house
can be built in the space at our disposal?

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--House plan.]

The boxes may be arranged on a shelf with all the open sides toward the
class, as in Fig. 9. This economizes space, and all of the rooms are
visible at once. A two-story house is easily built on this plan. If
economy of space is not necessary, the boxes may be placed on a table with
the open sides of the boxes toward the edges of the table, as in Figs. 11,
12, and 13. This permits a more artistic grouping of the rooms. (See Fig.
14.)

The responsibility in grouping the boxes should be thrown as fully as
possible upon the children, the teacher merely suggesting where necessary.
It should be their house, not the teacher's. The planning should not be
hurried but time allowed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
different plans and reach an agreement. In trying to express individual
opinions convincingly their ideas will become clearer--a factor in the
development of the children which is much more important than any of the
actual details of the house itself. Whether the class decides to have one
or two bedrooms in the house is a matter of small consequence. Whether or
not they are growing in power to appreciate conditions and make an
intelligent decision is a matter of great consequence. Their decisions
when made may not always reach the high standard at which the teacher is
aiming, but if they have really made a decision, not merely followed the
teacher's suggestion, and if their independent selections from time to
time show a higher standard of appreciation and greater refinement of
taste in ever so small a degree, it is evidence of genuine growth upon a
sure foundation.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Arrangement of windows.]

=Doors and Windows.=--The size and arrangement of doors and windows should
be freely discussed. Various possible arrangements may be sketched upon
the blackboard by the children. For example, see Fig. 15, _a_ and _b_.
When a plan is adopted, the doors and windows should be carefully drawn on
the _outside_ of each box, using the try-square to get right angles.

Bore holes in the corners of the doors and windows and saw out with
keyhole or compass saw. In order to avoid mistakes it is well, after
sawing out the opening for a door in one box, to place the two boxes
together and test the measurements before sawing out the second opening. A
mistake of this sort, however, is not fatal, but may pro