Ki9^er<^arl:ei7 Papers. f\ /T^ai^ual for > • • Kindergarten Papers. Copyright, 1896, BY The Butterick Publishing Company (Limited). METROPOLITAN CULTURE SERIES. ^ KINDERGARTEN PAPERS BY ^ SARA MILLER KIRBY. FIRST EDITION. JUL ^ ^Hl V ^ASi'* ^»i^ '^H^^tV-^"^* NEW YORK : THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING COMPANY (Limited), 1896. .K5 Birthplace of Fkoebel. CONTENTS. FIRST PAPER. PAGE FROEBEL AND HIS PRINCIPLES. Biographical — Dawn of the Kindergarten Idea — Based upon Play and Treating it in a Systematic Manner — The Three-fold Education. - - " ^5 SECOND PAPER. THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. Origin of the Name — Ten in Number — What they Are — Uses of the First Gift — Musical Selections to Accompany it. - - - - 22 THIRD PAPER. THE SECOND GIFT. Ball, Cube and Cylinder — The Law of Unity — Symbolism — Practical Uses — In Connection with Sewing. - - - - - - "33 FOURTH PAPER. THE THIRD GIFT. Review of Principles — First of the Building Gifts — Forms of Knowledge — Life Sequences — Forms of Beauty — Mrs. Hubbard's Formulae. • - 42 8 CONTENTS. FIFTH PAPER. -- THE FOURTH GIFT. PAGE. A Two-Inch Wooden Cube Divided — Relationship to the Third — Various Se- quences — The " Baker " Song — Sequence in Third and Fourth Gifts Com- bined. - - - - - - - - "53 SIXTH PAPER, THE FIFTH GIFT. A Three-Inch Wooden Cube Divided — Compared with Previous Gifts — The new Fraction — Uses — Sequences. - - - - - - 67 SEVENTH PAPER, THE SIXTH GIFT. A Three-Inch Wooden Cube Divided — Forms of Knowledge — Forms of Com- parison, of Beauty and of Life — Sequence, " Grasshopper Green." - 76 EIGHTH PAPER. THE SEVENTH GIFT. Circle — Square — Right-angled Isosceles Triangle — Equilateral Triangle — Right-angled Scalene Triangle — Obtuse-angled Triangle — Uses of this Gift Manifold. -...---. 82 NINTH PAPER. THE EIGHTH, NINTH AND TENTH GIFTS. Wire Rings, Sticks, Seeds — Summary and Analysis of all the Gifts — " The Four Apple Trees." - - - •- - '9^ TENTH PAPER. THE OCCUPATIONS. Advantages of Early Manual Training — Sewing — Weaving — Paper Folding — Paper Cutting and Pasting — Peas Work — Clay Modelling — Parquetry — Drawing — Pricking — The Peg Board. - - - - - loi CONTENTS. 9 ELEVENTH PAPER. CHRISTMAS WORK. PAGE. Its Moral Significance— Articles that may be made as Gifts by the Children — Needle Case— Calendar— Sachet Holders— Handkerchief Case— Shaving Papers — Match Holders. - - - - - - - 109 TWELFTH PAPER. THE GAMES. Play Universal — A Glimpse of Froebel — Play the Business of Childhood — Physical and Ethical — Management of the Games — Mrs. Walter Ward's Suggestions— " The Blacksmith." - - - - - - 117 THIRTEENTH PAPER. DIE MUTTER UND KOSELIEDER. Adverse Criticism — Miss Brooks' Classification — First Group — Play of the Limbs— The Falling Game— The Weather Vane— "All's Gone "—"Tick- Tack" — Second Group — Thumbs and Fingers — Flower Basket — Coo- Coo — Third Group — Beckon to Chickens — Pigeon House — Fishes — Fourth Group — The Labor Plays — Fifth Group — Direct Moral Training — Sixth Group — The Inner-uniting Life — Conclusion. - - - - 123 FOURTEENTH PAPER. A DAY IN THE KINDERGARTEN. The School Room — Pictures — Hours — Beginning the Day — " Good-Morning " Songs — The Morning Talk — Subjects — Lessons in Discipline — Games — The Occupation — A Week of Kindergarten Work. . - . 14^ FIFTEENTH PAPER. THE HOME KINDERGARTEN. Frau Schrader's Work — Mothers' Clubs — Household Work — Books for Moth- ers — Materials. - - - - - - - -154 10 CONTENTS. SIXTEENTH PAPER^ TRAINING AND TRAINING SCHOOLS. PAGE. Natural Qualifications for the Work — Love for Children — Music — General Preparation — Private, Public and Mission Schools — The Training Teacher — Salaries — Prominent Training Schools and their Requirements. - i6i SEVENTEENTH PAPER. TOPICS OUTLINED. Laying out the Year's Work in the Kindergarten — For Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer — Plant Lessons — Easter — Grass Mowing — The Carpen- ter. ^ - = = , - - - . .168 ADDENDUM. THE NEW CENTURY BUSY WORK. A Connecting Link between the Kindergarten and the Common School. — The Educational Value of Reproductions from Famous Works of Art — " Fairy Tale and Fable." ..-----. 174 COME, LET US LIVE WITH OUR CHILDREN. FROEBEL. INTRODUCTION. This book has been written with a very definite purpose. The Editor of The Delineator, a popular magazine for the home, read very extensively throughout the entire country, received frequent inquiries regarding the Kin- dergarten, and proposed to meet the needs of his subscribers by publishing a series of articles which should contain a clear and simple statement of the underlying principles of the Kindergarten system, and which should give illus- trations of the methods employed in carrying out those principles. Mrs. Sara Miller Kirby, a graduate of Teachers' College, New York. City, was asked to undertake the work. How well she has performed her task is shown by numerous and cordial responses from every part of this country and of the British provinces. That these papers may be more available for use, and so may the better serve the great constituency of mothers for whom they were prepared, they have been put into book form. The demand for such a book is one of the notable signs of the times. A great movement is now going forward which, in general terms, is spoken of as The New Education. At the foundation of this New Education is the Kinder- garten system, whose development will be an upward and onward movement of humanity. It is an inclusive movement ; the home, the church, the school and the university feel its energy, and the philanthropist and the reformer recognize the fact that in its demand for a true, all-sided education for all children, from earliest childhood onward, the Kindergarten has struck at the central difficulty of all our present social ills. It is the home that chiefly makes the child. That mothers are so generally looking for more light regarding the best means of early child-culture is evi- dence that a new day has dawned, a day of spiritual uplifting and of the devel- opment of the higher possibilities of humanity. This little book goes forth to do its share towards the promotion of this higher life of the people. ANGELINE BROOKS. Teachers' College^ New York City^ March lo, i8g6. AUTHOR'S PREFACE It has been my purpose in writing these " Papers," which first appeared in The Delineator, to bring the Kindergarten plainly before the people. For this