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Show TRAINING CHILD IN FIRST YEARS "The Earliest School Is the Family." Froebel. By HILDA HITCHCOMB, National Kindergarten Association, New York City. Mrs. Wood, a young mother whose children would soon start to public school, was anxious to know what she could do to help them. At the beginning of the previous school year she had seen her neighbor, almost daily, bribing, coaxing and arguing to get her twin sons started with the other children. "What was wrong there that they did not want to go?" asked Mrs. Wood of the primary teacher whose class the twins attended. "Too much 'sugar coating' at home," answered Miss Doane, frankly. This, she went on to say, was not good for any child. This mother had never allowed her boys to feel that there were hard tasks to be performed per-formed and difficult lessons to be learned in the first years of their lives, and so they had not formed the habit of attack and had missed the joy of achievement. She had waited on them, had paid them for each little service and had tried to eliminate every hardship from their young lives. Miss Doane said the children best prepared for school entrance en-trance were those who had learned to wait on themselves, to sit quietly for short periods of time when there were guests, to perform little errands and chores without being rewarded for each art. and who knew how to work and play with others. "This.'1 she added, "is what boys and girls learn in kindergarten. I wish we had one here." So Mrs. Wood conducted a little survey of herself and her children to check up on the various items. She found that she w-as wailing on her children diore than was necessary and was "paying" them in pennies and treats much too frequently. On the other hand she had many strong points to her credit, as she had always al-ways talked with them about school in a very happy way, speaking of it as being a great pleasure and one to which they would be admitted when they were sufficiently big and brave and strong. She had been firm in not allowing them "treats" thai would upset digestion a frequent cause of naughtiness in school and she had seen to it that they were fair and generally unselfish in their play. So with this good foundation on which to build she gradually eliminated elim-inated the other habits not so desirable. desir-able. She played school witli the children, representing it as a very de lightful experience and she gave them specific duties, Including keeping keep-ing their play desks in good order. At other times she set them tasks in the kitchen and dining room. And. although it made considerable extra work, she invited many other boys and girls to the house to play. She soon saw a great change in the children. chil-dren. She had tried to keep them babies before, now she put emphasis on their development and the joy of added responsibilities. "How did you know all these things?" she asked the teacher who had guided her. Miss Doane laugh ingly answered, "I have dealt with babyish children too long not to know or not to have the desire to help when I can." The teacher was always eager that the little pupils who came to her should get the very most out of their first school year, and that was what the properly prepared children usu ally did. |