THE VALUE OF DRAMATIC PLAY The only blocks we have in our kindergarten are the large 5th and 6th Gifts. These with the boxes which contain them, and some pieces of heavy cardboard, have been used in building many things. We worked on a community project for many weeks. First, houses were built for the paper-doll families. Out of their needs grew furniture, fences, lawns, walks, barns, garages and gardens. Shops were required and such public buildings as the electric light plant, the city hall, the public school, the library, the post office, the fire station, the farm, the church, and a Zoo. After these came streets with car tracks, side walks, automobiles, street cars, delivery trucks and auto busses. All of these buildings and their furnishings and fittings have given the children unbounded opportunity for creative construction. They have worked with enthusiasm on the project, purposing, planning, executing, judging, correcting and improving. They have developed in initiative, judgment, ability to think, and skill. There was one defect however which marred the project, until I found a method of correcting it. The defect was this. When the houses were built they were so small that the children could not play in them. Only paper dolls or very small dolls could be comfortable in the houses, could use the furniture or ride in the automobiles. The children worked with zest to get the homes ready, and enjoyed the home building; but when they were built they did not care to play with them. They were ready to build a shop or a school or something else that the community should have, but they were not interested in playing with the things they built. The solution to the problem proved to be dramatic play. After they had built the dolls homes, I arranged three play houses where three families might live. They worked diligently to fix up their play houses and when they were ready, played in them with all their might. When we built a grocery store for the dolls, before we finished stocking it with miniature goods (cut mostly from magazines,) we made a stock of groceries, from paper and clay, large enough for the children to arrange and buy and sell. Then a grocery was conducted for the benefit of our homes, and we dramatized the grocer and his customers. When we added our doll's fire-station with its hook and ladder trucks of paper boxes, the children played firemen, and obligingly put out imaginary fires in every play-house. After they had added a post office building to the doll community; they made envelopes, post-cards, stamps and letter paper, sold them; made mail boxes for each house and store, a large mail box for everybody, and had a postman who collected and distributed mail to the housekeepers, the firemen and the grocer. When the dolls' school building was built, they arranged desks, provided books and a teacher, and some went to school. They conducted a library where they sat at tables and read magazines, or allowed the librarian to check their books in and out. They arranged the chairs for 125 church and conducted services. They had a farm, cared for the animals and hauled in truck loads of vegetables to the grocer. They arranged the chairs for a street car, and most of the children rode often. There was a traffic policeman who stood in the center of the room and directed traffic. They had a zoo with a care-taker who fed the animals and sold peanuts at the gate. In addition there was a drug store, a store where woolen clothes could be purchased, and a hat shop. All of this took a great deal of time. The dramatization went along with the building of the miniature city. The dramatization was genuine play. The whole child was absorbed by it. The children played with great enthusiasm as frequently and as long as they were permitted. Now, that the community is so nearly complete, the children have many choices in their dramatic play. The girls keep house, sew for their dolls, shop, visit, take their children to school, go to the library, on the street-cars, to church, to the farm and to the Zoo. They give birthday parties and dinners, and are growing more courteous and social daily. The boys are busy keeping shops, running the street cars, delivering the mail, directing the traffic, putting out fires, conducting church services, caring for the farm or keeping the Zoo. It is a matter of only fifteen or twenty minutes any day, to get this community dramatization started. I have carefully preserved the supplies which they have made for the shops; the animals for the farm and zoo; the housekeeping equipment; the books and magazines for school and library; and the supplies which the children have made for this play. They are kept in boxes where the children can get them, put them in place while they play, and return them to their boxes when they are through. Through this sort of dramatic play the children bring all their interest to the completion of the project. They play with great joy. They learn more every time they play about their community and about their relations to each other. ing in the happiest way to be good citizens-in fact they are good citizens of their little world. Dramatic play proves to be the climax of the project; and the They are learn THE DIFFICULT PARENT By Helen Gregg Green We read and hear of the difficult husband, the difficult wife, and children that are difficult, but who ever heard of a difficult parent being discussed? Still there are plenty of them. A child is a human being, even as you and I, although we sometimes impose upon children simply because we can. I was invited to dine with a young attorney and his