reason, while I have not ignored the psychological principles underlying the subject, I have divested it of the excess of technicality sometimes associ- ated with its exposition and have endeavored rather to present a readable or " popular " explanation of " the new education." Many of the Kindergarten books now upon the market, while interesting to those trained in this work, do not attract the uninitiated. Besides, the subject of the Kindergarten, embracing, as it does, the beginnings of everything, is necessarily so broad a field that most books are devoted to only one phase of the work. In writing generally upon the subject, it has not been possible to do more than scatter seeds, as it were, of the Kindergarten tree. But a seed of Kindergarten thought planted in any reasonably fertile soil is bound, by its very nature, to take root and grow. America, with its free, progressive people, Froebel considered the " land of promise " for the Kindergarten cause. As these " Papers " have successively appeared, assurances have come to me, both from the home and the educational field, that my effort has not been in vain, and so I feel encouraged to send this book out upon the world, hoping that it may be the means of awakening an interest in child-life which will lead to further studies and thus widen the circle of influence until its effect is felt, not only in the home, but by all who have to do with the lives and education of little children. SARA MILLER KIRBY. Poughkeepsie^ N. K, February^ 1896. For permission to use quotations, selections, songs, music, etc,, the publish- ers are indebted to the courtesy of Miss Angeline Brooks, Miss Emilie Poulsson, the Milton Bradley Co., the Lothrop Publishing Co. and the Oliver Ditson Co. Fkederick Feoebel. KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. FIRST PAPER. FROEBEL AND HIS PRINCIPLES. To meet the manner and tendencies of this growing age a new system of education has been demanded, a system in which the loving heart shall be deemed of equal importance with the thinking head and the trained hand. "Out of the heart are the issues of life," and "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Phillips Brooks, when dying, said that he had wished to see the attainments of the next twenty years, but these attainments will be sadly marred unless the loving heart is more fully cultivated. The intelligent observer of the times sees this lack at the root of many of our troubles. Intel- lectual giants accomplish much, and so do men of brawn, but these are not so much needed as are sensible, capable men and women who are loyal to country and faithful to the home life and its relations and who recognize a brother in the fellow-man. Frederick Froebel, the founder of the Kindergarten, whose lonely childhood and thoughtful mind led him to look deeply into these matters, felt that the want of a proper development of the human being was due to a lack of unity in training and a non-conformity to the laws of nature. The time to begin this right education, which Froebel defines as " emancipation — the setting free of the bound-up forces of the body and soul," is when the child is in its mother's arms. And in this connection Froebel says of the mother, " With the knowledge that a divine spark slumbers in the little being on her lap, there must kindle in her a holy zeal and desire to fan this spark into a flame, and to educate for humanity a worthy citizen," Before giving a further outline of Froebel's princi- ples, it will be necessary to know something of the life and work of the man who devised this wonderful system and successfully built up its practice. Frederick Froebel was born at Oberweissbach, a village of Schwarzburg, in the Thuringian Forest, Germany, on April 21, 1782. His mother died when he was nine months old, and his father, the hard-working pastor of a congregation 16 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. of some five thousand people, left him entirely to the care of servants and older brothers and sisters. Froebel tells us, " I had no more a father than a mother, for, owing to my father's preoccupation during my infancy, I always remained a stranger to him." When the boy was four years old, his father married again. The new mother at first responded to and encouraged the love of the lonely child, but on the birth of her own son, she repelled and estranged him. She attributed disturbances in the family life to his influence, and so represented matters to the father that he, being too busy to investigate, early accepted his son as a bad boy. The latter became more and more widely separated from his parents in thought and feeling ; and, thus thrown upon himself, with his soul filled with grief at his isolation, he began to contemplate his own inner life. Of this he speaks thus in after years : " Fate decided upon me and chose me for its bearer without having consulted me beforehand. It showed me the importance of an education conformable to nature by giving me bitter experiences and deprivations, while the early loss of my mother threw me upon self-education. What one has been obliged to contend with bitterly, he wishes to soften to his fellow-men. Thus the necessity for self-education led me to the education of my fellow-men." At an early age, he was placed in the girls' class of the village school. Here he was much influenced by the neatness and order of the place, by the Scriptural verses learned by the children from the Sunday services and repeated during the week, and by the songs that were sung. Of the songs, he speaks of two, "Soar above, my heart and soul," and " It costeth much to be a Christ," as impressing him deeply, and says that in after years, when he was a strug- gling, striving man, they became a source of great encouragement and joy» The boy was often a silent listener while his father taught and conversed with his flock, and he very early became much disturbed by what seemed to him discordancy in life, and especially in matrimonial and family life ; he could not understand how it was that man alone should be so created that it was hard for him to do right. Speaking of this to an older brother when showing him his delight in the beautiful harmony of some hazel blossoms, the brother pointed out to him the sexual difference in those flowers, and told him that this arrange- ment existed throughout all nature, even the flower world not being exempt. Froebel says : '' Henceforth, human and natural life, soul and flov^^er existence, were inseparable in my eyes, and my hazel blossoms I see still, like angels that open to me the great temple of Nature. It seemed as if I had the clue of Ariadne, which would lead me through all the wrong and devious ways of life, an emblem of man's life in its highest spiritual relations, and many things were thus solved for me." He gives the above as one crisis in his inner life, and says two others occurred before his tenth year. The first of these sprang from discussions between his father and brother, to neither side of which could he strictly adhere. He came to this conclusion : '' In every foolish idea a true side is to be found. When two contend for truth, it may be learned from both." The second arose from his father's religious teachings. It seemed necessary for FROEBEL AND HIS PRINCIPLES. 