MATHEMATICS FOR CHILDREN. 



803 



three from another, will put them together and place his five balls 

 in the case corresponding with the point where the lines of two and 

 three will meet, and will thus gradually accustom himself to the idea 

 that two added to three are equal to five, four and two to six, etc., 



FIG. 1. 



before he knows how to write the corresponding figures. As soon 

 as he has learned how to write them he can himself make the table 

 with figures (Fig. 2), showing that one and one make two, one and 

 three four, etc. 



This will be all the easier for him because he will only have 

 to write the figures in their order in the lines and the columns. This 

 furnishes an excellent writing exercise after the children have 

 begun to write figures, and affords besides a certain method of 

 teaching them the addition table up to nineteen at least. I insist 

 that all this can be done even before the child knows how to write 

 the figures by means of an arrangement like a printer's case, and 

 that it will be as a play, rather than a study, to the child. Hardly 

 anything more will be required than to bring the toy to the child's 

 notice and leave him to himself after he has been started with it, 

 and he will get along the faster the less he is bothered. 



A similar process may be adopted with the multiplication table. 

 With a case like the other, it is only necessary to tell the child that 

 if he wants to know how much are three times four he has only 

 to make heaps of four things each, take three of them and put 

 them in the box at the intersection of the line three and the column 

 four. If he can write the figures he will write 12, instead of gath- 



