A DAY IN A KINDERGARTEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 17

A DAY IN A KINDERGARTEN

“THE BUSINESS OF CHILDHOOD IS PLAY”

Education begins from infancy. There is the influence of the home and the influence of the school. Home education is largely an unconscious desire on the part of the parents to bring up the child in the ideal image of themselves, while school education aims at teaching the child to discover its own potentialities, and is based on a scientific study of psychology, physiology, and childish needs. To-morrow a street day is to be held to raise funds for the free kindergartens in Dunedin, institutions which are of invaluable assistance in supplementing home education and preparing children for the larger schools which they will attend when of suitable age Let us consider free kindergartens and what they strive to do. as described by certain authorities:— “A kindergarten (says Hortense M. Orcutt in a pamphlet published by the Kate Baldurn Free Kindergarten Association of Savannah) should be a happy place. You should be con-

scious of this from the first moment that you step into the room. “The kindergarten age is from four to six. Children of this age easily cry and want each other’s possessions. “ To have many little children working and playing together, and happy, is a great moral achievement. “ Children learn to do through doing. The normal child is very active. The wise educator utilises this natural force in directions that will train and develop the child. “ Each bit of the day’s plan has been made for a special purpose; namely—to meet some need in the children’s growth. To this end is planned: “ 1. The subject of thought suitable to the season of the year or to the line of activity and ideals that we wish to bring before the child. This selected line of thought is developed and reinforced by appropriate talks, stories, poems, songs, etc. “2. Also, ideas from previous weeks come up and are interwoven: for a child’s ideas are like leaf buds—they grow slowly, and ‘ day unto day addeth ’; ’ line upon line "is a principle of the kindergarten. “ 3. An opportunity is given the children to get these thoughts into action through conduct, through the handwork and'the games. “A visitor should watch for the following points:— “ 1. The social side of the games; the right and happy ordering of the child’s relation with other children in play.

“ Through the representative and dramatic games and songs the children come to be more interested in the life about them, and begin to understand it better.

“2. Training in service to others, in courtesy, reverence, language, and the ability to take part in simple interesting conversation. "3. The pictures; the flowers and other means to cultivate love of Nature. “4. The child’s efforts to master materials; the small discoveries and inventions that interest his awakening mind; the training he is getting in the power to do, to produce; the gradual improvement in control and choice.

“The kindergarten aim is for improvement and pleasure in effort, rather than remarkable achievements. There should be no straining for results. “5 Notice the quality of attention that the children give to their work and play. “It should be attention of genuine interest. Notice the quality of control or self-direction possessed by the children. “Notice the discipline. If no discipline is neded, be sure you see the product of wise guidance in the beginning. If discipline is used, notice its character—not an arbitrary or personal infliction, but the natural penalty of a broken law.” Another authority deals with play and the tools of play. i.e.. toys. He says:— . , ... “ Play is as necessary to children as sunshine is to flowers. Play to the child is his work, and the quality and quantity of his play will, decide the kind of work he will do in later life

As Groos says, ‘Play is the agency employed to develop crude powers and prepare them for life’s uses.’ “At each period the child should be provided with those toys which will enable him .best to express the play possibilities of that period. The play possibilities of a two-year-old child are different from those of one who is five years old. Toys suited to the child’s particular phase of development will furnish him with right opportunities for expression, stimulate imagination, and lead to righ habits of thinking and doing. “ It is said that a nation is judged by the kind of toys it gives to its children. and true it is that toys frequently embodv the national characteristics. Is it not also true that the kind of toy a child uses will have influence upon his development? , , “Toys for the child of one and two years of age should be simple and easy to handle; Balls of varying colours which can be easily grasped and tossed. Good rattles, harmonious in sound, so that the early sound impressions may not be harsh and crude. To these such toys as blocks, rubber dolls, and animals could be added, and the child is happy in his play. . . “ ‘ Play brings out life principles, which may be utilised in adult life and developed through right expression.' — Froebel. Between the ages of two and five years, the period rich in imagination, full of activity and leading on to the love for pulling apart and putting together again, the children need such toys as beads of good colour, building blocks, clay with its ,/onderful possibilities for expression, and sand, which has been the plaything of the child through the ages. An old tin spoon, little tins, pail and shovel are the accessories. Small sticks, clothes pins for fences and people, tiny bottles for play stores, dolls, horse reins, a blackboard and crayon, Noah’s. Ark, all delight the heart of the child and make his play full of purpose. “ Between the ages of five and seven years the material supplied by the home should be such as would lend themselves to experimentation in invention and construction. Odd bits and shapes of wood, blocks which make the finished building, animals to live in. the barn. / Hammers, nails, string, rope, cardboard, a good cook stove, wash tub, and dolly’s bed, boxes of all kinds and paints which satisfy the love of colour. A feather m the hair will turn a boy into a fine Indian. A shaving curl or an old skirt transforms a little girl into a visiting lady. “ The value of well-selected toys presupposes the need of a place in which to play. To be out of doors ensures the physical well-being of the children. In the back yard, on the porch, or even on the roof if the other two are not available. An old shovel and a strong stick suggest a hut or house. A broom handle makes a fine horse, a row of kitchen chairs a dashing express train, or a market cart. If mother co-operates, occasionally coming to crawl into the spacious dwelling to taste the sand cookies, drink the cup of tea, send the hobby horse to market and buy some ribbons and groceries at the play store, joy will permeate the household. If fathers could give a little time and that to sharing in their boys’ love for making things, what an additional stimulus it would give to the work! A box made into a wagon, a pigeon house, or a rabbit hutch. A playhouse for sister and her dolls, made from soap boxes, with furniture of spools. At such a time the good hammer, saw, and plane which last Christmas brought now prove their worth. V • “ Good work is the result, habits of industry are formed, and possibly a future calling suggested. Indoors a corner of the attic or even a part of the living room arc good play places, if toys are gathered up and put away in a playbox when play is over. In such places how often one sees a child sitting before an array of scattered blocks and toys, confused by the number and not knowing what to do with them. A nice suggestion frpm mother, however, may provide possibilities for a morning’s play. "Good Playthings.—(l) Give the child power over material by calling fortn his self-activity. (2) Arouse imagination and develop originality and skill. (3) Are of proper size so that they may be easily handled. (4) Of good colour and material, (5) Well proportioned and artistic. (6) Are often in related sets, thereby developing in the child a network of ideas corresponding to the good in life about him. (7) Can be put together and pulled apart legitimately without destroying the material. (8) Rightly used, good toys make the child constructive rather than destructive. (9) Picture books and picture papers (seldom a comic supplement) must be selected with great care, because too many are untrue in purpose, colour, form, story, and meaning. ‘A very few, good, wellmade. usable toys are better than a number of cheap ones.’ “Bad Toys.—(l) Are cheap and easily broken. (2) Waste money and effort. (3) Make children destructive and often discourage them. (4) Are not true to life, bad in colour and proportion. (5) Toys firearms should not be made. (6) Mechanical toys—(a) Are easily broken; (b) dwarf originality and the desire to construct, because the child’s inventions seem crude in comparison with the often highly-coloured and elaborately-made ones; (c) they tend to destroy creativeness, resulting in irritability and discontent with everything; (d) they are valuable only when used in connection with other toys and keep the child in touch with airships, telephones, and electrical contrivances. • ‘ Too many toys are bad.’ ”