TEACHING LITTLE ONES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1709, 8 May 1917, Page 1

TEACHING LITTLE ONES.

A specialist in the training of children says : —The lessons given to children under six should aim only at developing and strengthening the tiny muscles and arousing the mental faculties. Children should he taught to distinguish, hy handling, the differencebetween “rough” and “smooth," “hard’’ and “soft,” “light” and “heavy.” Their sense of colour should he (rained hy setting them, for example, to match wools, selecting a colour from one bundle and finding the corresponding colour in another. They should he encouraged to draw on hrown-papor with chalk crayon. To recognise common (lowers, animals, birds, etc. A few nursery songs and recitations are useful for nervous children, and beneficial to the weakchested. I should encourage a child to love a plant and some pet, taking, responsibility for the same. But 1 shouldn’t try to teach too much, because- a normal child’s brain is absorbing knowledge all the time. Teach them to speak distinctly, and (hey will be spared reproofs for mumbling when they go to school later on. Teach them to listen to directions carefully. To fetch little things for mother, such as apples from (he larder, to skip backwards and forwards, to masticate their food properly, to rub (heir boots on (he mat, not to expect a light after they are pul to bed. My little ones learn to fetch and carry for mother, and to look carefully for anything they are sent to find: to help’in the mixing of cakes and puddings, beating of eggs, etc.; to distinguish between and gather the different herbs in the garden; to count the stairs ns they walk up; to form lettei's with pieces of dough; and to do little Jobs of housework, such as tidying and dusting a shelf.