s to these, she will find it easy to secure and hold the
child's attention. Without this penetration and skill, all else is
unavailing. She may sing and cajole herself into hoarseness, she
may smile and gesticulate herself into a mild sort of tarantism, or
freeze herself at one end of the table into a statue of Suppressed
Reproach,--if the instruction or dictation has no natural connection
with the purposes of the children, these will remain uninterested or
bored victims of her ill-directed enthusiasm."

Language Teaching.

The plays with the gifts open wide avenues for language teaching if
conducted as Froebel intended. He says many wise things on this
subject in his "Education of Man," and the following is of absolute
application.

"Our children will attain," he says, "to a far more fundamental
insight into language, if we, when teaching them, connect the words
more with the actual perception of the thing and the object.... Our
language would then again become a true language of life, that is,
born of life and producing life; while it threatens otherwise, by
merely outward consideration, to become more and more dead."[82]

[82] _Education of Man_, page 145.

From the first the child should be led to voice his small observations
on the gifts in clear language and in approximately complete
sentences, brief though they be. He can as easily say, "I would like a
blue ball, please," if asked what color he prefers, as to jerk out a
monosyllabic "Blue!"

After a little practice he will use a short sentence when comparing
two objects, for instance, but as he naturally moves along the line of
least resistance it is hardly to be expected that he will take the
trouble to form complete sentences unless gently stimulated to do so.
The stimulus must be gentle, however, and given at the right time, for
any feeling that his words are criticised will lead him to
self-repression, not expression.

In gift work, too, he explains to the kindergartner what he is
inventing, and for what purpose; he weaves gossamer threads of fancy
about the objects constructed, or describes the forms of beauty and
knowledge he has built by dictation.

There is and should be constant interchange of conversation during the
gift plays, and the kindergartner who directs them like a
drill-sergeant, requiring her recruits only to be silent and obey, has
entirely misconceived Froebel's idea.[83]

[83] It is a difficult thing to find the _via m