OCCUPATIONS


[Sidenote: Home Kindergarten]

There are a number of books designed to teach mothers how to carry the
Kindergarten occupations over into the home; but while such books may
be helpful in a few cases, in most cases better occupations present
themselves in the course of the day's work. The Kindergarten
occupations themselves follow increasingly the order of domestic
routine. For example, many children in the Kindergarten make mittens
out of eiderdown flannel in the Fall, when their own mothers are
knitting their mittens, and make little hoods either for themselves
or for their dolls. At other periods they put up little glasses of
preserves or jelly, and study the industry of the bees and the way
they put up their tiny jars of jelly. Their attention is called also
to the preparations that the squirrels and other animals make for
winter, and to that of the trees and flowers. In other words, the
occupations in the Kindergarten are designed to bring the children
into conscious sympathy with the life of nature and of the home.

[Sidenote: Kindergarten Methods]

That mother who keeps this purpose in mind and applies it to the
occupations that come up naturally in the course of a day's work,
will thereby bring the Kindergarten spirit into her own home much more
truly than if she invests in a number of perforated sewing cards and