y be perfectly simple and even rather pointless and yet
do good work; the whole object is to keep the child's fly-away
imagination turned upon the work at hand, thus lending wings to his
thought, and lightness to his fingers. Moreover, the mother who talks
with her child while working is training in him the habit of
bright unconscious conversation, thus giving him a most useful
accomplishment. Making a game or a play out of the work is, of course,
conducive to the same good results. When the story or the talk drags,
the game with its greater dramatic power may be substituted.

[Sidenote: Fatigue]

(2) Children should neither be allowed to work to the point of fatigue
nor to stop when they please. Fatigue, as our latest investigators in
physiological psychology have conclusively proved, is productive of an
actual poison in the blood and as such is peculiarly harmful to young
children. But while work--or for that matter play either--must never
be pushed past the point of healthful fatigue, it may well be pushed
past the point of spontaneous interest and desire: the child may be
happily persuaded by various hidden means to do a little more than he
is quite ready to do. By this device, which is one of the recognized
devices of the Kindergarten, mothers increase by imperceptible degrees
that power of attention which makes will power.

[Sidenote: Willing Industry]

(3) Set the example of willing industry. Neither let the child
conceive of you as an impersonal necessary part of the household
machinery, nor as an unwilling martyr to household necessities. Most
mothers err in one or the other of these two directions, and many of
them err in both: they either, (a) perform the innumerable services of
the household so quietly and steadily that the child does not perceive
the effort that the performance costs and, therefore, as far as his
consciousness is concerned, is deprived of the force of his mother's
example, or (b) they groan aloud over their burdens and make their
daily martyrdom vocal. Either way is wrong, for it is a mistake not to
let a child see that your steady performance of tasks, which cannot be
always delightful, is a result of self-discipline; and it is equally a
mistake to let him think that this discipline is one against which
you rebel. For in reality you are so far from being unwilling to bind
yourself in his service that if he needed it you would promptly double
and quadruple your exertions. It is exactly