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Show Kindergarten Helps for Parents Articles Issued by the Department I of the Interior, Bureau of Education 1 and the ! National Kindergarten Association I QUESTION ABOUT BIRTH By MARGARET WARNER MORLEY. (Author of "Renewal of Life.") Some day your child will ask where he came from, or where the new baby came from. In properly answering this natural question the mother has a chance to impress forever upon the young mind a clean and wholesome knowledge of one of the most Important Impor-tant facts of nature. Let the mother strive for two things: to start the child with a beautiful and reverent feeling concerning the origin of life; to give this knowledge before the child can learn it in a harmful way outside the home. It is , well to anticipate the direct question by getting ready before the child Is old enough to ask it. How to do this? Begin, perhaps, with seeds. Show the seed-pods of any plant. The seeds are the children of the plant. The plant gives them protection and feeds them with its juices. They are part of the plant. The plant is the mother of the seeds. When the seeds are ripe the pod opens and the seeds leave their mother to live their own separate lives. Dwell upon the care the mother plant takes of her little seed-children, of the beautiful flower petals she wraps about the tiny pod. Speak often and reverently rev-erently of motherhood. Make the little boy as well as the little girl understand under-stand and love the mother. Lessons From Nature. In the springtime show birds' nests if possible. If not, show pictures and talk about the building and how both parents engage in it. Then show or tell about the eggs. Explain how the eggs grew inside the mother-bird. They are a part of her just as the seeds are a narr of the nlant. When the eirirs are ready the bird lays them in the pretty nest and sits on Mruu to keep them warm. The father bird sings to her ami feeds her. Belli birds love the hah.v birds and as soon us they hatch out. father bird and mallicr bird feed tlcm and care for th'':n and reach tb"in to fly. A ben sitting on her eggs can be used to teach the lessen. The et;g grew in Ibe hen. How wonderful it is that a little egg can eh.", ago info a beautiful bird or a cunning little chicken chick-en I As the child grows older lead him to notice that Hie seed grows in'c a plant just like the parent, that the egg becomes a bird like (be parent. Tell the child how important it is for children to come from good parents. Speak of parents and - children when talking of plants and birds; this will cause the child unconsciously to connect con-nect the ideas gained about plants end birds with human life. When a chance comes to show the child young kittens or puppies or rabbits, rab-bits, or the young of any animal, tell him quite frankly, whether he asks or not, that of course the young ones come from the mother, that before they were born they were a part of her. Make it all seem natural to the child. Teach Mother-Love. Dwell upon the love and care the mother everywhere bestows upon her children. Include father-love wherovr it is expressed in the lower aninails. When at last the great question comes, the child will probably answer it himself: "Mamma, did I come from you?" "Yes. darling, you were once a part of mother. How mother loves her little son (daughter) :" Each mother will think of a way to tell the story according to circumstances. circum-stances. Only remember two things. Tell the story properly before anybody gets ahead of you and poisons the child's mind. And tell it in a way to make the child reverence aud lovei parenthood. |