The same style of work, perhaps to even better advantage, may be done from the pictures so numerous in Journeys Through Bookland. In this volume, under the title Pictures and Their Use, will be found plentiful suggestions that will be helpful in conversation lessons.
2. Written Lessons
A. Introduction.
The demands of written composition are so much more severe than those of oral composition that we must be careful not to ask more than the child can execute with comparative ease. Before he begins to write, he should have clear ideas of what he intends to write and should have those ideas so arranged that they will not be confused in the process of writing. Moreover, a child must become quite familiar with writing as an art before he can be expected to originate ideas or forms of expression for the purpose of writing them. It follows, then, that some of the early written work in language may profitably consist of copying selections of various kinds.
The titles given under the preceding section (Oral Lessons) will lead to many excellent exercises for this purpose. Insist on perfect accuracy of copy. Spelling, capitalization and punctuation must be correct. If the original is prose, insist upon proper paragraphing; if poetry, upon exactness in the arrangement of the lines, especially in the matter of indentation. Children will quickly see the relation that indentation bears to rhymes. By following with exactness, the child learns unconsciously to observe the general rules. By occasionally calling attention to the reasons for forms, children are taught to act intelligently and to decide for themselves when they come to original composition.
Rhythm is as natural as breathing, and rhyming is easy for children with quick ears and quick thought. You will be surprised the first time you try the exercise to see how quickly they will imitate a rhythm with which they are familiar, and the skill they show in making rhymes. Try it first as an oral exercise, and later ask for written lines. Much of such work may not be profitable, but it serves well to give variety. Making simple parodies is amusing and stimulating to thought. Sometimes you will help by suggesting rhymes or by giving hints as to the subject to be parodied.
Take the nursery rhyme There Was an Old Woman (Volume I, page 36) for a model. Suggest bird and nest as ideas for new rhymes and keep helping until you get something like this:
There was a sweet birdie
Who built a fine nest,
A beautiful birdie
With a very red breast.
Use the same meter many times over till all become familiar with it. Similar exercises prove highly interesting to children of all ages.
Although this is not a treatise on written language lessons, a few general suggestions may not be out of place: