The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-03-01
Training Little Children
Suggestions by
United States Bureau of Education, Washington
National kindergarten Association, NewY York.
Article Walks and Talks Afford Opportunities for Teaching
Facts at First Hand and in Interesting Ways
BERTHA ENiEIIN

From about the age Of three, and
extending indefinitely through child
hood years, there is no more valu-
able aid for the mother who desires
to promote the we'll being OF her
children than walks and talks. 1t is
usually most difficult for the home
keeping mother to find sufficient lei
sure-or rather, uninterrupted lei
Sure-to concentrate on work or
play with her children. We are all
only too familiar with the interrup-
tons OF the butcher, the baker, the
telephone, the friendly neighbor
which break in repeatedly until one
gives up" in despair. But when
you leave your home and its distrac-
tions behind you, you begin to real
ze that you have found a way in
which you can say with Froebel
Come, let us live with our chill
dren."
These walks and talks can be use
ful both to the city mother and the
country mother, though it will be
easily seen that the country mother
has the advantage in this respect.
The city mother will have to sub
stitute, for the suggestions below,
the city parks, the river or lake
front, visits to the large factories,
museums and historic points of in
terest. You can make the walks as
long or as short as your leisure per
mits; you can plan them for every
day or every other day, morning or
afternoon; and after a months trial
you will begin to realize their value
for yourself as much as for the chill
dren. The blue sky and the great
outdoors will take YOU away from
the pettiness of the thousand and
one triHes that continually intrudc
themselves upon your attention
while you remain within four walls,
and they will be equally uplifting in
taking the little ones away-cspec-
tally is this true in small towns
from the petty small-talk that ema-
mates from the porchcs and the
front stoops and passes along the
sidewalks from house to house and
from child to child.
1t is we'll for you to decide upon
your destination before YOU call the
children with Lets go to the pond
today pr This is a great day for
the woods" A playmate or two
taken along occasionally Cand frc-
quently if you have but one child)
will lend additional zest to the walks
and will enlarge your opportunities
or getting better acquainted, not
only with the playmates, but with
your own children to their play
mates.
In the case Of very young chill
dren, places very near home will
serve as well as the more distant
goals which are usually more at
tractive to the other children. The
pond or the stream under the bridge,
or the waterfront, the beach, or the
rocky boulders that can be scaled,
or the woods-seek them out in
your vicinity. Try every road and
see where it leads to. The adioin-
ing town, if it be within two or three
miles, makes a splendid objective
point with older children, and a troll
ley ride will bring you back should
time or fatigue make it necessary.
Try to forget all your grown-up
dignity on these walks Especially il
it be a country road) and have as
much fun and laughter as the chill
dren are ready for. Wear only
stout shoes and "roughing' clothes.
Sometimes permit the children to
take skates, or bicycle, or a yeloci-
pede, wagon or jauuting cart, or
sled, a hoop, or horse rcins. All
these will provide additional attrac-
tions when the children seem loath
to leave their street play.
These walks will develop YOUR
children physically fully as much as
any systematic exercises, and the va
riety of Stunts that will be mi
tiated along the road will astound
you. In some of them you NAV
join; others will teach you to have
control OF your nerves, while the
children develop strength and indc-
pendence thereby. SO far as the
physical activities are concerned.
you need suggest very little; the
children will initiate as much as
there are time and energy for.
There will be walking forward and
backward, sometimes with eyes shut,