17 him to put on Christ, but the fulfillment appeared impossible till the thought came that " Human nature, in itself, does not make it impossible for man to live and represent again the life of Jesus in its purity ; man can attain to the purity of the life of Jesus if he only finds the right way to it." When Froebel was about eleven years of age, his mother's uncle, Superin- tendent Hoffman, of Stadt-Ilm, a gentle, benevolent man, came to visit the fam- ily. Froebel became greatly attached to him, and he, seeing the unhappy situation of the boy, persuaded the father to give young Frederick into his charge. This was willingly done, and he passed five happy years in his uncle's house, enjoying the companionship of boys of his own age, hitherto denied him. In this life of freedom and confidence he grew in mind and body. His studies there impressed him favorably, except Latin, which he complains of as being miserably taught, and geography, which distressed him as having " no connec- tion with life." Now the necessity of choosing a calling arose. The step-mother would not allow of a studious life being taken up, as by two of his brothers, for fear the father's property would be diminished by the expense incurred ; therefore, in 1797 he w^as apprenticed for two years to a forester. This man had an excellent reputation, but could not impart his knowledge. Froebel's two years passed without much benefit, and, leaving the forester, he went in 1799 to Jena as a student. Only in botany, of all his studies, could he see " the inner connection of things. It was all arbitrary, and no sequence of instruction." But his teacher of botany, who was also instructor in natural history, satisfied his desire to know the interdependence of nature. He says he especially laid hold of " the thought of the relation of animals, branching out on all sides ; and that the bone or framework of fish, birds and man is one and the sam.e ; that of man is to be considered perfected as the ground type of all the rest which Nature strives to represent in their subordinate frames." Two years later he left Jena, having become involved in debt through his generosity to his brother, and returned to his father's house. A position was then obtained for him on an estate at Hildburg. The father died in 1802, and then Froebel served as actuary of the forest court near Bamberg. In 1805, hav- ing received a legacy from an uncle, he yielded to his desire to study architec- ture, and went to Frankfort for that purpose. To insure his support, he took private pupils, and shortly afterward was introduced to Dr. Gruner, principal of the Model School just established in Frankfort. Gruner was so pleased with the young man that he immediately offered him a place in his school, urging him to give up architecture and become a teacher. Froebel finally accepted a position in the Model School ; and of his work he writes to his brother: " It seemed to me as if I had found something not known and yet long desired, long missed ; as if I had finally found my native element. I was like a fish in water or a bird in air." Wishing for better methods of teaching, he turned for inspiration to Festa- lozzi, whose name was then the educational watchword, and spent two weeks with him in his school at Yverdun, determining at the close of his visit to give 18 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. greater study to Pestalozzi's methods when the opportunity should offer. This came in 1808, when he obtained the privilege of taking three private pupils with him into Pestalozzi's institute. Here he remained two years, teaching and studying ; but still he was not satisfied ; something was wanting. So, in 1810 he left Switzerland and entered the University of Gottingen as a student of languages and natural history. The latter study led him to desire a greater knowledge of mineralogy and crystallography, and for these branches he entered the Lectures at the Royal Museum, Berlin, in October, 1812. "It was there," says Lange, " that the persuasion ripened in his mind that all development is founded upon one law, and that this unity must be at the basis of all principles of development, their beginning and end. This conclusion was the fruit of a profound study of nature in its law of development, and the most careful con- templation of the child." In 18 13 came the call to arms for protection against Napoleon. Froebel joined the infantry division of the corps of Lutzow at Leipsic. In this connec- tion he says : " Every one was called to arms to protect the Fatherland. I had indeed a home, a native land, I might say a motherland, but no fatherland. My native country did not call me. I was not Prussian, and so it happened, owing to my retired life, the call to arms inspired me little. It was something different that called me, not with enthusiasm but with a firm resolution, to enter the ranks of the German soldiers. It was the feeling and consciousness of the ideal Germany, that I respected as something high and holy in my spirit, and which I wished to be everywhere unfettered and free to act. Further, the firm- ness with which I held to my educational career decided me. Although I could not really say that I had a fatherland, yet it must happen that every boy, that every child who should later be educated by me, would have a fatherland, and that that fatherland now demanded protection, when the child himself could not defend it. I could not possibly think how a young man capable of bearing arms could become the teacher of children whose country he had not defended with his life-blood. This was the second thing that influenced