FORMING HABITS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 16 September 1913, Page 2

FORMING HABITS.

Young children, if left to themselves, learn the bad more readily than the good. Bad habits agree best with the natural . instincts —at least, so it would seem —and things which children see and hear fir infancy and childhood are deeply imprinted on their minds; the bad seeds sown in their young hearts will take root, and will become sharp thorns to wound the hearts of their parents. During the first six or seven years of a child's life special attention should be given to its physical training rather than the intellect. After this period, if the physical constitution is good, the education of both, should receive attention. Infancy extends to the age of six or seven years. Up td this period children should be left, like lambs, to roam around the house, and in the yard, in tho buoyancy of their spirits, skipping and jumping free from care and trouble.

Parents, especially mothers, should be the only teachers of such infant minds. They should not educate from books. Children generally will be inquisitive to learn things of nature. They will ask questions with regard to things they see and hear, and parents should improve the opportunity to instruct and patiently answer those little inquiries. They oair in this manner get the advantage of the enemy, and fortify the minds of their children by sowing good seeds in their hearts, leaving no room for the bad to take root. The mother's loving instruction at a tender age is what is needed by children in the formation of character.