wife not long ago. Jim phoned, asking us not to wait dinner for him; he had been in court all day and would be late. As we finished dinner, he sauntered in, looking tired and glum. He threw his hat on the davenport, giving his wife and six-year-old son a perfunctory kiss. He ate hurriedly; then joined us. As he entered the room, his eyes turned towards his son, playing on the davenport. Suddenly he blustered, "James, Jr., you're sitting on my hat!" In a moment he completely lost his self-control, his temper flared, and Jimmy, Jr. received a severe scolding. The child turned white, and tears started down his little cheeks. "Daddy, I'm sorry. I-" "There, none of your tears and excuses, young man. You're a fine specimen of carelessness!" Again the unjust anger of the father was heaped upon his child, all because he'd lost his case in court that day. Jimmy's mother hurried the trembling child off to bed, while I, troubled by the incident, started home. My first room-mate at college, who now has two small daughters, one seven, one nine, is another example of such a parent. She is high-strung and fussy, allowing and encouraging trifles to worry and irritate her. Her children pay the price for these moods. Naturally they, too, are developing a first-class set of "nerves." One day I met them skipping home from school. "Oh gee, Aunt Cassie, we do hope Mother is in a good humor. She's such a dear when she's happy," announced the older child. "Yes," besitatingly, "but I tell you, she's awful unreasonable, when-when she's cross," offered little Midge. "And, do you know, she gets cross at us over the funniest things!" The little brows puckered. Strange, isn't it, that parents fail to realize the danger of alienating their children's affections when indulging in these difficult and unreasonable moods? How we all love the person who understands our feelings and dislike the one with whom we must always be guarded! In time he becomes a bore. And, I think they after all, children are a lot like us. must feel the same way, don't you? JAUNTS WITH OUR CHILDREN By Edith Riland Cross Do you ever enjoy a jaunt in the woods with your children? And do you share an interest with them in the things of nature, in God's great out-of-doors? If not, you should remember that parents, living in rural communities where there are no kindergartens, can give their children much they would get in a city kindergarten by taking frequent trips with them. One of the greatest purposes of the kindergarten is to awaken the child's observation, to acquaint him with the world about him, and to teach him his relationship to the people with whom he associates. Nature lessons serve this purpose. First help your children to know the many land and water birds. Keep a list from year to year of the birds seen and the dates on which they appeared each spring. A bird guide and a small pair of field glasses are helpful on a field trip. Teach the children to know the songs of the birds, too, by taking them just at dusk to listen to their calls. If these calls are translated into words the children can more easily distinguish one from another. From childhood I remember that the brown thrasher says, "What would you give me for my tail, my tail, my tail? A sixpence, a sixpence. 'Taint enuf, 'taint enuf. A shilling, a shilling. Cut it off-cut it off. Tr-r-r-r-r(the saw)." The meadowlark says, "Teakettle, tea in the teakettle." Kildeers, phoebes, and chickadees say their own names. The robin says, "Cheer up cheerily." Bird's nests should likewise be studied and the kinds of places chosen by the different birds for their homes. Instill through such knowledge a desire on the part of the child to protect the birds and their homes, and thus further the work of our bird protective societies. Along with the birds, study flowers and trees. Let the children have a wild flower garden at home and teach them how to transplant it from the woods and tend it. In this way have them become familiar with twenty-five or thirty of our most common wild flowers and trees. A good flower guide would be serviceable. An added joy of the wood trip is, of course, the picnic lunch. How the children love to help build the fire and cook the meal! And don't you love the freedom of it, too? There is no better time to become real pals with your children than when close to nature. On a jaunt it is always a splendid idea to gather specimens to bring home. The children sometimes busy themselves for days making things from their collections. Each specimens has its story to tell, and this further contact more clearly impresses the characteristics upon the child's mind. Aside from the purely educative purposes of our jaunts, I would far rather have my children remember, when they are grown, that mother could almost always take time to go to the creek with them than have them remember whether or not my house was always dusted and ready for callers. Above all help the children realize that back of the wonders of nature which they see there is a kind Heavenly Father watching over each and every thing Whom we must glorify for these great blessings. HELPING CHILDREN TO HELP THEMSELVES By Helen Gregg Green, Cambridge, Ohio I was making a short call at my next-door neighbor's the other day, when Rae, her nine year old little daughter pounced in, all out of breath. "I could hardly wait, Mother-mine, to show you the stockings I bought. They're the best bargains! Craig's was having the most wonderful sale on children's hose. I knew I needed some so I bought three pair." Excitedly Rae handed Mother-mine the stockings. They were of inferior