The story should be continued until all the “beds” have flowers in them. The children may be allowed to suggest names of flowers and should be encouraged to choose colors that will harmonize.
STORIES
Stories are the “spice” of childhood. The eager delight with which children beg for a story, and listen while it is told, is in itself a plea for stories, and the routine of lessons should be broken up by setting apart five or ten minutes between them for this pleasant exercise.
Use of Stories.—In the first place, story-telling may be made the means of helping the children to acquire familiarity with good English. We all know how limited is the child’s vocabulary, and how difficult it is for a child to express his thoughts. Sometimes when a fact is perfectly well known, the language is wanting in which he can express it.
Second, the child’s sympathy may be cultivated and developed by means of stories. He becomes intensely interested in the subject of the story, and for the time being almost lives the incident over again in his own little life.
A very little child was one day listening to a story about “A lazy boy who missed a school picnic because he was so slow in getting ready. The school children were all on board the steamer, the bell rang, the moorings were loosed, and away went the boat just as the late little boy came running down to the pier.”
The little listener followed the story intently up to this point, and then burst out, “Oh! Auntie, couldn’t they get a little row-boat and take him out to the steamer? I don’t like him to be left behind.”
Stories, then, enlist the sympathy of the child.
Third.—Story-telling strengthens the child’s power of imagination. But, be careful to develop the imagination in a right direction, and not to feed it with anything coarse or cruel.