me to my deci- sion. Thirdly, the summons to war appeared to me a sign of the common need of man, of the country, of the time in which I lived, and I felt that it would be unworthy and unmanly not to struggle for the common necessity of the people among whom one lives, not to bear my part towards repelling a common danger. Every consideration was secondary to these convictions, even that which grew out of my bodily constitution, too feeble for such a life." Shortly after leaving Dresden with the troops, Froebel met Langethal, a Thuringian like himself, and he in turn introduced his friend Middendorff, a young theological student from Berlin. A third acquaintance, with a young man by the name of Bauer, was also formed. These three were destined to play an important part in Froebel's life. In July, 1813, those who did not wish to serve longer were allowed to return home. Froebel, receiving the appoint- ment of assistant to Prof. Weiss in the Mineralogical Museum at Berlin, went immediately to that position, and two years after he again met and became more closely united with his friends Middendorff and I>angethal, who were then FROEBEL AND HIS PRINCIPLES. 19 pursuing their theological studies in Berlin. While studying minerals in the Berlin Museum, he became more and more firmly impressed with the necessity of an education conformable to nature, and he resolved to give the remainder of his life to the education of humanity. On this subject, he had many talks with his friends Middendorff and Lange- thal. As a starting-point he undertook the care and education of his sister's five children at Greisheim, and then and there began his great undertaking. Middendorff soon joined him. A year later the little school was removed to Kielhau, a village near Rudolstadt, where a small property had been purchased by his sister-in-law ; and the next year Langethal joined his friends. A new school building was erected. Froebel about this time married Wilhelmine Hofmeister, daughter of a Prussian Counsellor of Berlin, a woman full of power and enthusiasm for his idea, and willing to make many sacrifices for the furthering of the work. Some years later he founded an institute in the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland, and also one for girls at Willisau. In all of these enter- prises, Middendorff, his nephew Barop, and Langethal worked zealously. In 1836, Frau Froebel's health being broken by her arduous labors and the loss of her mother, her husband and herself returned for a time to Berlin, and here it was that the idea of the Kindergarten dawned upon him. Lange in his Reminiscences says : " It was now clear to him that for the elevation of all education, that of the earliest childhood, as the most important time for human development, was indispensable, and that in its behalf, //^j, as the first activity of the child, must be spiritualized and systematically treated."' The first Kindergarten institution was founded at Blankenburg in 1837. In 1839, while presenting his idea of the Kindergarten in Dresden, his faithful wife died ; but Froebel worked on and finally succeeded in establishing Kinder- gartens in Hamburg and Dresden. At the Guttenberg festival in 1840 the Kindergarten was made a national institution, and thus Germany placed herself in advance of all other countries in the matter of education. Nine years after- ward the Baroness Von Marenholtz-Biilow, a woman of wealth and distinction, met Froebel and, learning the idea of the work, added her influence to the cause. She introduced Froebel to the Duke of Meiningen, who gave him one of his castles as a training-school for Kindergartners ; to Diesterweg, a director of the Royal Seminary for teachers at Berlin ; to the Minister of Education of Saxe-Weimar, and to many others in authority. She also brought Froebel and Middendorff to the courts of Meiningen and Weimar, besides interesting the Grand Duchess of Russia and the Countess of Hesse ; and she has labored without interruption for the founding of Kindergartens throughout the principal European countries. In 185 1 the Prussian Minister of Education interdicted the Kindergarten, because of some socialistic pamphlets published by Froebel's nephew but at first supposed to have been written by Froebel himself. This proved a great blow to the educator, who had felt assured of quietness and success for his declining years. In June of the following year he died ; but since his death his ideas have been steadily gaining ground in all civilized countries. 20 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. The Kindergarten, or child-garden, as the word means, begins with a child's first manifestations, and is designed to develop the little one for the purposes of life, as a plant in a garden is cultivated for its " fruits in due season." In the care of a plant the object to be attained is perfected growth, with flowers and fruit. In the development of a child the true object to be sought is the ripened fruit of character. To attain this object we must give the child a threefold education — physical, spiritual and moral ; he must be educated in his relations to Nature, to God and to his fellow-man. First, there is physical education. The purpose of the body is to serve the uses of the soul, as the husk covers the grain of wheat ; and as we give to the wheat plant good physical conditions that it may form the best grain, so we should consider the body physically that the soul may not be impeded in its attainments. Sunshine is one of the chief necessities for good growth in a plant, and the sunshine of love in a child's life gives coloring and direction to his whole being. He must possess a healthy body, that he may have free use of all his powers ; and his mind, through the activity of his limbs and senses, will gain knowledge and attain fullest growth. Mrs. Peabody says : " The body is the garden in which God plants the human soul, to dress and to keep it. The loving mother is the first gardener of the human flower. Good nursing is the first word of Froebel's gospel of child nature." A truly spiritual life is only entered into from the individual having grown into it. This growth commences in extreme youth. The child has an instinc- tive desire for God, an unconscious yearning which must be aroused and made conscious by stimulus from without. The design of life should be recognized from the ver)'' beginning, but as we do not know when religious development commences, we