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With reference to the songs and games contained in this book, I would urge that the manner of using them be subordinated to the need and circumstances of the occasion. The children should be encouraged to make additions and improvements, but the superior judgment of the teacher must aid them in carrying out their ideas. Sytematized play-lessons, properly understood and used, and adapted to the instincts and intuitions of children are invaluable in inculcating sentiments of ethics and religion.
Reverence, enthusiasm, conscientiousness, sentiment free from sentimentality, order without pedantry, freedom not lawlessness, a rich imagination not random fancy, grace not mannerisms, experience not mere words, being not seeming, are some of the lessons which, I hope, may be learned from the songs, games, and rhymes contained in this volume.
In cases where accompaniments are omitted the songshould be sung in a conversational manner, subordinating the rhythm to the words. On the other hand, where rhythm is an important theme of the song or game, the time should be accurately and distinctly marked and due attention paid to the rests and long notes. I mention these specially, because they are so frequently disregarded, and the children systematically drilled away from rhythm.
Wherever practicable, the games and songs should be connected with the other play-work of the day, symbolizing and supplementing each little effort to see more clearly, to reach higher, to grasp more firmly the innumerable links which bind the children to the race. In this direction I have labored, conscious of the difficulties in the way of a perfect sympathy with child-thought and feeling; for as we leave childhood behind us and face the stern realities of life, we forget how real are the un-realities of childhood.
My grateful acknowledgments are due to the following authors and publishers for the free use of copy-right privileges:
Martens Brothers, New York; Henry A. Young & Co., rsoston; Mrs. Louise F. Pollock, Washington, D. C.; Ginn & Co. and L. W. Mason, Lee & Shepard, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston; also to Miss Jenny Hunter, of New York, for the words of "On the Sea, " to Miss Florence E. Jennings, of Detroit, for the words of the " Weaving Song," and to Mrs. F. A. B. Dunning, of Kenosha, Wis., for " The Earth and the Clouds." "Good Morning Pleasant Sunshine," " Merry Happy Little Children," and a number of other charming contributions.
Eudora Lucas Hailmann. La Porte. Ind., |
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