THE CHILDREN'S HOUSE.

Southland Times, Issue 18619, 18 August 1919, Page 7

THE CHILDREN'S HOUSE.

To the Editor. Sir, —Will you allow me to continue my description of the Children’s House? In the house itself there must be the following rooms, all as' sunny as possible:— 1. A large play-work room furnished with the following essential things:—(a) Small tables and chairs such as are used in a kindergarten or in a well-equipped infant department of the public schools; (b) a cabinet containing didactic material and other toys; (c) a cabinet of small drawers. In the latter each child has a drawer with his or her name on it. This will hold the child’s private belongings. These cabinets are so low that everything in each can be reached by every child. The children are not told not to touch, they are taught to touch with care and clean hands. Thus they, learn to respect both private and public property; (d) on the walls blackboards on which the children can scribble or draw. However crude these drawings and scribblings may be they are very valuable as a means of developing the muscular sense, and as a means of expression, for the, to us, meaningless scribble of little children is far from meaningless to them. I am tempted to enlarge upon this point but space does not permit of that. The didactic material is so constructed as to be self-adjusting, therefore the child can, without irritating interference of teacher or other outsider, work or play with it till he has, unaided, achieved triumphantly the obviously right result. In this way his senses are trained and his power of perseverance developed, and he has at the same time acquired the ability to lace his boots, button his coat and perform all the other complicated operations of dressing himself. 2. A large living room. Here also the furnishings arc small. Even the cupboards containing cups and saucers, plates, cutlery and all the other things necessary for daily use are within reach of the child. This room, as well as others, the children keep clean and tidy. They lift an*d shake mats, sweep the floors, dust the furniture and arrange flowers in vases. They lay the tables for meals taking a delight in the snowy linen and :n placing knives and forks and spoons with exactness. They wash up and put away the things they have used. The children learn easily and eagerly to do these things. It is not uncommon for children of two and two and a-half years of age to offer themselves for work of this kind and to do some of it quite successfully. Some of these tiny children will persevere in such a task for quite a long time rather than give it up before the work undertaken has been successfully performed. They are never hurried. No one ever interrupts the little earnest worker and says, “You must let me do that, dear, you are too slow. I am too busy to wait while you do it.” And as a result of this unhurried activity small boys of 4i years of age have

been known to serve hot soup to 20 children without any one being compelled to ask to be served. 3. There must be a rest room where the tiny tots can have their daily nap. 4. A dressing room also is essential, with little basins and taps so that each child can turn on and off the water he or she uses. Heie the little ones learn to wash eyes, ears, face and hands. Here they have tooth brush drill and form habits _of personal cleanliness and acquire a fastidipusness in this respect that they never lose. 5. A bathroom, too, is absolutely necessary if only to supply the absence of this cssentian convenience in many of the homes. . 6. A kitchen, of course, is needed, and 7. A small plainly furnished reception room. 8. A long sunny verandah where the children can play and work is also essential. Plenty of outdoor space is necessary, absolutely necessary, too, but this I may describe fully another day. All these things, together with the food and fuel and staff, will cost a good deal, and on behalf of “these little ones” I beg vour readers, ■ sir, to do all in their power to make the Children’s Street Day (Violet Dky) the greatest financial success Invercargill, generous as it has always been, has ever yet seen.—l am, etc., M. E. LEA.

61 McM aster street, August 15.