should exercise the greatest care that we be neither premature nor too late with the unfolding. "Children can no more become religious by their own unaided power than they can become anything else that is desired for them." Such tendencies should be given as will develop into religious character. Cultivate their right feelings ; make them happy in their daily lives ; unfold a love of Nature, and back of this a reverence for the Heavenly Father as the Giver of all good and perfect things. In telling what the farmer does, go back to the growth of the grain, and to God who gave the rain and sunshine for its perfecting. The material world is a symbol of the spiritual. Viewed in this light, the "book of nature" becomes sacred as an expression of God, and to teach the child about Nature becomes a duty. Child-life should be active, joy- ous, full of kindly deeds to others. By loving service to those about us we are led to a loving surrender to God. The third relationship Froebel would have us consider for the child, is that with his fellow-man, involving social training. All the child's relationships start with the mother. Hers should, therefore, be the first and the closest of ties, and for this reason too many strangers must not be allowed to handle a little child, or his affections will become weak and unstable. On the other hand, however, too much seclusion leads to timidity, fear of strangers and selfishness. It is very important that a child should have intercourse with other children, and the FROEBEL AND HIS PRINCIPLES. 21 benefits derived from the social relations of the Kindergarten are many. It affords the best connection with the home life. " Every new relationship of the child should be connected with what has gone before." He meets here a little community, an epitome of the race. The games and plays teach love of nature, care of animals, respect for all callings, cheerfulness in every condition of life, and belief that any good calling well followed is honorable. The child is thus early led to see the interdependence of all people. Another important lesson is that the greatest freedom, both on the material and the spiritual plane, lies in obedience to law. The child discovers this when he is excluded from the games or work because he disturbs the unity. He learns to submit his will to that of others, and to do so not from fear of punishment but from love of right. " Whether a human being become a moral freedman, within the given limits, or a slave to his own or others' caprice, depends to a great extent on the foundation laid in the earliest days of his development." The child enters upon life a mere bundle of possibilities. He has to learn to observe, to compare, to reason and to show choice, likes and dis- likes. He begins almost immediately to expand, and the feelings and will grow as much as the intellect. There is an unchangeable standard of right and wrong, and every being is able to form conceptions of both. Therefore, the child must be trained not only to know the truth but to gladly live up to it. In thus considering the child's physical, spiritual and social training, we cannot fail to recognize the importance of infancy, when the child is, as Froebel calls him, *'an all-absorbing eye," taking in everything. We should, therefore, be careful to surround him with nothing but what is pure and clean, for these early impressions affect the whole after life ; and the training must be perfected through natural means, through symbols and through play. Froebel attaches great importance to the child's play. The first infantile manifestation is that of motion, and then the child endeavors to become acquainted with his own body. As he grows older, he seems constantly in motion. Having learned to walk, he runs back and forth, wants to touch and handle everything, climbs and jumps. He thus gains a knowl-edge of things, and acquires strength and skill. In all of this the child is not conscious that he is developing himself ; he is merely gratifying a natural impulse. Having a dim presentiment of the future, he builds houses, digs in the dirt and performs in miniature other occupa- tions of man. Later, when mingling with other children, his play gives moral cultivation as well as physical and mental. He is exercised in self-control and self-sacrifice, and learns to bear pain, to obey rules, to be alert and active. The child who plays perseveringly until physically tired, will grow up an earnest, steadfast man, well prepared to fight the battle of life. " Labor performs the prescribed task, but play prescribes for itself." " Come, let us live with our children ; Earnestly, holily live, Learning ourselves the sweet lesson That to the children we give. " 22 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. For further reading see : — Kindergarten and Child-culture Papers^ The Kindergarte7i and School^ Froebel ajid Education by Self -activity^ by Henry Barnard, LL. D. by Four Active Workers, by H. Courthope Bowen. O \j ■■\ SECOND PAPER* THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. HE Kindergarten system includes all the external details and appliances that are necessary to educate the whole child in ac- cordance with the laws of Nature, while the different divisions of the work are so perfectly adapted to his limited strength that all the requirements of, mental and physical training are met, and the foundation is laid for the more difficult after-education of school and of life. The work of the Kindergarten com- prises gift-lessons, occupations, move- ment-plays, games and talks with the children. The gift-lessons are given by means of a series of playthings called gifts which are put into the hands of the child to promote mental and manual discipline. After each lesson they are returned to their original form and are kept among other materials in the Kindergarten. The occupations, on the other hand — sewing, weaving, clay-modelling, drawing, paper-cutting and fold- ing, pricking, interlacing of slats, etc. — being the epitomized industries of the world, introduce elements which are to be combined into wholes by the child and carried home as his own property. It is often asked why the gifts were so called. Froebel studied growth in the natural world as symbolic of growth in the physical, mental and spiritual worlds. He said that everything on the earth was a gift of God, to be used as^ means to reveal man to himself, to reveal God to man, and to prepare for the fuller life to come. A few simple forms he selected as typical of these gifts in Nature, and called them " the gifts." These he used as the starting-point of the child's education. The gifts are ten in number, beginning with the ball and concluding with any small seed used to represent a point. They take as the fundamental idea the development of the child's innate desire for activity. Every step is a logi- cal sequence of the preceding one, and as the gifts begin with such simplicity of form and develop into complexities so gradually, it may easily be seen how the plan corresponds with the growth of the child. In an essay translated by Miss THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. 