PEAS
Shelling Peas (Tin pans)
Let the child help Mother to shell the peas for dinner. Children enjoy work of this kind when coöperating with the mother or father. They like to do what Mother is doing when she is doing it too. This will be an excellent time to tell Hans Andersen's story of the "Five Peas that Dwelt in a Pod". As a reward let the child plant a few peas in a box or out-of-doors.
Pea-Pod Boat (Pan of water, peapods)
Give a small child a dish-pan filled with water and a peapod for a boat, with peas for passengers and he will entertain himself for a long time. Let the frequency with which he is allowed this privilege depend upon his care in keeping himself and his surroundings dry, thus leading to neatness and self-control.
Pea Furniture (See [chapter on kindergarten occupations])
Numeral Frame or Abacus (Hair-wire, cardboard stationery box)
Get ten slender pieces of wire about six inches long. Put one pea on the first, two on the second, three on the third, etc., until you reach the last, on which place ten. Take an empty stationery box, and cut away the bottom leaving the four sides intact as a frame. Into this frame insert the ten wires, the one with one pea at the top, then No. 2, 3, etc. The child can then practice counting the different combinations up to ten.
Instead of peas such a series of units could be made by stringing cranberries or rose-haws on a waxed thread.