The Story Mother Nature Told, by Jane Andrews.
Child's Book of Nature (3 vols.), by Worthington Hooper.
Among the Stars, by Agnes Giberne.
History of a Mouthful of Bread, by Jean Macé.
Overhead, by Laura and Anna Moore.
Life and Her Children, by Arabella Buckley.
Winners in Life's Race, by Arabella Buckley.
Fairyland of Science, by Arabella Buckley.
Little Folks in Feathers and Furs, by Olive Thorne Miller.
Queer Pets.
Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe, by Charlotte M. Yonge.
Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet.
Odd Folks at Home, by C. L. Mateaux.
Tenants of an Old Farm Yard, by McCook.
Home Studies in Nature, by Mary Treat.
Many other valuable books might be added to this list. However, a few good books are better than many less good ones. It is well to lead a child to the world's great books as soon as possible. Enough have been given to show the kinds of books which are not hurtful to children. Each book on the above list has been personally inspected.
After all, it is not so important what your child reads as what you read. If the father reads nothing but the newspapers and the mother nothing but novels, what then? Children are taught as much by the general tone of conversation of their parents as by the books they are given to read.
Mother-play and Nursery Song, by Frederick Froebel.
Letters to a Mother, by Susan E. Blow.
Symbolic Education, by Susan E. Blow.
Commentaries of Froebel's Mother-play Songs, by Denton J. Snider.
A Study of Child Nature, by Elizabeth Harrison.
The Child, by Madam Marenholtz von Bulow.
Household Education, by Harriet Martineau.
Levana, by Jean Paul Richter.
Christian Nurture, by Horace Bushnell.
Conscious Motherhood, by Emma Marwedel.
Bits of Talk about Home Matters, by H. H.
Reminiscences of Froebel, by Madam Marenholtz von Bulow.
The Children for Christ, by Rev. Andrew Murray.
From the Cradle to the School, by Bertha Meyer.
Gentle Measures in Training the Young, by Jacob Abbott.
Emil, by Jean Paul Rousseau.
Leonard and Gertrude, by Pestalozzi.
Hints on Early Education, Anonymous.
For Boys, a Special Physiology, by Mrs. E. R. Shepherd.
For Girls, a Special Physiology, by Mrs. E. R. Shepherd.
Steps in Scientific Knowledge, by Paul Bert.
History of a Mouthful of Bread, by Jean Macé.
Ministry of Nature, by Hugh Macmillan.
Bible Teachings in Nature, by Hugh Macmillan.
Sabbath in the Fields, by Hugh Macmillan.
Elementary Book of Zoölogy, by Packard.
Little Folks in Feathers and Furs, by Olive Thorne Miller.
The Geological Story Briefly Told, by Dana.
Science Primer – Geology, by Archibald Geikie.
Science Primer – Botany, by F. D. Hooker.
Science Primer – Chemistry, by H. E. Roscoe.
Madam How and Lady Why, by Charles Kingsley.
Principles of Geology, by Lyell.
How Plants Grow, by Gray.
How Plants Behave, by Gray.
Child's Book of Nature, by Hooker.
Elementary Botany, by Bessey.
Revised Manual of Botany, by Gray.
Plant Relations, by John M. Coulter.
II.
THE PLACE OF TOYS IN THE EDUCATION OF A CHILD
As Christmas is peculiarly the season for toy-giving and toy-receiving, it may be well for the mother to consider this subject.
Old Homer, back in the past ages, shows us a charming picture of Nausicaa and her maidens, after a hard day's washing, resting themselves with a game of ball. Thus we see this most free and graceful plaything connected with that free and beautifully developed nation which has been the admiration of the world ever since. Plato has said, "The plays of children have the mightiest influence on the maintenance or non-maintenance of laws"; and again, "During earliest childhood, the soul of the nursling should be made cheerful and kind, by keeping away from him sorrow and fear and pain, by soothing him with sound of the pipe and of rhythmical movement." He still further advised that the children should be brought to the temples, and allowed to play under the supervision of nurses, presumably trained for that purpose. Here we see plainly foreshadowed the Kindergarten, whose foundation is "education by play"; as the study of the Kindergarten system leads to the earnest, thoughtful consideration of the office of play, and the exact value which the plaything or toy has in the development of the child, when this is once understood, the choice of what toys to give to children is easily made.
In the world of nature, we find the blossom comes before the fruit; in history, art arose long before science was possible; in the human race, the emotions are developed sooner than the reason. With the individual child it is the same; the childish heart opens spontaneously in play, the barriers are down, and the loving mother or the wise teacher can find entrance into the inner court as in no other way. The child's sympathies can be attracted towards an object, person, or line of conduct much earlier than his reason can grasp any one of them. His emotional nature can and does receive impressions long before his intellectual nature is ready for them; in other words, he can love before he can understand.
One of the mistakes of our age is, that we begin by educating our children's intellects rather than their emotions. We leave these all-powerful factors, which give to life its coloring of light or darkness, to the oftentimes insufficient training of the ordinary family life – insufficient, owing to its thousand interruptions and pre-occupations. The results are, that many children grow up cold, hard, matter-of-fact, with little of poetry, sympathy, or ideality to enrich their lives – mere Gradgrinds in God's world of beauty. We starve the healthful emotions of children in order that we may overfeed their intellects. Is not this doing them a great wrong? When the sneering tone is heard, and the question "Will it pay?" is the all-important one, do we not see the result of such training? Possibly the unwise training of the emotional nature may give it undue preponderance, producing morbid sentimentalists, who think that the New Testament would be greatly improved if the account of Christ driving the money-changers from the temple, or his denunciation of the Pharisees, could be omitted. Such people feed every able-bodied tramp brought by chance to their doors, and yet make no effort to lighten the burden of the poor sewing-woman of our great cities, who is working at almost starvation prices. This is a minor danger, however. The education of the heart must advance along with that of the head, if well-balanced character is to be developed.
Pedagogy tells us that "the science of education is the science of interesting"; and yet, but few pedagogues have realized the importance of educating the interest of the child. In other words, little or no value has been attached to the likes and dislikes of children; but in reality they are very important.
A child can be given any quantity of information, he