2a Lucy Wheelock, of Boston, it is said : "A comparison of Froebel's play-gifts with those which from year to year competitive industry offers so richly — not exactly for the benefit of the world of children — first shows them in their true light. Almost all the playthings which we buy in toy-shops filled with all pos- sible expense, are finished and perfect in themselves, often skilfully constructed objects whose beauty cannot be denied. Children stand amazed and delighted at the sight of a Christmas table ornamented with such gifts. But how long does the joy last ? After a short time it changes, first to indiffer- ence, then to disgust ; and economical parents put away under lock and key for a later time the things that are tolerably well preserved. What can the child do with playthings on which already the fancy of an artist has worked and has left almost nothing for the self-activity of the child ? The only thing it can do with these is to take them apart and destroy them. But the punishments inflicted on such occasions show how many parents entirely misunderstand this expression of the instinct of activity so worthy of recognition, and the desire of the child for knowl- edge and learning. If one gives to an indulged child the choice of his play-material, he will see that a stick of wood will be the dearest doll, mother's foot-stool the coach of state, a little heap of sand material for cooking, baking, writing and drawing, and father's cane a darling pony. According to these experiences Froebel was anxious to make his gifts for play as simple as possible." The first gift, which is for the most part introductory to the second, and which Froebel intended for use in the nursery, consists of six worsted balls in the six spectrum colors : red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. The second gift consists of a ball, a cube and a cylinder, made of wood. This gift is the basis of the Kindergarten. From it are derived all the other gifts, and even the games and occupations will be found to be related to it. Froebel saw that the materials which God has provided are ever being used by man for combinations into new wholes, and that in all inventions and indus- tries these typical elements only reappear in new ar- rangements. Therefore, he took these three forms as epitomizing the universe. The ball stands for the earth, sun, moon and planets, all the vast wholes of Nature. Its opposite, the cube, is the simplest type of the mineral kingdom. As reconciling these contrasts and partaking of the qualities of both, appears the cylinder, the typical form of vegetable and animal life. Illustration No. 1. Illustration" No. 2. Illustration Xo. 3. 24 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. Illustration No. 4. The third gift is a two-inch wooden cube, like the cube of the second ^ift, but divided once in each direction into eight one-inch cubes. This gift is a step in advance of the second ; it satisfies the child's desire for investigation, represent- ing both the whole and its parts. It is the first gift used for building. The fourth gift is also a two-inch wooden €ube, which is divided by one vertical and three horizontal cuttings into eight " bricks," f;ach two inches long, one inch wide and half an inch thick. New dimensions of length and thickness are thus introduced. The fifth gift, a three-inch cube, is more complex. It is made up of twenty-seven one-inch cubes, three of which are divided by one diagonal cutting into half-cubes or triangular prisms, and three more by two diagonal cuttings into quarter-cubes or smaller tri- prisms. Great dexterity and del- icacy of touch are now required. The tri-prism appears as a new Illustration No. 5. form, and the slanting surface becomes a reality, while designs •so varied and so real are built that the child quickly learns to love his gift-lesson. The sixth gift, a cube of the same size as the fifth, is divided into twenty-seven bricks of the same dimensions as those of the fourth gift ; three, however, are cut lengthwise into halves and six breadthwise into halves, pro- ducing square prisms or columns Illustration No. 6. Illustration No. 7. and half-bricks of two sizes. The columns of this gift enable the child to build . high structures that suggest Grecian architecture, and are pleasing and diverting. The seventh gift is composed of five planes made of thin pieces of polished wood in light and dark shades. These planes furnish lessons in elementary geometry, and cultivate the art of de- signing and a love of the beautiful by showing symmetrical forms. They are easily derived from the second gift. THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. 25 Illustration No. 9. Illustration No. 10. Illustration No. 8. The eighth gift consists of steel rings in three sizes and corresponding half-rings. The rings represent the out- lines of the ball, or the round face of the ^_^_^^ cylinder, and the half-rings corresponding portions of I these objects. This gift is also used successfully in laying out interesting sym- metrical patterns. In the ninth gift, sticks of different lengths are used to represent lines, the edges of the cube, or, in fact, those of any of the gifts having straight edges. In the tenth gift small seeds serve as points, the parts of a line ; and with them, as with the ninth gift, surfaces are indicated in outline. THE FIRST GIFT.