children in ancient days found pleasure in being so instructed. The little boys and girls who lived in Egypt, India and Rome of the long ago wrote on sand or used pebbles to write on rough stones, and pebbles are a delight to modern kiddies. To interest children further in drawing, let one 210 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION child pretend to be a great artist and another child run or jump in front of the artist, who is supposed to depict the action of his playmate. Most of the pictures produced by these youthful artists are very crude, devoid of proportion or perspective. But, as Professor Jenny B. Merrill has said, "Drawing is, and should be, largely a language, a means of ex- pressing the child's thoughts," and as the child draws these pictures and explains them to his teacher he creates for himself a world within and without, for, as Froebel wisely said, "What man tries to represent or (Jo, he begins to understand." The Chautauqua Desk a Help. The Chautau- qua Industrial Art Desk is a great help in arousing children's interest in simple designs, which almost any child can draw. Drawing Encourages Expression of Original Ideas. Drawing is the best means of encourag- ing a child to express his own ideas. Kate Douglas Wiggin says: "The purposes of drawing are : (a) The education of the eye; (b) The training of the hand; (c) The training of the mind; (d) The cultivation of another mode of self- expression ; (e) The acquirement of the fundamental prin- ciples of art." CHAPTER XVII DEVELOPING THE IMAGINATION AND A SENSE OF HUMOR IF I were given Solomon's privilege to choose one thing from all the good things of this life, I would ask that Fairy Imagination should be al- lowed to dwell with me through my life's journey. Without imagination we can not create. We stag- nate. No progress is made. It is useless to fill our minds with an accumulation of facts if we can not have Fairy Imagination to help us make use of these facts. Little children who have not been molded in an educational machine system are all highly imagi- native, and as some one has said, "The difference between the bright, quick-witted child and the slow one, usually lies in the greater or less activity of the imaginative faculty." Imagination and Cold Facts. The happy and the beloved man is he who goes through life follow- ing the dear little sprite Imagination, who brightens the darkest roadway. The unhappy, unattractive and unpopular man is he who walks along the rough pathway of life with plain cold facts for his guide. 211 212 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION If our children are to hold the imaginative quality through life we must keep dear little fairies in the home. How I pity the child reared in a fairyless home ! To drive away fairies is to pour cold water on the youthful creative faculties. Imagination Transfigures. Stevenson in his poem, My Kingdom, shows what imagination's touch can do toward transfiguring the most com- mon things. But in order to set the creative faculty in motion we parents must be able to use our own imaginations and to enter into the spirit of imagi- native games with our little ones. Arousing Imagination. We can help to de- velop imagination through music, which enriches the child's soul with spiritual inspiration. We can show; him great works of art while walking through mu- seums and art galleries, and tell him of the myths which inspired these works. We can arouse his sympathy, which comes from development of the imaginative quality in putting himself in the place of other people or in the body of some animal, by taking him to the zoo and telling him fairy tales concerning animals who talk in books, such as Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus, Old Mother West Wind, by Thornton W. Burgess; Merry 'Animal Tales, by Madge A. Bigham and Jungle. Books, by Kipling. Studying the stars through an ordinary opera- glass is a great educator, and if the parent tells MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 213 children of the Grecian, Roman and Scandinavian myths concerning the planets and stars, seeds of imagination are sown which make the study of astronomy, poetry, sculpture and painting sources of joy and inspiration through life. Smiles Go Miles. Smiles go miles to bring happiness into the world. Choler and spleen are no more at home in the neighborhood of a smile than is an icicle in the realms of a tropical sun. There is no better medicine for bad temper and fits of blues than an atmosphere where the Jolly Fairy touches lips and makes them curve upward in good humor. There is nothing on earth which brings more joy to mortals than smiles. When the mother sees her baby smiling as he sleeps in the cradle she rejoices because she believes that the angels are whispering ,to her heart's treasure. I believe with Carlyle that the world is a looking- glass. If we smile at it, it smiles in return; if we frown we receive a frown for our trouble. It is natural for us to smile and be happy. We all have our sorrows, our skeletons in closets; but let us keep the grim monsters under lock and key and smile at our babies instead of shedding tears. Babies who are smiled at will smile in return and as they grow older will become joy radiators. Developing a Sense of Humor. The world loves a man or woman who can make us smile, but 214 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION real humor seems to be scarce. This scarcity, I be- lieve, is because a sense of humor is not developed in babyhood. I believe in cultivating this sense in earliest child- hood by telling children funny stories and seeing how quickly they catch the humorous thought. English people are accused of being slow to see a joke, but from my experience I am prone to believe that real wits and people who have a keenly de- veloped sense of humor are hard to find in all countries. There is so much grouchiness in this world that some scientists believe that a real germ or grouch 5 squares 3 8/10 squares Made by Winifred to teach her pupils geometrical figures and fractions MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION 215 bug makes people irritable. Heredity and environ- ment are the real causes. Doctor John A. Brashear, the noted Pittsburgh astronomer, said to me not long ago : "I wouldn't think of beginning a scientific lecture without some fun. I tell my audience a joke that puts them into a pleasant state of mind and they listen more at- tentively to what I have to say." Laughter Contagious. Laughter is certainly contagious and may be imbibed from the atmosphere of our environment I have taught children a number of Edward Lear's nonsense rhymes, and they are particularly fond of The Owl and the Pussy Cat Went to Sea. The meter is delightful, and they can imagine how silly a big-eyed owl would look singing to a pussy cat. The Duck and the Kangaroo, Dame Wiggins of Lee and Her Seven Wonderful Cats, Old Mother Hubbard, Wynken, Blyken and Nod, Riley's Poems of Childhood and most of Mother Goose are excel- lent to develop a sense of humor. Smiles Bring Big Returns. We all know that smiles bring big returns in this world. Every one seeks a smiler instead of a crosspatch. It is surely our duty to give our children a heritage of smiles and to keep them in the joy of a smiling atmosphere. The Motto, SMILE. Recently I visited in a home where there were no antagonistic ether rays. 216 MANUAL OF NATURAL EDUCATION All was happiness and harmony. Above the huge fireplace was the household motto. It was made out of twigs and formed the one word "S MIL E." If this could be the motto in every home the demons of worry, discontent and sorrow would be banished; children would smile instead of frown; and we would be a healthier, happier race of men and women. Life's worth while If we smile. THE END UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO ^ 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW FEB 031991 . 33 JAN 31 1991 n PM DADV KU>, f UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY FORM NO. DD6 BERKELEY, CA 94720 $ 355245 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY