CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library BV1590 .B56 Mother-teacher of religion. Ijy. ,*"".?„ ..f™^ olin 3 1924 029 337 924 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029337924 ^.-t^ THE MOTHER-TEACHER AND HER PUPILS Wat ^bingbon 31^eligiou£( Cbucatton tE^txti Babib (@. IBotonep, General Cbttor GEORGE HERBERT BETTS, Associate Editor The Mother -Teacher of Religion BY ANNA FREELOVE BETTS ,^^ tiBMlpgtionlmB THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copjrright, 1922, by ANNA FREELOVE BETTS All Rights Reserved sd'/fGq^ Pvinted in the United States of An First Edition Printed January, 1922 Reprinted October, 1922 To The Many Mothers who are trying to make God REAL IN THE HEARTS AND LIVES OF THEIR CHILDREN CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Editor's Introduction ii Mother's Creed and Prayer 13 I. Beginnings 15 Laying the foundations — The unbreakable unity — First im- pressions; an interpretation. II. The Awakening Mind 18 The mind at birth — Getting under way — The law of spiritual growth. III. Physical Foundations 24 The body and the soul — Sleep and rest — Food, growth, and character — The breath of life — Clothing and comfort — Exer- cises for the baby. IV. First Impressions 36 The mother's preparation — Unconscious absorption of reli- gious impressions — Forming religious habits — The quiet hour. V. Teaching About God 42 Making God real to the child — The natural approach of the child to God — A God who is near at hand — The child's ques- tions about God — Saving from wrong concepts of God. VI. Teaching the Child to Pray 51 Learning to pray — Creating the mood for prayer — What the child shall pray about — Praying or "saying prayers" — Teach- ing the child to help answer his own prayers — Forms of prayers to be used — Growth in prayer. VII. Prayers Which Children Pray '. 63 The use of formal prayers — Prayers for evening use — Morn- ing prayers — Grace at meals — Prayers that are sung. VIII. The Atmosphere of the Home 71 Like home like child — Keeping the bond unbroken — Worship in the home — Bringing the child into the worship program — The father's influence — Good fellowship and courtesy — Owner- ship, money, spending. 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IX. The Play-Mother 8i The comradeship of play — The child must play — Play to be governed by the needs of the child — Playthings and their use — Sympathy toward the child's activity — Father joins the game — The play spirit in government of children — For the mother who has not learned to play. X. Mother- and Father-Plays 93 Old folk plays — Father and baby plays — Shadow pictures — Playthings — Indoor plays and games — Bean bag games. XI. Teaching Through Pictures and Stories 114 The language of pictures — Picture story-telling — Nursery rimes illustrated — Children's love of old folk-tales — Use of the picture-story in teaching religion — How to tell stories to children — The test of a story — Lessons from stories, rimes, and pictures — Fairy stories and stories of adventure. XII. Stories and Pictures for the Young Child 129 The message of spring — Finding God through nature — Au- tumn pictures and stories — The home relationships. XIII. Picture Stories About Jesus 182 The Christmas story — ^Jesus in his home — The Mother and Child — ^Jesus the boy — Jesus the good shepherd. XIV. Stories from the Old and New Testament 214 The baby Moses — David the shepherd boy — The ark upon the waters — The lost lamb — The three Wise Men — Stories about Joseph. XV- Religion Through Songs 228 Wofsjiip througji musip — ^Tbe teaching power of musie-^ ,S;ijitiiig fnusic to chjldhooij. Jf yj. Sunday in t^e Pojme , . , . , 234 Th,e true spifit pf the Sabljath — Making Sunday different: — Stmday as Go,d's xiay — The S,unday quiet hour — Sunday recrea.- ,tions — Sunday handwork — Home games suitable for Sunday — The home Sunday recognizes the church. XVII. Foundations of Character 247 The building of right habits — First lessons in obedience — Avoiding imnecessary conflict — ^When punishment is required. CONTENTS 7 CHAPTER PAGE XVIII. Teaching the Fundamental Virtues 258 Training to cure selfishness — Cultivating the spirit of help- fulness — Learning to tell the truth — The fictions of imagination not lies — How fact and fiction become confused — "Let's pre- tend" — The actual lie — Tantrums and temper — Causes and cures for temper. XIX. Children's Problems 270 The problem of childhood fears — The treatment of fear — How to drive away fear — Teaching about God to allay fear — Shall we have a Santa Claus? — ^Answering the child's ques- tions about life's origin — Information for the older child. XX. Keeping Close to Our Children 280 Putting ourself in the child's place — The heart of a child — Respecting the child's personality — Recompense. Bibliography of Children's Books 286 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Mother-Teacher and Her Pupils Frontispiece After Nine Months in Life's School 20 A State Prize Baby 30 Physical Exercises for the Baby 32-35 Infant Samuel (Reynolds) 54 Children at Prayer 67 Playing Ball with Daddy 83 A Home-made Slide Is a Good Investment 90 Riding on Father's Foot 97 Farm Animals and Fowls 98, 100 Shadow Pictures 101-103 The Picture and Story Book Yields Untold Happiness to Childhood 116 Spring (Kjious) 128 Robin Redbreast (Munier) 135 Two Mothers and Their Families (Gardner) 138 "You're No Chicken" (Paton) 140 The Shepherd and His Sheep (Mauve) 142 A Contented Flock (Bonheur) 143 Shearing the Sheep 145 An Interesting Family (Carter) 147 Bringing Home the New Born Calf (Millet) 149 A Visit to the Barn 150 Milking Time (Dupre) 151 Can't You Talk? (Holmes) 152 Family Cares (Barnes) 154 WiDE-AwAKE (Adams) 155 Young Freehold (Carter) 161 "Sparrows" (Laux) 163 9 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "Grandmother" 165 The Snowman 170 Jolly Santa Claus 172 The First Step (Millet) 175 The Mother and Her Child (Max) 176 Cuddlin' Time 179 Holy Night (Correggio) 183 Holy Night (Correggio) 186 The Apparition to the Shepherds (Plockhorst) 189 Adoration of the Shepherds (Murillo) 191 Repose in Egypt (S. Benz) 193 The Holy Family (Ittenbach) 195 Sistine Madonna (Raphael) 196 Madonna of the Chair (Raphael) 197 Madonna (Bodenhausen) 198 Divine Shepherd (Murillo) 199 The Childhood of Christ (Hofmann) 201 Christ and the Doctors (Hofmann) 202 Madonna and Child (Janssen) 205 Jesus and Child (Balheim) 207 Christ Blessing Little Children (Plockhorst) 209 The Good Shepherd (Plockhorst) 211 JO EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION No child can have a normal spiritual development whose home is not the most important factor in his early religious training. Many parents sense this fact but do not know just how to proceed with their children. They realize that while we may safely give the teaching of reading and arithmetic over altogether to an outside agency, this is not true of re- Ugion. The home can not delegate its responsibility for the child's religious nurture and guidance. This is impossible because of the very nature of religion. For religion is life at its truest and best. Rehgious training is, therefore, training in a way of Hving, and not merely a set of facts to be learned or formulas to be repeated. Rehgious impressions and concepts must be built daily into the system of habits and conduct which is constantly being developed. Religious ideas should grow up along with the child's other ideas and so become an inseparable part of his structure of thought. Rehgious interests and emotions should develop as a part of the child's whole range of feehngs and motives. If this is to take place, it is evident that the home must be the laboratory in which the young child's rehgious develop- ment is worked out. Though the child will, of course, be taken to the church school at the earhest moment he is capable of re- ceiving benefit from it, the church school can at best be but a supplement to the home in the spiritual nurture of yoimg children. Is the home accepting its rightful share of responsibility for the rehgious training of its children? There seems to be cause for serious concern over this question. The family altar has largely dropped out; the Bible is decreasingly read in the home; but httle instruction in rehgion is given the child; the home is threatening to abdicate in favor of the church school or of indifference to rehgion. Not that this criticism is to be applied indiscriminately. 12 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Many homes, realizing the danger that threatens, seek ear- nestly to do their full duty toward their children. Conscious of the new interest in religious education and fully believing that the child can be so reared that he will never know con- scious estrangement from God, they are asking how they may do their part. Parents are asking for religious materials suit- able for use with their children from the earhest years. They are demanding the methods to be used in making these mate- rials effective, and inquiring concerning the laws which govern the spiritual growth of childhood. The present volume is an attempt to help parents on these problems. It addresses the mother primarily, since inevitably she must have most to do with the young child; yet the father is not left out. It deals chiefly with the pre-school age, for this is the most important time for the grounding of first re- Hgious impressions, and it is also the time when the church and the church school can contribute but little to the child. In deciding what to put into the volume the author has made a skillful balance between theory and practice. Enough of the religious psychology of childhood is set forth to make an in- telligent approach to the concrete materials presented. This is accompHshed in untechnical terms and with a wealth of illustration such as gives the principles immediate appUcation. A considerable number of prayers, stories, pictures, songs, etc., are supplied so that the mother may have an abundance of usable lessons directly available. The whole is woven to- gether in such a way that the mother herself will have the advantage of a course in religious pedagogy while guiding and stimulating the spiritual development of her child. The editor sends this book forth with much satisfaction, beHev- ing that it will meet a very definite need in many homes, and confident that children who during their early years are trained in accordance with its principles and materials will have laid firm the foundation for a worthy structure of Christian character. THE MOTHER'S CREED AND PRAYER / believe being a mother the holiest privilege given a human being. Grant, heavenly Father, that I may in motherhood meet the great opportunity of training my child to be a child of thine. / believe that mother-love is sent of God. Help me to under- stand its full significance — to know that love means more than the ardent outpouring of lavish affection. Grant that with my love there may be the seeing eye, the hearing ear, the understanding heart, so that I may better understand the needs of my child and lead him in the natural unfolding of the hfe thou hast given him. / believe in the gospel of good health. Help me to minister faithfully to the physical welfare of my child. Help me to realize that religion and moraKty are closely related to good health and sound physical vigor. I believe that nothing is trivial or of little importance that con- cerns my child. Grant that I may have that sympathetic understanding of child nature that makes me a child with my child, laughing with his joys, sorrowing in his sorrows, sympathetic with his faults, helping him through my greater experience, to be fine and true and noble in the little things that count so much in the making of character. Help me to be all that I desire him to become. Help me through the days of his early childhood to be always patient and full of cheer. And if the way now and then seems one of drudgery or the demand for strength to meet the task too great, grant me the larger vision that I may see my child in man's estate, the kindly deeds of a noble life given in service; or, perchance, that I may hear men say of him, "Here is a man in all that true manhood means." Then shall I feel repaid a thousand fold and thank thee, my Father, that thou hast bestowed upon me the high privilege of being a mother. 13 CHAPTER I BEGINNINGS When shall I begin to teach my child religion? This is a question earnestly asked by many mothers who are concerned over the spiritual welfare of their children. The answer is, As soon as he is born. At first thought this may seem strange. Such a starting point may seem premature, for is it not commonly understood that before a child can be taught religion he must be capable of understanding about God and our relations to him? And that the child cannot begin to be religious until he is old enough to "say his prayers"? Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that as soon as the child is born we may begin to lay the foundations for a re- Kgious character and hfe. For, in its broadest and best meaning, religion is right living. Jesus came that we might have abundant life. And all factors that build for a full, rich hfe hved at its best have their part in spiritual development and training. Many of these influences begin the moment the babe has set his feet on the "shores of time." Laying the Foundations Not until about three years of age is the child able to grasp much of the thought about God. Yet before this time he may have been given many impressions which, while they are not definitely remembered in later years, nevertheless supply the prepared soil in which seeds of more direct instruction find favorable conditions for growth. From the very first, right habits of sleeping, feeding, and re- sponding to care and attention can be formed; this will in the 15 i6 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION end save much fretting, ill-nature, and rebellion, all of which have their bearing on mood and disposition and, through these, on the spiritual nature. The foundations of good health and freedom from pain and discomfort can in no small degree be insured; and good digestion, healthy nerves, and normal bodily functioning play no small part in determining the quahty of the moral and rehgious Hfe. Through wise and loving care and through providing a congenial atmosphere in the home, happiness, cheerfulness, and good nature may be promoted — factors which lie at the very foundation of all the finer spiritual qualities. Through loving and sympathetic companionship the bonds of affection and understanding can be established between parents and child which will render example and instruction doubly effective when the child has become old enough to respond to them. In all these and many other ways, then, the mother can from the eariiest days of her child's Hfe be making sure that the beginnings are right. These factors, rightly considered, are as much a part of the child's religious training as the more direct teaching he will later receive. To neglect these essentials may leave a fatal weakness in the foundations upon which the higher spiritual structure rests. The Unbreakable Unity Let the mother therefore realize that life, her child's life, is a great unity. There is no part of it that does not affect all other parts. There is no time in the life that does not in some measure determine all that part of the life which comes after. There is no experience — no train of thought, no affec- tion, no ideal, no decision, no loyalty that does not owe much to what has preceded it in experience. This point of view offers the mother cause both for rejoicing and for a hesitant approaching of her task. On the one hand she realizes that she need not wait for the years to pass and BEGINNINGS 17 bring her babe the power to understand great thoughts and grasp deep meanings before she can begin to form his character and shape his destiny. On the other hand she recognizes that there is no time to waste, that foundations are being laid, habits set up, and the background estabhshed upon which ail later building of character and destiny must rest. With or without her help this is taking place. With the love of motherhood prompting her and with the reHgious motive actuating her, every true mother will there- fore seek to know her child, and from the first so nurture and guide him that this bit of divine life may never know the tragedy of separation from its Author. First Impressions: An Interpretation "Alpha — Night' — Silence — a struggle for the hght, and he did not know what Kght was. An effort to cry, and he did not know that he had a voice. He opened his eyes and 'there was light.' He opened his lips and hailed the world with a cry for help. He did not know the language of the inhabitants of the planet upon which Providence had cast him. So he saluted them in the one universal speech of God's creatures, a cry. Everybody — every one of God's children understands that. A tiny craft in sight of new shores — he could not tell from what port he was cleared; he did not know where he was. He had no reckoning, no chart, no pilot. No one knew whence he came. Some one said he came from heaven. And the baby himself knew as httle about it as the learned people gathered to welcome him. There was a man's voice, the Doctor's, strong and reassuring. There was a woman's voice, soothing and comforting, the voice of the nurse. And one was a mother's voice. There is none other like it. It was the first music he had ever heard in this world and the sweetest."^ 1 Robert J. Burdette in Chimes From a Jester's Bells. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. CHAPTER II THE AWAKENING MIND The mind of a child! Who may know what it contains? As we look down upon the small mass of flesh and soul we call a babe, who can understand the mental state of this new being who has no memories, no plans, no ambitions; who has neither ideas nor connected thoughts; who understands no language, nor recognizes any object upon which the eye may rest? The Mind at Birth Yet here this child is, and he possesses some sort of con- sciousness. He is aware, even if but dimly, of sights and sounds and contacts and tastes and temperatures. These cannot mean to him what they do to us, but he in his own way responds to them. Speech is to him not made up of words and sentences, but of a buzzing, rumbling, hissing continuity of meaningless sound. The immediate environment does not consist of people and chairs and cribs and lamps and tables and what-not, but of a confused mixture of impressions with no object or person separated from the puzzling complex. The world to the new- born child "is a big, blooming, buzzing confusion," says Wilh'am James. From the first, the babe is sensitive to hunger, to pain, and to other forms of discomfort. He may not know just what is troubling him when his stomach becomes empty, but he reaHzes that something is the matter and acts accordingly. He may not know what is causing the pain nor even from what part of the body the pain comes when a pin is sticking, but he is aware that something is wrong with his world and voices a pro- test. Where knowledge and intelhgence are not yet ready i8 THE AWAKENING MIND i$ to guide instinct takes hold and the child does what his race has grown accustomed to do in similar circumstances through a million generations. At the beginning the child is an au- tomaton. He has neither thought, conscious desire, nor pur- posed will. He is nevertheless a hving automaton, and will soon pass from the automatic stage. Bodily movements are not at first directed by conscious purpose, for one can manifestly not purpose to perform an act which one has never learned to perform — one must have a copy for his act. Hence the first movements of the child are random movements, the result of the sheer impulse to move, wriggle, kick, thrust, turn the head, rather than to be quite still and immobile. These early movements are not only random and impulsive, but they are for the most part unrelated to each other, they are uncoordinated. So we observe that the two hands do not act in unison as successfully as they later come to do. The legs do not seem always to agree as to direction or time of action. The eyes, even, have not yet developed perfect team work and may look in different directions instead of acting together. Getting Under Way "A very imperfect machine, this new-born babe," an unin- formed observer might say. Yet a most marvelous machine — and much more than a machine. For this small life has wrapped up in it in potential form all that the Hfe can ever become. It is Hke the acorn with the perfect oak tree at its heart. Nurture, training, education do not add new powers; they only make actual through growth and development what was already there through the gift of nature. So, a little later we find this imperfect mind has changed. Memory begins, and the mother has the joy that comes from seeing that her child remembers her face and recognizes her. 20 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Sensation has become more perfect, and food that is not of a pleasing temperature or taste is refused. Objects are per- ceived, and the child will follow with his eyes and head the AFTER NINE MONTHS IN LIFE'S SCHOOL movement of a thing that attracts his attention. Famihar articles come to be associated with their uses, and a sight of the feeding bottle brings a demand for food; a ghmpse of wraps THE AWAKENING MIND 21 and the gocart creates the expectation of a trip out; the rattle is shaken, the ball thrown and promising objects put into the mouth. While all this is going on a similar development is taking place in the affections and emotions. There comes a day when the child smiles when pleased. Unmistakable expressions of anger occur when things do not go right. Cooing, crowing, and gurgling announce that all is right with the world. Nesthng, reaching, and clasping tell of the beginnings of love for the mother. As the months pass understanding broadens and the power to grasp the meaning of speech and of actions grows. The child knows from word or tone when he is being reproved and when he is being praised. He is receiving impressions of con- duct and learning to respond to control. He tears a book and has his hands spatted for it; memory and association come to his aid on the next occasion and he foregoes the pleasure of hearing the r-r-r-p of the tearing sheet; he is developing self- restraint and control. Gradually out of countless impressions of approval and dis- approval, out of rewards and punishments, out of lessons learned by pain of consequences and by restraints or promptings of mother and father the sense of right and wrong develops. Prob- ably for every child at one time in his existence right is what he is allowed to do, and wrong is what he is restrained from doing. So, little by little, line upon line and precept upon precept, the child learns his world and how to adjust himself to it. Par- allel with this development the physical and mental powers are enlarging. Sensation reaches its capacity, memory and imagination increase, reason dawns, imitation takes hold, feel- ing and emotion grow deeper and broaden their range. Muscu- lar skill increases, bodily parts learn to work together, play becomes a controlling motive. From beginnings which at the first seem but a promise the 22 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION mother sees taking place before her the miracle of growth which transforms her helpless babe into a self-directing being, responsible in his own right to his Creator and capable of taking his place in the world of men and affairs. The Law of Spiritual Growth It is necessary that the mother who would guide her child's reKgious development should understand the laws of his mental growth, for the same powers of mind and heart are used in religious thought and feeling that apply to other aspects of experience. In coming to understand about God the child employs the same mental processes as when he comes to under- stand something in his human relationships. When his feelings of love, friendship, and loyalty go out to Jesus these are the same feeling activities which come into play in his love, friend- ship, and loyalty to his earthly parents and friends. When the age has come for making choices and reaching decisions for himself, the same laws will govern in the matter of religion that control in other affairs. Because of this significant truth it follows that the child can progress no faster in his reKgious development than in the rest of his development. He cannot understand or use reKgious truths that are beyond his grasp any more than he can other truths which he cannot comprehend. He cannot experience feeKngs or emotions too deep or too exalted for him in reKgious lines any more than he can in other Knes. Therefore reKgious training must be suited to the child. Strong meat must not be fed to babes. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear," is the irrevocable law which must be obeyed. Books for mothers: "The American Home Series" pubKshed by The Abingdon Press (Pamphlets): THE AWAKENING MIND 23 The Education of the Baby Until It is One Year Old. The First Year in a Baby's Life. The Second and Third Years. The Biography of a Baby, MiHcent W. Shinn. