Visualize a forest, into which some lumbermen are coming. See them cutting the trees, sawing them into mill lengths, and donkey engines drawing them to the railroad. They are loaded and hauled to the mill, where they are converted into lumber. See as much detail as you know of the mill processes.
The lumber is loaded on cars, shipped to the city, unloaded in a lumber yard, sold and hauled to the spot in the city where a house is to be erected. Follow the erection of the house, watch all the details of its construction until fully completed and the occupants have moved in and established their home. Furnish the house, each room separately, and arrange and cultivate the grounds.
This exercise can be continued as far as you desire to prolong the period of concentration. Add all possible detail which will depend upon the amount of knowledge which you possess along these lines. Some parts of the work you will be able to follow in detail, others you may know little about. If there is some other kind of construction that you are more familiar with you can use it in order to make the visualization definite.
See to it that your concentration is complete, do not allow your mind to wander. Keep this picture moving so as to hold the complete attention, become interested in the development of each process. Prolong the period of concentration as far as possible.
This and the following exercises may be too complicated for your children, according to their age, but some of the simpler ones should be begun as early as eight years. The length and detail increasing with the ability and knowledge.
Remember that the children should be gathering knowledge by sensations. Those parts of the former picture, of the Construction of a Home, with which they are unfamiliar, should be brought to their attention. Describing the processes to them is good, but far better for them to get the original sensations for themselves. Take them to the forest, to the mill and lumber yard. Let them go where a house is being built and spend as much time there as possible. Parents should be purposefully adding to their children's stock of knowledge.
The Farmer and His Farm
See a settler going into an unsettled country and beginning the construction of a farm. Watch him build his cabin, clear the land, break the virgin soil and put in the crops. See the development of the home, the well, the fences, barn, sheds, enlargement of fields, bringing on of stock, the harvesting of crops, building of greater barns, the new home, settling of the community. Continue the development of the farm as much in detail and as far as you can.