The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-04-18
ASTRONOMY EASY FOR CHILD
OF ) BY THE STONER METHOD

@ONNY MACKENZIE the fve-year-
old grandson of ). =. Mcclure.
~ went to the circus last week with
party of other Youngsters and
some grownups. There was a Shetland
pony that they were invited 10 mount. One
little fellow was afraid of II. but not 40
Sonny. He felt its furry coat with his
hand, then calmly announced at is
cotton" and straightway fell to per
suading his more timid companion that
now they knew" there was nothing
to be afraid OF
sThat is just the kind that responds
hest Of all to my plan Of natural educa-
tion," said Mrs. James Buchanan Stoner
yesterday Mrs Stoner has been talk
ing the mothers of New York 10y storm
in her effort to show that the system
abe has worked out for what she calls
natural education" is practicable for
the ordinary child and by the ordinary
mother.
There is certainly nothing of the freak
educator type about Mrs Stoner. and
big, wholesome, ~litt!c girl" Winifred
her twelve vear-old daughter with all
her attainments, intellectual and ath-
letic, does not look in the least like an
example of Juvenile precocity in the
ordinary sense Of the words.
Il want to talk about Sonny" said
the vivacious. black haired little woman
who has these new theories. "hccauss
he is the very first child in New York
to take my natural education lessons
He took his first lesson yesterday morn
ing just one-haif hour, and Mr. Mcclure,
his grandfather, is delighted with what
he did. He is so alert and has such a
quick. reasoning mind-that little Incl
dent at the circus showed me thar, and
made me want 10 prove what he could
do"
Does that mean Thai the natural
education system i, really for the bright
children. the exceptional ones. she
was asked
Not bit, said Mrs Stoncr But
l sometimes feel that the bright ones
are just little neglected these days
You wouldn't treat a racehorSs and u
good old plug. or even a capable car
riage horse. in just the same way, would
you' And don't see why the bright
est child should be- kept back, a. IL 50
often the case in big schools at pres
ent, for the mediocre ones. But that
is going to bring me TO my favorite
contention about small classes not
more than ten children TO one teacher
is my ideal there and want to tell
about Sonnys first lesson aud what
he learned in that half hour.
"Of course I had the typewriter
there. ] believe in the typewriter as
one OF the first essentials in the way
of tools, Winfred began to Use the type
writer before she was 3 years old and
in the beginning she did il out of sheer
imitation because she used TO see me
writing with it. And it was by using
1t that she learned TO spell with such
unusual proficiency. You see the child
has the words actually in sight in a
ray that makes it much more of word
picture than by writing in the ordinary
fashion.
well, Sonny learned To write the
words Peter Rabbit Sonny and
Daddy, and nightly pleased he was
with himself at such performance.
Than he learned how TO count up to
ten ny throwing dice. taught him 10
naay store with plastocene. | showed
him the different parts Of flower with
magnifying glass and told him the
names OF these parts and explained
something about 'magnifylng So he
had his first lesson in botany, with bit
Of definite scientific knowledge, a frs
Incentive to an intelligent habit of oh
servstioh and an enlargement of hi,
vocabulary all in the few minutes dc