TRAINING THE CHILD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19529, 7 January 1927, Page 5

TRAINING THE CHILD.

A child learns through his senses as soon as he is horn. Like a young animal, the senses of sound and touch are more acute at birth than the sense of sight. He will start at a sound and respond to a touch or movement while remaining unaffected by surrounding objects. From the time, however, that ho begins to take notice his lessons start. Every hour of the day he is preparing for the adventure of life, says an English writer. Much sleep is required by young children, or the constant effort to adjust themselves to the numberless fresh impressions that crowd on their young brain will have an over-exciting result. These thousand-and-one impressions, the basis of education, develop the powers of oh- [ servation and memory. I Normal children should be encouraged to notice a great deal, and each outing should entail the discovery of something new. It is advisable to vary the walks of children, or they will become a monotonous routine, not an exploring expedition. From the fresh-air point of view, promenades in the parks and gardens of a town are excellent; but shops and street life give a mental stimulus that is distinctly beneficial The London street urchin, who lives in crowded thoroughfares, and whose days are full of variety, is far more alert than his country brother, i'ossibly the greatest gift of the mind is the imagination. Small people should hn taught now to play, and, when'they have learnt how to uso their toys, b# left to make up their own games. | v ed on fairy tales, and nourished on ; poetry, this great inheritance of all children should not perish. Coleridge asserted the debt he owned to Grimm and Hans ' Anderson. If observation and memory are accurate, and imagination vivid, the child will have acquired powers of inestimable value that will stand him io good stead in later life.