IX “A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!” THE Christmas holidays! Boys and girls at school are counting off the days till the home-coming. Young men and maidens who have put away their childish things do not reckon with date-stones, but consult their Bradshaws. The little ones at home are storing up surprises. The father says genially, “We shall soon have our young folk at home … Continue reading Formation of Character Volume 5 Pt 1. Chapter 9
“…there is no part of a child’s education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future. He must live hours daily in the open air, and, as far as possible, in the country; must look and touch and listen; must be quick to note, consciously, every peculiarity of habit or structure, … Continue reading No part of Ed more Important Than This
XVI.—NATURAL PHILOSOPHY A Basis of Facts.—Of the teaching of Natural Philosophy, I will only remind the reader of what was said in an earlier chapter—that there is no part of a child’s education more important than that he should lay, by his own observation, a wide basis of facts towards scientific knowledge in the future. He must live hours daily in the open … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 5. Ch 16
XV.—ARITHMETIC Educative Value of Arithmetic.—Of all his early studies, perhaps none is more important to the child p.254 as a means of education than that of arithmetic. That he should do sums is of comparatively small importance; but the use of those functions which ‘summing’ calls into play is a great part of education; so much so, that the advocates of mathematics and … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 5. Ch 15
VIII POOR MRS JUMEAU! “NOW, young people, when I go out, let there be no noise in the house; your mother is ill, so let her little folk be thoughtful for her!” “Oh, is mother sick again?” said little Ned with falling countenance. “Poor Needie! he doesn’t like mother to be ill. We all have to be … Continue reading Formation of Character Volume 5 Pt 1. Chapter 8
VII ABILITY “BE sure you call at Mrs Milner’s, Fred, for the address of her laundress.” “All right, mother!” And Fred was half-way down the path before his mother had time to add a second injunction. A second? Nay, a seventh, for this was already the sixth time of asking; and Mrs Bruce’s half-troubled expression showed she placed little faith … Continue reading Formation of Character Volume 5 Pt 1. Chapter 7
VI MRS SEDLEY’S TALE IT is strange how a moral weakness in her child gives a mother the same sense of yearning pity that she has for a bad bodily infirmity. I wonder if that is how God feels for us when we go on year by year doing the thing we hate? I think a mother gets to understand many things about the dealings … Continue reading Formation of Character Volume 5 Pt 1. Chapter 6
V CONSEQUENCES HAVE you ever played at “Consequences,” dear reader? This is how it goes. He said to her, “It’s a cold day.” She said to him, “I like chocolates.” The consequence was, they were both put to death, and the world said, “It serves them right.” Just so exquisitely inconsequent is the game of “consequence” in real life, at which many a child … Continue reading Formation of Character Volume 5 Pt 1. Chapter 5
XIV.—BIBLE LESSONS Children enjoy the Bible.—We are apt to believe that children cannot be interested in the p.248 Bible unless its pages be watered down—turned into the slipshod English we prefer to offer them. Here is a suggestive anecdote of the childhood of Mrs Harrison, one of the pair of little Quaker maidens introduced to us in the Autobiography of Mary Howitt, the better … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 5. Ch 14
Real Living Life 