quality and not worth half the price Rae had paid for them. "Well, dear, won't they be lovely with your new blue dress!" Mother-mine evaded. "Oh, I tell you, my little girl is getting to be a splendid shopper.” I guess my face must have registered surprise for Mother-mine later explained, "I am trying to teach Rae self-confidence and the value of money. I give her a small allowance every week. Now, of course the child did not buy wisely when she got those stockings, but had I been too critical right at the time she was so enthusiastic and happy over the purchase, she would have lost her zest for the game. A little later when she finds a hole or two in them and she has discovered for herself the inferiority I will do the necessary explaining." "And I suppose you'll go with her the next time she buys stockings," I ventured. "Oh, no indeed! She must learn to do things for herself. We all make mistakes, but I am sure I would be making fewer now had I gotten more out of my system when I was a child. I was never allowed to buy a thing except candy and cookies, which I would have been better without." "And you allow Bud to do his shopping?" I asked. Bud is the fifteen year old brother. "Indeed yes. When I went to the hospital, Bud could see that I was worried. So the day before the operation he piled onto my bed, and taking my hand, said in the sweetest, I'm-taking-father's-place manner, 'Now mother-mine, I don't want you to worry. If anything should happen to you, you know I could take care of myself. And little pal can do lots of things for herself, and of course I am old enough to look out for her, too!. Tears filled Mother-Marie's eyes. "Wasn't that wonderful! Now don't you think it pays to teach children initiative, self-confidence, and the value of a dollar?" 127 TEACHING CHILDREN CIVIC INTEREST By Helen Gregg Green We were passing a handsome new church the other day, on which three little raggadies were drawing huge chalk lines and pictures. "Why, my dears, you don't mark on you own homes, and your mothers furniture," we frowned. "Oh, that's different, this isn't our church. We go to the Methodist church." "This whole town is yours, my dears," and then we proceeded to give a little civic talk. But I'm afraid they were unimpressed, because of lack of such teaching in the home. Children will be what they are taught to be, in nine cases out of ten. The child who shambles home from school, throwing crumpled paper on the streets, lawns, anywhere and everywhere, who marks on houses, churches, and private buildings has not been taught civic interest in the town. He has not learned proper respect for the property of others. So let's begin now to interest children in making and keeping their own town and cities beautiful. If we interest the present generation, think of the improvement twenty years from now, in our towns and cities. GENERAL POISE AND FREEDOM FROM The Kindergaren attempts to send children forth neither bashful nor precocious. The misfortune of both faults is obvious. Two little boys who entered Kindergarten at the same time were the extremes of these two types. The difficulties of the Kindergartner in handling each case according to its needs, were many and trying; but they are now forgotten in her pleasure in knowing that both children are doing well in the grades, hampered neither by shyness nor forwardness. The Kindergarten then in relation to the primary grades is a period of preparation. The farmer does not think to enchance the value of his crops by planting his seed sooner than the prescribed time, but by fertilizing, ploughing, studying the kind of seed in relation to the kind of soil. So the Kindergarten breaks the ground, gives fertilizing experiences, and prepares the soil for the seed which will soon be planted there in the shape of primary school lessons. ABCDEF “Indeed it does!" I said as emphatically as I could. Because of course you can't talk very well when you have such a chokey feeling as I had after hearing of Bud's manliness. G H I J K L THE QUEER LITTLE OLD WOMAN Sarah Grames Clark 128 Once upon a time-long, long ago a little old woman lived all by herself on the edge of a big dark pine forest. For years and years and years she had lived there alone in her little log cottage-ever since she had come back from her trip "ninety times as high as the moon." She seldom spoke, for the only living things that moved about the little old woman's door yard were a friendly black and white cow, a large black cat, four black hens and a proud black rooster. Surely you have guessed that this little old woman was very queer-queer looking in her coarse black dress and bare feet; and queer in speech, for she never spoke except in rhyme. Each morning as the good round sun rose over her hilltop, she would go out to the pasture and say"Good old bossy, black and white I hope you rested well last night." "Moo-o-o" came the answer. Then as she milked she hummed a queer little jerky tune. And when she had finished and lifted her briming pail of milk she would say "Now, good bossy, I'll say good-bye "Mooooo," again answered the cow. Then the little old woman would strain the milk ever so carefully and place it in shining buckets on the cellar shelf. As soon as this was done, she would hobble out to the chicken yard and before scattering the first little grain of breadfast she would say, "Rooster mine, I greet you! Hens, I greet you too! I hope the long night hours You all slept soundly through." But changes came about in that faraway country of long ago. One spring day a wonderful coach trimmed all in sparkling silver and drawn by six