Occupations & Occupation Games. PART I. THE following Cccupations and games, detailed or suggested, are such as combine education and recreation, provide opportunities for mental repose, physical activity, and progression with amusement. The social benefits of, and necessity for recreation, are not yet fully admitted, at least circumstances would point to that conclusion. We cannot better urge our opinion than by directing attention to the following quotations : Social benefits of recreation : "Recreation is intended to the mind, as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which otherwise would grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole time in recreation, is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow and his steed starve; as, contrarily, he that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting; labouring much to little purpose. As good no scythe as no edge. Then only doth the work go forward, when the scythe is so seasonably and moderately whetted, that it may cut, and so cut that it may have the help of sharpening." Necessity for recreation : Bishop Hall. "It being impossible for the mind of man to be always intent upon business, and for the body to be exercised in continual labours, the wisdom of God has therefore adjudged some diversion and recreation (the better to fit both body and mind for the service of their Maker) to be both needful and expedient; such is the constitution of our bodies, and the complexion of our minds, that neither of them can endure a constant toil without some relaxation and delighting diversion. As a bow, if always bent, will prove sluggish and unserviceable, in like manner will a Christian's mind, if always intent upon the best things; the arrow of devotion will soon flag, and fly but slowly towards heaven. A wise and good man, perhaps, would wish that his body needeth no such diversion; but finding his body tire and grow weary, he is forced to give way to reason, and let religion choose such recreations as are healthful, short, recreative, and proper to refresh both mind and body." Burkitt. Want of recreation : "Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue, Shakspeare. "Amusements to virtue are like breezes of air to the flame-gentle ones will fan it, but strong ones will put it out." David Thomas. 1. VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT FOR BABIES. Because of the very primitive notions and elementary operations associated or directly connected with this occupation, it is adopted as initiatory or prefatory to the more elaborate, instructive, disciplinary, and intrinsically meritorious exercises of its successors. Although the benefits to be derived from a protracted indulgence in the exercises of its provision are of the feeblest, yet an effective interest may be long sustained and rendered greatly amusing. It, moreover, offers its special recommendations of suitability, in the ease and facility of its operations, circumstances which make it an appropriate key to the cabinet of novelties and varieties which are to follow. It is an occupation therefore, designed for the express purpose of affording relaxative employment, mental refreshment, and instructive play for the younger children only (generally designated "Babies") of the Infants' school. It is of course intended that these very simple employments shall be supplemented by those more comprehensive and more generally accepted occupations of an ordinary kindergarten routine, and indulged in by the same class of babies, before its transition, of course, to a class of five or six-year-old infants. In the exposition of the varied occupations which are to follow, we have not generally suggested a line of demarcation, but have rather left to the discretion of the teacher the selection of those occupations or branches of occupation best adapted to the ages and abilities of the children, and other circumstances of the school or class. In this immediate entertainment, neither the modes nor varieties of operations are presented as exhaustively complete, but rather as exemplary instances of a suggestive character, complete in themselves only as far as they go. Balls, pendulums, ropes, blackboards, hairpins and canvas, we have selected as suitable means, and as interposing every facility, and allowing of the manifestation of almost every idea passing between the children's aims and the teacher's purpose. Left to their own free course of action, the children would, in their disorganised and aimless play, dispose of the implements in various odd and unaccountable ways, that is, so far as the motives for their actions are concerned, but their attention would thereby be engrossed, and the exercises would lack their educative influences, so far only as they lacked systematic practice. The Ball. After considering the shape and material of the particular ball or balls, which are actually and prominently placed before them (having thereby the opportunity for making the necessary observations furnished them), and comparing and contrasting with the shape, size, colour, and composite material of other balls and objects, the children's operations may be confined to the performance of experiments illustrating some of the effects of roundness and elasticity, and the laws of gravitation and reflection. For this purpose the exercises may be conveniently graded as follows: (1) Rolling a ball as far as possible along the schoolroom floor, and contrasting with the rolling of an irregular shaped body of about equal volume and density. (2) Rolling a ball as straight as possible along the schoolroom floor, and contrasting with the zigzag course made by the onward motion of an irregular-shaped body. (3) As a supplementary exercise to (1) and (2), a child should roll balls of different material along the floor, and the class, with eyes closed, should be asked to distinguish (audible detection) between one ball and another. Then again, children with closed eyes may be allowed to handle different balls, and asked to detect and express a distinction of size and