I'^ARMERS' INSTITUTES. 129 



not succeed in leading tliem to Olii'ist we liave failed in tliat part of our responsi- 

 bility wliicli is most essential and vital. I believe it possible that with exertion 

 and the right means the mother may have more conti'ol over her children than 

 any other influence. But if we delay the work until the child is too old we may 

 say of ourselves as did H. H. in the last lines that she ever wrote: 



"Father. I scarcely dare to pray 



So clear I see. now it is done. 

 That I have wasted half my day 



And left my work but just begun." 



Q. How far would you encourage the imagination of a young child, and how 

 teach it the difference between a purely imaginable line of thought and a story? 

 Where is the dividing line? 



Mrs. Irma T. Jones: The imagination of a child is one of the most valuable, 

 things, and we must not neglect it, but I think that possibly today the use of fairy 

 stories, and so forth, have reached the point where it is time to call a halt. We 

 should watch carefully the nature of the child. It is during the first three or four 

 years of a child's life that the imagination is so large. This should not be neg- 

 lected, but try to turn it in the right direction. This faculty of imagination lies 

 at the bottom of our faith faculties. We should strive to understand the other 

 traits of character in a child, and if it has an abnormal imagination, try to turn it 

 in the right direction— train it, as it were. 



Mrs. Rockwell: I have found that the fables are good in training the imagina- 

 tion. It can be trained beautifully in this way. When they are trained after those 

 methods, wihich are verj' interesting to a mother as well as to a very small child, 

 they bring the desired results. 



Mrs. Irma T. Jones: I would recommend Elizabeth Harrison's "Study of Child 

 Nature" as a good book for this purpose. 



Q. How would you manage a girl who is very mischievous? 



^Nlrs. Jones: I have said that activity is one of the laws of child life, and I should 

 seek to find out the things that that child liked to do best— tliat she really enjoyed— 

 and then I should seek to be all the time finding something positive for her to do. 

 This habit of everlastingly saying "don't," "don't," is very harmful to children. 

 We should come into that spirit where we can give something definite and positive 

 to our children to do. 



Mrs. Kennedy: As to finding out what a child likes to do. I would like to give a 

 little experience of my own in regard to this. I have two boys, and the older one 

 is very fond of reading the papers, especially the news of the war. I thought he 

 was reading too much of it, and endeavored to induce him to read something dif- 

 ferent, but he said he wanted to read about the war — he wanted to read the news 

 up to the times. Finally my eyes became affected, and I suffered a great" deal 

 with them. When this boy saw that I could not read for myself he said he would 

 read to me, so he took the book that I was trying to read, and read to me. We 

 did this waj^ for some time, and I was careful to select reading that I thought he 

 would become interested in, and that I wanted him to learn to like, and it proved 

 to be very beneficial to both of us, and we both enjoyed it. 



Mrs. Campbell: I think with restless children that they can be helped to a very 

 useful knowledge by teaching them to sew. Most children like to learn to sew if 

 they are given nice pieces of cloth to work with. And a girl especially likes to 

 learn this, if she can make something for her doll. I think we should also teach 

 the little boys to sew. 



Mrs. Jones: Do you not think we are apt to be too impatient with their crude 

 attempts, and do not encourage them enough, but rather discourage them? 



Mrs. Hatch: I think it a very good idea to instruct boys how to sew, though I 

 would not compel them to do it. Think it a good idea to teach our boys to do the 

 same things our girls do, and then they will be more interested in it. I am very 

 glad that at the present day girls are sharing more of the athletic life of the boys, 

 and I think it a good idea for the boys to be taught some of the things that usually 

 only girls do. I also think that women should know something of child nature. 



Mrs. Jones: I believe that many of ns would be greatly surprised if we could 

 see the inside of our child's mind sometimes. We should strive to keep in close 

 touch with them— note their progress— and in choosing reading material, etc., for 

 them, choose it a little ahead of them, so as to encourage them. Do not give a 

 child a book written in one syllable to read after he is capable of reading some- 

 thing harder, but give him something to work for. 



17 