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. •Fundamentals of Child Study (Chap. V), Kirkpatrick. Pub- lished by The Macmillan Company, New York. CHAPTER III PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS In the olden day the physical nature was held in low regard. "The world, the flesh, and the devil" were all condemned in the same breath. The soul was thought to suffer contam- ination by its contact with the body, and the body was neg- lected, abused, 'and sometimes even cruelly maimed in the vain hope of purifying the spirit by mortifying the flesh ! The Body and the Soul But in this better day we no longer accept such a false and debasing doctrine. Good health ministers to beauty of soul as well as body. In Browning's words, "All good things are ours, Nor soul helps flesh more now Than flesh helps soul." The mother who would guide aright her child's religious development must understand the whole child. She must realize that religion is inextricably bound up with the entire life. There is no possibiUty of considering spiritual growth separated from the normal growth of body and mind. Re- ligion not only concerns every department of Kfe, but is in turn influenced by all that life contains. If we could but know our children better — know the frail little body, and especially the dehcate and tender brain and nervous system! Ordinarily we do not think of babies being nervous. "Nerves" are a luxury reserved for harassed or over- worked adults. Mother is tired with a stinging weariness, or father comes home from a day of racking cares, and the nerves 24 PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS 25 are on edge. Each needs quiet and rest and soothing minis- trations and sleep to "knit up the raveled sleeve of care." But the baby? The baby, who has no work, no care, no burdens to shoulder? — Who knows? This new and unripe brain, "these untried nerves — do they too not feel the strain and tension of existence? Do they not weary under infantile troubles as real as those that disturb our own peace of mind? May they not become frayed by worry or fretting, or too much attention and excitement, or too many people about, or want of sleep at proper time? Sleep and Rest The observing mother realizes how easily and quickly the young child tires. A happy, hilarious play spell is on, and it seems a pity to stop it. But after a time the enjoyment lessens, signs of fretting are seen, and perhaps the baby cries. The child is overtired; the play should have been stopped sooner and the weary brain and nerves given a chance to recover their tone. Such overtiring, if it occurs too often, leads the child to irritable moods and fretful tempers, thereby spoihng the disposition as well as retarding growth and development. For the first three months the babe needs for the most part but to sleep and eat. Plentiful sleep remains one of the chief requirements throughout childhood. Many children who are cross and unruly and who show undesirable streaks of rebellion are but the victims of shortened hours of sleep and are paying the penalty which nature never fails to exact of those who trespass on her laws. Sleep is nature's best restorer and builder. At birth, from eighteen to twenty hours a day should be devoted to sleep; at six months, from sixteen to eighteen hours; during the second year, from fifteen to sixteen hours; the third year, from fourteen to fifteen hours; and for the next three years an average of thirteen hours. Up to school age children should take a day nap to break the long strain on the nervous 26 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION system of a day of active play. The habit of an early and regular bedtime hour following a simple meal should be as fixed as the setting of the sun. Children who are allowed to suit their own fancy about going to bed, or those whose bed- time hour is changed on every slight pretext cannot escape the penalty sure to be imposed on disposition as well as body for the disregard of inexorable law. Food, Growth, and Character Of equal importance in building good foundations is the matter of nutrition. Probably few mothers think when feeding their children or planning a dietary of any important effects beyond physical growth and health. Yet science teaches us that there is an undoubted relation between malnutrition and moral delinquency and degeneracy. For the young infant the mother's milk is the natural and best food. No substitute for it has ever been discovered. While we have no complete statistics for the entire country, it is known that for large masses of our population one baby out of every ten born dies during its first year. This is a consid- erably larger percentage than of soldiers killed at the front in the late European war. It is safer to be a soldier in active modern warfare than to be a baby during the first year of hfe in modern America! And physicians everywhere tell us that the greatest single factor in this tragic infant mortahty is feed- ing. Three fourths of the babies who die the first year are bottle fed. Nearly one third of a milUon children die annually in the United States under five years of age — more from incor- rect feeding than from any other causes, or probably from all other causes combined. But it is not a question of mortality only. Not all improperly fed children die under the mistreatment, but none of those who live escape the later handicap which malnutrition is sure to place upon them. Out of one hundred and one Better Babies PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS 27 selected at random from a contest, eighty-nine were breast fed, eight were fed by a combination of breast and bottle, and only four on the bottle alone. Who can estimate the greater advantage and larger promise lying ahead of the child who has a good physical start in life! No considerations of personal or selfish nature should cause the mother to refuse or neglect the sacred duty of nursing her offspring. Regularity of feeding is almost as much a factor in good nutrition of young children as the quality of the food itself. The baby should be fed by the clock just as it should be put to sleep by the clock. This is in part because regular feeding is one of the factors of good nutrition; it is also a factor in the grounding of certain fundamental physical habits which lay the foundations of stabiHty of character. "But," says one mother, "surely my baby knows better when it is hungry than I could know." No, such is not the case. The baby is quite certain to interpret various kinds of discomfort as hunger, and therefore to get into the habit of expecting to be fed at all times. The result is an overworked stomach, indigestion, more discomfort, and more clamoring for food. On the other hand, the baby, if healthy, can be trained to become hungry at regular intervals, take a full meal, and then be satisfied until feeding time comes again. A psychologist writes that one of the most common errors of adults in deahng with children's minds is that of interpreting the child's mind in terms of their own. One wonders whether the same principle does not hold for many careless or ignorant parents in deahng with the bodies of their children. Paul was generous in his judgment when he said, "We do not feed strong meat to babes." For that is, in effect, just what we do when we allow the child to have food not adapted to his age. Sara is between two and three years of age. She was given several ice-cream cones at a summer picnic — because she cried for them. The next day she was cross and fretful and had a rash 28 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION over her face. "It's the heat," said her mother. "It is indi- gestion caused by improper feeding," said the doctor. Eighteen months' old Bobbie was given peanuts by a doting grand- parent because "he always gave his children what they wanted to eat and it didn't hurt them." Sequel: vomiting, fever, castor oil, several days of peevishness and low spirits, and so much of happiness, health, and good nature checked out of the bank of Bobbie's future. The good old family doctor, sitting by the bedside of a sick child, said to the young mother gently but with terrible mean- ing: "It is true that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, but perhaps it is even more true that the ignorance or carelessness of the mothers is visited upon them." In the surveys that have been made in our pubhc schools an alarmingly large proportion of children have been found suffering from various forms of malnutrition. These children come from the "best" homes as well as from the homes of the poorer classes. In most cases it is not so much a question of the amount of money spent on the table as of the careful study of a particular child's needs for his health and correct growth. A serious aspect of the matter is that not only is the child's physical development being retarded but his mental power is being impaired and his whole future jeopardized. It is stated by Dr. WiUiam R. Emerson that probably one third of our school children are not up to normal health, al- though apparently they may seem to be fairly well and strong. Many of these troubles, possibly most of them, had their origin during the first five years of the child's Kfe. The BiiEATH or Life It is as possible to starve the child for want of air as for want of food. When we close the drafts of a stove we shut out the oxygen and the fire burns low or goes out. When we keep the baby in a close, ill-ventilated room we rob him of the PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS 29 life-giving oxygen and the fires of life burn low — they may even go out if some ailment or disease attacks the weakened organs. The pale face, the anemic body, the tendency to take cold are evidences of oxygen starvation. Referring again to the one hundred and one Better Babies in the contest: eighty had always slept alone, and ninety- one had always slept with the windows open. The "drafts" were kept open for the young organism so that the fires of growth and health might burn brightly. Many mothers, sensing the fact that the young child re- quires more heat than the adult, are afraid of the open air or out-of-doors for their children. It is just at this period of Ufe, however, that the child is making his most rapid growth, and so needs an abundance of pure air and sunshine. The out- door nap when the weather permits, outdoor play in proper clothing to insure protection, abundance of sunKght at aU seasons of the year — these are valuable insurance against sickness and disease and the surest guarantee of vigor and normal development. Clothing and Comfort In the dressing of her child the sensible mother will know its needs and not be too much influenced on the one hand by tradition nor on the other by the fads of the day. Miss Shinn tells us that babies lose a great deal of their normal activity through the wearing of clothes. Since children do not live in tropical forests nor have their own hair coverings they must wear clothes, but we ought to leave the Httle Hmbs as free as we can without risk from cold. A chance to roll about nude in a room that is safely warm is a great thing for a baby. Free- dom of movement, adaptation to play, protection against the weather and physical comfort should be considered ahead of convention and fashion, though attractiveness and artistic effect need not be neglected. 30 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION In many cities of our country children's health cHnics have been established. In these clinics five essential factors are taken as the basis of good health : A STATE PRIZE BABY The Good Nature back of this Smile means much for future Disposition and Character PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS 31 1. To get children to take proper food at proper intervals. 2. To prevent over fatigue. 3. To secure fresh air day and night. 4. To establish sufficient home discipUne to carry out good health habits. 5. To remove physical, mental and social causes of mal- nutrition. There are very few children who are not suffering from the lack of one or more of these essentials for the securing of good health and full development. Should not all parents study their children in the Kght of these factors in order that they may avoid the handicaps which later may defeat them in arriving at the goal? Should we not rid ourselves of the comfortable fallacy that the physical disabilities of childhood will be "out- grown" if let alone? Should we not accept the cold, cruel fact that many of these disabilities will, if let alone, increase and that even those that are "outgrown" have taken their toll from their victim? Every child has a right to the best chance we can give him. Good health and a well-developed body are abundantly worth while for their own sake alone. But parents should also realize that while physical vigor does not insure a Hfe of rectitude, it goes far to make the conditions favorable. A good digestion and an abundance of red blood bear an important relation to clean morals. Exercises for the Baby Many educators believe that even before the impulse to spontaneous play has arisen the young child should regularly be given carefully planned physical exercises. These must, of course, be suited to his degree of development and his needs. They must not be overdone, strain tender muscles, or weary dehcate brain and nerves. Their whole success and value depend on their perfect adjustment to the individual child. 32 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Normal healthy babies from the age of even two months will enjoy suitable exercises properly given, and will come to re- spond to them with great satisfaction and glee. If the child cries or frets under them, it is a sure sign that the exercises are not being given in the right way. The exercises were devised and their accompanying illus- trations^ supphed by Mary L. Read, director of the School of Mothercraft, New York. I. Arm Exercises; for developing the chest, upper back, and arms. Two simple exercises alternate, (i) in which the arms are extended outward and brought back, and (2) in which they are extended upward and brought back. Fig. I Fig. 2 (i) Clasp child's hands and bring them together on chest (child may grasp mother's thumbs). Sing first note la with hands on chest as in Figure i; with second note extend arms as in Figure 2; with third note return hands to chest. Repeat three times, then follow with (2). No. 1 and 3 Outward arm movements and for right leg exercise w =£ A- (2) Sing (as before) first note with hands on chest as in Figure i ; with second note raise arms above head as in Figure 3 ; 1 The Mothercraft Manual, by courtesy of Little, Brown & Co , Boston. PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS 33 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 with third note return hands to chest. Repeat three times, then go back to (i), continuing to end of exercise period. No. 2 and 4 Upward arm movements and for left leg exercise. 2nd ending for K o. 4 1 ! I I L J 2 !_ w II. Leg Exercises; for developing leg and trunk mus- cles. Two separate exercises are provided: (i) in which the leg is flexed at the knees and bent up to the body, and (2) in which the knee is kept straight and the leg brought to right angle with the body. These two leg exercises are not to be alternated as in the case of the arm exercises, either (i) or (2) being sufficient for one exercise period. (i) Grasp child's right foot and with leg extended sing first note la (as in [i] arm movements); with second note bend knee to body as in Figure 4; with third note bring foot back to first position. Repeat for the left leg (using music as in [2] for arm movements). Do this alternately three times for each. Then repeat with both legs together (music as in either [i] or [2] for arm movements). Continue to end of exercise period. (2) Grasp child's right leg as shown in Figures 5 and 6, keeping knee straight. Sing first note la with leg extended; with second note bend leg to right angle with body; with third note bring leg back to first position. Repeat for left leg. Do this alternately three times for each. Then repeat three times 34 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION with both legs together. Continue this alternation to end of exercise period. Fig. 5 Fig. 6 The leg exercises may be varied by using the directions found in Susan E. Blow's "Songs and Music of Froebel's Mother Play." III. Pulling Exercises; for developing the muscles of the arms and trunk. When the child is able to hft his head he may be allowed to pull himself up to a sitting position, holding his mother's hands. Sing first note la with child lying as in Figure 7; with second note pull to sitting position, as in Figure 8; with third note return to first position. This may be re- peated three times, gradually adding to the number as age and strength increase. For Figures 7 and 8 A- ii=4i Up and do-wn, up and down -2-*- up -& and ■7S down. IV. The "Wheelbarrow" Exercise; for developing all body muscles. About the age of eleven months many babies go "on all fours." At this stage the "wheelbarrow" exercise may begin. Grasp the baby's feet and lift them while he sup- ports himself on his hands and arms. This must be done care- PHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS 35 fully, without jerks or sudden strains. At first the periods of strain should be very brief, the time being extended with increasing age and strength. Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Books for mothers: The Mothercraft Manual, Mary L. Read. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. The Songs and Music of Froebel's Mother Play. Arranged by Susan E. Blow. D. Appleton & Co., New York City. From pamphlets in Government Series : Prenatal Care No. i, Mrs. Max West. Infant Care No. 2, Mrs. Max West. Child Care No. 3, Mrs. Max West. (The Pre-school Age) Health Pamphlets pubhshed by Elizabeth McCormick Founda- tion, 6 No. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Parents and Their Problems, Vol. II. Pubhshed by the National Congress of Mothers, Washington, D. C. CHAPTER IV FIRST IMPRESSIONS The babe is but a few days old, and the father as he holds his precious new-born son looks down upon him and some- what tremulously remarks, "I beheve I have begun to love this little mite already." "I have loved it for months before it was born," the mother repHes, quietly. And not only had she loved her child, but she had prayed for it — prayed that the new Life that was to come to them might be strong in body and beautiful in character. Later she prayed that this man- child might be great — great because he was good, for she realized that greatness and goodness go hand in hand. The Mother's Preparation You will know from this that she was a praying mother. She felt that the strength which she daily received from the heavenly Father must have a part in the life of her child. It was natural for her to pray. It is for most mothers. So she kept on praying as she kept on loving — because she could not help it. And are not these two the very foundation principles of religious hfe for the mother — praying and loving? The mother prayed that she might receive wisdom and strength for the training of her child; she prayed that her child should be blessed of God, fine, true and unselfish, radiating helpfulness; she prayed that she might love her child, with an intelHgent affection that gives itself not unreasonably, but with a love which is coupled with clear insight, calm judgment, and sympathetic under- standing of the needs of her child. This very longing and praying for her chUd will influence the mother herself to be what she wishes her child to become, 36 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 37 for it naturally follows that what we strive for and have a passion to possess for the sake of another becomes a part of our own spiritual equipment. Nor can the child's character fail to be impressed by this longing and praying on the part of the mother. Though it is natural for mothers to pray and though most mothers do pray, yet there are many whose prayer life during girlhood and early womanhood has not been very definite, whose religious convictions have been somewhat vague, and to whom religion has not meant all that it might. But now with the coming of her babe there is a new longing in the mother's heart that the child shall remain within the fold, and a purpose that he shall be trained in religious things, for she covets for him the fullness of life and strength of char- acter which depend on religious nurture and growth. To realize this desire for her child the mother must do more than yearn. She must now become an active influence in his spiritual development. This means that she must first of all embody in herself the quaUties of mind and heart that she would have built into the young hfe. It means that the beauty and the simpHcity of the Christ example and teaching must have control in her daily living. Her standards and ideals must be high; she must be the soul of honor, rising above all pettiness and jealousy; she must cultivate that true insight into her child's nature that will make her a sympathetic companion, a happy play fellow; she must possess a joyous personaKty capable of spontaneously radiating love and hap- piness. All of these qualities the mother will now desire and achieve not alone for what they will mean to herself, but for what they will mean to the child whose development she is to direct. And all of these quahties she can have increasingly in her own life, for they come from close companionship with beautiful thoughts and from living constantly in the presence of the best; they come from close companionship with God. 38 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Unconscious Absorption of Religious Impressions ReKgious training should not be postponed until the child is capable of full understanding, for even in the days of help- less infancy there are many influences and activities at work for the making of character. The child can breathe in from the atmosphere of his surroundings the spirit of good will, of helpfulness, of sympathy and love. He can form such an im- pression of human relationships that when he later receives instruction about the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Jesus he will have a background of precious meaning to give these concepts. Likewise, the facts of devotion in family worship, grace at meals, and bedside prayer gradually lead the child to perform these acts for himself. None can estimate the value of these early impressions! The young mother prays at the baby's bedside as she tucks him in each night. She thanks God for his life. She prays that he may be unselfish, that his httle Hfe shall be expressive of happiness, that he may be kind to brothers and sisters, that he shall come to feel for himself the desire to do right. She prays for wisdom that she may know the right things to do and for strength that she may be able to carry out His plan for the child. Much of this the young child does not comprehend, but he reahzes that something serious and beautiful is taking place, and that it has to do with him, and that it has to do with God. It is better that the bedside prayer shall be an audible one, for the sound of the mother's reverent tones accompanied by the sight of her bowed head and clasped hands serves to make an indelible impression upon the plastic mind. Furthermore, if from the first the mother prays aloud, even before the babe can understand any word of meaning, it overcomes any diffi- dence she may have about audible prayer, while it also gives her confidence and prepares the way for the time a httle later FIRST IMPRESSIONS 39 when she and her child will have talks and prayers together at the bedtime hour. In the Dawn of Religion in the Mind of a Child, Mrs. Mum- ford sets forth the value of audible prayer somewhat as follows: Thus, praying at the bedtime hour, night after night and month after month, there comes a time when the laddie seems to sense something of what his mother is doing as she kneels with her hand clasped about his. As yet he does not in the least understand it, but mother's face is beautiful and her voice somehow creates in him a feehng of wonder and quietness, and this feehng of quietness in turn becomes a feehng of rev- erence as he grows older. In time he recognizes this as a part of his bedtime hour. Forming Religious Habits The beauty and significance of these early acts of rehgious observance is that they serve to create permanent attitudes and establish lasting habits which will carry over into later years. Marie is only two years old, but she enjoys sitting in her high chair at the family breakfast table. Breakfast had be- come a regular occasion. But one morning she had overslept and by the time she had come to the table father had said grace, and the family were eating. As soon as Marie was put into the high chair she bowed her head and clasped her hands. This was a part of the breakfast- time hour; the habit was formed and the attitude in process of development. The child felt grace before she understood it. An instance of similar import. Channing sees brother and sister bow their heads at meal time. Something is being said. He doesn't understand it. Sometimes brother "says something," and sister does other times. So Channing mumbles. No one laughs or seems amused because it is real to the laddie. He is receiving a lesson in quietness and reverence. A little later 40 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION he will be taught words to say, and then he too will take his turn at saying grace. The first value, therefore, of the bedtime prayer, grace at meals, the father's morning prayer for the family before the child can grasp their meaning is the fine opportunity which they give in preparing the soil for planting the seeds of definite instruction when the right time has come. And little by httle the effect is being built into the growing mind; bit by bit re- sponses are being made in the form of simple ideas. This Httle babe is beginning to understand. The Quiet Hour As the child grows older, the bedtime hour becomes a time of confidence between mother and child. Much of the rich- ness of love and comradeship is missed by the mother who does not take the time to be with her child at the bedtime hour. They talk together; perhaps the child asks questions. The mother tells him of the wonderful Person whom we can neither see nor hear, but who loves us and has given us this beautiful world — God the heavenly Father, who has given us father and mother, the flowers, the birds, and everything that makes us happy. The first ideas and impressions about God should be of love and happiness. The child hears his mother speak of mother's love, of father's love, of God's love, and the child realizes that he loves mother and father; he is coming to know what love is. To him mother and father are the embodiment of all love and goodness. They should be to the child the first representatives of the love of God. They are his first inter- preters of his ideas in rehgion. And as a child comes to feel the love he has for his mother and father, so will he understand without analyzing it something of the love of God, the heavenly Father. In their talks together the mother tells her child how the heavenly Father loves his children, how he helps us to be good FIRST IMPRESSIONS 41 and kind, how he cares for us and watches over us while we wake and while we sleep. The child learns that prayer is talk- ing to God in a simple, reverent way, for mother talks to God, thanking him for the happy day and asking that he will watch over her child during the night, keeping him safe in his care. In the great out-of-doors are still other opportunities to teach lessons about God. The child can be simply told how God has given us the sunshine and the green grass, the flowers and the birds. In later lessons he will learn more of the presence of God in nature. From his picture books and lessons as well as from his animal playmates he may be taught about God's care of animals and that we should be kind to them. In some such simple ways as these can the first religious impressions be made upon the child while still too young for formal lessons in religion. These simple impressions of wonder, happiness, love, responsiveness are the beginnings out of which the fuller spiritual growth of more mature years will spring. Books for mothers: The Dawn of Religion in the Mind of a Child, Edith Read Mumford. Pubhshed by Longmans, Green & Co.. New York. The First Year in a Baby's Life, American Home Series. Published by The Abingdon Press, New York. CHAPTER V TEACHING ABOUT GOD At the very center of the child's first instruction in rehgion should be God. Long before he can understand religion he can learn about a heavenly Father. The rather indefinite impres- sions about God which are at first formed should gradually give way to more definite ideas. This does not mean that the child (nor -we !) can grasp the full meaning of God, but, rather, that Httle by httle he may come to reahze more fully his dependence on God and God's care of his children. The great thing is that the child shall from the first get such a con- cept of God as will attract him to God, and not make him afraid of God or not interested in him. Making God Real to the Child If the parents have used the opportunities to make early religious impressions, there will follow naturally many little expressions and questions about "Dod" in a simple childish way. These should be encouraged. Perhaps the child gives utterance to words that would be irreverent if spoken by an older person. But no; to the child everything is natural and real, and it is a serious mistake to laugh at or be shocked by mistaken ideas or expressions on the part of the child. The small boy who, when he heard the earth referred to as God's footstool, remarked, "My, what long legs God must have!" was not irreverent, but only stating what was to his under- standing a perfectly natural conclusion. He did not know that he had said anything unusual, but by the attitude of his elders he might easily be made self-conscious and done a very great harm. 42 TEACHING ABOUT GOD 43 Probably no ideas of a little child can be termed "religious" in the sense that they are distinct from his other ideas. But this very interminghng of the so-called spiritual with the every- day run of experiences is a most valuable element in rehgious training. Indeed, it is a working principle if rightly under- stood. The child is hnking up his thoughts of God with the thoughts and expressions in his little world. This is a natural development, and serves to spirituahze the whole range of experiences. Robert, taking his bath, calls mother to come and see Moses in the water; he has taken a soap baby and is floating it in the celluloid soap dish. One wee maiden said the newest rime that she had learned, though it was not especially religious, for grace at meal time. Another child for the meal- time prayer repeated the Golden Text, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!" The wise parents, reaHzing the spirit in which the words, though unsuitable, were spoken, accepted the situation as it was meant and did not embarrass the child by either levity or chiding. The possibilities of linking the child's activities and experiences of the day with the thought of God are illustrated in this inci- dent: Robert's father came into the kitchen one morning and the lad said, "Muvver cooks some bekfust food for Bobbie." Then he added, "Muvver cooks bekfust food, God makes bekfust food." Bobbie had remembered just then that mother had been showing him the beautiful colored pictures in his new picture book. In the picture Farmer Brown is plowing the field making it ready to sow the seed. Mother has told Bobbie in a simple way how God sends the sunshine and the rain to make the seeds grow; how by and by little plants come up out of the ground and grow to be tall plants, and then after many months the plants have little seeds that are taken to a place called a mill and are ground into breakfast food for Robert and many other little boys and girls; and how this food makes them grow big and strong like father and mother. 44 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Such a story as this may be developed gradually, one part at a time, as much being given as the child will understand. The mother who will take the simple opportunities as they come naturally in the day's associations to tell the child of God, will find her child quickly responsive to the thought of a kind heavenly Father and his goodness. In these early lessons the teaching should never be forced or formal. The best lesson is one that is naturally drawn from the experience with which it is connected, a lesson that makes use of the "psychological moment." The Natural Approach of the Child to God The naturalness with which the child's daily experiences may be connected with the thought of God is seen in the way this mother used a commonplace occurrence for a lesson in religion: Billy's father has been in the war, and after his re- turn Billy, sitting in his father's lap, had heard him tell many wonderful things, especially of the airplanes flying overhead. Billy too had once or twice seen these wonderful "birds" saihng across the sky. On one occasion, when his father was talking, Billy interrupted him long enough to ask, "Daddy, won't you make me an airplane?" "Yes, sometime," came the reply with- out thinking very much about it. Billy was in raptures and not a day was lost without his asking his father if he wouldn't "make the airplane to-day." Billy's father was a busy man, and put off his son on pretext, as fathers sometimes do. But down in his inner consciousness he came to realize that to make an airplane was something of an undertaking which he might not be able to accomplish. One morning, when the usual ques- tion was asked the father replied frankly, "Billy, I don't be- lieve I know how to make an airplane." That his father couldn't make an airplane was a great blow to Billy. He looked at him in astonishment. Why his father could do anything! Walk- ing slowly up to his mother with the great longing in his heart TEACHING ABOUT GOD 45 he asked, "Muvver, do you 'spose the heavenly Father could make an airplane?" This was enough for Billy's father. He felt he must make that airplane; he must keep his promise. He must come up to his child's expectations. It was a wonderful plane, three feet long and had something that at least passed for an engine, and it made a real whirring sound when it was wound up! Can you imagine Billy's happiness! At the bedtime hour, Billy's mother said, "Billy, don't you want to thank the heav- enly Father for helping daddy to make the airplane?" Indeed Billy did, and this time the mother did not even suggest what to say in his prayer. It was a simple outpouring of a child's happy heart, natural and spontaneous. Out of the fullness of his gratitude Billy was learning to pray. In this home the children are taught, naturally and simply, that everything good comes from God, and that he wants his children to be happy. They are taught that he is pleased when we do our best, and that he always stands ready to help us. At bedtime hour, mother and child often talk over the experiences of the child's day, and the part God has had in it. In many homes the father takes his full share in teaching the child religion. This is as it should be. Father is a good playfellow and there may be the evening romp. Then the quiet time together, a little talk about the heavenly Father, the prayer and the child is in bed. Many a child would express the wish that Junior did when he reached up and pulled father down to him saying, "Daddy, we could have lots of fun if you'd only stay at home all day." This fact of the father's being away a greater part of the day may even be used as a lesson to teach how the father's love reaches back even while he is away from home, providing food, clothing, and other good things for his child. Meredith and his father were great chums and playfellows from the time they used to roll the ball across the floor to the 46 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION time when the lad was old enough for them to take "hikes" together. There was hardly a day when the two did not have some time together, just by themselves. Without their realizing it mother often contrived these times, for she knew that father could give to the child some things which she could not. But there came the war and a time when Meredith's father had to be away from home for more than a year. One evening in their talks, Meredith said, "Mother, I do miss daddy dreadfully, but do you know sometimes I feel just as if he was with me and I play that we are talking together." The child who is fortunate enough to have such relations as these with his father will have httle trouble to grasp the thought of a heavenly Father who is with him though not seen and with whom he can "talk together." A God Who Is Near at Hand Sometimes, perhaps through wrong teaching on our part, the child gets an idea of God as very far off — in heaven, and of heaven as "up above the sky." The understanding that love can reach us wherever we are was naturally reached in this incident:^ John had been attending the kindergarten regularly and was very happy in sitting next to Dear Teacher every time she told a story or when they were arranged in the circle together. But one day a new child came. Mary Helen being rather timid. Miss Harrison suggested to John that he sit across the circle and let Mary Helen sit next to her. At first John absolutely refused. Why, he loved his Teacher so much he wanted to sit by her all the time! Miss Harrison said to John, very quietly, "Can't your love for me stretch across the room?" John took the challenge. In a little while he raised his hand and said, "Miss Harrison, it stretches!" At this moment John was ready to understand how God's love can "stretch" to him, and his to God. ' In A Study of Child Nature, by Elizabeth Harrison. TEACHING ABOUT GOD 47 Mrs. Mumford tells how the child may come to understand the unseen God: The mother asks the child, "What makes your arm move, laddie?" when he inquires about what makes the branches of the trees move. And then he understands that just as an unseen force moves his arm so an unseen force is moving the trees. The child can not see the wind, but he sees what the wind does. He cannot see the love his mother has in her heart, but he knows what that love makes her do for him. He cannot see the love in his own heart, but he feels the love that he has for his mother. He feels the joy in his heart when he does right; he feels a sadness when he does wrong. In such ways he comes to understand the unseen.^ Three-and-a-half-year-old Winnifred, just home from her first day in the Beginners Department of the Sunday school, gave this account of her instruction, which while evidently not a verbatim account of her teacher's words, shows that she had grasped the idea truly: Mrs. Porter (her teacher) she say I am Jesus' Httle sheeps. First we sing a Jesus song. Then Mrs. Porter she say, "Little sheeps got lost from its mother in the dark and cry. It was cold and Jesus look out and say, 'My g'acious! Somebody have to go find little sheeps.' So he go out in the dark and bring it home like this (pantomime of hands across shoulder), 'n he take little sheeps upstairs, 'n take off its clothes, 'n give it g'ass water 'n tuck it in bed by its mother. An' she say, 'Little sheeps that don't do what they mother say, always get lost! But I awful glad see my baby 'gain!' " The Child's Questions About God As the child's mind develops and becomes more inquisitive the mother will often find it difficult to answer the child's ques- tions about God. Where does God Hve? Is he in this room? 1 The Dawn of Religion in the Mind of a Child, Longmans, Green & Co., New York. This is a valuable book for mothers of young children. 48 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION What kind of a place is his home? Who Uves with God? These are difficult questions. Unless the child asks a particular ques- tion of this nature it is not advisable to impose the information upon him. Some children get the idea of an unseen God with- out any questioning, just as they can understand about a play- mate or relative who hves at another place. They take it for granted without question. When questions are specifically asked, however, they should be answered as honestly and enhghteningly as possible. Where does God Kve? — God lives in his heaven. Where is heaven? — Heaven is all about us. Is God in this room? — Yes. God is everywhere. What kind of a place is his home? — A very beautiful and happy place. Who lives with God? — ^All his children live with him. We are God's children. We live with him. The very little child may be told that God is like his father only even more kind and loving. Usually it is best to satisfy younger children with broad statements not undertaking to give too much of detail which they cannot understand. One child was satisfied when told that God is a Person we can feel in our hearts but cannot see. In so far as the questions are answered at all they should be answered truthfully and nothing said that will later need to be denied. A spiritual God is beyond the comprehension of the child. Hence it is natural for many children to endow him with physical characteristics. "God is so tall he can reach the sky," says one little child. A mental picture of God as a benign old gentle- man with a long white beard was carried by one little girl for many years. Such incongruous ideas need not disturb the mother, providing the impression held by the child is not unpleasant or harmful. These concrete pictures, inevitable in the child's mind, will soon be corrected by instruction and more perfect understanding. The great thing now is to help the child form such an idea of God that he will be attracted by the concept instead of repelled. TEACHING ABOUT GOD 49 Saving from Wrong Concepts of God Mr. H. G. Wells was as a child evidently allowed to develop a very wrong picture of God, for he writes: "I who write was so set against God, thus rendered. He and his hell were the nightmares of my childhood; I hated him while I still believed, and who could help but hate? I thought of him as a fantastic monster perpetually spying, perpetually listening, perpetually waiting to condemn and strike me dead; his flames as ready as a grillroom fire. He was over me and about my feebleness and silliness and forgetfulness as the sky and sea would be about a child drowning in mid-Atlantic." Wrong concepts of God may leave positive antagonisms which require years to overcome. A Httle girl of nearly four years had just lost her father. She did not understand the funeral and the flowers and the burial. She came to her mother in the evening and asked where her papa was. The stricken mother replied that "God had taken him." "But when is he coming back?" asked the child. The mother answered that he could not come back. "Not ever?" persisted the child. "Not ever," whispered the mother. "Won't God let him?" asked the relentless questioner. The heart-broken mother hesitated for a word of wisdom, but finally answered, "No, God will not let him come back to us." And in that moment the harm was done. The child had formed a wrong concept of God as one who would willfully take away her father and not let him return. She burst out in a fit of passion: "I don't Uke God! He takes my papa and keeps him away." That night she refused to say her prayer, and for weeks re- mained rebeUious and unforgiving toward the God whom she accused of having robbed her of her father. 50 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The concept of God which the child first needs, therefore, is God as loving Father, expecting obedience and trust from his children; God as inviting Friend; God as friendly Protector; God ever near at hand; God who can understand and sym- pathize with children and enter into their joys and sorrows; God as Creator, in the sunshine and the flowers; but above all, God filling the heart with love and gladness. The concept which the child needs of Jesus is of his surpassing goodness, his unselfish courage, and his loving service. All religious teaching which will lead to such concepts as these is grounding the child in knowledge that is rich and fruitful, for it is making God and Jesus real to him. All teaching which leads to false concepts is an obstacle in the way of spiritual development. Books for mothers: Childhood and Character, Hugh Hartshorne. Published by The Pilgrim Press, Boston. The Child as God's Child, Charles Rishell. The Unfolding Life, Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux. Published by Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. Child Nature and Child Nurture, Edward Porter St. John. Published by The Pilgrim Press, Boston. CHAPTER VI TEACHING THE CHILD TO PRAY Inseparable from the idea of God is the tendency to pray. Only gradually does the child learn to pray. His understanding and use of prayer cannot outrun his mental growth and the broadening range of everyday experience. In preceding chapters we have briefly suggested the natural order of the child's mental and rehgious development. At the beginning there is the dawn of the first dim consciousness, then the fuller response to the world of sensory stimuli — the sights and sounds and contacts of nature — and gradually the growth of ideas and acquaintance with an increasingly wider environment. Among the child's first impressions of people should be those of love, comfort, and happiness coming from his father and mother. These impressions, imperfect and in- complete as they are, are the foundation for the later compre- hension, of love and happiness coming from the heavenly Father. Likewise there should be impressions of rehgious quietness and reverence, coming from seeing the parents in prayer and worship. Such impressions precede and serve as a basis for the more definite rehgious feelings and ideas. It is of the utmost importance that the religious awakening be interwoven with the child's general mental development and form a part of his everyday experiences in the home. For only in this way can rehgion be made a true part of hfe and character. Learning to Pray Prayer first comes to the child by imitation and suggestion. Through the first few years his experience with prayer comes 51 52 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION from the prayers of his mother and father or older brothers and sisters. There will have been many quiet times together at the bedtime hour or in the little timely talks in answer to the child's questioning. The mother has by wise use of these opportunities paved the way for the first religious thoughts and understanding, and the child is beginning to form some connected religious ideas. In thanking God as his heavenly Father the child naturally draws upon the idea of fatherhood which has come from his experience with his own father and the love and protecting care he has shown for his child. If earthly fatherhood has meant to the child what it should, prayer will be, therefore, talking to God as the child would talk to his own loving father, though reverence and awe should gradually develop. The great end and aim of prayer at first is to bring the child to find in God a Friend and Father to whom he as naturally turns as to his earthly father. This is to be brought about step by step and in a very natural way. As early as may be, possibly within the second or third year, the child should be taught to kneel at the bedside with the mother while she prays the httle prayers that he understands. The attitude of kneeling induces a feeling of quietness and reverence and helps to form the habit of prayer. The first prayers should be simple and not more than a few sentences in length. If the prayers are too long, the child carmot give his attention and soon loses interest and only waits for the prayer to be over. The prayers should be formed about the child's closest interests and experiences. In this way, back of the act of praying will be the emotional impulse which be- longs to all true prayer and worship. In the first prayers, before the child can formulate prayers for himself, the mother or father voices for the Uttle child the thoughts and desires which he feels but cannot yet express. The prayers may take such forms as these: TEACHING THE CHILD TO PRAY 53 Dear God, our heavenly Father, I thank thee that thou dost love a little child like me. Watch over me while I sleep to-night. Keep me safe in thy care. Amen. Dear God, our heavenly Father, I thank thee for mother and father [other members of the family in- cluded]. Keep me safe in thy care and watch over me while I sleep. Amen. As the child develops he comes to understand more and more about God, how he has given him mother and father, and how he has sent the flowers, the birds, the sunshine and other prized gifts. Perhaps the bedtime story has been about these things. The little simple prayer that mother makes while he kneels at her side expresses this thought: Dear God, I thank thee for the flowers and the birds and the sunshine, and for my kitty. Keep me safe in thy care. Watch over me while I sleep. Amen. From the succession of the quiet bedtime talks and prayers, a religious feeling is gradually being developed and valuable seed is being sown. The mother teaches her child that prayer is talking to God in an earnest quiet way. She may express the longing of her own heart and at the same time impress her child by praying simply and spontaneously at his bedside that God may keep him and bless him and make him happy and good. Creating the Mood for Prayer A prayer to be spontaneous must come from the thoughts and desires of the child himself. As early as possible he should be led to express himself, for expression is the fundamental law of growth. At first the child will need help and suggestion. The mother may by questioning, or by speaking of some joy or gladness of the day, suggest thankfulness or awaken love THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION INFANT SAMUEL (Reynolds) TEACHING THE CHILD TO PRAY 55 and appreciation and so prepare the mood for prayer. At just the right moment she asks, "Do you not want to thank God for . . . (naming some experience or gift that has come to him)?" and the child readily begins to formulate his own prayer. "I not pway to-night," three-year-old Robert says to his mother, "I don't want to pway." Mother does not seem shocked or say, "Why, Robert, I am surprised!" or "Don't you know it is naughty for you not to want to pray?" Instead, mother says quietly, "We had a good time in the park to-day, didn't we?" And Robert replies without seeing his mother's purpose to lead him out of his little mood of mischief or rebelliousness, or, just being tired, "Yes, we did. I fed bunnies; 'itty birds came too. Go to park too-mah-wah, Muwer?" "Perhaps. What else did Bobbie see?" "Pitty flowers and big, big lake. Bobby takes boat too-mah-wah?" "Yes, if we go." The un- dressing is finished, and again mother says, "Don't you want to thank the heavenly Father for all the things that made you happy to-day?" Bobbie, now in a different mood, kneels and prays with mother, adding words of his own for the things that impressed him most. Many mothers teach their children the addition of the little formula at the close of the prayer: "God bless father, God bless mother," and so on through the Hst. Whatever comes to the child naturally and means much to him may be a part of his prayer. No more lively lad than George ever lived. He was full of mischief, and kept father's and mother's ingenuity and patience taxed to the utmost, and yet withal he was generous and fine-spirited. George was taught by his parents to pray for the things that concerned him and to thank God for his pleasures. On one occasion there had been a heavy snow dur- ing the night. The mayor of the town had decreed that the hill on Fourth Avenue should be reserved for the coasters. 56 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION that no traffic of any kind should trespass here. George had had two hours after school of great fun coasting. That night in his prayer, George thanked God that there was "one slick hill in Mount Vernon." The prayer came spontaneous and genuine from a warm heart full of boyish gratitude. Prayers of this sort lead to true spiritual growth and to a loving con- sciousness of the reality and goodness of God. What the Child Shall Pbay About The child's prayer experience should develop as his other experiences broaden. As his interests come to include more persons, activities and objects, the thought of these wiU naturally be included in his prayers. As he learns that happiness can spring from loving service to others; that pain and suffering come from disobedience, selfishness and bad temper; that he often sorrows over some naughtiness and sincerely wishes he had not done the wrong act — as he comes, in fact, to some understanding of right and wrong conduct, then he is ready to learn to pray the prayer for help and forgiveness. Wrong impressions of God often make it difficult for a child to pray this type of prayer. "God does not love you when you are naughty," said one unwise mother to her small son. First of all, this is, of course, false teaching. God does love his chil- dren when they are "naughty" — loves them enough to send his Son to die for them. God does not love or cease to love in accordance with the conduct of his children. Added to the false idea lodged in the child's mind by the mother's foohsh words was the difficulty created when he came to ask forgive- ness for being naughty. How could he pray for forgiveness to One who did not love him! The result of such teaching is that the child loses the tendency to pray and so drifts away from the near consciousness of God. As the child becomes capable of knowing when he has done wrong, he needs to learn the prayer for forgiveness. Patience TEACHING THE CHILD TO PRAY 57 and sympathy must accompany whatever firmness may be necessary in deahng with the erring child. Petulance and hasty temper on the part of the parent, or ill-considered rebukes, all tend to make true repentance difficult. For the child to be forced to ask forgiveness of the mother or of God robs the act of all educative value. Teach, rather, the pain and hurt that come from the wrong act. Appeal to the inner fund of sympathy and good will in every child's heart. Then suggest the asking for forgiveness, and the response will usually come. And when it comes a real victory has been won, for not until one feels that he wants to be forgiven is he really ready to pray for forgiveness. Even when the child is grievously in the wrong he needs always to feel the unchanging quality of the mother's sympathy and understanding. Out of these impressions will gradually but inevitably grow the comprehension of God's greater sym- pathy and completer understanding and his readiness to re- ceive the erring but repentant child into his favor. Praying or "Saying. Prayers" There is no question but that the habit of prayer should be established in childhood. This raises the question of whether the child should be made to pray when he does not feel like it; whether he should pray from a sense of duty. For habits come only from repeated acts, and every break in the performance of the act interferes with the habit. Yet, to pray from a sense of duty is a rather unsatisfactory process. To pray because he is told he "ought to say his prayers" will leave the small worshiper cold. You may remember that Pip, in Dickens' "Great Expectations," was forever being admonished by his sister, "Be grateful. Be grateful." The result was to choke the springs of gratitude in Pip's heart. It is a fruitless thing to compel a child to say a prayer; it is a dangerous thing to leave him with a prayer unsaid. We come back to the principle, 58 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION therefore, that the child must be led to want to pray. The impulse which finds expression is present in all normal children and needs but to be freed by leading the mood to the point where expression in prayer is the easy and natural thing. While the child is taught to pray about everything that con- cerns him, and that God is ready to hear and answer his prayers, he must be led to see that his prayers are not always answered just as he would like. This lesson is not difficult for the child to grasp, for he some- times asks father or mother for things that are not given him. It is explained that father or mother has a good reason for not granting the request and the child understands and learns to be contented. It rained on the day of the picnic though Margaret had trustingly prayed the night before for a beautiful day. Now the picnic is spoiled and Margaret is disappointed. But mother has told her in their talks how the heavenly Father sends the rain to make the green things grow. The cattle are eating the green grass in the pasture, which would be brown and bare were it not for the rain. Farmer Brown is happy because it is making the , wheat and corn grow. The people and the Uttle children in the hot cities are glad because the- rain has cooled off the air which had become hot and dry. So Margaret is led to realize that God's world is big and that many people are needing some things which Margaret does not know about. She concludes that the rain is making other people happy. "We will make the best of it," mother says, and Margaret is satisfied. Teaching the Child to Help Answer His Own Prayers Of the highest importance to the child is the lesson that we must always do our part in having our prayers answered. The Sunday school teacher gave her class this illustration: If you should put the little gift that you are making for mother away in the closet, and ask God to finish it for you it wouldn't TEACHING THE CHILD TO PRAY 59 be done. We must do our part; mere asking for something is not reat prayer. God will help us do what is our task to do, but he will not do our work for us. As the child grows older he often expresses some cherished desire or ambition, something he wants to do when he grows up. It was Harlan's great ambition to be a football player. Perhaps father had paved the way by giving the lad a foot- ball when he was a tiny chap. Mother had remonstrated as mothers will about football. But now and then in their talks at bedtime, mother and the laddie would talk about football, for mother felt she must be interested in it and care for it too if Laddie did. They would discuss the quahties of a football player and what he should be in everyday life. He must be honest, he must be brave, he must obey the rules of the game, he must help others in their play. Possibly the prayer they had together with the mother leading ran like this: "Dear God, help us to be fair and square with our playmates. Help us to do our best. Help us to follow the Golden Rule. Amen." Later, this lad, grown to high school age attained his ambition and was a football player. Who can tell but it was the result of those bedtime talks and prayer that led him to post this motto on the wall of his room. "Play the game; Win if you can, Lose if you m.ust, But be a man!" If from the first the child is taught to pray from his own thoughts and feelings, the prayer is sure to be spontaneous and natural. Supplementing these may be, if mothers desire, more formal prayers which are learned and made a part of the prayer-time expression. In teaching the formal prayer, its meaning should be made clear and its significance realized. 6o THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Forms of Prayers to be Used It is doubtful whether the following form of the old prayer should ever be used: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep, If I shoiild die before I wake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take. Most children either naturally fear death or are easily made to fear it by unintentional suggestions. It is the testimony of many that the Kne, "If I should die before I wake," proves a real barb in the tender sensibiHties of childhood. First a dim feeling and later a more specific reahzation of the fact is sug- gested by the sentiment that many die in their sleep or else we would not pray about it. One writer tells how, after say- ing this prayer, there usually followed the pathetic and spon- taneous Uttle petition, "Heavenly Father, do not let me die in my sleep." A better form of this much used old prayer is the following: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray, thee. Lord, thy child to keep. Thy care be with me all the night And keep me safe till morning light. While the bedtime hour with its freedom from hurry and its opportunities to review the day offers precious opportunities, the morning prayer should not be neglected. It is worth much to the child to start the day with thoughts of God and a prayer to him. If it is possible for mother or father to be with the child when he awakens, the talk may turn to the day ahead with its plans, its play and happiness. The birds singing out- side, the bright sunshine, the dancing leaves on the trees- whatever is beautiful and attractive to the child may be called to his attention to turn his mood toward gladness and good cheer. Then, a little prayer led by father or mother: TEACHING THE CHH^D TO PRAY 6i Dear God, I thank thee for keeping me through the night. I thank thee for the beautiful day and the good time I will have. Help me to be good to-day. Amen. One child, whose mood had been prepared by a waking time conversation with his mother spontaneously prayed after this fashion: Dear God, heavenly Father, I am glad for this happy day. I am glad for the drive to the woods we are go- ing to have to-day. Thank you, God. Amen. Who will say that a simple prayer such as this, coming from a heart that means it, may not contain more of the true prayer spirit than many a longer prayer of finer diction might have! Growth in Prayer As the child learns to express love and appreciation to God, they come to have a real part in his hfe. He learns that happi- ness springs from being unselfish and from doing httle acts of service for others. He learns the difference between right and wrong. He wants to be loved and trusted and learns that he must express this love in being kind to others and in being honest in his Httle deahngs with brothers and sisters or father and mother. He has found out through experience that to be good and kind, to be unselfish and truthful, is not an easy matter. He learns by example and teaching that the great heavenly Father hears his prayer and helps him to be good and kind, loving and unselfish. He learns that he cannot over- come his httle faults by himself alone. He learns that the great heart of the loving Father is ready to help him in his httle trials — real, as they are to him — if he will do his part, asking God to help him, trying again and again to do his best. The effects of prayer in the hfe of the child are very deep- 62 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION seated and vital. As he leams to express his desires and appre- ciations to God, religious feeling naturally grows and becomes an increasingly important factor in his Kfe. Through praying that he may be good and unseL&sh there comes a clearer realiza- tion of the meaning of good behavior and of doing kindly service for others. Through praying for forgiveness when he has done wrong his sense of right and wrong is made more clear and his conscience sharpened. Hence through his own prayers and the prayers of his parents the child comes to give God a very real and important place in his Hfe. Without in the least know- ing it at the time the child in his prayers is setting before him- self the ideal into which his character should develop. Books for mothers: Training the Devotional Life, Weigle and Tweedy. Pub- Hshed by George H. Doran Company, New York. The Meaning of Prayer, Harry Emerson Fosdick. Pub- lished by Association Press, New York. CHAPTER VII PRAYERS WHICH CHILDREN PRAY Spontaneous prayers which spring directly out of the child's immediate interests and experience are, as suggested in the preceding chapter, undoubtedly the best introduction to the beginning prayer hfe. There are many parents, however, who desire that their children shaU learn and use set prayers of beautiful form and diction. While it is probably true that every person who has the habit of prayer at all prays many spontaneous prayers, yet the wide use of formal prayers by large bodies of worshipers indicates a deep-seated demand for the more formal and dignified prayer. The Use of Formal Prayers Some parents admit that they teach their children to use the formal prayers because they are less trouble. It is easy to "hear the child say his prayers" if the prayer consists only of the repetition of a set form — much easier than to take time to enter into such a spirit of comradeship with the child that a real and sympathetic participation in his prayer is possible. At most, the formal prayer should only supplement and not supplant spontaneous prayers by parent and child. Wherever formal prayers are used there is danger that they shall become mere mechanical repetition of words. Once the words have become thoroughly familiar it is possible for the child to say them off thoughtlessly — perhaps even hurrying through to have done with it and get to bed — ^in such a way that no real feehng or meaning accompanies the process. The great problem with this form of prayer is to insure the true prayer mood. This can be done by the mother repeating the prayer with the child, slowly and reverently and with depth of 63 64 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION meaning. Occasionally there can be a talk together in which the child's thought shall be led up to such matters as the prayer deals with. The point is that the formal prayer as well as the sponta- neous prayer must he a true expression of living thought and feeling. Children dehght in rhythm and in the repetition of sounds such as that of rimed words. Hence many of their prayers have been written in verse. Prayers for Evening Use The following evening prayers are among those that have been very generally used: There's nothing in the world to fear, For God is love and God is near; I am God's little child and he Will keep me safe as safe can be In work and play By night by day.