INTRODUCTION 



The more or less obvious characteristics of this Primer are 

 these: 



The Subject-matter. This is within the range of the expe- 

 rience and the imagination of most children of five or six years 

 of age. It enlists at once their liveliest interests. It is full 

 of action. It furnishes constant occasion for dramatization 

 and encourages varied and natural expression.. 



The Vocabulary. The number of different words used — 

 less than one hundred entirely different ones — is intentionally 

 small. But every one of these words is used over and over 

 again, used naturally in the expression of new thoughts, not 

 repeated mechanically just for the sake of repetition. The 

 pupil thus gains complete mastery of this limited vocabulary, 

 a mastery which not only enables him to read fluently and 

 expressively thoughts clothed in the words of this vocabulary, 

 but which prepares him readily and rapidly to increase his 

 vocabulary as soon as he begins to observe the facts and prin- 

 ciples of phonics. 



The Use of Rhymes. The rhymes on pages 3, 5, 10, 15, 18, 

 24, 33, 40, 47, 56, 67, 73, 78, 91, 104, 111, 124, are designed to 

 be thoroughly memorized by the pupil. These rhymes furnish 

 nearly all the words used in the book. Experience proves that 

 pupils acquire an initial stock of sight words much more quickly 

 and easily through the memorizing of rhymes than through 

 the more usual object, word, or sentence methods. But the 