— The first gift, the ball, is to be considered as regards the thing itself and as to its adaptation to the child. Froebel in the beginning selected the red ball as the first gift, and afterward added to it the other five, thus showing the three primary colors, red, blue and yellow, and the three secondary, orange, green and purple, although it is not intended to teach the young child this classification of hues. The ball represents the wholes of Nature. It is a complete body ^ that is always round, no matter from what point it is viewed. It is a uni- versal plaything, was used by the Greeks and Romans, and is the basis of our national game. Looking for the ball in Nature, we find that all the heavenly bodies are balls revolv- ing with a circular motion about the sun as a centre. Ball forms are found in eggs and bird's nests, in the human head and eyes, in plant seeds, in flowers, such as the rose and its petals, and in many vegetables like the cabbage and the beet. Circles or parts of circles appear in the tendrils of plants, in the curlings of smoke, in the windings of rivers, and in that beauti- ful arch of promise, the rainbow. Man uses a curved line in building a bridge, to gain greater strength, and in cutting a path to the summit of a mountain, that the ascent may be easier. The nf ^ r f ^ i Illustration No. 11. 26 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. circle is emblematic of unity, immortality, eternity^ Mrs. Peabody says that " every word in its origin has represented a particular object in Nature.'* So, we speak of the daily "round," of the "sphere" of one's influence, of a " ring" of conspirators, of the " cycle " of the years, of a " band " of workers, of the family " circle," all suggesting unity, a bond, a circle. It was one of Froebel's great principles that the child is an epitome of the race, and as the race has been developed by symbols from the simple to the complex, from the concrete to the abstract, so the child's powers should be trained and enlarged. Nothing is more helpless than a young child. He gets his first knowledge of externality through the sense of touch. He has little perception of sound, and the first ideas gained through sight are those of light and darkness. He is early attracted by color and movement. As he must learn through his senses, the starting-point for his knowledge ought to be a simple object. The simplicity of the ball, in connection with its universality in Nature and as a plaything, may be deemed an adequate reason for using it as the first gift. The child likes this simplicity, because he is not at first able to discern many qualities in an object, and he is also pleased with the ball's motions, which correspond with his own activity. Abbott suggestively remarks : " Give a baby a ball, and he will begin to study it as Nature dictates. He will look at it, feel it, turn it, squeeze it, suck it, smell it, throw it away, and crawl after it for a second study." Froebel advises that while a baby is in his crib the ball be suspended by a cord where he can easily see it. After a while he will begin to distinguish it from the other objects around him, ' and, perhaps, his interest will be awakened by its bright color. If the ball is touched so that it swings, this motion will also appeal to him ; he will follow the string and look for the cause of the motion. After he has formed some idea of locomotion, he will attempt to grasp the ball, because he wants to grasp it mentally. He will have a feeling of ad- miration, then a love of possession, and lastly understanding. We trace the steps as emotion, desire, thought, act. When LLusTR^^TioN ^j^^ child first attempts to grasp the ball, he may not be suc- cessful, and will unconsciously ask, " Why did I not get it ? " He will then measure the distance again and make a second attempt. This time he will, perhaps, be successful, and he will then have a feeling of gratified desire. He will next begin to form ideas regarding the form, size, weight, material, hardness, elasticity, color, and roughness or smoothness of the ball, through the senses of touch and sight. Knowledge will come by a perception of differences. After the child has had the red ball for some time, the blue and yellow ones may be offered. These clear primary colors will satisfy him, for color as well as language speaks to a child. The blu& and yellow balls being different in color but alike in all other respects, a train of comparisons will THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. 27 be started in the child's mind without his being confused by seeing too many differences. No great distinction can be made between the use of the ball in the nursery and in the Kin- dergarten, as both the mother and the Kindergartner must be guided by the child's development. But each ball game should be connected with what has gone before, with something in the child's own life, and should be complete in itself. The mother may speak of the ball as " baby's ball," " the soft ball," " the nice, round ball " or " the quiet ball '' (tapping it on a surface) ; and she may say with the child, inducing him to use his fingers : Illustratiois^ No. 12 A. Illustbatio^s^ ^o. 13. iLLUSTRATIOlSr No. 14. " Here's a ball for Baby ; Big, and soft and round ; " Here is Baby's hammer, Oh, how he can pound ! iLLUSTEATIOISr I^O. 15. Illustration No. 16. This is Baby's music. Clapping, clapping so ; " These are Baby's soldiers, Standing in a row." * A Story may be told of bird-life, calling attention tp the way the bird hops. Show how the child's little playfellow, the ball, can hop. Make a nest of the * For the remainder of this selection, see Nursery Finger Plays, by Emilie Poulsson ; published by the Lothrop Publishing Company, Boston, Mass. 28 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. left hand and put the ball into it with the right hand, -^ith this repeat or sing the following, moving the hand to suggest the swaying of a bird's nest : * " The little bird is in the nest, So quiet and so still ; I'll gently rock it to and fro And love it well, I will." Letting the ball hop, sing : " The little bird hops in its nest, So cosy and so warm ; It tries to do its very best, In sunshine and in storm. *' The little bird hops out its nest, So cosy anci so warm ; It tries to do its very best, In sunshine and in storm." Now the little bird is old enough to fly, and its wings are so strong it wants to try them ; then the good mother and father birds, who have cared for it a long time, say " Chirp, chirp," which means '' Try, try," and the little bird tries. After relating this, sing the following verses to the music given beneath (taking the ball-bird through the air in the hand and picking up crumbs) : *' Fly, little birdie, fly around, And pick up crumbs from off the ground. Fly, little birdie, fly around. And pick up crumbs from off the ground. ^ m s fe ^B ^^ ^ I d'viS^ ± j g J ? ? ^ s WM. p-mmi ^s m m ml mJj^ " Fly, little birdie, fly up high, Fly little birdie, near the sky. Fly, little birdie, in your nest. And have a quiet little rest." Then the following lullaby may be sung : " Close beneath thy mother's wing, . . Birdie, lay thy little head ; I will watch thy slumber, love; I will guard thy downy bed." * Music for these lines is given in Merry Songs and Games, by Clara Beeson Hubbard. THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. 