pment, you are more
desirous that he should perform a single task in a day in the right
spirit, than that he should run a dozen errands in the wrong spirit.

(7) Besides a regular time each day for the performance of his set
share in the household work, give him warning before the arrival of
that hour. Children have very incomplete notions of time; they become
much absorbed in their own play; and therefore no child under nine
or ten years of age should be expected to do a given thing at a given
time without warning that the time is at hand.

[Sidenote: "Busy Work"]

Besides these occupations which are truly part of the business of life
come any number of other occupations--a sort of a cross between real
play and steady work, what teachers call "busy work"--and here the
suggestions of the Kindergarten may be of practical value to the
mother. For instance, weaving, already referred to, may keep an active
child interested and quiet for considerable periods of time. Besides
the regular weaving mats of paper, to be had from any Kindergarten
supply store, wide grasses and rushes may be braided into mats, raffia
and rattan may be woven into baskets, and strips of cloth woven into
iron-holders. A visit to any neighboring Kindergarten will acquaint
the mother with a number of useful, simple objects that can be woven
by a child. Whatever he weaves or whatever he makes should be applied
to some useful purpose, not merely thrown away; and while it is true
that a conscientious desire to live up to this rule often results in
a considerable clutter of flimsy and rather undesirable objects about
the house, still, ways may be devised for slowly retiring the oldest
of them from view, and disposing of others among patient relatives.

[Sidenote: Sewing]

Sewing is another occupation ranch used in the Kindergarten as well as
in the home. Beginning with the simple stringing of large wooden beads
upon shoe-strings, it passes on to sewing on buttons, and sewing doll
clothes to the making of real clothing. This last in its simplest form
can be begun sooner than most parents suppose, especially if the child
is taught the use of the sewing machine. There is really no reason why
a child, say six years old, should not learn to sew upon the machine.
His interest in machinery is keen at this period, and two or three
lessons are usually sufficient to teach him enough about the mechanism
to keep him from injuring it. Once he has learned to sew upo