“It is not clear yet; suppose you tell me, step by step, how you would give your first reading lesson. An illustration helps one so much.”
“Very well: Bobbie had his first lesson yesterday—on his sixth birthday. The lesson was part of the celebration. By the way, I think it’s rather a good plan to begin a new study with a child on his birthday, or some great day; he begins by thinking the new study a privilege.”
“That is a hint. But go on; did Bobbie know his letters?”
“Yes, he had picked them up, as you say; but I had been careful not to allow any small readings. You know how Susanna Wesley used to retire to her room with the child who was to have his first reading-lesson, and not to appear again for some hours, when the boy came out able to read a good part of the first chapter of Genesis? Well, Bobbie’s first reading-lesson was a solemn occasion too, for which we had been preparing for a week or two. First, I bought a dozen penny copies of the ‘History of Cock Robin’—good bold type, bad pictures, that we cut out.
“Then we had a nursery pasting day—pasting the sheets on common drawing-paper—six one side down, and six the other; so that now we had six complete copies, and not twelve.
“Then we cut up the first page only, of all six copies, line by line, and word by word. We gathered up the words and put them in a box, and our preparations were complete.
“Now for the lesson. Bobbie and I are shut in by ourselves in the morning-room. I always use a blackboard in teaching the children. I write up, in good clear ‘print’ hand,
Cock Robin.
Bobbie watches with the more interest because he knows his letters. I say, pointing to the word, ‘cock robin,’ which he repeats.
“Then the words in the box are scattered on the table, and he finds half a dozen ‘cock robins’ with great ease.