^ My Father, hear my prayer Before I go to rest; It is thy Httle child That Cometh to be blest. Lord, help me every day To love thee more and more; And try to do thy wiU Much better than before. Now look upon me, Lord, Ere I lie down to rest; It is thy little child That cometh to be blest. Amen.^ ' Reprinted by special permission of John Martin's Book, The Child's Magazine. ^ From At Mother's Knee, by Ozora S. Davis. Published by The Abing- don Press. PRAYERS WHICH CHILDREN PRAY 65 Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray thee, Lord, me safe to keep; And when the morning comes again Please help me to be good. Amen.-^ Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray thee. Lord, thy child to keep; Thy love be with me all the night And keep me safe till morning light.^ If in my work or in my play I have done any wrong to-day, Forgive me ere I sleep I pray. O keep me safe in sleep this night And let me wake at morning light To love thee more, and so do right. Amen.' Morning Prayers More evening prayers than morning prayers have been written for children, possibly because of the child's natural timidity and fear of the dark with the consequent tendency to pray for care and protection through the night. The following are typical of morning prayers: For this new morning with its Kght, For rest and shelter of the night. For health and food, for home and friends. For everything thy goodness sends We thank thee, heavenly Father.* ' From Childhood and Character, by Hugh Hartshorne. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. ^ From Prayers for the Home and Sunday School, by Frederica Beard. Used by permission of George H. Doran Company, New York. 3 Ibid. ^ From At Mother's Knee, by Ozora S. Davis. Published by The Abing- don Press, New York. 66 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Jesus keep me safe to-day In my work and in my play. I will try to do and say Only what is right.'^ Father help me through this day In my work and in my play Both to love and to obey. Amen.^ Jesus Friend of Kttle children Be this day a friend to me. Take my hand and surely keep me Near and dear and close to thee. Amen.^ Lord bless thy httle child to-day, Make me good and kind, I pray.* Grace at Meals Prayers at meal time, "asking a blessing," or "grace before meat" is an old and beautiful custom. The child should have a part in this, a good plan being for the family to take turns. A formal grace may be said, though the child should feel free spontaneously to express his gratitude for any food which he especially hkes. Annette illustrated this principle when she added to her customary grace, "And I am real glad we are going to have chocolate ice cream for dessert." Such prayers as these may be used for grace said at meals: Thanks to our Father we will bring For he gives us everything. — Robert Louis Stevenson. ' From At Mother's Knee, by Ozora S. Davis. Published by the Abing- don Press, New York. 2 From Children's Devotions, by Gerrit Verkuyl, By courtesy of West- minster Press, Philadelphia. = Ibid. * From Prayers for Home and Sunday School, by Fredefica Beard. Pub- lished by George H. Doran Company, New York. r " PRAYERS WHICH CHILDREN PRAY 67 306"^ It is very nice to think The world is full of meat and drink With little children saying grace In every Christian kind of place. —Robert Louis Stevenson. 68 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Dear heavenly Father, we thank thee for these blessings. Amen. Heavenly Father, bless this food To thy glory and our good. Amen."-. God is great and God is good, And we thank him for this food, By his hand must aU be fed, Give us. Lord, our daily bread.^ Dear Father, bless the food we take And bless us all for Jesus' sake. Amen.^ Dear Lord, we thank thee for thy care. The food we eat, the clothes we wear; ^ Be present with us everywhere. Amen.* Prayers That are Sung The song prayer has the advantage of adding the softening and devotional effect of music to the words of the prayer. When the song prayer is used it should be kept truly a prayer, reverent and full of meaning. 1 From Children's Devotions, by Gerrit Verkuyl. Published by permis- sion of the Westminster Press, Philadelphia. 2 From At Mother's Knee, by Ozora S. Davis. PubUshed by The Abing- don Press, New York. = From Children's Devotions, by Gerrit Verkuyl. Published by permis- sion of the Westminster Press, Philadelphia. ^ Ibid. Now I Wake New England Primer (Adapted) From Schumann ii^ =t Now I wake and see the light; God has kept me through the night; PRAYERS WHICH CHH^DREN PRAY 69 i w t=t: I will lift my eyes and pray: Keep me, Fa-ther, through the day. ^ -^ Ht #. From Songs for the Little Child. Copyright, 1921, by Clara Belle Baker. A Grace at Table Reverently Words and Music by Edith Lovbll Thomas i feiE M^^ ^-^ Our Fath-ei, dear, of thee we think Be -fore we i^ ^ V=^- 1^ II ^ s! ^- =J|=^ Start to eat and drink; We tm - ly give our thanks to 1 ^- * 1^^^^=?^= i=C :^=t !=?=tL 1 i » !i :1: ¥ fc^=^= g— ii= =s=r=^=tg=z thee Foi all good things we taste and see. A - men. SI—. — r- i.^ m^i 1 70 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Evening Song i ■SS^^ ■X i^^i^^^g^ f-*=* ii 1. Now the dark shad - ows fall; Now the eve - ning birds call; 2. In my wee bed I lie While the moon climbs the sky. P^tg :t-t ±=zt Se 1 I I hear the night breeze Rus - tie soft through the trees. I pray you to keep, Dear Lord, close while I sleep. J- J _ =t m From Songs for the Little Child. Copyright, 1921, by Clara Belle Baker. CHAPTER VIII THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE HOME Whatever other influences may come to bear upon the child, however much instruction he may receive from the church and the Sunday school, no one of these nor all of them together can take the place of the home in grounding him in religion. Rehgion should be caught before it can be taught. In disposition, in speech, in manners the child is a product of the home environment. The quaUties he reveals in these things are a perfect mirror of the examples set and the instruc- tion given at the fireside, at the table, and in the family circle. Without in the least knowing it or intending to be so the child is a living proclamation to the world of the cultural, the moral, and the rehgious atmosphere he breathes in his home. For he learns these things by unconscious imitation; he absorbs them, appropriating the good and the bad alike, and building them into his character long before he is old enough to know what is happening. Like Home Like Child For the young child, especially, the home is his world. He takes on its temper and tone. He adapts its attitudes and ideals. Its standards and practices become his guides. All this is inevitable, for this is the only way the child, at the be- ginning of his career, has to learn. It is doubly true for rehgion, which is so essentially a part of the very hfe. And even at this early age, as we saw in an e^rher chapter, the foundations of character and personahty are being laid and the most last- ing impressions being made. If the child is to be started right in his rehgious develop- ment, then, the atmosphere of the home must be rehgious. 71 72 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION But what does it mean to have the atmosphere of the home rehgious? Certainly not that we shall talk religion, teach rehgion, and preach rehgion all the time. It means, rather, that we shall live the joy, the peace, the good nature, the love and the helpfulness which characterized the Christ life; that we shall show forth his spirit of kindness, forbearance, and unselfishness. It means that we must govern temper and tongue and mood, restraining the sharp word, quieting the irritated voice, softening the harsh manner. It means, in short, that all members of the home shall Hve as constantly as may be in the presence of the best — the best in thought, in word and in action. And with all this it means that our own religious conscious- ness must be definite, vital, and warm; for this quahty will shine from the face, be reflected in the manner, express itself in a hundred ways that cannot be explained and are aU the more effective for this very reason. How many thousands of men there are who testify that the most potent spiritual influence that has come into their Hves was that of a devoted mother who had herself learned the secret of the Way! This principle works both ways. Speaking of personality. Dr. Crane says: "A mother wonders why her child is sel&sh when her precepts and advice have always been so good. The answer is that our children are molded by what we are, and not by the sound of what we say. When you Uve with a per- son, child or otherwise, your words go in time for a little. Your flavor outpreaches them constantly. Deeds and words are controlled by your will. But flavor is you. It is your soul flavor that always has the last word in the sum total of your influence." Perhaps we may say that the religious quality of the home has made one of its chief contributions to the child when it has impressed upon him that religion is not chiefly a system of restraints, but a way of joyous living. Some one has said that THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE HOME 73 "religion should be more genial." Jesus came that we might have more abundant life. When we as parents have ourselves learned this great truth, when we have come to realize that reUgion is Uke a great bank with unlimited capital upon which we may draw for all the finest things we can express in our daily living, then we shall be more fully equipped to provide the spiritual atmosphere which the child should find in his home. Keeping the Bond Unbroken The Master said, "Except ye become as httle children ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." The best way for a child to find God is never to have known a moment of separation from him. This is the ideal way, and it is possi- ble for all children who are rightly led and taught. Many adult Christians cannot teU the story of their "conversion." As far back as they can remember they were surrounded by religious influences; they were early taught to love God and to follow Jesus. Their spiritual development has been one of gradual unfoldment, with no necessity for reclamation from a life of spiritual indifference or hostihty to one of union with God; the bond which existed at the beginning between the heavenly Father and his child has never been broken. This point of view is thoroughly recognized by most rehgious leaders of the day. We no longer accept the cruel and somber point of view taught in the older theologies that the child is born totally depraved, bearing a load of sin charged against him because of Adam's fall. Most Protestant churches teach that the child is at the beginning God's child; that it comes into the world sinless, pure of heart, with Hfe undefiled. All the child needs, therefore, is to be led aright until old enough to follow the right path of his own accord. If this leading is wise and the child's response ready, there will be no falling away. This does not mean that the child will never do wrong or, when old enough to be accountable, will never commit sin. 74 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION It means, rather, that the whole attitude of mind, the complete bent of the life, will be religious. It means that the one who was at the beginning God's child need never cease to be such, that conservation instead of conversion will be the great end of the religious training of the child. It suggests that religious education instead of reclamation must be the program of both the church and the home. Yet what a proportion of the energy of the church must to- day be given to the work of reclaiining those who should never have been allowed to go astray! Evangelistic campaigns, preach- ing, "personal work," Salvation Army programs, and many other agencies are organized for reclaiming to a rehgious life those who ought not to have departed from it. Probably more than half of our religious effort is expended in bringing adults back to the rehgious status they occupied as children. What a tragic waste of energy! — and then those who never return! Worship in the Home Great possibilities, often but little utiUzed, exist in the family altar, the worship together of father, mother, and children. This period successfully carried out in the morning tends to give tone and quahty to the day. Not always, however, is the family worship hour well planned, at least for the children. Indeed, there is reason to beheve that in most cases it is planned, not for the children, who most need it, but for the adult members of the family. The prayers are sometimes long and unrelated to the understanding of childhood. The Bible passages are not always selected with children in mind. Singing, in which the children would de- light to participate, is not always made a part of the exercise. The children themselves, always most interested in and re- sponsive to what they have an active part in carr3dng out, are commonly given no part except that of listeners. One young father, who is trying to make the family-worship THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE HOME 75 hour mean something to his children, thus tells of a negative lesson he learned on such matters when, as a boy, he occa- sionally visited in the home of a pious uncle: "The day was one long dehght, once the family prayers were done. But the dreadful half hour (it seemed an eternity!) after breakfast was looked forward to with groanings and back upon with utter thankfulness — that it was over. My uncle read a long chap- ter — wholly unintelligible to me, it was — in the Great Book. Then came the shuffling of our kneehng; the small jockeyings for position to find a comfortable place, or to get next to a favorite playmate. The long prayer began; it always began in the same way; it ran on and on; it told the Lord that we were all miserable sinners, worms in the dust, unworthy his mercy; it recounted and lamented the manifold wickedness of the day; it sought divine guidance for the whole list of those in authority as rulers over us; it — but why go on? It con- tained httle or nothing that appealed to or interested any one of the eight active boys and girls whose patience and sense of reverence usually proved unequal to the ten- or fifteen-minute ordeal, and whose sly pranks often began soon after the prayer had got well under way." So little did this pious head of his family understand child nature and child rehgion that it never occurred to him that the worship he conducted was not to the children worship. He seemed to think that he had abundantly fulfilled his obliga- tions to them spiritually when he had compelled them to at- tend family worship each morning and occasionally reprimanded or punished some culprit detected in a misdemeanor or slacken- ing of attention during the exercise. A natural result from such ill-conceived programs as these carried on in the name of wor- ship is to turn children against rehgion as wrongly interpreted to them in such a procedure. "I well recall," writes a woman who now has children of her own, "how when I was a little child my thoughts used to wander 76 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION while father in his extended prayer remembered the heathen, the Jews, the missionaries in the dark places (that really sounded interesting!), and a long list of other personages and interests which my memory does not recall in detail. The wording was always the same, and we children came to know by the stage reached just how long it would be to the end. One thing in the prayer puzzled me much until I had grown older. Then I knew that father meant us children when he asked God that his 'house' might be kept safe from the heinous powers of darkness and free from the ravening wolves of sin in an evil and corrupt world." Bringing the Child into the Worship Program In a family where there are children the worship hour should be planned principally for them. It should be brief. To be effective there must be a vital point of contact with each young life. The Bible reading should be short; the passage will not always be fully within the child's comprehension, but it should have beauty, majesty, simpKcity. Instead of the Bible read- ings father or mother should now and then (with open Bible before them) tell a beautiful Bible story in language the child can understand. The prayer should not be long. It should frequently mention each child by name and ask for God's blessing upon him. The kindergarten teacher was telhng the story of "The Angelus" from the picture: how the father and the mother were working out in the field when they heard the ringing of a bell, which meant that it was time for prayer. Father and mother stopped their work, and bowed their heads to pray. They prayed that God would care for the children at home while they were away from them. Eagerly, yet reverently Harold lifted up his hand at this place in the story and said, "Miss Baker, Miss Baker, my father prays for Florence and me every morning." Who can measure the influence of his THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE HOME 77 father's prayers on this child in his later years! Not all the prayer in the morning devotions need be about the children, but the whole prayer should be simple, reverent, full of devo- tion and meaning. The children themselves should have part in the devotions as soon as they are old enough to be taught how. Children love to sing, and the hymns and songs suited to their capacity should be used at least a part of the time. The child may tell a Bible story, or when old enough read a few verses from the Bible. He may say the prayer. Once the principle is adopted that the fartiily worship should, wherever there are children, first of all take into account the needs of childhood, there will then be httle trouble to give the children parts suited to them in the exercises from day to day. The Father's Influence Though for the younger children at least the mother will naturally be the most immediate influence upon the child and will have most to do in creating the atmosphere of the home, the father's part is of supreme importance at certain points. Unconsciously the children learn lessons of courtesy and chivalry from the attitude of the- father toward the mother, the Kttle attentions he pays her and the opportum'ties he takes of help- ing her. Many a son has had his sense of responsibihty quick- ened by his father's, "I must be away from home for a few days, son, and you must take father's place and take care of mother." While there are ties of pecuHar strength and tenderness between the father and daughter, it is perhaps to the son that the father should mean most in the home. The son will love his mother, if not better, at least in a different way from his father. Yet he needs his father's comradeship; there should be walks and talks together when they two are alone; play- times of romping good fellowship; sober conversations as "man to man." The father should become the boy's ideal of man- 78 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION hood, the one in whom he most fully beKeves and whom he most admires. There should be increasing chumship and friendship, such that the lad will naturally and as a matter of course come to his father with his problems, sure that they will have a sympathetic hearing; and such that when he has done wrong he will tell father about it confident that, while father will not approve, he will understand and counsel wisely. Why is it that so many children are afraid to talk to their fathers? The father's part in the home has been aptly expressed by one father in these words: "To the nation and the future world good fatherhood means everything. It means that men shall henceforth think not merely in terms of 'big business' but of better human Hves, that they shall strive not only to bequeath wealth to their children afte^ death, but shall devote their hves to giving their children a treasure ol sympathy, love, and guidance. "Therefore I would say to every father, 'Know your boy. Begin to-day to play with him, hike with him, discuss with him, camp out with him if you possibly can. He needs you, and you certainly need him. Don't let his mother have all the responsibility and all the joy of parenthood — get some cf that joy yourself. For your boy's sake, for your own sake, for your countrv's sake, join the Ancient and Honorable Order of Fatherhood!''"! This is not to be ah on the one side, however. The children should be taught the httle acts of kindness, service, and def- erence due father and mother in the home. To watch for opportunities to run on errands for them, to look out for their comfort, to give them the best chair or the best place by the reading lamp — such commonplace deeds as these are the founda- ' Charles F. Powleson, general secretary National Child Welfare Associa- tion, in article published by The National Kindergarten Association, New York. The atmosphere of the home 79 tions for true kindness and courtesy. One evening mother, sitting with Dorothy and Robert before the fireplace, told the story "Helping Father." The meaning of it was not lost. "I bring daddy's slippers every single night," asserted Dorothy. "And I always fix his chair for him," claimed Robert. Two characters will be the richer for this spirit of loving service; perhaps the world will some time be richer because of the service rendered by two persons who in childhood learned that it is more blessed to give than receive. Good Fellowship and Courtesy The meal time should be one of the happiest times of the whole day. While reasonable quiet and good conduct should, of course, prevail, the spirit of good fellowship and good cheer should characterize the occasion. This is not the time for fault-finding or correcting misdemeanors. It is in a sense unfair to take advantage of the forced assembly of the family together to reprimand, rebuke, or scold those who have erred. The meal time conversation should, at least a part of the time, be upon such topics as will interest and instruct the children. Not only the happenings of the neighborhood and playground, but also as children grow older, the happenings of the great world outside should be noted and commented upon in such a way as to broaden the interest in people and events and to create an ever increasing sympathy for humanity. The relations of the home afford time and place for teach- ing the graces of politeness and courtesy. It is easy for those who are daily associated with each other to omit the smaller courtesies which characterize our relations with strangers or acquaintances. It means much to the children if the practice of the family is always to say a cordial "Good night" and a cheery "Good morning" to each other; if mother is seated at the table by father, and sister by father or brother; if small maidens are taught to courtesy and lads to shake hands and 8o THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION bow to visitors in the home. All such graces of kindly manner are built into the fundamentals of character, and tact and courtesy learned in this way are but a natural expression of kindness and good will in later life. Ownership, Money, Spending Early in his life the child should be taught something of the value of money. In many famihes the plan is to have a talk together when all members of the family are present about the family finances. Father explains to the children in a way they can understand something about the income and expendi- tures. It is his opportunity to set forth the values of worth- while saving, of spending judicially, of giving in the right spirit. Possibly the best practical way to impart this knowledge is to give the child a weekly allowance. He should be advised about his spending it. From this allowance should come his contribution to Sunday school and other worthy causes; he should be taught to put some fraction of it into his "bank" or in a savings account. When the child becomes of school age he may be given lessons in thrift by having the allowance in- creased to include the buying of some article of clothing, for instance, that of shoes. From time to time this allowance may be increased to include the buying of other articles of clothing, as well as in the giving to worthy causes, for his good times and for his savings account. There are attractive account books which may be had giving the various items in spending. It is a fine training for a child to form the habit of nightly "keeping books." It trains to doing business in a businesslike way which is so important to all of us. Books for mothers: Religious Education in the Family, Henry Frederick Cope. Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Fathers and Mothers, G. H. Betts. The Bobbs-Merrill Com- pany, Indianapolis. CHAPTER IX THE PLAY-MOTHER There is a great difference between being the parents of our children and being parents to thenj. Physical parenthood we share in common with all creation; spiritual parenthood belongs only to those who have learned the secret of comrade- ship with their children. Play is one of the best avenues to comradeship with child- hood. The mother who would be the best teacher for her child must first and always be a good playfellow. She must under- stand the importance of play and what it means to the young life, so that she will never look upon play as an inconvenient impulse of the young which must be put up with until they are old enough to know better. She must realize that play makes possible the closest sympathy and understanding with her child, and that this relationship opens up the way for the teaching of the precious lessons she would have the child learn about the things of the spirit. The Comradeship of Play It is not enough that playthings be heaped on the child. Many children who are bountifully supplied with the material equipment for play and have all the heart could wish in the way of physical surroundings stUl lack that which is infinitely more important — the close companionship and chumship of parents. Many a father provides abundance of food and fine clothing, with all manner of means for enjoyment and then fails to give himself with his gifts, wondering in the end why his boy lacks appreciation and does not turn out well. The material side of parenthood is not to be depreciated, but it is, after all, the 81 82 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION spiritual side, the comrade side, that counts for most in the training of children. It is an immeasurable tragedy when the parents are too busy (or selfish?) to play with their children. To the child play is social fellowship; it is comradeship. We may feed and clothe him and take the best possible care of him when he is ill; but he takes these things for granted. What are parents for but to do these things? It is what we enjoy with our child that has the greatest influence upon him. To play with him brings us genuinely, whole-heartedly into the closest relationship with him. In play we show that we care for the things he cares for, we make him feel that we are of his spirit and kind and therefore an important part of his world of affection and interest. Not, of course, that the child ever thinks about it in these terms, but the impression is nevertheless definite and positive, as proved by his ready response to the parent-playfellow. Nor is play less important in its influence on the mother than on her child. It is the mother's pathway of approach. It gives her a sympathetic insight into child nature. Through play the mother lives in the child's world, keeps herself young in spirit and is capable of seeing things from the child's view- point; she is able to understand that to the young, play is the only really important thing in life. Two small girls were having a very animated discussion over the merits of their respective mothers. Mary Louise clinched her side of the argument finally by saying, "Well, my mother is the best play-mother, anyway!" And Katherine answered, lamely, "My mother is too busy ever to play." Which is rather a sad commentary on the business of being a mother. The Child Must Play Play is imperative for the child. Not only does nature make it impossible for the child to do other than to desire to play, but play is necessary to all normal development. Play means THE PLAY-MOTHER 83 happiness, and no child can grow up as he should without a large measure of happiness in his youthful experience. Child- PLAYING BALL WITH DADDY hood and happiness are two words that should be indissolubly linked together, and play is the connecting link between them. 84 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Says Karl Groos: "Perhaps the very existence of youth is due in part to the necessity for play; the animal does not play because he is young, but he is young because he must play." Another writer says: "Play is a constant factor in all grades of animal life. The swarming insects, the playful kitten, the frisking lambs, the racing colt, the darting swallows, the mad- dening aggregation of blackbirds — these are but illustrations of the common impulse of all the animal world to play. Wher- ever freedom and happiness reside, there play is found; wher- ever play is lacking, there the curse has fallen and sadness and oppression reign. Play is the natural role in the paradise of youth; it is childhood's chief occupation. To toil without play, places man on a level with the beasts of burden." Healthy physical development depends on play. The muscles need exercise; the brain cells need practice in coordinating movements to effect harmony of bodily action; every organ and tissue requires physical activity in order to healthy growth and normal functioning. The child may be climbing up and down his play ladder all for fun, but nature knew what she was about when she gave him the impulse to climb. Not less so in the mental and moral realms. Play requires alertness; it trains attention and stimulates the imagination; it trains to patience and persistence; it accustoms the child to the glow of victory and the lesson of defeat; it develops consideration for others and teaches adjustment to rules and obedience; it presents the demand for fair play, generosity, helpfulness. It occupies the mind and hands with innocent, stimulating activity, encourages good nature, and builds for cheerful disposition and character. Play to be Governed by the Needs of the Child The mother is the child's first playfellow. The child must not, however, be made a plaything. Adults often play with children for their own amusement, not for the happiness and THE PLAY-MOTHER 85 satisfaction of the child. Much of the tickhng, the bouncing, the unnecessary handhng and jouncing imposed on young children is not play for them, but hardship and sometimes torture. Says the Mothercraft Manual : "The adult very often desires to amuse children not primarily for their benefit but for his own pleasure in watching them with their toys and participating with them; he or she needs a training in self- control and a deeper understanding of child nature that he may come to find as keen satisfaction in standing aside and watching the child's self-development, bringing forward his own personality only where it will be of educational or of social value." The principle is, then, clear: Play with the child is primarily for the benefit of the child. The mother, permeated with the play spirit, helps the child develop under her wise direction through every avenue of his new being. She remembers that it is not her own activity that develops the child, but the re- sponse of the child to his playthings or to his playfellow. In order that the young child shall learn to lift up his head, to use his arms, to walk — in short, to do the thousand and one things that will make him an independent piece of human mechanism, he must begin early to develop himseK. He does so through the bodily movements of kicking, stretching, grasp- ing, and the like. If left to himself, he will perform these func- tions without instruction. Yet the wise mother can do much to aid the child in his development by the simple little play exercises that have been prepared for this purpose. Froebel first put these exercises into the form of play, with their quaint rhythm and simple rimes. Since his time a number of educators have modernized and adapted them for child training. Through such exercises the child gets development as well as pleasure. For example, it is quite an achievement when in the play, "Here's a Ball for Baby," the child is able to control the move- ment of his arms and bring his fists together right. Even in 86 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION so simple a play as "Patty-Cake" there is going on along with the enjoyment of it very effective training of the motor mechan- ism of brain, arms, and hands. In different finger plays the child exercises the fingers of his left hand as well as his right and so does not leave this important member without training. The singing of the little rimes with the plays adds to their pleasure and tends to cultivate the child's innate sense of rhythm. The Mother Goose rimes and other simple melodies afford an outlet for the early musical sense. Best of all, these little games and plays bring out the fun spirit of the child and keep him and the fun-maker in close and sympathetic touch with each other. Playthings and Their Use As soon as the baby is old enough to notice and grasp them he should have simple playthings — a hard-rubber rattle, a rubber ring that can be grasped on opposite sides by the two hands, a spoon with which to pound, and so on. It is best not to give the baby too many playthings at one time, or those of too much variety. He becomes bewildered and turns from one thing to another, not satisfied with any one thing very long at a time. In time he forms the mental trait of expecting too much from his surroundings or from those around him. Anyone who has watched a child do the same thing over and over with a few simple articles under- stands and realizes the value to the child. Given a pan of bran, a spoon, and a wide-mouthed bottle, two-year-old Marjorie fills and empties the jar a dozen times before the interest wanes. Three-year-old Bruce builds houses and towers only to knock them over and build them up again and again. The mother should be alert, and when she notices that the child has become tired of one set of playthings remove them and give him a complete change. This method is much better than having a great many things around him at one time. THE PLAY-MOTHER 87 An illustration of the effect of too many playthings is given by a Idndergarten teacher: With the multiplicity of toys which Marion's parents and grandparents had heaped upon her she became a very disturbing element in the kindergarten. She would come to school carrying all sorts of playthings, a doll, a teddy bear, an elephant in her arms and pockets. Not only were the playthings a distraction to the others, but the great- est difficulty came with herself — her inability to concentrate in the play activity with the class, although the playthings had been removed from sight. Her mind had become accus- tomed to flitting; she had been amused too much. With a few playthings the child learns the fine art of resourcefulness, one of the greatest products of play and an important element in character. Sympathy Toward the Child's Activity As the baby passes over into childhood activity is the watch- word of his development. He must be doing something every moment, not so much to accomplish any particular ends as just to be doing. Adults are wearied at the mere contempla- tion of his ceaseless activity. The young mind is as active as the body. Imitation is at its height. Curiosity is keen, and question after question comes pouring from the babbling tongue in a perfect torrent. At this stage perhaps ahnost more than any other the child may strain the nerves of careworn or thoughtless mothers. Yet it is the wise mother who, understanding the laws of the child's being, patiently answers his questions as best she can. It was George William's first ride on the elevated train in the hour's ride to the city. "What for are we up so high, mother?" "Where is the engine for the cars?" "Who makes the cars go?" "Can I see him make the cars go?" and so on for block after block and stop after stop. All was new to the eager eyes and all stimulating to the alert mind. At the end of the hour the 88 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION mother's face still wore its accustomed smile as she said, quietly, "We are in the city now. Laddie, with more things to see." A woman sitting near stepped up to my friend and said, "I cannot keep from telling you how much I admired you for the beautiful and painstaking way you answered your child's questions without the least trace of impatience." "That is the only way for the lad to find out about some things, and I wish him to come to me or his father with all of his questions," the mother replied. Happy lad, with so understanding a mother! Children sometimes break their playthings; they pull them to pieces; they take them apart; they smash them. The child needs to learn to save, to protect, and to care for what is his. Yet we must remember that most of what looks to be sheer destruction is really but obedience to curiosity demanding to know how things are made, how they are put together, what makes the wheels go round, and so on. Edna Dean had been given a httle music box for a Christmas present. She played the tunes again and again. It captivated her. What made the music? Why should the turning of the handle bring about such beautiful sounds? The spirit of investigation took hold of her and with eagerness she pried off the tin cover. At this moment father appeared on the scene, and without question- ing the cause for such destfuctiveness he punished the child rather severely. Sobbingly she told him her reasons. . . . The father realized he had made a mistake and was big and generous enough to ask his child's pardon. And in the talk that fol- lowed little Edna Dean was made to feel that she might come to father with all her questions and with all the things that puzzled her and father would answer her the best he could. This hour of confidence made a lasting impression upon the child, and the comradeship between them was always beau- tiful to see. THE PLAY-MOTHER 89 Father Joins the Game One remedy for the spirit of destruction is to give the child simple toys that have strong powers of resistance. Another, and a better one, is to satisfy the spirit of curiosity and of con- struction at the same time by helping the child make things. At first father makes the Httle toy while baby watches; later the child himself wants a part in the making, and then it is father's task to help him, but leaving to the child the joy of creating the thing his mind has pictured. The truly under- standing father will see that his young son has a small hammer, some nails of suitable size, soft blocks of wood, and whatever else is necessary to make the boats, kites, engines, etc., which are dear to childish hearts. Toys of simple sort and home made toys are far preferable to the over-finished pieces of mechanism mistakenly provided in many of the shops. The too-elaborate mechanical toy leaves no room for the child's imagination and the spirit of make- beheve. Everything is so complete that nothing is left for the fancy to play upon. The vivid-minded youngster can make a perfectly wonderful train of cars out of a row of blocks or a string of chairs run together. He himself sitting at the head of the train choo-chooing and hissing is the most wonderful engine that could be provided. The Play Spirit in Government of Children The play spirit can do much to simplify government in the home. True, children must learn to obey, but often the ques- tion of obedience need not come up nor a clash of wills be brought about. Timothy does not Kke to go to bed; in fact, he fairly hates the thought of it. He is always offering one pretext or another for staying up just a Httle bit longer. Father says to the lad, "I can beat Tim upstairs," and he starts. But Timothy darts in. ahead and is first at the top. After all, a go THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION boy doesn't so much mind going to bed if he can only beat his father in doing it and have a good time about it instead of being scolded and sent. In another home father or mother '• *^'^ .■■-:*, *^ =!;•« 5 L"'/"S|2 A HOME-MADE SLIDE IS A GOOD INVESTMENT remarks, "Time to climb the wooden hill," and a two- or three- minute game is played and the children go to bed happy and satisfied. THE PLAY-MOTHER gi It cannot be denied that some time is required to plan and carry out play comradeship in the home, yet there is recom- pense. Mrs. H. is the mother of four small children besides being substitute mother for several children of the neighbor- hood who are motherless a great part of the time during the "bridge" season. It had rained every day for a week and the joint resourcefulness of mother and children had become nearly exhausted. One afternoon mother said, "Children, let's have a tea party and play we are grown up follcs." In the preparation and the play most of the afternoon was consumed. Several neighbors' children as well as her own spent a very happy time. That night on going to bed, Ruth said, "Mother, I am so glad you like to stay at home; and you do always think of the loveliest things to do!" For the Mother Who Has Not Learned to Play Some mothers feel that they do not know how to play success- fully with their children. They may even feel that they do not have time to read one of the many helpful books on child- hood, and especially on the play Hfe, which is so essential. Two hours a week will give the mother suggestions and plans that will enable her to keep ahead of her child's play program. For example, suppose it is the book. Flay Life in the First Eight Years} One mother takes a sweeping glance through the book and says, "That's all very well for the mother who has the time," and with a sigh closes the book and lays it down. But the resourceful mother who is just as busy as the other picks it up with the thought, "I wonder what the author would recommend for children the age of five and eight." "Father could make a simple slide Hke that," is her mental comment at one point, and she sets about securing some piece of ap- paratus or a plaything. She finds in the end that it is time 1 Luella A. Palmer, Ginn & Co., Boston. 92 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION gained, for the children are playing by themselves while she is using her time to do something for herself. Also she is happy because the child is happy and she is a better mother because of it. And with all this the rehgious development of the child is bound up. For no small part of a truly religious hfe depends on the light attitude toward Uving — on happiness of outlook, on cheerfulness and good nature, on comradeship and respon- siveness, on wealth of affection and good will. The better attitude the child has toward these things the better soil will his mind and soul present for God's truths, especially if he sees these truths exemplified constantly in the spirit and life of those nearest to him. Those parents who have become the true playfellows of their children have quahfied on the first great requirement for the spiritual leadership of the young. Books for mothers: The Mother as a Playfellow, and How One Real Mother Lives With Her Children, American Home Series. Pub- lished by The Abingdon Press. Training Little Children, Bulletin No. 39, 1919. Published by the Government Printing Ofhce, Washington, D. C. Education by Plays and Games, George Ellsworth Johnson. Published by Ginn & Co., Chicago, New York, Boston. Play Life in the First Eight Years, Luella A. Palmer. Pub- Hshed by Girm & Co., Chicago, New York, Boston. Manual of Play, William Byron Forbush. PubHshed by George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. CHAPTER X MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS Mother and father should be the baby's first playfellows. The Httle play times with the parent not only interest and educate the child, giving him invaluable resources of good nature and enjoyment, but they also serve to form the bond of comradeship which means so much both to parents and children. From time immemorial plays such as are given in this chap- ter have been taught to children. They belong to no one nation or people, but spring up spontaneously in all lands. They are to the young child what school lessons are to older ones. They stimulate imagination, invite thought, and appeal to the sense of humor. They encourage mental activity and alertness. They equip the child to amuse himself, and introduce him to play with other children. On the physical side they develop flexibility of fingers, and train to muscular control of the body. When sung, they develop the sense of rhythm. But perhaps best of all they yield wholesome fun, add to happiness, and so lay the foundations for cheerfulness, good nature, and a cheerful and responsive disposition and character. Old Folk Plays Finger-and-toe plays exist in almost endless variety. They are to be found both with and without rhythm. Many of them lend themselves well to the singing of a simple melody accom- panying the play. Creeping Mousie: The mother makes a slow creeping move- 93 94 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION ment of the first two fingers, advancing the hand slowly at the same time from a Kttle distance up to baby's chin. Patty Cake: (To be sung or recited.) :^^" 5=& ■-N- -•- ' -•- -•- -•- ' -0- -•- -•- -•■ -•- -0- Pat ty cake, pat ty cake bak - er's man, Make us a E^^z ^ cake as fast as you can; Pat it and pick it and p-±z=jv=iN=iszcjz ^ mark with a T. Toss in the ov - en ior ba - by and me. A Pig Story} The mother wiggles each of baby's toes in succession, and puts appropriate expression into the voice. g: ■i^-- -N,-3- :is-=^- -li.— i.- V -4- -#- -•- This big pig went to mar-ket; This one stayed at home; i iii -•— =1- =^ This one wants some corn; This one says it's gone; This one cries, — ^^— — — -N V S^— r- 1— -J \ m m ^_ "Wee wee wee I wish my mam -my were home." 1 From Mother Goose Finger Plays, selected and adapted by Irene Mar- garet CuUison. Used through courtesy of George W. Jacobs & Co., Phila- delphia. MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 95 This little pig stubbed his toe; This little pig said "Oh"! This Uttle pig laughed and was glad; This little pig cried and was sad; This Uttle pig ran and picked him up As fast as he could go. Finger-and-head play: Plays like the one that follows, while they seem pure nonsense, teach the baby the parts of his body while giving him fun. Eye winker (Point to eye), Tom Tinker (Point to other eye), Nose dropper (Point to nose). Mouth eater (Point to mouth), Chin chopper, chin chopper. Chin chopper chin (Chuckle chin). (From Mother Goose Finger Plays.) Ring the bell (Pull lock of hair). Knock at the door (Tap the forehead). Peek in (Pull eye lash). Pull up the latch (Pull nose), Open the door (Pull down on the chin so the mouth opens) And walk in. The hand: This play suggests to the child something of the family relationship, and enables him to see himself as one of the group. This is the mother so kind and dear (Thumb), This is the father so full of cheer (Pointer), This is the brother so strong and tall (Tall finger). This is the sister who loves us all (Ring finger). This is the baby the pet of all (Little finger). (From Mother Goose Finger Plays.) 96 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION All for Baby^ Here's a ball for Baby Here's the Baby's trumpet, Big and soft and round! Toot-toot-toot! too-too! Here is Baby's hammer — Here's the way that Baby 0, how he can pound! Plays at "Peep-a-boo!" Here is Baby's music — Here's a big umbrella — Clapping, clapping so! Keep the Baby dry! Here are Baby's soldiers, Here's the Baby's cradle Standing in a row! Rock-a-baby-by! Father and Baby Plays Old folk-plays have not omitted the father from the baby's playtime, though naturally more material has developed from the mother's closer association with the child. The father dances Baby up and down on his knee: Dance to your daddy, You shall have a fishy, My little baby; In a little dishy; Dance to your daddy, You shall have a fishy My little lamb. When the boat comes in. (From Mother Goose Finger Plays.) While riding on father's foot — Ride a cock horse to Banbury cross. To see an old lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes. And so she makes music wherever she goes.^ 1 By Emilie Poulsson, to be found with music and suggested action pic- tures in Finger Plays, published by Lothrop,.Lee & Shepard Co., Boston. 2 For music see Our Old Nursery Rhymes, harmonized by Moffat, pub- lished by David McKay, Philadelphia. MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 97 RIDING ON FATHER'S FOOT A variation of the ride on father's foot may be sung as follows: No. 1. The pony walking slowly ^ 43: Oh walk, walk, walk, my po - ny, oh walk, walk, walk. No. 2. The pony galloping with swinging motion i^ ^^^=¥=^= I 3=* SEJ acnt -0—m-^~m- \-^ Oh come and ride my po - ny and gallop and gallop a - way. No. 3. The pony trotting — more of the jerking motion -2. J. : Li - A— N - f5=:fs=^ FF 3— # ^—9- Oh trot trot trot, oh trot trot trot, my po - ny, oh trot trot, trot trot, trot. 98 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 99 Emilih Poulsson With marked rhythm A Jolly Ride Theresa H. Garrison n \ > ^ >- — ^ P /i ^ 1 a N ■ 1 1 k 1^ J ■ f - '' m m • m ^ ^g \ ^'^ J i h J • • 3 ^ N •' ^ • _ S... L \j r r> s 1 tj cat dog cow has has has ' -•- -W- ■^ hear what the hear what the hear what the n to say; "Me -ow!". . says the c to say; "Bow-wowl" says the , d to say; "Moo-oo!".. says the c at.... og. . . . ow.. . . 1 y\ ^ ^ yf k 1^ -1 1 H •4 p ■ « 1 [N « fc V^ . 1 1 III J • r K K J 1 v^ •' J fi 8 ■ 1 m • S \(j i^ ^- -i- -*-- ^"* -•- • i. ^ ^ a 1 ,-■,- ' ^ . ^ F -^\-^- I }•! !>. J Lj tL y^ 1 l^ J J frJ-^- 1 ** i S - _^_J_^ * ■- -^-- > _.•- — 1 Pictures, words, and music taken from Emiiie Poulsson's Father and Baby Plays, by permission of the Publishers, The Century Co., New York. The baby goes riding — away and away! Goes riding to hear what the sheep has to say. "Baa, baa!" says the sheep. The baby goes riding — away and away! Goes riding to hear what the pig has to say. "Umph, umph!" says the pig. 100 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The baby goes riding — away and away! Goes riding to hear what the hen has to say. "Cluck, cluck!" says the hen. The baby goes riding — away and away! Goes riding to hear what the chicks have to say. "Peep, peep!" say the chicks. The baby goes riding — away and away! Goes riding to hear what the duck has to say, "Quack, quack!" says the duck. Bean Porridge Hot ^4 ^^£ 3^13 :^= -•- -•- -•- Bean porridge hot, bean porridge told; Bean porridge in the pot nine days old, MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS lOI JE ^^ 1 :^ V -0- Some like it hot, some like it cold; Some like it in the pot nine days old. -M= E?5 ^ r^EP=Sz It zt Mother or father and child sitting opposite each other play and sing the game according to directions: i. Clap hands on knees. 2. Clap own hands together. 3. Clap hands with partner. 4. Clap hands on knees. 5. Clap own hands together. 6. Clap hands with partner. 7. Clap own hands together. 8. Clap right hand with partner's right. 9. Clap own hands to- gether. 10. Clap left hand with partner's left. 1 1 . Clap hands on knees. 1 2 . Clap own hands together. 13 . Clap hands with partner. Shadow Pictures In the evening hour after supper the making of shadow pic- tures affords a happy pastime for little children. At first father or mother makes the shadow pictures, but it is not very long before the Uttle child too is trying to make them. The following shadow pictures were taken from the collec- tion, Shadow Pictures My Children Love to Make, used by permission of the publisher, Lloyd Adams Noble, New York. Suggestions: To make the picture of a wolf the three fingers of the left I02 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION hand which cast the shadow that represents the nose must be held almost one behind the other — not one above the other. In this way the palm of the hand is held practically parallel with the floor. If you will then just touch the tip of the index finger of your right hand to the middle joint of the long, second finger of your left hand, the wolf's eye can easily be made. Stretch the thumb of the right hand forward, and bend the index finger of the left hand backward. Suggestions: If you should ever want to make a shadow-picture turn in the opposite direction from which it is drawn on these pages, you have only to use your right hand where the left is marked, and the left where the right is marked. Just compare the rabbit on the cover with the rabbit on this page! See how easy it is! Now by changing the positions of the shadow- pictures so that they will face one another, you can have two or three little children all making pictures together with you. Let your rabbit shut his eye, move his front paws, and wave his ears. MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 103 Suggestions: It is not at all necessary for you to use both hands in build- ing up a shadow-picture man. A cardboard may be cut in almost any shape to form a hat, and held in the left hand where the fingers will make the nose and the mouth. If you will then hold your right hand 0. little farther from the light than you are holding your left, a smaller shadow will be cast, and the man will have a hand of his own. Now let him scratch his nose, lift a glass to his lips, or use his hands in whatever way you will ! Note. — A number of "finger plays," such as "The Merry Little Men" (about the ten fingers), "The Lambs," "The Pigs," will be found in the collection known as the Finger Plays, by Emilie Poulsson. Many other plays, such as jumping, climb- ing, "pick-a-back," floor rompings, etc., are suitable for this age. An excellent list with full directions is to be found in Father and Baby Plays, by Emilie Poulsson. 