The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-11-20
Reading for the Young.

In the last number Of the Christian
Union the Rev. E. E. Hale has an
extended article upon home culture
for children, whose points cannot be
too much commended. From it We
have selected the three appended par
agraphs:
As We live now, it becomes dis
tinct object to wean young people
from children's books, and teach
them to feed themselves from the
stores of general literature They are
to leave off the corks and other life
preservers, and swim in the ocean.
AT the same time, however, we choose
a beach where there is no undertow,
and where the current does not set of
shore. Reading aloud in the family
circle Is almost sure to interest even
the Youngest people about what is
read, if you have made the selections
wisely. But, without RELYING upon
that, well ordered household ought
to be always tempting children to
rea0 mems and women's books; and
in the purchase of books and other
family arrangements such temptations
should be one of the first considera-
tiOns. 49,.
Some children take. to books, and to
grave books. as naturally As duck!ings
take to water. But all children do
not, and would never leave taste
tor reading to the chance of their do
ing so. | have no such respect for the
will of children but ! am willing-as
Coleridge says-to prejudice my gar
den in favor of roses and strawberries.
And, just ss l teach my boy to swim,
to ride on horse back. to drive we'll
and to row just as / teach him to read
and to write and multiply and devide-
/ should teach him to like books. Nor
should l take it for granted that he
will like them of course. more than /
should take it for granted that he will
swim of course. Probably he will, in
house full Of good books, as q boy
will probably learn to swim If he lives
near the sea. But / am not going to
leave either choice to that probability.
Precisely because he is my boy / make
it certain that he can swim BY teach
ing him to swim and so make it
certain that he shall be fond of books
by teaching him what is the range
and what the joy of literature.
And here l return to the suggestion
| threw out before, that reading aloud
in the family is tbs best possible way
to break in, aud always proves a per-
snasion and temptation. There is q
long period when boy or girl does
not read so easily but that the process
itself is burden. If you will read to
him then, he will be very grateful to
you. and you will form an appetite he
will never be rid of. / knew the
mother of family who read the Wa
verify novels aloud five times. as her
several children came old enough to
hear. The hour after tea belonged to
the boy or girl who was, say, 9 or 10
years old. That girl or bey had. 80
to speak, tina right to hear mamma,
or somebody, read aloud. Well, you
can read aloud any Waverly novel in
a month, if you read an hour and
little more every evening. In the
two years when each of these children
claimed this privilege, which their
mothers perseverance gave them, they
would read. each of them, with her,
twenty of the best of these stories.
They would talk them over with her.
Probably they would not have read
them alone. but by the time those
two years were ended, and another
child had the turn. the habit of read
ing and the love of reading were fully
formed.