CHAPTER XII.
GRAMMAR AND LANGUAGES.
Mrs. Mann has suggested, in the last part of this volume, the first exercises in grammar. But grammar is the most abstract of sciences. There are at present few children sent to Kindergartens, who are not too young for the abstracting processes of classing words into parts of speech.
But it is a lesson of orthography, to lead the children to make the few changes which there are in English words, to denote grammatical modifications. For instance, let them write cat, and then say—"If you are talking about more than one cat, what do you say?" They will say cats. Let them write at the head of two columns—cat and cats. After some exercises on words adding s only, tell them to write box, and ask, "What if there are more than one?" Then go on and get groups of other irregularities, as changing f into ves, y into ies, &c. Having gone over the nouns, and told all their changes, for number, also letting the children write a list of the nouns that do not change for number, go into verbs, and give the few personal terminations thus: tell the children to write, I cry. Then say, "Would you say George cry?" "No," they will reply, "George cries." I say, "I have a book; but should I say, George have a book?" They will say,—"No; George has a book." Also by asking questions whose answers shall give the comparison of adjectives, these can be written; and finally the past tense and past participles of irregular verbs. In my own Kindergarten I have given to about half a dozen children who know how to read fluently, and can print very prettily, a little Latin. It is but a quarter of an hour's lesson, and is conducted in this wise:—Write down am. Now, that means love in Latin; but if you want to say he loves you, add at, which makes amat. Write down ar. That means plough; if you want to write he ploughs you write what? A bright child said arat. Now write down cant. That means sing. Now if you want to say he sings, you add what? at, then it is cantat. But if you want to say to love you must add are to am. They all said amare. Now, if you want to say to plough? arare; and to sing, cantare. Now make the whole sentence, he loves to sing. What is it he loves? They all wrote amat cantare. Now write he loves to plough. They wrote amat arare. I took the hint from Harkness's edition of "Arnold's First Lessons," and gave them six variations on the four regular conjugations, the infinitive and the third person singular of the present imperfect and future indicative, and Latinized their own names; and they were greatly entertained to improvise sentences, the most complicated of which was, O Helena, Anna loves to dance, Maria loves to sing. I give them no grammatical terms, but only English meanings, and shall not give any cases but the nominative and vocative at present; but I think I shall teach them to vary verbs throughout all the conjugations. It is perfectly easy to give so much of Latin grammar to children in the Kindergarten, because it will not involve the use of a book. They can have a manuscript book into which they can write their words and sentences, in print-letters.
French, so far as it can be taught by merely conversing with the children, is legitimate in the Kindergarten; also any other modern language. But let there be no books used, nor should French be written by the children, for it will confuse their English spelling, and not, like Latin words, aid it. In my Kindergarten, about a quarter of an hour a day is given to making French phrases by all but the smallest children. They have also been greatly interested in learning the French words of a play, which is a useful exercise in pronunciation. I will give the words here:—
L'Esturgeon (Sturgeon).
Commère Perche,
Je vous salue!
Comment vous portez-vous?
La Perche (Perch).
Je me porte très bien, et vous?
Quelle est l'heure pour le ragoût
Fait de sole et de morue?
La Sole et la Morue (Sole and Cod).
Commère Perche, je vous salue;
Nous autres ne serons pas un ragoût.
L'Esturgeon.
Commère Baleine,
Comment vous portez-vous?
La Baleine (Whale).
Très bien, et vous?
L'Esturgeon.
Pouvez-vous sauter en haut
Comme moi,
Au dessus de l'eau?
La Baleine.
Je ne puis sauter si haut;
Mais je saurais faire jeter de l'eau.
L'Esturgeon.
Commère Hareng, je vous salue,
Dites moi, je prie, où allez-vous?
La Hareng (Herring).
Je vais chez moi, chercher les jeunes,
Alors nous irons à l'océan.
L'Esturgeon.
Commère Brochet, je vous salue!
Commère Brochet, que mangez-vous?
Le Brochet (Pike).
Je mange des truites
Pour mon déjeuner,
Et des éperlans
Pour mon diner.
L'Esturgeon.
Commère truite,
Je vous salue!
Dites moi, je vous prie,
Qu'avez-vous?
La Truite (Trout).
Ah, par exemple,
J'ai bien grand peur;
Voilà le brocheton
Même si de bonne heure!
L'Esturgeon.
Commère Requin,
Je vous salue!
Que faites-vous là
Auprès du bateau.
Le Requin (Shark).
Je veux manger
Le petit garçon,
Qui pêche dans l'eau.
Pour l'éperlan.
L'Eperlan (Smelt).
Petit garçon,
Je vous salue!
Voilà la Requin
Près de moi, et près de vous.
(Tous les poissons se plongent.)
The play consists in each fish being represented by a child; and the little boy also. As the Sturgeon asks her questions, she jumps up and down, and as the fishes answer, they jump up and down, till all are in motion. But, before it is played, the whole must be learnt,—which is nearly a winter's work.
In the Kindergarten connected with Madame Kriege's Normal class in Boston, German is taught at the same time with English; or at least as soon as the children can read English with tolerable fluency.
And Mrs. Kriege would doubtless, if desired, teach the Normal scholars German; but to learn German they would need to remain in the training-school more than six months, the time she decides to be the least possible for preparation to be a Kindergartner.