an be read, or, better, dramatized, with little
effort and with good results.

It may seem that the homemaking training here suggested for younger
children is too desultory, too slight, in fact, to affect the
situation much. But let us consider. Homemaking is an art, coming more
and more to be based on a foundation of science. For it is undoubtedly
true that, while the pessimists are telling us that the home is
doomed, we who are optimists see coming toward us a great wave of
homemaking knowledge which if seized upon will put the homemaker's art
upon a surer foundation than it has ever been.

The elements of housekeeping are the _ABC_ of homemaking. We shall do
well to teach them early, incidentally, and with no undue exaggeration
of their place in the scheme of living. We simply familiarize the
girl, by long and quiet contact, with the tools of the homemaker, for
future scientific use, just as we teach the multiplication facts for
later use in the science of mathematics.

A definite list of the simple homemaking tasks suitable for little
girls to undertake may not be out of place here:

1. Setting the table. (A card list of table necessities is
useful. Such a list may be given each little girl when she
undertakes home practice work.)
2. Clearing the table.
3. Washing the dishes.
4. Sweeping the kitchen. Sweeping the piazza.
5. Dusting.
6. Making beds and caring for bedrooms.
7. Arranging her own bureau drawers and closets.
8. Simple cooking.
9. Hemming towels and table linen.
10. Ironing handkerchiefs and napkins.

As the child grows older, methods of teaching grow increasingly
direct. Even here we shall perhaps not talk a great deal about
"preparing for homemaking." But we shall see that the tools grow
increasingly familiar, and that ideals once taught are retained and
added to. We shall see that our science, our mathematics, our art, all
contribute to the acquirement of homemaking knowledge. We shall give a
practical turn to these more or less abstract subjects.

Sewing and cooking classes are by this time a recognized part of
grammar-school courses in many city schools. That they are not so
firmly intrenched in the country schools is due usually to
difficulties in the way of securing equipment and to the already
crowded condition of the school program. The ideal remedy is the
substitution of the consolidated school with its domestic science room
and its specially trained tea