104 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Books on mother- and father-plays: Mother Goose Finger Plays, selected and adapted by Irene Margaret CuUison. Published by George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. Finger Plays, by Emilie Poulsson. Published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Boston. Father and Baby Plays, by Emilie Poulsson. Published by The Century Co., New York City. Shadow Plays My Children Love to Make. Published by • Lloyd Adams Noble, New York City. Playthings Play presupposes playthings, and the baby's playthings are of real educational value. Besides amusing the child, toys develop and train him, and should be selected with both pur- poses in mind. The grasping, reaching, pulling, kicking, chasing, and banging carried on in connection with suitable playthings cultivate the senses, develop the idea of distance, direction, color, size, and form, and teach the eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other parts of the body to work together. The baby should therefore have playthings. The first play- things should, of course, be simple, but they should represent a considerable range of quahties such as are capable of appeal- ing to the eye, to the ear, to the sense of touch, temperature, and so on. For the first two years the child distinguishes but little among colors, though the color sense is developing. Brightness, how- ever, attracts the eye, and playthings that glisten are noticed. Bright objects suspended before the child induce reaching, thus leading to muscular control and tending to develop sense of distance and direction. Rattles encourage activity of the hands and arms and appeal to the ear. Balls, rubber and celluloid, induce activity, encourage the fingers to grasp and train the sense of contact and form. Objects that are hard, MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 105 soft, cold, warm, smooth, rough, hght, heavy, all are referred to the appropriate senses and serve to develop the power of discrimination. Much interest will center at this stage in a ball on a string tied to the foot of the crib, and reaching and pulling will follow. A newspaper suspended above the child's feet will induce kicking. The baby also likes the sound it makes. A nest of small boxes provides for much activity and experimentation in putting one inside another. Other desirable playthings for this age are small unbreakable dolls, blocks, wooden clothes pins, objects to pound, such as a tin spoon and dish, a bunch of keys, a string of spools. After the age of two the range and complexity of toys should be increased as the child's powers develop and his interest broadens. From two to six or seven years the following play- things exert a strong appeal: Blocks of varying sizes, shapes, and materials;^ the enlarged (kindergarten) beads; rubber balls; indoor baseball and junior sized football or basket ball for outdoor playing; bright-colored bean bags; drums, engine, cars, and railway; various types of dolls, as wax, china, rag, paper, corn ear, yarn, bottle, the "Raleigh," the "Schoenhut"; blackboard and crayons; simple drawing materials; paints and brushes; scrapbooks; blunt scissors; doll houses and furniture (home made if possible); miniature household articles, such as toy brooms, carpet sweepers, fiat irons, and laundry utensils; dishes and tea sets; clay for modeling; nursery sand tables; outdoor sand pile, with shovels, iron spoons, and pails; carts, wagons, and wheelbarrows; see- saw; outdoor playhouse; apparatus for chmbing; the slide; Montessori materials; circus toys; tinker toys; hammer, small nails and board; trapeze about four feet high with a sand pile or freshly spaded earth beneath; punching bag; kites, boats. Scientific child study has taught us that in the child's growth ' The Hill Kindefgarten Floor Blocks (A. Schoenhut Company, Phila- delphia), are recommended. io6 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION the larger muscles develop first. That is, the muscles of the legs, arms and trunk are ready for use and brought under con- trol before the finer muscles of the hands, the fingers, the eyes, etc. Similarly, the larger movements of the hands, fingers, eyes are the ones fijst perfected, the finer adjustments coming later. For this reason the larger kindergarten blocks and pegs known as the "enlarged blocks" (three-inch cubes), and the "enlarged pegs" are better for the child than the smaller sizes formerly used. Great strain is put upon the child's eye and nervous system in trying to put a very small peg in a very small hole. Muscular control is gained more readily by trying to grasp and handle the block of fair size than it is in the little inch cube that defies the child by tumbling over just when he thought it was in place. Likewise, it may be said here that the sewing cards and paper weaving should be used sparingly by the very little child, as the concentration of eye and the delicate finger control required are a tax upon the nerves. Approved blocks, pegs, beads, etc., may be procured from the different supply houses that carry the kindergarten materials. A doll is always a source of pleasure to the small child. In the earlier stages of childhood the doll is as appropriate for the little lad as well as for the wee maiden, for he enjoys it, and from it he may learn gentleness and kindness. To children dolls are real persons. At the age of two and three years the child is very imitative. The doll is the child's baby, and the love and tenderness or the cross and harsh ways of the real mother very readily find expression in the mimic world when the child plays with her doll. The way children feel and act toward their dolls is what they most largely feel and are them- selves. Doll-playing is therefore educative. It is a fine means of cultivating the imagination, the emotions, and the whole range of the social nature. MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 107 The real play-mother will enter into the spirit of childhood with its dolls and all the activities that are so real to the child. In "keeping house," or "giving a tea party," she wiU herself be a child. "Araminta has a cold and cannot go out to-day," Betty says. "I am so sorry to hear that dolly is sick. How do you sup- pose Araminta took cold?" mother asks, very much concerned, and with all the real sympathy that is possible to put into her voice. "Well, you see, yesterday when we were going for a walk Araminta disobeyed me and walked right through a big mud puddle as big as this room." Again, at the tea party the little cakes taste so "d'lish-us." They may be real crackers or they may be pieces of cardboard or paper. But they must be real food to the imagination. Besides enjoying the play, the play-mother sees herself incarnate in the small imitator; many are the suggestions that may in this way come to her as to teaching the child lessons in house- wifeUness, in table manners, and in all the little kindly ways that she wishes this little actor to play with her doll children. In the earlier days dolls were stiff and formal in their make-up. The china and the wax ones were too pretty to be played with except on very state occasions. Now there are many unbreak- able dolls that are a real joy. Children love and get so much pleasure out of the rag dolls, the corncob dolls, the character dolls, that it is an easy matter for a real mother to enjoy the make-believe play. The child should have a doll that can be dressed and undressed. In learning to button and unbutton these little garments he develops skill which will help him when he has to do these things for himself. A cord or yarn doll is easily made as follows:-^ Wind cord or yarn around a book or piece of cardboard several hundred times. Remove ' From The Mother as a Playfellow, by Alberta Munkres. Published by The Abingdon Press, New York. "■ • ' - ' io8 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION from book or cardboard. Slip a string through the loop and tie the strands at one end; cut the strings at the other end of the loop. About an inch from the end that is tied bind all of the strands with another string. Cut and braid together a number of strands of cord for the arms. Slip this braid through the doll where the string is tied around, allowing about two inches to hang on each side. Another string is tied around the waist. Beads are used for eyes. Directions for making doll out of two paper bags for head and body, and crepe paper for dress and bonnet. Length about 13 inches: Head. A bag 7 x 3^^ inches (No. i); Mark features of face on flat side of one half of the bag; fill this half with torn paper; tie around with string; other half insert into other, bag, forming the neck where they join. Body. A bag 9x5 (No. 4) fill with torn paper; graduate size to the top for neck; tie two bags where they join for the neck. Arms. A piece of paper, 13 X 6 folded lengthwise to make a strip i inch wide when finished; at center of back of neck place center of long strip, bring around and cross in front; each extension at side forms an arm. Tie securely; cover arms with crepe paper 5 inches square for sleeves, paste. Dress. A rectangular piece of crepe paper 20 x 10 inches; make slits for arms about i^ inches from top of paper and about 4 inches from each side edge of paper; gather about i inch from top around the neck. Bonnet. A rectangular piece 15x9; one lengthwise edge is turned back i^ inches for the frill — like a Dutch cap. Gather the other lengthwise edge around the neck. Tie securely. Necktie. AU joinings are made at the neck. To cover take strip of crepe paper 18 x i; put around the neck and tie in front. Many little imaginative plays may be entered into by mother and child. Edward likes to play he is the policeman, the milk- man, and the postman. The floor has playthings strewn on the floor. Edward stands in the middle. He sees a lady standing on the other side of the street (one side of the room), looking MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 109 as if she would like to cross. Edward goes up to her and says, "Do you wish to cross the street? I will help you across." Mother taking Edward's hand, "Oh thank you, Mr. Police- man. You are very kind." Again in the "play" the blocks are built to form a schoolhouse. Chairs facing opposite direc- tions are passing automobiles. Edward as a policeman raises his hand; the chairs are pushed back and forward to allow a passage way for the school children (mother and brothers and sisters or other children). The child should not be given any other thought than that the policeman is their friend. Children like to play store. Charles arranges playthings to sell which may be household articles he has seen mother buy. Toy or- paper money may be used. Besides the play in imagination, the child can receive lessons in numbers. Sometimes the play is about the postman, and when the child learns to write "mother," he has made wonderful steps in his mental progress. Sometimes the play is about the milk- man and the child learns the various denominations in the sizes of bottles. In all these plays mother enters heartily into the game which seems real to the child and which increases his ability in impersonation and imagination. Bean bags afford a great deal of fun in the different games that can be played with them. These bags may be made in the different spectrum colors from cloth or knitted or crocheted yarn procurable from kindergarten supply houses. Ten cents' worth of yarn will be enough to make a bag. For each bag knit or crochet two four-inch squares or two circles four inches in diameter. Fasten these two squares or circles together to make the bag. Houses from which supplies may be ordered: Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, Massachusetts (kinder- garten supplies). Branches in Boston, New York, Phila- delphia, Atlanta, San Francisco. no THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The A. Schoenhut Company, Philadelphia (toys, games, etc.)- The Prang Educational Company (kindergarten supplies, etc.). Children's Book Shops in all large cities. Indoor Plays and Games The child from three to six years is amazingly active. From morning until night he is never still unless asleep. The adult is wearied by the mere contemplation of the endless round of running, jumping, climbing, playing, and all the rest, which he keeps up almost without cessation. But nature knows what she is about. The child's growing muscles and organs and his expanding mind need just this thing. His stored-up energy requires an outlet. His expanding imagination -needs to find expression in action. His power of imitation, now at its height, needs to test and perfect itself through much practice. In short, the child's chief business now is to play, grow, and be happy. Of course the best place to play is out of doors, yet there are the evenings and the stormy days and the other times when, for one reason or another, the child must be in the house. True, the house may now and then suffer from the children's play. But suppose it does! No house is fit for a home if it is too fine for the children to play in it. The following plays are suitable for indoor house use. Only a few out of the many which are available are given here; with music they are much more enjoyable: Running quietly as a mouse, on tiptoe, so quietly that mother cannot hear the child as he passes from room to room. Hopping like a robin or other bird. This affords an incentive to study birds. Flying like a bird, with arms outstretched and feet but lightly touching the floor. Skipping to music, forward, sideways, backward, fairy skip on tiptoe, high stepping. This is not only enjoyable but it MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS iii cultivates the sense of rhythm and develops bodily control and poise. Stepping head up, shoulders straight, regular movement. Playing horse astride a light stick, walking, trotting, galloping, high stepping. While this is more properly an outdoor play it may be allowed in the house occasionally. The play of imag- ination in this exercise is perhaps interesting to the child as the activity itself. Playing a "hobby" horse. Jumping with both feet over a stick or a pillow on the floor. Walking on a line, one foot ahead of the other; tiptoe, keep- ing body balanced with outstretched arms. This is excellent to develop body carriage. Choo-chooing like an engine, while running with short, quick steps. Picking apples from an imaginary tree by stretching arms up, grasping an apple and putting it into an imaginary basket. Twirling the hands rapidly like a wheel going round. Twirling the arms out, up, back, down, like wheels. If this order is followed, the movement is excellent for chest develop- ment. Ringing the church bell, stretching far up to take hold of the rope, holding a ball in two hands, then pulling far down. Ding dong bell high in the steeple Calls to church all the people, Ding dong, ding dong, Ding dong bell. Clap hands in front, back, above the head, first slowly, then quickly. Some suggestions from Dr. Montessori in connection with Physical Exercises for Children.^ I. Hang a heavy swinging ball from ceiling. Two children sit in their chairs opposite each other and push the ball back ' Quoted from The Mother as a Playfellow, by Alberta Munkres. Pub- lished by The Abingdon Press, New York. 112 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION and forth. This is an exercise for strengthening the arms and spinal column. 2. Draw a chalk line on the floor or extend a piece of white tape for ten or twelve feet for a child to walk on. This amuse- ment is valuable in improving the carriage of the body. 3. Walking upon the edge of a plank supported by standards is a training in bodily balance, and it also develops courage. 4. Jumping is good for developing strength in the legs and judgment in coordinating the movements. Have a little flight of steps in the nursery or use boxes of different heights for this purpose. 5. Lines may be chalked on the floor to measure the child's Jumps. Jumping in and out of a circle is another simple game that children enjoy. Several circles are drawn inside the other. The child stands in the center and tries to see how far he can jump. Color in these circles adds to the child's pleasure. 6. Simple pieces of apparatus, such as the "fence," the rope ladder, the swing, strengthen the hand in clasping and holding. The rhythmic games in marching, the ball, bean bags, hoops, and games of tag are valuable. Bean bags afford an almost endless variety of games suitable for indoor use. Bean-Bag Games 1. Place on the floor a piece of paper about 8 x 10. Have the three-year-old child stand about five feet away. The object is to see how many of the six bean bags he can throw on to the paper or touching it. If more than one child, it may be a Uttle contest game. In place of using a paper the children may throw into a waste basket or a dish or pan. 2. Draw three concentric circles on the floor, marked i, 2, and 3 respectively. After the child has tossed the bags, count the points he has made. 3. Hide the bags around the room and have a game of find- MOTHER- AND FATHER-PLAYS 113 ing them. Let the child and the parent take turns in hiding and finding. 4. Play catch. 5. If the bags are made in spectrum colors, arrange them in Order of the spectrum — violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Then the child shuts his eyes; the mother removes one; on opem'ng his eyes the child tells what one was removed. 6. Mix the bags in a pile. Ask child to arrange them in order of spectrum colors. 7. Walking on a Hne carrying a bean bag on the head. 8. A game like ten pins. Take six pieces of stiff paper 10 x 12 and roll like a cylinder. Stand them on the floor like ten pins. Child sits a number of feet away and rolls the ball against them. Each one thrown down counts 2. Books for mothers: Play Life in the First Eight Years, by Luella A. Palmer. Ginn & Co., Boston. Education by Plays and Games, by George Ellsworth Johnson. Ginn & Co., Boston. Manual of Play, by William Byron Forbush. George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. CHAPTER XI TEACHING THROUGH PICTURES AND STORIES Pictures, stories, and songs are three magic keys to the mind and heart of a child. "Show me the picture," "Tell me a story," "Sing to me" — these are the universal appeals of childhood, no matter what the clime, condition, or language. Rightly used they are invaluable not only to interest and in- struct the child but to create first moral and religious impressions. The Language of Pictures Next to objects themselves the child loves pictures. Many babies a year old enjoy them. The taste for good pictures may have its beginning in babyhood, for taste grows by what it feeds upon. It is said of John Ruskin that as a child he was never allowed to look upon anything that was not good art. With all the wealth of good pictures available it is a pity to allow the child's taste to be formed by the comic supplement of the Sunday newspaper, with its ugly and vulgar drawings and the wrong impressions many of these convey through holding up to ridicule subjects which should receive veneration and respect. Through pictures the child may get many of his first con- tacts with the outside world. Here he may learn of the dog, "Bow-wow," or the cow, "Moo-moo." If he has his own pet dog or is familiar with the sight of cows, he at least, besides learning to use pictures, sees known objects in new or idealized form, and his ideas are broadened and his interest quickened concerning them. As the imagination quickens, the picture of people and places unlike these of his immediate experience 114 PICTURES AND STORIES 115 helps broaden his ideas and lead his thought out beyond the near at hand. Impressions are more easily conveyed through pictures than through words. "Jesus Blessing the Children," "Samuel at Prayer," "The Worshipers in The Angelus" — such pictures make a lasting even if unconscious impression upon the plastic mind. One young man testifies concerning the influence of a picture : "Farther back than I can recall, my mother had placed the Hofmann head of 'The Christ-Boy' in such a position on the wall of my room that my eyes rested upon it the last thing as I went to sleep and the first thing when I awakened in the morning. For many of my earlier years I thought nothing about it, perhaps did not consciously observe it, but by the time I had reached my teens I began to notice that I found myself asking what this Lad would do or what he would think about some act or project I had in mind. I believe that this picture had a great influence on my childhood life." The first pictures for the child should be simple. That is, they should portray but few objects, preferably of familiar type, and should not bewilder by too great complexity of detail. Since at this age the eye has not yet learned to accommodate itself to anything minute, the objects represented should be of good size. The animal picture books that have a page-sized horse or cow are of the right type for the younger child. It is better to have the first picture books of cloth. For this is the age at which the child has an insatiable desire to put every- thing into the mouth, and he is likely to devour his paper books altogether too literally. Kate Douglas Wiggin tells of her own babyhood, "I believe I always had a taste for books, but I will pass over that early period when I manifested it by carry- ing them to my mouth and endeavored to assimilate them by the cramming process." The picture book which will not tear not only does away with the danger of the book's destruction, ii6 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION but it saves the child from forming the habit of tearing books — a very real problem with many children. Picture Story-Telling For the younger children pictures and stories naturally go together. The story helps the child's imagination to play around the subject of the picture, and the picture serves to give reality and warmth to the words of the story. THE PICTURE AND STORY BOOK YIELDS UNTOLD HAPPINESS TO CHILDHOOD PICTURES AND STORIES 117 Picture story-telling should begin by the end of the first year. The animal picture book makes a good starting point. With the picture before the child, mother may tell about the cow; what the cow says, what the cow eats when it is hungry, the milk the cow gives to feed baby. So on with the horse, the dog, birds, etc. The simple little comments and explanations the mother makes upon the picture are, if well handled, a "story" to the child. Questions may also be asked of the child to suggest points he should notice or ideas he should get. It is possible also that mothers who have never learned the art of story-telling will find the picture story a means of making their own training keep pace with the child's development toward the more complete type of story. Nursery Rimes Illustrated Nursery rimes and jingles of the Mother Goose variety, and many others, all minister to the child's demand for story and play. It would be impossible to measure the sum total of happiness, good nature, and development that have come to little children by the dear old classic: This little pig went to market, This little pig stayed at home; This little pig had roast beef, This little pig had none. And this little pig cried: "Wee, wee, wee!" all the way home. The child who does not have an edition of Mother Goose with good pictures of artistic coloring has missed much jolly fun and hence some real happiness. The proof of the child's response is in the appreciative chuckle or the hearty laugh as mother recites while the child looks at the pictures: Hey! diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jtimped over the moon; ii8 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The little dog laughed To see such sport While the dish ran away with the spoon. Besides the element of humor these jingles meet the require- ments of childhood in other ways: they are short, and do not overtax the attention of the little child who can not sustain one idea for any length of time. The children like the rime and the jingle. They appeal to the sense of rhythm which is innate in every child and needs only to be cultivated; as, for example, in the old favorite: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; Not all the King's horses, nor all the King's men Could set Humpty Dumpty up again. Or in this: Dickory, dickory, dock. The mouse ran up the clock; The clock struck one And down he run, Dickory, dickory, dock. Children's Love of Old Folk Tales The child mind must busy itself with something the same as the grown mind. The child's thought-stream never stops any more than does the adult's. A generous supply of the old nonsense rimes which generations of children have known and loved are a good resource, and furnish much "stuff" for the child's flow of thought. In times of loneliness or trouble children often turn to these old friends for amusement or con- solation. Dorothy Alma had had her tonsils removed, and she was very sick for several days; then how glad and relieved we felt when after a refreshing nap she opened her eyes and said, "Where's Muvver Goose, Aunt Alma? — tell stowie pwease." PICTURES AND STORIES 119 Even the older ones of us pay tribute to the hold nursery rimes have upon us when we find them running now and then through heads thatched with gray. We see a spider running and unconsciously say, "Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey: Along came a spider and sat down beside her, Which frightened Miss Mufiet away." At Thanksgiving or at Christmas time we are reminded of, Little Jack Homer Sat in a comer, Eating his Christmas pie. . . And it is possible that we are better men and women for these little excursions into the land of long ago. It was a compli- ment to herself although she did not realize it, when the grown-up lover of children and of children's books remarked that she "couldn't decide which one of all the beautiful editions of Mother Goose she most wanted for herself." Stories are doubly interesting to children when they com- bine story, song, and action; for each of these of itself appeals to the child and their union seems to add to their effectiveness. It was a proud and happy day for little Joan when she held up her two hands, showing her fingers one by one and sang with her mother the little finger play: "Oh! where are the merry, merry little men To join us in our play? And where are the busy, busy little men To help us work to-day?" These first simple stories and pictures have done more than amuse and keep happy, important as this is. They have trained 120 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION the little mind to follow a connected train of thought, they have quickened the child's imagination and given practice to his memory. They have added to his vocabulary and to some extent expanded the range of his ideas. All this has paved the way for stories of more serious import — the stories and pictures through which the child is taught reUgious truths of love, beauty, and goodness. Use of the Picture-Story m Teaching Religion We have hardly begun to realize the possibiHty of impress- ing religious truths upon the child by means of pictures and "picture-stories." We sometimes think that the httle child cannot possibly understand and appreciate a picture. Even when he asks, "What does it mean?" we may put him off say- ing, "Oh, it is just a picture," not stopping to think that back of every great picture is a story which the artist tried to tell on the canvas. Not a few of the old masters are fully within the range of the child's interest and appreciation almost as soon as he has begun to notice pictures and enjoy looking at them. The picture story differs somewhat in the telling from the "regular" story, since in the former the story must in a sense be subordinate to the picture; in fact, its purpose is to lead to a fuller enjoyment and appreciation of the picture. In the picture story there is little necessary in the way of introduction. The better way is usually to call attention to what the picture presents, using simple statements or questions. Only the significant points of the picture should be brought out, minute details having no comment. Occasional explanation may be necessary, though it is possible to spoil the effect of a picture by too much explanation. A mother whose child failed to gather meaning from "The Angelus," explained that the church bell had just rung in the village, calling people to prayer, and that the workers in the field stopped in their work that they PICTURES AND STORIES 121 too might pray. Then the picture had real meaning and sig- nificant interest to the child. Questions asked of the child about the picture should be more to suggest meanings to him and to give him ideas about it than to test his knowledge. The question well used helps the child to see things in the picture for himself, to imagine more about it, and perhaps to feel the truth it expresses. An illustration of this is found in the question about giving in the story, "The Shepherds' Visit to the Baby Jesus," page 192 The earliest picture stories can come into use with most children by the time they are two years old. By the age of three the pictures and stories about Jesus as illustrated in Chapter XIII may be given. These will, of course, need to be often retold and will interest the child through two or more years. Paralleling these the child should be told "regular" stories, that is, stories without pictures, the meaning coming wholly from the words alone. How TO Tell Stories to Children Story-telHng is an art which is well worth the mother's while to acquire. Indeed, it would be a blessed thing for children if every mother could be a high-class amateur story-teller. Many writers have given plain directions for attaining pro- ficiency in story- telling. A few simple rules are fundamental: 1. The story should have an introduction, which should he brief and definite. This is an example: "There is a story in the Bible about a boy named Joseph." (Then follows the story.) Or, "Once there was a good shepherd. He loved his sheep and they loved him and ran to him when he called." (Then the story.) Avoid introducing a story by asking the child ques- tions, as his answers may lead far away from the theme of the story. 2. The body of the story should consist of a succession of in- teresting incidents closely connected with each other and definitely 122 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION related to the main theme. For children of preschool age the stories must be relatively simple; that is, they should not intro- duce many characters nor too complicated a train of events. The story should not be long, usually not more than will go on a page of an ordinary book; often it may be much shorter than this. 3. The story should usually lead to a climax; that is, to some interesting happening in which the whole train of events culminates. From the beginning the story-teller must keep this climax steadily in mind, and the thread of the story must lead directly to it, shutting out irrelevant details such as would distract from the main Une of thought. If the story is to be graphic, it must lead to this climax, and not simply relate a series of incidents that do not come to anything in particular. 