connected with real farms. It is important,
however, to be careful not to carry work of this sort so far beyond the
experience of the children that it becomes wholly foreign and abstract to
them. We are too apt to forget that it is _experience_ and not _objects_,
which is the vital factor in concreteness.

[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Robinson Crusoe. Third grade. Columbia,
Missouri.]

In connection with the nature study a variety of number exercises grow out
of the questions which the situation prompts. As, for example, in
connection with the corn crop: How many seeds were planted? In how many
rows? How many seeds in a row? How many came up? How many failed to
germinate? How many more came up than failed? If each good seed should
produce two ears of corn, how many would we have? What would they be
worth at a given price? etc.

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Pueblo Indian village. Second grade. Columbia,
Missouri.]

In an ungraded school, while the younger children might confine their
efforts to counting as above, the older children might answer the same
questions in terms of percentage and in the probable quantities on a real
farm. The stock farm may be treated in the same way. How many cows? How
much milk will they give? What will it be worth? How much butter would it
make? What will it cost to keep the cows? What is the farmer's profit?
These and many other questions will suggest themselves to both teacher and
pupils, once the subject is opened up. They will be _practical questions
in so far as they touch the experience of the children_ in such a way as
to appeal to them as real questions. Each individual teacher must decide
how far and into what field it is worth while to lead any particular
class.

=The Sand Table.=--The various types of sand tables range all the way from
the hardwood, zinc-lined article, provided with a drainpipe, down to the
homemade structure evolved from a goods box.

The quality of the table does not greatly affect the quality of the work
to be done on it, but there are several points which affect the
convenience of the workers. The height of the table should allow the
children to work comfortably when standing beside it. A long, narrow table
is seldom as satisfactory as one more nearly square, but it should never
be too wide for the children to reach the center easily. Any table with
tight joints in the top and four- or five-inch boards fitted tightly
around the edge will serve the purp