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Miss Foley's letter Commandment 2 |
Commandment 2 What to do: INCREASE YOUR CHILD’S USE OF HIS SENSES AND POWERS OF OBSERVATION Why: Our priceless senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell connect us with the outside world. Every whit of what we store up inside us to think and work with has been relayed into us by our senses. Without them we would be mute, senseless prisoners inside our skins. If we use only half of the capacity of our senses, it follows that we are only half alive. But children must be helped to see when they look and hear when they listen. How: Be sure that they are in good physical condition. Even though the school checks regularly, new conditions can develop overnight. If you suspect any fault in vision or hearing seek competent help at once. Fun is a great incentive to observation, and games, not necessarily commercial, which emphasize attention to detail can help develop valuable habits. Games of observation played from car windows are good. (Make up your own games.) “Which is better, sweeter, rougher, taller, more exact, etc.” discussions involving comparisons develop keenness, good taste, respect for quality. Learn to ask your children the kind of question which calls for recountings, for details, sense impressions. Read poetry aloud to each other. Senses are related; arts are related. Encourage children to listen to good music, to paint, to sing and they will end up by talking and listening better. Let them put up in their rooms pictures they like or have done themselves. Let them share in the decorating of their own rooms, compose songs, poems, and stories which have good descriptions in them. Let them make collections of things they like to look at, hear, touch or taste. Encourage them to take walks, nature hikes; collect and recount. |
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