River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-10-22
PRIMARY READING.
BY T, J. M'ANDREw.

stock Of knowledge of greater value
and extent than his teacher generally
credits him with. Let us take the
Child of five or six summers and see:
lst, What he knows. Cd, How lie has
obtained his knowledge.
A child of this age has already mas
| tered her mother tongue to The extent
of vocabulary of two, or three hun
dred words; besides which, he under
stands everything that is said of the
common things around him. He can
readily associate the name with the
| object. Besides this he has some
knowledge of form, size. color, and
other properties. lie knows the
names of the domestic animals, and
knows a great deal about them,-dOg,
COW, sheep, rabbit, etc.
Let us pass, now, to a consideration
OF GLOW he has obtained this Knowl-
edge"
The five senses are the channels
through which the child gets all his
knowledge of the external world. The
sense Of sight and feeling are prom
lnent among the five.
This process of the development OF
the mind, we may say, begins at birth,
and, as the infant becomes older, you
can see the efforts he makes to use
his senses upon things around him.
He feels of the mothers dress, and
looks at it intently, and thus it is
with other things that are near him.
We see, then, that Dame Natures
method is the Objective" and con-
clude Judging from the excellent re-
suits that it is very good one.
The first thing to do with the little
ones who are just beginning school
life, is to get them SO that they will
talk freely, and this can be accom-
plished by having the first lessons
consist of talks about things which
they knoW--a rabbit, for instance (the
picture placed before the class, will
rarely fail to excite enthusiasm and
cause the "hopefuls" to forget their
| reserve.
When the children talk readily we
are ready to begin work. The first
thing to do is to eliminate from your
mind any longings you may have for
the "Alphabetic Method" and launch
out boldly in the bark called " Word
Method. Make this your way of
procedure: 1st, the thing, or repre-
sentation Of it; ID, the idea, and then
the word.
TO illustrate: You wish to teach
| the word hat. You can easily get a
hat from the hall always use the
object, if you CAM and hold it before
the class; they get the mental picture,
and are ready for the Word. This
should be printed upon the black
| board, and its form, as whole, i'm
pressed upon their minds by various
eXpedients. You could print several
words, among them the word hat. in
one or more places, then ask, "Wbo
can find the word hat?" They all try,
eagerly, to find the word, and the one
who succeeds, has the pleasure of
pointing to it. Again, the word
printed on a card, and placed on a
table or desk, with other printed
words on the same kind of card, will
be sought with great interest.
Do not try to teach too many words
at first, but have them thoroughly
; mastered. In trying the Word Method
the first time, we are apt to attempt
too much.
A list of twenty or thirty name.
words can be learned in a few weeks.
While learning the word, the child
should also learn to print and to write
it. Next in order, we should teach a
list of quality words, such as: good,
bad, nice, little. The articles a, an,
and the, are now needed.
Some of the action-words in fire.
quent use, all forms of the verb to be,
fly, run, play.
Begin to deal in sentences now;
using from your sstock-in-trade.
The personal pronouns, next.
Teach adyerbs-a short list, as yet.
Next in order come the propositions
eight or ten of those in frequent
use; IN, by, on, to, for.
few conjunctions, and, or, bat.
Do great deal in sentence-making,
at this stage of progress. Place hat
upon a desk and ask them to say some
thing about 1t. The probable sentence
will be, The hat is on the desk. .
Either print or write the sentence
upon the black board, and other SEN
fences obtained in the same way; and
have the pupils read them in a natural
tone, just as they say it. Do not let
them drawl their words.
The old pen-knife, or pencil method,
and the meaningless "Is-he-to-go-in?
He-is-to- go-in" sentences, seem to in
vite the pupil to read in that monot-
onous tone which is SO disagreeable
and incorrect.