Children are also often deeply interested in verbal pictures. For example, the teacher, without mentioning name, time, or place, can describe Franklin flying his kite, Ethan Allen surprising the garrison at Ticonderoga, Columbus at La Rabida, etc. The description ended, each pupil can write down the names of the characters described, and mention time, place, and any other fact the teacher calls for. Such historical riddles seem more like play than work to the average child, and before long all take great pride in making verbal pictures of their own, to be guessed by their schoolmates, or handed to the teacher instead of an ordinary composition. Such work not only appeals to childish imagination, but cultivates memory and attention while firmly fixing important facts in youthful minds.
To encourage a taste for poetry and rouse a love for the beautiful by fine descriptions of the noted characters or great events with which the pupils have just become familiar, it is often well to read aloud some of our most famous songs or poems.
It is universally conceded that history and geography should go hand in hand; so suitable maps have been supplied, upon which children should be encouraged to locate each spot as soon as it is mentioned. The teacher should also procure a blank map for each pupil (such as the Eclectic Map Blanks, American Book Company), so that, after finding any place named on the ordinary map, the pupil can locate it exactly on an outline map. Many children are greatly interested in marking the names themselves as soon as their attention is drawn to them, and take great pride in seeing their maps grow. This method is often more helpful than any other in making children see how civilization has spread and what changes have gradually taken place in our country.
To fix upon their minds the fact that colonies were planted by different European nations, it is often advisable to purchase at a stationer's tiny adhesive stars of various colors. Each color serves to represent a nation, and stars are pasted upon the spots where colonies once stood. In cases where colonies proved unsuccessful, a black star can be pasted over the colored one, but in such a way that enough of the original star remains to show to which nation the colony once belonged. Where colonies changed hands several times, stars of appropriate colors can be pasted overlapping one another. This work fascinates children, and as the stars are adhesive, it can be done in class with very little trouble. A little tact on the teacher's part will make each pupil strive to have the neatest and most accurate map.
History and geography, when studied in their turn, will seem far more attractive to children if these methods have been pursued; for many persons and places already familiar will then be joyfully greeted as old friends.
MAPS
| The Thirteen Colonies before the Revolution | 12 |
| North America before the French and Indian War | 189 |
| Part of the Northern States | 230 |
| Results of the War for Independence | 322 |
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
STORY OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
I. OUR COUNTRY LONG AGO.
Learned men, who read the story of the earth in the mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, and seas which cover its surface, tell us that America, although known as the New World, is really older than Europe. The sun has shone upon this continent and the rain has watered it for more centuries than we can count. If you study your maps carefully, you will notice lofty mountains, great lakes, and long rivers in many parts of the country; and you will see that it is beautiful and fertile almost everywhere, except in the far north, where snow covers the ground most of the year.
The same wise men who found out that the country is so old, dug down into the soil, examined the things they found there, questioned the Indians, and, little by little, discovered that our continent has been inhabited by many different kinds of animals and men. They found huge bones of animals which died thousands of years ago, and placed these in museums, where you can now see them. They also found the bones of some of the ancient men and women, with some of their weapons, tools, kitchen pots, and bits of their garments.
By studying these things very carefully, and by listening to the stories of the natives, they learned a great deal about the country which, from Greenland and A-las´ka in the north, to Cape Horn in the south, was once inhabited by tribes of Indians. None of these had white skins like the inhabitants of Europe, black skins like the negroes in Africa, or yellow skins like the Chinamen in Asia. But as they were more like the people in Asia than like those in Africa or Europe, some men now think they may once have belonged to the same family.
A Savage Indian.
Still, the men living on our continent were so unlike others that they are called red men, and form a race by themselves. Those who lived in the part of the country which is now called the United States had copper-colored skins, high cheek bones, straight, coarse black hair, small black eyes, and very wide mouths. Although they all looked somewhat alike, they were very different in their ways of living. The Indians living east of the Rocky Mountains were a little more civilized than those living west of those mountains and in the far northern parts of the continent.
A Wigwam.
The western and northern Indians are generally called savage Indians, for they lived by hunting and fishing, had no houses like ours, and were always roaming around in search of game. They were sheltered from the sun and rain by tents called wigwams. These rude dwellings were made by driving poles in the ground, in a circle as big as the wigwam was to be. When all the poles had been set up, the tops were drawn close together and firmly tied. Over these slanting poles the Indians spread the skins of the animals they had killed, or else they wove leaves and branches between the poles to form a thick screen. The space between two of the poles was left open to serve as a door, and over this was hung a bear or buffalo skin to keep out the sun, rain, or cold.
The space inside the wigwam was generally very small; but all the family crowded in, and when it was cold or wet, a fire was lighted in the middle of the floor. The smoke then escaped through a hole purposely left in the top of the wigwam, or through the open door.
The savage Indians had learned to make baskets, which they plastered with clay inside and out, and dried in the sun until they could hold water. When they wanted to boil their meat or to warm water, the women, called squaws, heated stones in the fire, and then dropped them into the water, which was thus brought to a boil.
These