KINDERGARTEN 



3253 



KINDERGARTEN 



home, unless there is a special play room. If 

 a play room cannot be provided, an effort 

 should be made to have a sand box out of 

 doors for summer use. The gain to children 

 will more than compensate for the difficulty 

 experienced in providing it. 



Nature of the Child's Play from Two to Four 

 Years. That the play of children of two and 

 three years of age is largely experimental has 

 already been stated. Their first play with 

 sand, therefore, consists in piling it up into 

 different shapes, shoveling it into a pail or 

 box, pouring it out, and repeating the process, 

 or making impressions of hands, blocks or 

 other objects. It is not until they are nearly 

 four that they attempt to represent anything, 

 such as a garden or a yard. Their first play 

 with blocks is of this character. They pile up 

 the blocks into various shapes only to knock 

 them down and build them up again. They 

 also enjoy putting them into a basket or a 

 small wagon and taking them to another part 

 of the room or house, emptying them out and 

 doing it over again. They do not, at first, 

 represent things with blocks any more than 

 they do with sand, but the piled-up blocks 

 soon suggest houses or other objects, and then 

 they attempt making them. The sand and 

 blocks together afford unlimited opportunities 

 for play. With these, and with a simply- 

 dressed or rubber doll and a few toy animals, 

 children will be happy for hours. 



It is because the beads and pegboards also 

 afford opportunities for experimentation that 

 these give children great satisfaction. The 

 first stringing of the beads will be mere experi- 

 menting with the colors, forms and sizes, but 

 the fact that more satisfactory results can be 

 obtained by stringing them in some order will 

 eventually dawn, and further efforts will show 

 grouping in color, form or number. It is 

 because of their possibilities that children do 

 not tire of them, and that they learn many 

 facts of color, form and number. 



The mother who has grasped the principle 

 of development through activity will see that 

 children's play with this material has high 

 value, unorganized though it may seem. She 

 will, therefore, see the necessity of providing 

 a place where the children may carry it on 

 with comfort. It is not possible for every home 

 to have a room for play purposes only. There 

 are few homes, however, in which a portion of 

 the living room or the dining room cannot be 

 set apart for the children's play uses at cer- 

 tain periods. It is quite possible, too, for the 



mother to plan a general play program for the 

 day, the noisiest kind coming when no one will 

 be disturbed by it, and that of a quieter type 

 at other periods. It is essential, too, that she 

 provide a place in which the material may be 

 kept. One way of doing this is to make one or 

 more play or toy boxes out of soap boxes, by 

 lining them on the inside and covering them 

 on the outside with a pretty cretonne. By fas- 

 tening the cover on with hinges, putting cas- 

 tors under it and handles like trunk handles at 

 each end, a box is provided that will contain 

 a whole set of blocks and other material, and 

 the children themselves can easily move it from 

 one part of the room to another. 



It should be a part of the children's educa- 

 tion to put the play material in its proper box 

 after it has been used, and to return the box 

 to its accustomed place, since the formation of 

 habits of order is essential to their happiness. 

 In this, as in other respects, play is but a 

 means which the mother must utilize to 

 accomplish certain ends. The Froebelian mate- 

 rial has possibilities that the customary toys 

 lack, but these possibilities cannot be realized 

 without the mother's cooperation and direction. 

 She must, therefore, watch the children's play, 

 and utilize the opportunities which it presents 

 for teaching courtesy and regard for the rights 

 of playmates or members of the family. She 

 should note what children are able and unable 

 to do with their bodies, their hands and the 

 material, so as to help them take the next step 

 forward in these several lines. She should 

 utilize the occasions which the material affords 

 of teaching the names of objects played with 

 and others in the room, and the color, size, 

 form and number of these. She should allow 

 children to carry out their own play purposes 

 as far as possible, however, and refrain from 

 making suggestions until their own resources 

 have been exhausted. It is in these and simi- 

 lar ways that the conditions for the children's 

 complete development are met. 



Play Material for Children from Four to Six 

 Years. During the period from four to six 

 years the true play period children begin to 

 feel the need of companionship with others of 

 their own age, and this need the home can 

 but seldom supply. It is at this point that 

 the kindergarten itself is needed. Several of 

 the agencies which the kindergarten utilizes 

 the garden and nature work, stories and music 

 the trained mother can utilize as effectively as 

 can the kindergartner. The essence of kinder- 

 garten play is togetherness, however, and the 



