the Right Rev. Thomas Vowler Short, a Devonshire man, now Bishop of St. Asaph, 'Bishop Short's Hints on Teaching Little Children to Read;' 'Instructions for Teaching Arithmetic to Little Children.'[1] Having tried them both with my own children I can answer for their value, and also for that of many other books written for National Schools, as suited for parental use. My farming friends may rest assured that the economy of labour has not made more advance within the last twenty years in the art of growing turnips than it has in the art of teaching children to read and to count. At the same time either a natural gift or some special information and training is required for teaching young children well. Without, however, depreciating the more intellectual methods, I venture still to think the old-fashioned Multiplication Table, which must be learned sooner or later, is very good discipline, and the sooner it is learnt the better.[2] There must be some learning by rote in education, only let what is learned be learned quite perfectly. The old spelling-books are worse than useless. The 'Spelling-book Superseded,' published, by the Irish Board,[3] will be a good substitute and a great help to a mother.
Children have generally a love of poetry, and the memory is their strongest faculty; a few simple pieces of poetry are easily learned early, and will give pleasure in after life, only let them be simple and natural. I never knew a child who did not enjoy Watts' Hymns, or Hymns for Little Children,[4] of which this is a specimen:—
"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset, and the morning,
That brightens up the sky.
- ↑ Price 4½d. each. Sold by the Christian Knowledge Society
- ↑ I would advise all mothers to buy a little book, called 'Bessie Gray,' if they wish to see what may be done by a little common-sense teaching.
- ↑ Sold by Groombridge.
- ↑ Hymns for Little Children. Masters, London.