snow-white horses passed the little old log cottage. The little old woman was feeding her chickens and she asked them: "Who is this I see here? It's years and years and years Since a fine coach passed this way," Then-oh wonderful minute! the coach stopped just in front of the little old lady's log house! Out stepped a messenger, all clad in green and silver! And can you believe it-he walked right up the steps to the little old woman's log house. Into the house hobbled the queer old woman! When she opened the door the messenger said, "Madam, the little prince is ill. The court physi cians have ordered that he live in a deep pine woods until he is quite strong again. He must be given fresh eggs and milk. We plan to settle near you. Can you let us have eggs and milk each morning?" The queer little old woman was so excited that her lips trembled. She made a low bow and said in a shaky voice, "Figgley-piggley, my black hen "And the milk?" the messenger asked. And the little old woman answered "Higgley-piggley my black cow Bowing low, the messenger left the queer little old woman standing alone in the doorway of her little log house. As the silvery coach drove away, the queer old woman spied the pale thin face of the little prince. He smiled at her and waved his thin little white hand. She courtesied low and said slowly: "Eggs and butter from hen and cow Published bi-monthly during the school year as follows: September 1st, Entered at the P. O., Manistes, Mich., as Second Class Mail Matter. May-June, 1924. CHILD STUDY By Jennie B. Merrill, Ph. D. Dear Parents and Kindergartners :Long time ago, you and I thought of "Study" as belonging to the child, but as we have grown wiser, we find that grown-ups have quite as much if not more to study than in school days. Yes, indeed, study belongs to parents. The more parents study their children and other people's children too, the less they will scold and punish, and the more they will train quietly. The Good Book says, "Train up a child." Forming desirable habits has always been recognized as one of the ways of training but many parents do not look ahead, do not foresee exactly the best time to begin the formation of a good habit. They wait until they must correct bad habits. Kindergartners who have been studying children closely for years have begun to list habits and to try to determine when and how to initiate a good habit. This study of habits has been carried forward definitely in the Kindergarten-Primary Department of Teacher's College, Columbia University, since 1905 with great earnestness under the direction of the able leader, Prof. Patty S. Hill. Miss Hill acknowledges the aid of the Kindergartners associated with her and also that of Dr. Agnes Rogers of John Hopkins University in this study of habit formation. The work progressed until a year or two ago “A Tentative Inventory of Habits" was published by the Bureau of Publications, Teachers College Columbia. If any one thinks little children have very little to accomplish in their little lives, they should study this inventory. But the great question remains-What is the best way to establish any desirable habit? It has been too often thought that good habits are learned by correcting bad habits, by talking about them, by telling stories illustrating the outcome of this or that habit but a far better method is gaining ground by those who are studying the principles of habit formation. The study is really a deep one leading us into VOL. XXXVI-No. 5 researches in psychology but of that I cannot write now. I can, however, state in a few words the simple outcome which I think can be understood readily. First and foremost it consists in giving the child greater freedom to act rather than less, and leading him to feel the need of acting in the right way. It is a democratic Method. Prof. Hill says, "When conduct is acquired in a social situation, it not only takes on meaning but is likely to be associated in the mind of the child with a sense of satisfaction or pleasure. For this reason, the child, as well as the teacher, must be helped to a realization of the necessity for the conduct desired." We are learning more and more to realize that "any activity which is not associated with a sense of satisfaction may be lost." External authority may enforce it but how much better if the child is led to act from an inner feeling and understanding. Prof. Hill uses an illustration of "Safety First." It is on a school excursion that the children will feel and respond to the correct habits in street crossing. They have a real experience, a real situation. Kindergartners also lead children to invent plays where "Safety First" is practiced till it becomes a pleasant play experience. Such a play was invented by the children in a New York kindergarten shortly after the "traffic officer" became a well known figure. The children formed in two lines facing each other to represent a street. Some were chosen to be autos and others to be pedestrians. The traffic policeman stood in the street at the crossing and gave the signals. The children so thoroughly enjoyed the play that the habit of watching at street corners whether an officer was there or not, was doubtless formed as it could be in no better way. The habit of prompt obedience has been formed in the home at a very early age by playing "Going on an errand for Mother." Mother looks straight in Annie's eyes, saying "Annie carry this spoon to Auntie." Go quickly and come right back and tell Mamma if Auntie took the spoon." When Annie returns, Mother says "Where is the spoon," "Auntie took it." "Thank you, my little |