29 "Nestle, nestle gently down, Close. thine eyes to sleep, my dear, Safe within our Father's love, You and I have naught to fear." Interest the child early in bird and animal life. Let him hop like a bird, and skip and jump as a lamb does. Tell about the family- life of animals. Show a bird's nest ; tell how the bird weaves her house round inside like a ball, and fit the ball into the nest. Tell how the good sheep gave us the wool to make the ball. It was part of her thick, soft coat, but this was too warm for her in Summer, so she let the farmer cut it off. He took it to town and sold it to a factory man, who had it washed, combed and twisted into threads called yarn. These threads were knit to make the ball. Boys' coats and girls' dresses to wear in Winter are also made of this wool which the sheep gives. Show some wool, and, if possible, let the child see an en- tire fleece, which is always rolled into a ball when ready for sale, that he may know how much the sheep gives away at a time. Learn in this connection " The Lambs," from Miss Poulsson's Nursery Fingers Plays : — Illustration No. 17. "This is the meadow where all the long day Ten little frolicsome lambs are at play," etc. The ball may be made of clay. To develop the child's hands, give him as large a piece of clay as he can well hold. Let him roll it between his palms gently (if rolled too fast, the water will be absorbed by the hands and the clay will crack), until it looks like the ball. Do not expect too much as to shape at first, and be careful not to tire the child. Let him also make a bird's nest, with little balls for eggs, and, if he likes, a bird to sit on the nest. These will all be life-like and real to him. Fire-brick clay is suitable for the purpose and can be obtained from any potter, and when bought in this way it is quite inexpen- sive. It should be kept in a covered stone jar, and the pieces may be used again and again if always put back into the jar and covered with water. After each using Illustration No. 18. Illustration No. 19. 30 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. pour off the water and renew it several times, to clearrse the clay from any im- purities that may have been ab- sorbed from the hands. Allow it to dry sufficiently so it will not be sticky, and cut it off with a piece of cord. Bring out the idea of round ob- jects and of red objects — red balls, red apples, cranberries, the red sun at sunset, etc. Follow this by mention- ing things that go round, as wheels or spinning tops. Show that the ball will go round and round. Hold the string II II Illustration No. 20. and let the ball describe a circle in the air or on a table. " Round and round it goes, swinging on a string, Round and round and round and round, while we gaily sing." Let the child turn his hand and arm round and round, making a circle m the air. Move the string of the ball up and down^ and let the ball sink and rise while some rhythmic song is sung. Ask the child to name some- thing that goes up and do7un^ as a window sash or ele- vator. Move the hand up and down. Sink and rise on the toes. Cultivate language by asking appropriate ques- tions and having the child answer, " My ball goes up and down.'' " Susie's ball goes up and down.^' " The elevator goes itp and down'' Use terms to describe all the motions of the ball in the same way, developing correct speech after the object itself is understood. Also call attention to edges that run up and down'm stationary things. These exercises may be repeated with the blue, yellow, orange, green and purple balls, the primary colors being given first, and then the secondary. Tell stories that emphasize the colors. Make a collection of things in all the different hues, and allow the child to classify them, putting all the red objects together, then all the blue ones, and so on. This will furnish amusement for a long period, and will at the same time cultivate classification. Sing the " Fruit Selling Game:" Illustbation No. 21. " I am a little grocer, With fresh ripe fruit to sell, And if you please to buy from me, I'll try to serve you well." THE GIFTS EXPLAINED. 31 " I've apples green and cherries red, And yellow lemons too ; And plums and grapes and oranges, Which I will sell to you." The child will find the color game very interesting. Place the six colored balls in a circle ; let the child close his eyes while you take one ball away and put it out of sight. Then bid the child open his eyes and guess which color has gone. During this game sing : WHEN WE'RE PLAYING TOGETHER. tir w j. i s 1. WhcD. we're play - ing to geth er, We hap ^ ^ py aod glad; 1^1^ i ^ — i-^-# In bright dull weath - er We nev - er sad. i:±=^ 1^=^ ^B 2. Now tell, little playmate, Who has gone from our ring; And if you guess rightly. We will clap as we sing. * The child may hold out his right hand, right foot, left hand, left foot, and repeat the following lines, adapting them properly to each motion : " I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out ; I gave my right hand a shake, shake, shake, And I turn my right hand about." Illttstration No. 22. iLLtrSTRATION NO. 23. * From Son^-s and Gaines for Little Ones, published by The Oliver Ditson Co., Boston and New York. 32 KINDERGARTEN PAPERS. =t e5=S 3;^ -^- ^ THE PENDULUM. ^=JF=* ^^=at ^^P^ Come and see, come and see, how mer - ri ly the clock doth go. "The I I I N ^ -^ -:^E^ -|» W : r=^ I i m Ssfe^d^ i^ ^ =*=^ *=tj^=*=5=i=^ pen - du - lum swings to and fro, and nev > er from its place doth go, Swings m r r r I I forward first, and then swings back, al - ways tick and always tack; I I 1^^ I m SEES rr i I fg^ =i3=j=g ^=*= — ' d '- X » -^2^^ Tj.— ^-^5: :5t 5: Tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack, tick I* g =P ?^ :^=t=i: ^=? g=g=bs=^ S All of these bodily motions may be performed to music as a series of gymnastics. Follow this by motions rz'g/t^ and /e/t The balls swing rig/if and /