and that which is the first symptom of wrong-thinking, you must be
in close touch with your children. This brings us to Froebel's great
motto, "Come, let us live with our children!" This means that you are
not merely to talk with your child, to hear from his lips what he is
doing, but to live so closely with him, that in most cases you know
what he is doing without any need of his telling you. When, however,
he does tell you something which happened in the school play-ground
or otherwise out of the range of your knowledge, be careful not to
moralize over it. Make yourself as agreeable a secret-keeper as his
best friend of his own age; let your moralizing be so rare that it is
effective for that very reason. If the occasion needs moral reflection
at all--and that seldom happens--the wise way is to lead the child to
do his own reflecting; to arrive at his own conclusions, and if you
must lead him, by all means do so as invisibly as possible. For the
most part it is safe to take the confessions lightly, and well to keep
your own mind young by looking at things from the boy's point of view.

[Sidenote: The Subject of Sex]

If, however, there is to be perfect confidence between you, the
one subject which is usually kept out of speech between mothers and
children must be no forbidden subject between them; you must not
refuse to answer questions about the mystery of sex. If you are not
the fit person to teach your child these important facts, who is?
Certainly not the school-mates and servants from whom he is likely
to learn them if you refuse to furnish the information. Usually it is
sufficient simply to answer the child's honest questions honestly; but
any mother who finds herself unable to cope with this simple matter
in this simple spirit, will find help in Margaret Morley's "Song
of Life," in the Wood-Allen Publications, and the books of the Rev.