The Delta independent., 1917-02-09

| day is the hour | spend at home with
my precious children twenty-eight
nights out of the thirty-one
At our house we pop some corn or
have cup of chocolate, or some other
light amusement, and then sometimes
I tell them story. While | do this
they slip into their night gowns and
climb into bed BY the time / reach
the place in the story where Hansel
and Grethel arrive home they are
asleep. Morpheus has claimed his
own. Above everything else | would
not overwork or over-entertain
| school infant. God has given them
wonderful minds-wonderful bodies,
sturdy and strong and now we must
see to it that we do our part to help
them make the best that is possible
out of themselves. 1t would be better
not to be a mother or father at all
than fail to be a good one.
l believe the child should have the
matter of retiring and arsng in its
own hands. but submit that without
early to the call of Nature and get
the needed rest.
Many forms of amusement NAV be
introduced which will aid the child
through the primary grades We all
have washings and shopping bills. L
have my first grade girl count the
clothes pins and the dresses. towels.
etc, while the third grader figures
up a dry goods bill. They work like
beavers and the work is delightful
to them. But this work must be
handled with discretion. The child
must never suspect that this is &C
tual school work, for the moment this
becomes apparent. that moment be
comes a burden. Like managing hus-
bands. it must be done with tact
Now I would not intimate that the
childs nose must be forever poked in
book. Heaven save us from the
over-ambitious parent who would
compel his child to pore over books
to excess These little exercises last
day should cover all the work a child
in any of the first three grades needs
to do at home.
AS to exercise ! believe that every
child should have something definite
to do from it's earliest childhood. but
believe that frequently young child
rem are burdened with the care OF
baby entirely too much.
Now I would deviate for moment
and take up the moral side OF the
question, and here would emphasize
the supreme importance of setting
high ideals for our children. They
may not reach so high as they aim.
but one thing is definite and sure:
They will never reach higher than
they aim.
/ recall little girl who at the age
of three years told her parents in all
sincerity that she didn't know whether
she would be doctor or a school
teacher. AS time went on it became
apparent that there was nothing from
which she shrank with greater horror
than from sick room, and so the
physician ideal slipped suddenly away.
With almost equal rapdity the peda
gogue ideal vanished: But the seed
was sown and must grow into some
thing worthwhile
At the age of l6 physical aff1ic-
tion settled suddenly upon her which
would have caused many to give up
their ideals. but not so with this girl.
All around her a thousand voices
called. and far above Ambition beckon-
ed her on. By many today she is
regardedas successful business
woman. successful housekeeper
er and successful mother She
has failed utterly to accomplish the
things she wished to do. but today
she is holding out to her children the
ideals toward which she struggled and
they must reach the place which she
through affliction failed to reach.
II may be interesting to note that
this woman lives in your city and is
well known to many of you.
Mothers. fathers, today is the time,
today while the heart Is young and
the mind impressionable; today in the
primary grades, in the kindergarten.
in infancy. before birth. II you please
this is the time to set the standards
that will tell for humankind be-
lieve that as the early Christians held
, the cross of Christ before their eyes.