Every lesson, from table manners to algebra, is made easier by to Toyland, christmas Eve, the Dream Road (Where all is make-believe) There lies a truly Toyland, A real and wondrous Joyland, A Little-Girl-and-Boy-land, Ton lovely to conceit There Christmas fairies plant a tree blooms forth in stars And comes to fruit in sugar-plums; There bats and balls and painted drums of cars for you and me ing wonder-tree.
So saddle up your hobby horse And ride across the night, 'The thundering of our coursers' hoofs Will put the moon to flight; And when the east is kitten-gray We'll sight that wondrous Joyland, And at the break of Christmas Day Weill gallop into Toyland!
By R. B, Bennet in "Youths' Companion." lessons of ready obedience and con: Jeentration, But those fundamental lessons cannot be taught by any lo suva one general one, and that is that the very best way the child learns to learn—in other words, acquires those faculties without Jwhich school education is the vainest farce—is by being contantly and happily occupied.
This does not mean that young. persons of three and four years: should be employed, with an eye for economy, in housework or encouraged to prodigies of intellectual enterprise, but that, according to the child's "years and" capacities (which vary enormously in' indivi-Jdual children of like ages), the grown-up in charge of the nursery should see that activities likely' to absorb its energies and fix" ita interest should fill a great part of its waking day. There should be no demand for great effort in the [pursuit of these occupations beyond What effort it requires to con centrate on some enjoyable game, but that "game" should be devised so that it really does call all the lively faculties into play and neces sitares full attention and, perhaps, The worst kind of "games" me vented with this purpose are those which call purely intellectual motives into play. Tt is far more important that the child's first mental efforts should be made in learning to control its limbs, be-Jcoming precise in movement' and Jaceurate in observation, which matters not included in the average school curriculum, and therefore seldom Jearnt at all if not in the nursery. There are many school room years of which all kinds of intellectual exercises are the main feature, and therefore it in better for a child to learn to skip and weave and recognize flowers during. fits pre-school days than to master the alphabet and learn had' verse by: heart The Bored Child There are some foolish paronte who, having heard at_ second-hand that many schools are bad, and not being intelligent or energetic enough to instruct. their own. offspring, dispense with the idea of equipping their children to meet our harsh civilized world and hide a very odious irresponsibility. behind the phrase of "bringing them up just naturally." Ty point of fact, they cannot be said to. bring them up, at all, for these "just naturally" brought "up. ereatires are lett entirely to their own devices wil out direction oF guidance for their energies and activities, mental Physical, and are, at the early age of seven and ight, mere. tiny. replicas of the bored ani disagree fable do-nothing adults who cneumher the world with their. useless persons. These children, receiving no suitable attention, are ten times more exigent, less content, and more difficult to please than thos others who have been shown extremely early youth how for occupy themselves, and have dis ved, along the lines of their raining, their own resources, education in the broad sense consists. p—as many intel figent parents and teachers. believe it does—in the wise directing of the child's energies into useful and pleasant channels, then obviously it Jcannot be started too young. The acquiring of information is the slightest' side of such education, Jad can therefore quite wisely be left to schools to supply; but the nursery period is both harder and note important in education, wherefore too much time and thought cannot be expended on it, and for the child who has the good fortune to be amongst grown-ups who are not too lazy to keep it occupied and "at work" it is ro much ground prepared for the certain developnient of an apt and easy scholar auch a useful and pleasant human Cin "Manchester
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.