4. // the story uses a conclusion, this should be brief, and should not moralize. Some stories may end with the chmax. Others may have a sentence or two following to ease the mind down from the climax. For example, in telling the story of the find- ing of the baby Moses, the conclusion after the climax is reached may simply be: "Then the mother took her baby home with her. She was happy to care for him again and to keep him safe from danger." The Test of a Story In order to be a success the story must be interesting to the child; no matter how "good" a story it may be, this is the final test. Mother was telling Mary Ellen a story, but the child did not seem to be enjoying it as much as mother thought she ought to; so she said, "What makes you wiggle so when mother is trying to tell you a story?" Mary Ellen replied, "P'r'aps if you'd tell something int'restin', muvver, I wouldn't wiggle so much." The story must be well told if it is to have the best effect. In spite of the story the kindergarten assistant was telling the PICTURES AND STORIES 123 children, several were whispering and finally a whimper was heard, ''Jackie pinched me." The assistant said, "If you chil- dren can't behave, I won't try to tell you a story." What was the trouble? The story was really a very interesting one, but it was not well told. She forgot several times and had to go back, which is disastrous to any story. And in trying to keep in mind the succession of incidents, her attention became so fixed on the story that she was unmindful of the fact that she was losing the children's interest and the happy response she might have had in their eager faces. Stories with unhappy incidents or sad endings should not be told the Httle child. Tragic situations, such as the picturing of a death, an accident or great suffering leave images in the tender mind which are Hke barbs in the flesh. The crucifixion of Jesus should not be brought to the young child. "He gave his life" is enough at this stage. The picture of his loving service, his kindly deeds, his friendship, and his goodness are the images the child's mind should first receive, leaving the tragic element for a later age. Lessons from Stories, Rimes, and Pictures Some of the most effective lessons the child ever gets in being poHte, kind to his pets, good-natured to those about him, etc., may come from story-rimes and pictures. There are available many artistic little books of this nature, and they should be freely put into the hands of the young child, the pictures shown and their story-rimes read or told to him. When he begins to read, these stories will be to the child a new delight as he reads them for himself. The following are typical: A Discovery I went one day to get a drink, And then I happened just to think, That cats and dogs and bunnies too, Drink water just like me or you. 124 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The cat said, "Mew"; the dog, "Bow-wow!" — What did they mean to ask me now ? And then I happened just to think They might be asking for a drink ! Thoughifulness Mother's asleep, and I must keep Still as a mouse around the house. Quietest toys — ^make no noise, Mother's asleep, and I must keep Still as a mouse around the house. This rime can be varied to include father, sister, brother, or the baby. It may have "we" substituted for "I" when there are more than one child; or "you" for "I" when the parent wishes to speak directly to the child. Five-year-old John seemed bent on slamming the door in- stead of shutting it quietly. Mother had spoken to John about it, but he often failed to remember. At Christmas time his aunt sent John that very interesting book. The Goops and How to Be Them. This is one of the Goop rimes: Little scraps of paper. Little crumbs of food Make a room untidy Everywhere they're strewed. Can you blame your mother If she looks severe When she says, "It looks to me As if the Goops were here"? Mother did not have to talk any more about slamming doors. John did not want to be a "Goop."^ 1 The Goops. Published by Frederick A, Stokes, New York. Used by permission. PICTURES AND STORIES 125 The Child Who Forgot to Wash His Face^ The child forgot, very often, to wash his face. There were a number of children at his house, all younger than be, who had to have their faces washed for them, so the mother could not always attend to him. He had a fine little wash-cloth of his own that his grandmother had knitted, but he often forgot to use it, which made his grandmother sad. This special morning the child ate jam on his toast for break- fast. Oh, he was very untidy indeed, for there was jam on his blouse and on the tip of his nose and on his mouth when he finished breakfast! But he never remembered to use his wash-cloth and he jumped down from the table and ran out- doors to play. Just outside the door, on a tree in the garden, hung the child's yellow canary in a pretty gilt cage. The bird was very tame. When the child whistled and put his finger in the cage, the yellow canary would light on it and sing. But this morning it paid not the slightest attention when the child called. The yellow canary was taking a bath. It had a white saucer full of crystal water, and it dipped its little body in and lifted up its head with the drops shining on its feathers like diamonds in a gold setting. So the child went farther on, until he came to his 'pussy cat sitting in the path. She nearly always followed the child, running after a string and ball which he carried in his pocket for her to play with. This morning, though, the pussy cat would not so much as look at the child. She was very busy indeed, washing the milk from her whiskers with one velvet paw and her little velvet tongue. She did not even purr when the child stroked her furry back. So the child went still farther on until he came to the pond ' From Stories for Sunday Telling, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. Used by permission. 126 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION at the end of the garden where the ducks lived. His pockets were full of bits of bread for the ducks. He often tossed their breakfast out into the water, and the ducks swam to him and gobbled up the crumbs in their bills and quacked, "Thank you." To-day, though, the ducks did not seem to see their break- fast. At the other end of the pond they were dipping their green selves down in the water, until all the child could see was the tips of their pointed tails. Then they hfted them- selves out of the water and shook a shower of drops from their green feathers. The ducks were taking their morning baths. "I wonder why no one will play with me," thought the child. Then he looked down in the mirror of the pond, and he saw that he had not washed his face. "Why, perhaps it is because I am dirty," he said. And the child ran home to use his grandmother's wash-cloth. Fairy Stories and Stories of Adventure Children universally hke fairy stories, and the fairy story may be used to impress many good lessons while they are at the same time giving enjoyment. Fairy stories usually deal with Uttle problems of work, kindness, or service. The "good" fairies and the "bad" imps or ogres are set in sharp contrast, with the good made sufi&ciently attractive to win the child's approval. For the time being the child in his fancy himself becomes the fairy who has brought happiness or done a kind- ness to another, or he may be the good child who has won the help of fairy or brownie. He lives in the story and his soul stretches and grows somewhat from the experience. A caution should be observed at this point, however, not to allow mere imaginings to take the place of performing actual deeds of kindness and service. Along with the impressions received from such story sources there should be opportunities for abundant expression of the qualities and acts admired. On through childhood, well chosen stories continue their PICTURES AND STORIES 127 appeal and their beneficent influence. Stories of brave deeds — the adventures of brg,ve knights and beautiful ladies who lived in olden time, call forth the desire on the part of the lad to be brave and chivalrous and on the part of the maiden to be fair and kind and beautiful, worthy of the wonderful knight on his dashing white steed. The mother who knows how to select and use stories for her children has the problem of their upbringing half solved. Books for mothers: Mother Goose. The Good Wolfe, Frances Hodgson Burnett. PubUshed by Moffat Yard & Co., New York. Little People, Aiken. Published by David McKay, Phila- delphia. The Goops, Gelett Burgess. PubUshed by Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York. Rhymes for Kindly Children, Fairmont Snyder. Published by P. F. VoUand & Co., Chicago. Where to get pictures: Brown Picture Company, Beverly, Massachusetts, and Thomas Charles Company, Chicago, Illinois. The Perry Picture Company, Maiden, Massachusetts. W. A. Wilde Pictures Company, Boston, Massachusetts. Books on story telling: For the Story Teller, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Pubhshed by Milton Bradley Company. How to Tell Stories to Children, Sara Cone Bryant. Pub- lished by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Stories and Story Telling, Edward Porter St. John. Pub- lished by The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 128 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION SPRING. (Knous) CHAPTER XII STORIES AND PICTURE'S FOR THE YOUNG CHILD To the little child Easter will mean the coining of spring. Now the sun shines warm and bright. All winter long the Httle seeds and roots of plants have been tucked away by Mother Earth; they have been sleeping in their brown satiny beds, safe and warm. The Message of Spring Now spring has come. She calls the little seeds and the roots to leave their brown, satiny beds and come out into the sunshine. The little seeds and roots hear the call of spring and come up out of the ground in the form of little plants, and soon flowers will grow and blossom. We search for the early spring flowers, the violet, the hepatica, the crocus; along by the streams we find pussy willows growing on the trees; the grass is turning green; the birds are twittering and flying about; they are building their nests; they are getting ready for the little baby birds that come from the eggs of the mother birds. The mother may use these concepts in the coming of spring as a background in teaching lessons about God's love and good- ness. By the use of pictures, stories, and songs the child may learn how God, the heavenly Father, has taken care of the birds, the seeds, and roots of plants all through the winter, and now he is sending the warm rain and the sunshine to make little seeds and plants grow. The child learns that God has given us the sunshine, the flowers, the trees, and the birds — all the beautiful things in nature and the world around us. Easter means resurrection, but it is only when the child is old enough to understand about the Hfe and death of Christ that the resurrection of our Saviour can be understood in its real significance, 129 130 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION How the Pussy-Willow Grew One night the fairy Queen had all her fairies gathered around her. She was telhng them how thankful they should be that they were happy and that they had such a beautiful world to live in. "And this is the reason for your hap- piness," she explained. "You do good and bring happiness to others and are always busy. If you did not work and had nothing to do but look around for amusement, you would soon become rest- less and dissatisfied and long for things that others have. But, of course, fairies never long for things that children have, so all this talk is quite needless." When the Queen finished speaking she saw one little fairy looked very grave and did not smile and dance about with the others. This fairy was called Dewdrop, because it was her duty every morning just be- fore sunrise to gather drops from the river and put them on all the flowers, FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 131 and she was usually the gayest of the fairies, so the Queen called to her and asked: "What makes you so sad, my Dewdrop? Is there not plenty of water in the river-beds for your beautiful flowers?" "Oh yes, my Queen," answered Dewdrop. "There are plenty of drops for my flowers, but I am unhappy because of some- thing I want and I know I cannot have." "Teli me about it," said the wise Queen. "Perhaps I can help you," and she drew Dewdrop close to her side and Ustened to her story. "One morning when the south wind and gray cloud brought rain to my beautiful flowers," Dewdrop began, "I did not have any work to do, so I sat under a big leaf and watched the rain falling. I was in a garden, and a house stood near. By and by a little girl came out and called 'Kitty, kitty,' and the dearest little kitten came running up the path, meowing and swinging its tail. The Kttle girl rolled a spool across the porch and the kitten chased it. Then it jumped through her clasped hands and chased its tail, and then it ran up the little girl's dress to her shoulder and sat there, with its head nestled in her neck." "But why should this make you so sad, my Dewdrop?" asked the Queen. "Tell her, Dewdrop," said one of the other fairies, for all of them had gathered around while Dewdrop was talking. "Yes, teU the Queen," said another. "You see, dear Queen, we all want a kitten to play with," said Dewdrop, "and every time one of us sees a httle girl with a kitten we are unhappy." The Queen looked very grave, for never before had her fairies wanted anything children possessed, but she did not scold. After waiting a few minutes the Queen spoke: "I will not promise you anything," she said, "but meet me to-morrow night down by the river when the clock strikes the last stroke 132 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION of twelve, and if the moon is shining, I may have something for you." "Oh, you dear, good Queen!" cried all the fairies at once. "It will be something nice, we know." "Perhaps," answered the Queen, smiling. "Now scamper away, every one of you, and do your work with smiling faces." The next night the moon was shining, and the Queen could be seen— that is, if one had fairy eyes — flitting along the banks of the river, back and forth, back and forth, flying in there and out here, and as busy as two Uttle fairies could have been on their busiest night. "There!" she exclaimed, after a while, "I think there will be enough for each to have one." Then she stepped into her chariot and waited. The last tone of the last stroke of the midnight hour was dying away when the fairies appeared by the river and looked about for their Queen. "There she is," said one, catching sight of the shining chariot under a bush. "What is it you have for us?" they all asked, running to the Queen. The Queen led them nearer the bank of the river and showed them slender brown bushes with tiny gray tufts, soft and slick- looking. "But what are they?" asked the fairies. "Stroke them and see," said the Queen. Each little fairy touched a soft, gray tuft with her tiny finger. "Me-ow, me-ow," came softly from each tiny gray tuft, and then the gray tuft stretched out and a tiny head appeared, and a tail and four little paws could be seen. "Oh! Oh! The darhngs!" cried all the fairies. "They are our kittens, our dear Httle pussy cats we had wished for so long." Each little gray pussy sat up and looked at her mistress, and then one fairy rolled a grain of sand (of course they looked FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 133 very large to a fairy kitten) , and all the little gray pussies scam- pered down from the bushes and did all the tricks for the fairies that mortal kittens do for their little mistresses. When the first streak of light showed in the sky all the gray pussies scrambled back to the bushes, curled up, and went to sleep, and there they sleep every night until the last tone of the last stroke of the midnight hour dies away, and then if you can see with fairy eyes you will see each little gray mite stretch out and sit up and me-ow for her little fairy mistress to come and play with her. We call them pussy-willow bushes, but the fairies call them their little gray kittens. (From Told By the Sandman, by Abbie Phillips Walker. Used by permis- sion of author, and publishers. Harper & Brothers, New York.) i ^^ l^^ ^- =^= ■-I- i^fefeg 1. In the ear - ly days of spring, Pus - sy wil - low, pus 2. And you wear a vel vet gown, Pus sy wil - low, pus -•- -•- . 1 -tz — ft , «__-t ._. «L sy ra: =t -^ — ^- r- i =f5=q= 1 wil-low. When the birds be- gin to sing, Pus - sy wil - low,we find you. wil -low, That is soft as ei- derdown. Pus - sy wil-low,we love you. ^^ tz It I^zt; It: (From Songs For A Little Child) Where to go for stories and lessons and songs: "The Coming of Spring," from the Beginners Book in 134 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION ReKgion, by Edna Dean Baker. Published by The Abingdon Press, New York. "The Lily's Message," from A First Primary Book in ReH- gion, by Ehzabeth Colson. PubKshed by The Abingdon Press, New York. Songs For the Little Child, by Clara Belle Baker and Caroline Kohlsaat. Published by The Abingdon Press, New York. -I- i s w 1. Love - ly spring time now is here, Skip and sing, 2. When the grass and leaves are green Spring is fair, skip and sing; spring is fair i 1 Hap piest time of all the year Is the love - ly sprmg When the lit - tie birds are seen, Fly - ing in the air. The first verse may be sung as a chorus. (Words by Mollie Stumbaugh, a little blind girl. Music by George B. Loomis. From Loomis's Progressive Music Lessons, Number 2, Copyright, American Book Company, Publishers.) Finding God Through Nature Nature stories bring the child into a close relationship with the little creatures that cannot talk. The little child naturally loves the birds, and the bunnies, the squirrels and kittens; he likes to handle them, but he needs direction, for he does not realize these little creatures are as frail as they are. In caring for these httle creatures the child learns that the heavenly Father is pleased with him; in time he may realize in a way that the love and care he gives to his pets is something like the love and care his father and mother give to him. And the heavenly Father loves and cares for us all. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 135 ROBIN REDBREAST (Munier) 136 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The Cozy Little Nest One day two little birds were sitting in the old apple tree. They were Father and Mother Robin Redbreast. They were talking about the little cozy nest they were going to build. Mother Robm said, "Where shall we build our cozy Httle nest?" Father Robin said, "Let us build our cozy little nest high up in the tree, so high that Tabby Gray cannot get it." "That will be a good place," said Mother Robin. Then Father and Mother Robin were very busy. They gathered httle sticks and straws for the cozy Kttle nest. They went to the chicken yard for feathers. "May we have some feathers," they asked Mrs. Specklety Hen. "0 yes, you may have some feathers; I do not use feathers for my nest. I make my nest of hay . ' ' And the pigeons said, "Coo, coo! we should like to give you some feathers too." Everyone wanted to help. Every day Mother Robin Redbreast would place an egg in the cozy little nest. And now there are four blue eggs in it. Mother Robin will sit on the eggs and keep them warm, while Father Robin brings food for her. Some of the time Father Robin will sit on the eggs. When Father Robin sits on the eggs Mother Robin flies away to find worms and seeds for them to eat. Soon there will be four little baby birds for Father and Mother Robin Redbreast to feed. It will keep them busy to feed so many babies. Other stories: "The Wee Nest" and "The Brown Birds" from A Story Garden For Little Children, by Maud Lindsay. Published by Lathrop Lee & Shepard Co., Boston. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 137 "What Robin Told." A poem from Songs of the Tree-Top and Meadow collected and arranged by Lida Brown McMurry and Agnes Spofford Cook. PubUc School PubHshing Company, PubUshers, Bloomington, Illinois. "Out of the Nest," from More Mother Stories; by Maud Lindsay. Milton Bradley Company, Pubhshers, Springfield, Massachusetts. Robin Redbreast Words and melody adapted from an old song. te ^- -+- 5: ■3f- T -•- -•- -0- 1. Oh, Eob - in, Rob - in Red - breast, Oh, Rob - in, Rob - in dear; You 2. Oh, Rob - in, Rob - in Red - breast, Oh, Eob - in, Rob - in dear. What 3. I sing a - bout the sun - shine, I sing a - bout the nest; I :1=q=:qi -A— IV- -7n- year. -m- "^^ -»- -•- -w- sing so ver - y sweet - ly In the spring-time of the j is the song you're sing ing In the spring-time of the year sing a - bout the four blue eggs My mate has 'neath her breast. Note. — When the song has become familiar to the chUd, it may be used as a little singing dialogue between mother and chnd. The child takes the part of the robin; the mother sings the first two verses in the form of questions. Activity: Flying Kke the robin with arms outstretched with birdlike motion, mother and child play they are robins. 138 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION TWO MOTHERS AND THEIR FAMILIES (Gardner) FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 139 Two Mothers and Their Families One day a mother hen and her baby chickens were scratch- ing for their breakfast. They were scratching right in front of the door. The door was open. Mother hen said, "Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck," which meant "The door is open, let's go in; maybe we can get something to eat without scratching." The child has scattered some bread crumbs on the floor. Mother hen and the baby chickens are eating them. Mother is telling the child how the mother hen loves and cares for her baby chickens. She watches over them so that nothing shall hurt them. I wonder what happened to the two Kttle chicks just coming in? Perhaps they didn't mind mother at once when she said, "Cluck, cluck." You know Kttle chick- ens must learn to mind their mothers just as Httle boys and girls do. There is a little baby too in the room. You cannot see it very well. It is in the cradle. Mother, sitting on a low stool has been rocking the baby to sleep. When baby chickens get sleepy they cuddle up close to their mother under her wings. Shall we sing the little song about the chickens? Little Chickens Clara Belle Bakkr^ *i 1 '1 b n -n— ^ ,'^ ^ N ■ ^ Tb-4 — ^^5 — J— : il ' ^ [^ =r^ : P' •'... — w — r* : %¥^—* — *— ■~» — — w — -* — ^ —li— _, — f— — • — ■ Hear them peep, .^ F5 r— • peep, peep, r— • Lit - r tie chick - ens, 1 lit - tie t' t^r-a-^ \ — 1 -\ ^ „l 1 ^ ^ b A " ' 1 *v , ' p 4- 1 i E£ ^T ZEEIt chickens; Hear them peep, peep, peep, Un-der mother's wings they creep t-- -t m ( From Songs For A Little Child ) I40 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION "YOU'RE NO CHICKEN" (Paton) One day two little chickens were running along by the side of the house. They were hunting for worms. Just then they saw something hopping, hopping toward them. It wasn't a worm, but they didn't know what it was. They stopped and looked at it. They had never seen anything like this be- fore. They said, "You're no chicken. And you're no worm." What was it they saw in the path by the side of the house? A frog. What do you think the frog would say to the Httle chickens? I think he would say, "Ker chunk! ker chunk! ker chunk!" which means, "No, I'm no chicken; but I can swim and I can dive. I am on my way to the pond now." FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 141 The Chickens Said the first little chicken With a queer little squirm, "I wish I could find A fat Uttle worm!" Said the next little chicken With an odd httle shrug, "I wish I could find A fat little bug!" Said the third little chicken With a faint little moan, "I wish I could find A wee gravel stone!" "Now see here!" said the mother. From the green garden patch, "If you want any breakfast. Just come here and scratch!" (From Songs of the Tree-Top and Meadow, by Lida Brown McMurry and Agnes Spofford Cook. Used by permission of the Public School Publishing Company, Bloomington, Illinois.) The sheep are eating the fresh green grass in the pasture. Sheep and httle lambs are like little boys and girls; they need some one to watch over and care for them. You know how father and mother take such good care of you; so the shepherd man watches over his sheep; he is near them all the time. He won't let anybody or anything come near to harm them. See the dog Rover. I think he too is helping. If Rover should hear or see anything coming, I think he would say, "Bow wow, bow wow!" He says just as plainly as he can, "Go away, you can't come near my sheep." I wonder if you can tell me 142 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP (Mauve) what the Httle lambs say? (Baa baa.) To-night when father comes home shall we tell him what little lambs say? A Sheep Story Here is a picture of sheep in the pasture; some are lying down and some are standing up. You are getting to be such a big boy (or girl) that now you can count those that are stand- ing up, can't you? (Child counts.) Some day you will be so big you can count all the others too. One of them is looking right at you. Would you like to name this sheep? (Child may hke to name the sheep. Mother makes suggestions or encouraging comments.) That's a good name. Some times when the shepherd cannot take care of the sheep the shepherd woman watches over them. Do you see the dog? He is watching over the sheep while the shepherd is away. He FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 143 A CONTENTED FLOCK (Bonheur) is watching over the sheep so that nothing shall come near to harna them. Shall we sing the song about the shepherd and his sheep? Old Folk Melody i -^ K :t ■t-^--^- n=?l3EEE i=r»t: -^ — 0- ■TTi- 1 ti 1/- Lit - tie lambs so white and fair Are the shep-herd's constant care; 1— I ^ V E^ -* — •- l> _ L, :t=t: tt -M •- ^ Now he leads their ten- der feet In - to pas- tures green and sweet. 144 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION In an evening story the mother has told how the heavenly Father watches over us, how he cares for us while we sleep. This song might be sung as a prayer: "Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me; Bless thy little child to-night; Through the darkness be thou near me; Keep me safe till morning light." Note.— For music see Story, "Jesus as the Good Shepherd." The Woolly Coat Did you ever say to mother on a warm day in the spring, "Mother, this coat is too warm to-day; it's hot out of doors?" Mother says: "I didn't know it was so warm; spring must be coming." The sheep too has been wearing his woolly coat all winter. He has been saying for some time, "Baa, baa! this coat's too warm. Baa, baa! Mr. Shepherd, I can't run and play; my coat is so warm!" So in the picture the man is cutting off the sheep's woolly coat. See his big shears! It doesn't hurt a bit, you know. It doesn't hurt any more than when you have your hair cut off. How good the sheep will feel when it is all cut off! Now, what do you suppose will be done with this woolly coat that the man has cut off? Why, Jimsy Lad (substitute the name of the child), your nice warm mittens and your stock- ing-cap that you pull down over your ears, and your snug win- ter coat were once upon a time the woolly coat of some nice big sheep. Who knows but that Flossy (or the name the child gave the sheep) herself wore it! It's nice to think she did, isn't it? Prayer : Dear heavenly Father, we thank thee for the white woolly sheep that gives us our warm coats and our caps and our mittens and all the nice things we wear. Amen. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 145 Used Iff Oif courtety ot Milton Bradley Company SHEARING THE SHEEP 146 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Another story: "The New Red Dress," by Cora E. Harris. From The Story Hour, by Carolyn Bailey and Clara M. Lewis. The Bunnies See Mother Bunny with her baby bunnies ! How many babies has she? Let us count them. One-two-three-four-five. What a big family! See what bright eyes ^ey have! What do you suppose makes their ears stand up so straight? Rabbits are very timid, you know, so they Usten all the time. Sometimes a dog comes running along, and when he sees the rabbits he chases them. Of course the dog doesn't know it is wrong to chase rabbits. When bunny hears a strange sound off he scampers. One of them looks as if he heard something now. (Help the child to find the bunny sitting on his hind legs with ears straight up.) See the little bunny close to his mother. Perhaps he is telling her something. And see the funny little bunny with his paws up to his face. I think he has eaten his supper and now he is washing his face. They have found some clover on the ground. Bunnies hke other green things to eat. Carrots and cabbage and bread are good for bunnies to eat. Five Little Rabbits Five little rabbits This one says, Under a log. "I'm not afraid!" This one says, This one says, "I hear the dog!" "Keep in the shade." This one says, ' The man passed by "I see a man!" "We're still alive." This one says, Said the funny little rabbits "Run while you can!" And they ran, all five. (From Character Building Readers, by Ellen E. Kenyon-Warner. Used by permission of the publishers, Hinds, Hayden and Eldredge, New York.) Note. — This little poem might be used for a finger play holding up in turn the fingers and thumb of one hand. