The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1918-03-14

Il
been Undergraduates. Issued by the
United States Bureau of Education,
Washington, D. c., and the National
kindergarten Association, New York.
Article Walks and Talks Afford
Opportunities for Teaching Facts at
First Hand and in interesting Ways.
By Mrs. Bertha Emelin. is.
From about the age of three and ex-
tending indefinitely thru childhood
years, there is no more valuable aid
for the mother who desires to promote
the well-being of her children than
walks and talks. It is usually most
difficult for the housekeeping mother
to find sufficient leisure or rather, un-
interrupted leisure-to concentrate on
work or play with her children. We
are all only too familiar with the in
terruptions of the butcher, the baker,
the friendly neighbor, which breaks
repeatedly in until one "gives up" in
despair. But when you leave your
home and it's distractions behind you,
you begin to realize that you have
found way in which you can say with
Froebel, "Come, let us live with our
children" ~. j.. :
These walks and and talks can be
useful both to the city mother and the
country mother, tho it will be easily
seen that the country mother has the
advantage in this respect. The city
mother will have to substitute, for the
suggestions below, the city parks, the
river or lake front visits to the large
factories, museums and historic spots
of interest. You can make the walks
as long or as short as your leisure
permits; 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 child
rem. The blue sky and the great out
doors will take you away from the pet
tiness of the thousand and one trifles
that continually intrude themselves
upon your attention while you remain
within four walls, and they will be
equally uplifting in taking the little
ones away-e especially is this true in
small towns-from the petty small
talk that emanates from the porches
and the front stoops and passes along
the sidewalks from house to house and
from child to child.
1t is well for you to decide upon
your destination before you call the
children with "Let's go to the pond to-
day!"-or ''This is a great day for
the woods!" A playmate or two TAX
en- along occa sionally (and frequently
if you have but one child) will lend
additional zest to the walks and will
enlarge your opportunities of getting
better acquainted, not only with the
playmates, but with your own children
in relation to their playmates.
In the case of very young children,
places very near home will serve as
we'll as the more distant goals which
are usually more attrsctiv. to the
other children. The pond or the
stream under the bridge, or the water
front, 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 adjoining town, if it be within two
or three miles, makes splendid objec-
tive point with older children, and a
trolley ride will bring you back should
time or fatigue make it necessary.
Try to forget all your grownup dig
nifty on these walks Especially if it
be country road) and have as much
fun and laughter as The children are
ready for. Wear only stout shoes and
"roughing" clothes. Sometimes per-
NIT the children to take skates, or a
bicycle, or velocipede, a wagon or
jaunting cart, or a sled, a hoop, or
horse reins. All these things will pro-
vide additional attractions when the
children seem loath to leave their play.
These walks will develop your child
rem physically fully as much as any
systematic exercises, and the variety
of "stunts" that will be initiated along
the road will astound you. In some
of them you may join; others will
teach you to have control of your
nerves, while the children develop
strength and independence thereby:
So far as the physical activities are
concerned, you need suggest very lit
tie; the children will initiate as much
as there are time and energy for.
There will be walking forward and
backward, sometimes with eyes shut,
sometimes on stone walls and in bitches
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