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 147 AN INTERESTING FAMILY (Carter) 148 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Activity: Making rabbit's ears by holding up two fingers. The Bunny 1 Q 1 n — z F^ — ^~^1 , A \,n m ■ r. m ^ 1 r 1 i'* * • n ^ m \ rK " a 1 ". .J r: d 4 a i J 1 y C" u k\) q_^ ^ V Zl !y l^ B l^ Bun - ny, pret-ty bun - ny, why raise your long ears? You know me, lit - tie ^-^r- -1- — m -1 k -f ^^^1 -« — tz;! — =f-h=^ -r — 1 n -1 h 1 ^^#-— -I^BIII >-^^^*^ -^md- ^= bun - ny, and what need for fears? I give yon green cab - bage and iSt ^:^ -•— ^ ^ i!=i=t ^^^=^^a carrots and bread. And lit - tie house to live in with leaves for a bed. (From Songs For A Little Child) FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 149 BRINGING HOME THE NEW BORN CALF (MiUet) The Baby Calf Do you see the Kttle baby calf that the men are carrying? Early one morning the father went out to the pasture; he went out to the pasture to milk the cows. Right beside its mother there was the Httle new baby calf. Molly Moo Moo, the mother cow, looked as if to say, "See my baby, See my baby!" Father said, "Yes, I see your baby, Molly Moo Moo. I think we'll take your baby to the barn. It will be warm and comfortable in the barn." See how carefully they are carrying the Baby Moo Moo! ISO THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Molly Moo Moo is walking behind. She is kissing her baby. I think she is saying, "Don't be afraid, my baby; the men will take you to the barn; it will be warm and comfortable in the barn." The woman with the cap on her head is saying, "Don't be afraid Baby Moo Moo; we love Uttle babies." A VISIT TO THE BARN Bahy Moo Moo One morning father said, "Children, how would you like to go out to the barn and see Baby Moo Moo?" Betty said, "I want to see Baby Moo Moo." Timothy Lad said, "I go too, daddy," and Billy just ran out to the barn to be the first one jto see Baby Moo Moo. Do you think Betty and Timothy are -a h^tle bit afraid? They are standing behind Billy. Billy has jhis'hand|Up to pat Baby Moo Moo. Baby Moo Moo likes to be patted. What do you think Billy is saying to Baby Moo Moo? See how quietly the mother cow is standing. She is saying to herself, "Kind little children may play with my baby. I know they will not hurt my baby." FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 151 MILKING TIME (Dupre) Milking the Cow See the maid milking the cow. What do you see in the pail? It is brimming full of white, warm milk. I think Betty and Timothy and Billy will have some fresh milk for break- fast. Fresh milk helps Httle girls and boys to grow strong so that they can run and jump and have a great deal of fun. Shall we tell the story about "the friendly cow"? The Coiv The friendly cow, all red and white, I love with all my heart. She gives me cream with all her might, To eat with apple tart. 152 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION She wanders lowing here and there, And yet she cannot stray All in the pleasant open air, The pleasant Ught of day. And blown by all the winds that pass And wet with all the showers, She walks among the meadow grass And eats the meadow flowers. (Robert Louis Stevenson.) Note. — The first verse only might be used until the child is five or six years of age. The mother enjoys saying these lines over and over to the child, who will one day be saying them too. A little child's grace: Dear God, I thank you for the nice fresh milk from the bossy cow. Amen. CAN'T YOU TALK (Holmes) FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 153 CanH You Talk One warm sunny day, Baby Carol climbed out of her little bed. She crept out to the porch. Patsy dog had been taking a nap. When the dog heard Baby Carol coming she sat up and looked at the baby. The baby Kkes Patsy. Patsy hkes Baby Carol too. See how the dog looks at her! Baby is looking up into the dog's face as if to say, "Can't you talk?" I think Patsy would hke to say: "You are a good baby. If I could talk, I would tell you about the baby puppies out at the barn. Some day I will bring them to the house lor you to play with. Would you like to play with the baby puppies? No, I can't talk, I can only say, 'Bow-wow, bow-wow.' " The Tea Party Once upon a time there was a Kttle girl and her name was Dorothy. She was just about as old as you are. One day it rained, and rained, and rained. Of course Dorothy couldn't go out to play when it rained, could she? She played with her dollies. She gave a little tea party and all the dollies were there. Sarah Sue, the rag doll, was there too. Of course she never told me so, but I think Dorothy loved Sarah Sue more than she did Anabella Jane, the big wax doll that Aunt Alma brought her from the city. At least she played with Sarah Sue more than she did with Anabella Jane. And let me tell you, some other folks too came to the tea party besides the dolls. I wonder if you can guess who they were? Yes — Peter- kin, the puppy, and Muffet, the little black-and-white kitten. Peterkin said he would have his tea mostly milk and drank a whole saucerful. Muffet said she didn't like tea (which was only water you know), and she had milk at home. The dolls were the only ones who seemed to care for the tea. Being very polite, they didn't say anything. When bedtime came mother said she would leave the kitten and the puppy in the kitchen till she had put her Dorothy to 154 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION FAMILY CARES (Barnes) FOR THE YOUNG CHILD iSS bed. So Dorothy said "Good night" to Peterkin, the puppy, and Muffet, the black-and-white kitten, and invited them to come again to her tea party. Dorothy was ready for bed. She had said her Uttle prayer thanking God the heavenly Father for her happy day and for her tea party. Just then she heard a funny noise. "What's that, mother?" Just then a little soft scratching again on the stair carpet, and when she opened the door there stood Muffet. "Let me take Muffet downstairs, won't you, mother?" And when she had gone part way down the stairs there was Peterkin trying to come upstairs. They wanted to play again with Dorothy. But Dorothy knew that kittens and puppies, just like little boys and girls, must go to bed early and get plenty of sleep. So she put Peterkin and Muffet to bed and then ran back for mother to tuck her in and kiss her good night. WIDE AWAKE (Adams) 156 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION The Three Kittens Once upon a time there were three httle kittens. Their names were Muffet, Fluffy, and White-Foot. They lived in a basket under the porch. Their mother's name was Tabby Gray. One day Mother Tabby Gray said, "If you will be good children, I will bring you home something good for dinner," and off she ran to the barn. For a while the three little kittens were very quiet. Then Muffet said, "I hear mother coming," and she sat up as straight as straight could be. Fluffy said, "I see a fly, to catch it I will try." But just then Mother Tabby Gray came home and soon they were having a good time eating their dinner. Stories about kittens : "The Three Little Kittens That Lost Their Mittens." Tabby Gray," from Mother Stories, by Maud Lindsay. 'Mrs. :^;a=^= EE4=i I Love Little Pussy. Old Folk Melody i^^bzf: -X "m^ I love lit - tie pus - sy, Her coat is so warm, And if =;tr ^^ ■si- I don't hurt her, She'll do me no harm. Note. — For the old folk melody by Elliott see The Mother Goose Melodies, published by McLaughlin Brothers, New York, or The Most Popular Goose Songs, published by Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, New York. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 157 Autumn Pictures and Stories The autumn and winter offer many opportunities to lead the child into a fuller and richer appreciation of nature and enjoyment of the things about him. While the religious mean- ing of his environment should not be forced, the child should constantly be led to think of God and feel his presence in all that he is interested in and enjoys. A Talk About the Trees (This story-talk should be used in the autumn when the leaves are falhng.) All summer long the little green leaves have been swinging in the wind. All summer long the little green leaves have been dancing in the sunshine. The little green leaves have had a good time talking to the birds which came to build their nests in the trees. All summer long the Uttle leaves have worn their pretty green dresses. But one day it begins to get cold. Father Tree says to the little leaves, "Play time is nearly over, dear children; you had better put on your winter night dresses. You are so sleepy, little Yellow Leaf, and you, little Brown Leaf! And you, little Red Leaf, why! you can hardly keep your eyes open! I think it is time all you httle children went to bed." Now, what do you suppose these little leaf children said? I am afraid they must have been hearing the way httle girls and boys sometimes talk. Little Yellow Leaf said, "0 father, it is such a pleasant day, we do not want to go to bed." "Can't we play for just a little longer?" coaxed httle Brown Leaf. And little Red Leaf hoped that Father Tree would forget aU about sending them to bed. But the very next day Father Tree said, "Come, children, it's time to go to bed!" The wind shook the tree; the httle 158 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION leaves fell softly through the air. Soon all the little leaf chil- dren were lying on the ground. There lay Httle Yellow Leaf and Kttle Red Leaf and little Brown Leaf. They lay very quietly on the ground. Soon it began to snow. The snow covered them over with a white blanket. The wind cannot blow them about when they are covered with the pretty snow blanket. The blanket kept them snug and warm. Then Father Tree said, "Good night, dear Httle children!" And little Yellow Leaf, Brown Leaf and Red Leaf replied "Good night, dear father; it's so nice to go to bed. We are going to sleep." (Said in a drowsy way.) Note. — When the child has become familiar with the talk and story, the poem which follows may be read or recited. As early as possible, the child should hear good poetry, but it should be within the range of his understanding, well chosen and well read. How the Leaves Came Down I'll tell you how the leaves come down; The great tree to his children said, "You're getting sleepy, Yellow, Brown — Yes, very sleepy, Httle Red, It is quite time you went to bed." "Ah," begged each silly, pouting leaf, "Let us a little longer stay. Dear Father Tree, behold our grief; 'Tis such a pleasant day We do not want to go away." So just for one more merry day To the great tree the leaflets clung, FroHcked and danced and had their way, Upon the autumn breezes swung. Whispered all their sports among. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 159 "Perhaps the great tree will forget, And let us stay until the spring, If we all beg, and coax and fret." But the great tree did no such thing; He smiled to hear their whispering. "Come, children, all to bed!" he cried; And, ere the leaves could urge their prayer, He shook his head, and far and wide, Fluttering and rusthng everywhere, Down sped the leaflets through the air. I saw them. On the ground they lay, Golden and red, a huddled swarm. Waiting till one from far away, With bedclothes heaped upon her arm. Should come to wrap them safe and warm. The great bare tree looked down and smiled; "Good-night, dear little leaves," he said; And from below each sleepy child Replied, "Good night," and murmured, "It is so nice to go to bed." (By Susan T. Coolidge, in Songs of the Tree-Top and Meadow. Through courtesy of the PubUe School Pubhshing Company.) Note. — This story may be used as a play story. The father or the mother would be the tree; the children are the leaves, "Yellow," "Brown," and "Red." Clara Belle Baker ^^V i-CavCS «" ^ ^ g^ Now the gay leaves on the trees, n ^ '^ — m — ■ ' — -s — ^ — r ^ — • — ' ^ m P i6o THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Play - ing with the au- tumn breeze, Whirl - ing, twirl - ing * -^- the air, Fall here and there. m p » p - =t:^ ittt ^^ -ia_ I. 2. (From Songs For A Little Child) There was a young couple Who lived in a wood. Chippery, chippery, chee! In a taU pine tree Their little house stood. Chippery, chippery, chee! • All summer long They came and went. Chippery, chippery, chee! They Uved in a tree And paid no rent. Chippery, chippery, chee! Their house was lined With feathers and wool. Chippery, chippery, chee! FOR THE YOUNG CHILD i6i YOUNG FREEHOLD (Carter) i62 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION 6. With babies and nuts It was more than full. Chippery, chippery, chee! 7. When winter came, With cold and snow — Chippery, chippery, chee! 8. They kept them warm, Though the wind did blow. Chippery, chippery, chee! 9. For they laid them down In their furs to sleep. Chippery, chippery, chee! 10. In the spring they awoke, With a "Cheep, cheep, cheep!" And a "Chippery, chippery, chee!" (From The Character Building Readers, Ellen E. Kenyon- Warner. Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, New York. Used by permission.) Birds in Winter Time Look at the pretty httle birds! Can you count them all? Some day you will be such a big boy (or girl) that you can count them every one. See the birds' house. Father (or bro- ther) made the house for the birds and the children put it in the apple tree. When winter comes and snow covers the ground it is hard for the birds to find seeds and worms to eat. Then mother will put a pan of bread crumbs out where the birds can find it. Let us put some crumbs out on the window sill and watch the birds eat them. Our heavenly Father loves the httle birds, and he feeds them. Note. — At a kindergarten school in E a number of robins, blue jays, and squirrels have become very tame through the FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 163 "SPARROWS" (Laux) 164 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION children feeding them. They hop on the ground near the chil- dren with no thought of fear. Shall we sing the song about the snowbirds in the winter time? They like to have crumbs thrown to them. Snow Birds (For music see "Little Chickens," page 139.) Hear them tweet, tweet, tweet, Little snow birds, little snow birds, Hear them tweet, tweet, tweet. Let us throw them crumbs to eat. (From Songs For A Little Child.) Note. — By using the words, "little birdies, little birdies," in- stead of "snow birds," the song may apply to any birds. Grandmother has come to spend Thanksgiving with the children. She is holding Little Harriett in her lap. Grand- mother is smiling at Baby Harriett. I think Grandmother is saying, "You have grown to be a big girl since I was here last summer." Little Harriett is looking up into grandmother's face as if to say: "I don't believe I remember you, but you are a nice grandmother." The other children are glad because grandmother has come to spend Thanksgiving. They love their grandmother. She tells them stories; sometimes she has "goodies" in her pocket for them. Grandmother pl -^^-rS- I know a dear la dy with white, sil- v'ry hair, As she sits and ^=1= -=!-•- t: -* — knits in her eas - y chair; She tells me the sto - ries. i FOR THE YOUNG CHILD -I- ^^5 S=45: =t T±:f- ^ r J «i * J » | nt=» :i— r- BingB me the songs Of what she used to do when she was young. Who i ^^S -*— s* ^ is this dear la- dy with white silv'ry hair? She's my dear grand-moth-er. "GRANDMOTHER" 1 66 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Note. — After the song has been sung many times the child will enjoy singing the last line by himself, "She's my dear grand- mother." Grandmother^ s Thanksgiving Present It was going to be the nicest Thanksgiving Day that the Davis children had known for a long, long time. Dear Grand- mother Davis, with her gray curls and her gold spectacles and her twinkling smile, was coming all the way from the farm to spend the day with them. It was the week before Thanks- giving, and the children were all planning wonderful secrets and all manner of dehghtful surprises for dear grandmother. "I shall make her a loaf of raisin cake," said Hilda, who was quite a grown-up girl now, and very clever at cooking. "Well, I am going to knit grandmother a white shawl," said Elizabeth. "I'm sure that I shall be able to finish it in a week, and I know that grandmother will like a shawl better than a cake." "And what is our little Peggy going to do?" asked Mother Davis, patting the Kttle girl's brown hair. Peggy was a very thoughtful, kind little girl, even if she was only eight years old. "Oh, Peggy can't make anything for grandmother," said Hilda, quite decidedly. "She's much too small a child." "Yes, indeed," said EHzabeth, "but, of course, grandmother won't expect Peggy to do anything for her." "Grandmother will be happy to just see how sweet and good Peggy is," Mother Davis finished. "Now run along, dear, and play." So Peggy went upstairs to her own little room, but instead of playing with her doll, she wrinkled up her forehead and thought and thought, until finally she thought of something nice to do for Grandmother Davis' Thanksgiving surprise. Thanksgiving was a beautiful, sunny day, smelling of bon- fires and orchards and pumpkins out-of-doors, and of turkey and mince pie in the house. Grandmother Davis came, and FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 167 everybody was happy and everybody ate a great deal of dinner. When the dinner was over, Hilda brought in her raisin cake, which grandmother thought was the best she had ever tasted. Then Elizabeth wrapped her all up in a fleecy-white shawl, and grandmother said that she had never been so comfortable before in all her Hfe. Last of all, Peggy slipped out of her chair at the dinner table into grandmother's lap. "I made you a Thanksgiving present, grandmother, dear," she said, and she pulled a little book out of her pocket. "Why, bless the child!" said grandmother, putting on her spectacles, and she began to read the book. It was made of scraps of wrapping paper sewed together, but it had a spray of red leaves painted on the cover, and it was labeled in printed letters: "Peggy's Thankful Book." The first page said, in Peggy's scribbled writing: "I am thank- ful for my mother, more than anything else." Underneath the writing was a Uttle kodak picture of Mother Davis that Peggy had taken herself. The next page said: "I am thankful that dear grandmother is coming to see us." Over it Peggy had drawn a little picture of a farmhouse and a country road, and she had colored the house red and the road brown. There were other pages just full of writing, and Peggy had put down many things that no one else would have thought of: how she was thankful for keeping her temper, and for the school spelhng match that she had won, and for a red apple, and for Tinker, the old pussy. Grandmother Davis had to wipe her spectacles before she finished reading the Thankful Book, and Hilda and Elizabeth thought that Peggy's gift was really very nice indeed. (From Songs for Sunday Telling. Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Published by The Pilgrim Press, Boston.) i68 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION "One, Two, Three" It was an old, old, old, old lady, And a boy that was half -past three; And the way that they played together Was beautiful to see. She couldn't go running and jumping. And the boy, no more could he; For he was a thin httle fellow. With a thin httle twisted knee. They sat in the yellow sunlight, Out under the maple tree; And the game that they played I'll tell you. Just as it was told to me. It was Hide-and-Go-Seek they were playing. Though you'd never have known it to be, With an old, old, old, old lady. And a boy with a twisted knee. The boy would bend his face down On his one httle sound right knee. And he'd guess where she was hiding, In guesses One, Two, Three! "You are in the china closet!" He would cry, and laugh with glee — It wasn't the china closet; But he still had Two and Three. "You are up in papa's big bedroom. In the chest with the queer old key!" And she said, "You are warm and warmer; But you're not quite right," said she. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 169 "It can't be the little cupboard Where Mamma's things used to be — So it must be the clothes-press, Gran'ma!" And he found her with his Three. Then she covered her face with her fingers, That were wrinkled and white and wee, And she guessed where the boy was hiding, With a One and a Two and a Three. And they never had stirred from their places, Right under the maple tree — This old, old, old, old lady, And the boy with the lame little knee — This dear, dear, dear old lady. And the boy who was half-past three. (By Henry C. Bunner. Through courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons.) The Snowman One night when Frank was getting ready for bed, he looked out of the window. "0 mother, look," he said, "it is beginning to snow!" Mother came to the window and they watched the snow come down. "To-morrow is Saturday and we will have fun making a snowman," said Frank. The next morning mother didn't have to call Frank, for he was up bright and early. He ran to the window to see how much it had snowed during the night. Yes, the ground was covered with a beautiful carpet of white. It looked as if it would come clear up to his shoetops when he walked in it. He could hardly wait to eat his breakfast, but mother said he must have a good breakfast or he would get as cold as the snowman he was going to make. Lucy and Jeremy lived next door. They too wanted to help make Mr. Snowman. First, they took their little shovels and 170 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION THE SNOWMAN made a pile for Mr. Snowman to stand upon. Then the chil- dren began rolling the snow in a big ball for his body. How they all three tugged and pushed! His body was so heavy, it was all that Frank, Jeremy, and Lucy could do to lift it. The most fun was to make the head. A httle roll of snow, and the nose was done. For his eyes they used little pieces of coal. Lucy went into the house and brought out her old straw hat FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 171 for him. Frank said, "I think Mr. Snowman needs a pair of glasses," and he curved two twigs to look like the rims of spec- tacles. They fixed a mouth, stuck some straws in his chin for whiskers, and sticks for his arms. Mr. Snowman was now finished. "Now what shall we name him?" said Jeremy. Just then they saw Grandpa Latimer coming down the street. He had a basket on his arm and was carrjdng an umbrella for a cane. "0 let's call our snowman 'Grandpa!' " and because Frank was the only one of the three who went to school, he printed the letters right across the front of Mr. Snowman, GRANDPA. How Grandpa Latimer laughed when he saw the snowman! Suggestion for evening prayer: Thanking God the heavenly Father for the beautiful snow and aU the happy times we have playing with it. Jolly Santa Claus (A Father Story) Such a jolly fellow is dear old Santa Claus! He comes at Christmas, the happiest time of the year. I don't suppose you ever saw him, for he comes after little boys and girls are all tucked in bed. On Christmas Eve, when all little boys and girls are sound asleep, Santa Claus says to himself: "I must put on my fur cap and my fur mittens and my big high boots. My fur suit wiU feel good to-night. It's jolly cold out, I'm think- ing, but I won't mind the cold." "Ha! ha!" laughs jolly Santa, "it makes me warm and happy now when I think of all the little boys and girls I shall make glad this night." Then Santa Claus whistles: 172 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION JOLLY SANTA CLAUS which means "Oh, Dancer, come, come! Oh, Prancer, come, come!" For these are the two leaders of his reindeer team. If you weren't so sound asleep you could hear them coming FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 173 on the roof. Tritty-trot, tritty-trot, tritty-trot. Then dear old Santa Claus comes sliding down the chimney while the little reindeer team stand on the roof prancing and pawing, with their bells tinkling. They are eager to be off and get to the next house, for the httle reindeer are jolly too; they like the fun Just like good old Santa himself. Now Santa Claus has^ filled the tree from his big sack. As he stands and looks at it, I think he is saying: "There are some good boys and girls at this house. I wonder if I have remem- bered every one of them. Baby Bunting as well as Jackie Lad and Robeit Roy and Sarah Sue? I think I have remembered them all." And in a minute I hear him whistling (music as above). C. Other Christmas stories the child will enjoy: "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," by Clement Moore. "Santa Claus, A Wonder Story," by Maud Lindsay in A Story Garden. "Hang Up the Baby's Stocking," by Emily Huntington Miller from Songs of the Tree-Top and Meadow. "The Little Fir Tree That Blossomed," by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, in Stories for Sunday Telling. Santa Claus ^ i533E ^. With a clat- ter on the roofs, With a stamp of lit - tie hoofs, We ■^9-4^ =t -|- 174 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION :=t d 4 -*-ir ■*- Tt- hear old San- ta Glaus; Trit-ty trot, trit-ty trot, trit-ty trot, trit-ty trot. He n= m "mit. itzzs: 33= -A->- •»-=- -*— #: wWs- ties and sing8,and the bells ting- a- ling; We love you, San - ta Claus. 53= 5=t= -^--r The Home Relationships In the relationships of the home are found some of the best opportunities for broadening the child's development and leading him to understand the meaning of a loving heavenly Father. The First Step The father has been working in his garden. Mother brought Baby out while she picked something from the garden for their dinner. Just as she came through the gate, father said: "Put baby down. Let us see if he can walk." And here he is trying to take his first step. Father is reaching out his arms and saying, "Come, my baby, I know you can walk." It looks like a long way to baby, but I think he can do it. Don't you think so? FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 175 THE FIRST STEP (Millet) The Mother and Her Child The mother in the picture is holding the Httle baby in her lap. Perhaps Little Baby has been playing until he is tired. Mother's lap is such a good place to rest in, isn't it? I think mother will sing to the baby or tell him a story. I think mother will tell him about the little lambs that have been playing all day in the pasture, and how they are coming home to the yard where they will be safe from harm. Mother will tell him about the little birds that are just learning to fly. They have been trying their wings. Mother bird has been flying from tree to tree helping little birds to fly. But now, they too are tired and mother bird has tucked them under her wing, cozy and warm. They are fast asleep. I shouldn't wonder but what Little Baby was getting sleepy too. What do you think? 176 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION THE MOTHER AND HER CHILD (Max) FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 177 Prayer: Dear God, our heavenly Father, we thank thee for the lambs and the birdies and all little babies everywhere. Watch over us while we sleep. Amen. Going to Sleep Emilie Poulsson Andantino. LEANOR Smith -N(— N- :?4= :t=t- 1. What do you think Mother saw on the hill? 2. What do you think Mother saw in the shed ? 3. Un - der the barn can you guess what she saw ? 4. What do you think Mother sees while she sings ? White woolly lambs that were Red bos-sy calves that were Cur- ley tailed pigs ly- ing Fair- est and dear- est of -I- ^A=i 1= .-I- p -H H H_5^- S'=3333E3E :3=i: :1=:i=3=:3=:t 2:^1; -^ -*sr- ■*Z3- W. all ly ing still, go ing to bed. there in the straw, all sleep y things ! i m. -■xi- -*•- -^i-zt li:; White wool ly lambs by the Qui et they kept — not a By their big moth - er they Ba by, my dar ling! How J- -^•- 9- =-s^. -1^27- 178 THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION I dim. rtl. r- -A— ^-«'- 1= -U— 1<- white wool-ly sheep, — All had stopped play and were go - ing to sleep, kick nor a leap; Frisk- ing no more, theywere go - ing to sleep, lay in a heap; Squeal-ing no more, they were go - ing to sleep, qui - et you keep, Hear-ing of an - i - mals go - ing to sleep. From Songs of a Little Child's Day. Published by Milton Bradley Com- pany, Springfield, Mass. Used by permission. FOR THE YOUNG CHILD 179 Used by courtesy of the Artist and the Campbell Art Company, owners of the copyright. CUDDLIN' TIME i8o THE MOTHER-TEACHER OF RELIGION Father's Treasure P Emilee Poulsson With slow, rocking motion. i Theresa H. Garrison ::4=^:=z Ih^ -^- r Ei - dum - ree ! iRi - dum - ree! Ri - dum Ri - dum ree! ree! i -^=p IIAE^^ ^ --g-- P PP P\ PP mi 11 4i r-^nrn^r i p '-^^ E^3 If a king should come to I would hold my ba - by me And should say, "I'll here lay tight, For she is my heart's de - down light, ih l^^-4 .mr -st- p\ "jr w=^ m ■^f-^-r r__ PP 5^EE^1=S^ _i.J 1_ ^^- --X :?: '-^ -^— • -,!—•- All my king - dom and my crown If you'll give me that dear ba - by, And the king should (Omit i -Th- -m- llz Jz=ii?r cres.|^ \ -4 • .2: -•- V ^E ^ — ^- ^11 r f- " r FOR THE YOUNG CHILD i8i fe rit. ^ l^^^l »/ -2- d=q= --X :t: =t=t -•-# :t= That dear ba - by on your knee;" nev - er, nev - er Get my dear a -J- -=1- 1=T ::1: -•-^ =«§= 1 IJ «— -•- -aj" ~^ t.rr ^- VriC m/ m zfcti r-^ r ^. pp PPP rail. =5= -19- -•- -•- -tSi- way from me I Ei-dum-ree! Ri-dum-ree! Ri - dum ree! d= lAiA I ■