material. (4) Dropping of balls upon the floor, and observing and comparing the direction and forces of return of those composed of different materials. The height to which the return ball rises when it is merely dropped will serve as a demonstrative illustration of the fact that the incidence is always more vigorous than the reflection. (5) Throwing elastic balls upon the floor with varying degrees of force, and comparing the results as before. (6) Striking rigid surfaces in different positions and at different angles, and observing the direction of the returns. These experiments will demonstrate the natural law, "the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection." It would be undesirable to mention such a law, and the statement of the facts is quite unnecessary; the children will learn by observation: the experiments in themselves proving an efficient instruction. (7) Dropping balls, rolling them down inclines, forcing them uphill and observing the inevitable return, will vaguely establish the first principles of gravitation. Supplementary notes.--As it is undesirable that children should be isolated, or that they should work independently of each other during most of these initiatory stages, the teacher should assemble her scholars in a semicircular form round a low table, near to which she herself takes her position, and on which the balls to be used lie in some prescribed order, making an attractive display. The brilliancy and variety of colours, together with the form and arrangement of these spherical toys, will, by their unexpected and novel presentation, ensure the creation of an immediate interest, which the operation will at least maintain, and possibly intensify. Without delay, and avoiding that common, valueless, circumlocutionary mode of introduction, the teacher should enter, in her own natural manner, and with her own peculiar tact, upon a conversational process of discriminating between the various sizes and colours, during which, the children should, in turn, be manually engaged in the fashion determined by the order of the perceptions (of magnitude and colour) towards which the instruction has directed. During the continuance of this conversational mode of developing the perceptive faculties, the shape and nature of the composite material of each ball should be made the subjects of consideration and experimental observation, or otherwise of observation by comparison and contrast. Having completed these introductory steps, the occupations should be introduced in an order corresponding to that previously enumerated. The children should be the operators during the performance of these experiments, and their observations of the character of the results should be directed by the teacher. After the completion of experiments (1) and (2), reference to the special adaptability of wheels, cricket balls, marbles, and other circular and globular-shaped objects would be most appropriate. The Pendulum. The occupations or experiments with the pendulum are successive to those with the ball, merely because the latter admits of being applied in the construction of the former. By these experiments, some elementary principles of mechanics are made obvious, though, of course, the laws of government are no more than suggested by these primitive effects, and the scientific technicalities are wisely made foreign to the scope of these lessons. It is presumed that the pendulums constructed for and probably by the children will consist of balls suspended by string from a stationary point or rigid bar. These are then made to go through their performances, and the various observations are made in the manner and order immediately suggested. (1) Two or three pendulums are suspended from points not far removed from each other, after which all manner of interference is disallowed until the balls in suspension remain stationary. The circumstance of their hanging downwards, and not upwards, should then be referred to, and it might be appropriately shown by diagram (fig. 1) that the position of rest is the lowest point in the orbit of the pendulum's motion. Then again it may be explained that the ball at rest and the point of suspension are connected by a straight and perpendicular line, and by measurement the lines of the different pendulums would be shown to be parallel. (2) The pendulums are made to illustrate the motion of oscillation. At this point, reference to swings and the measured vibrations of clock pendants is favourably admitted. The children will observe that the extent of oscillation of the unforced pendulum gradually diminishes, and that the state of rest has a correspondingly progressive approach. The obstacles to long continued motion may be briefly explained, and the effect of the resisting forces may be made more clear if the use of a blackboard diagram (fig. 2) be adopted to illustrate the explanation which should accompany the motions performed. Here again may arise the necessity of explaining why the oscillation of the clock pendulum should be less irregular in its magnitude and more prolonged in its duration. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. The fact that the velocities of the pendulum vary at different points in its orbit, and that they bear to each other a determinative ratio, indicated in the diagram (fig. 3) by the lengths of the perpendicular lines, is one without the province of this exercise to investigate or consider, but one which it will be interesting for the youngest infants' teacher to know. (3) The pendulums are made to illustrate the motion of rotation. In this the children will observe the same gradual approach to 66 rest" as before, and it should be pointed out that in this motion, each ball marks out for itself a spiral course (fig. 4). The velocities of the ball in its different revolutions are in proportion to the length of the arcs between the two dotted straight lines of the figure. Accompanying or subsequent to the second head of the pendulum occupation, an object lesson on the "clock" would be appropriate, while the introduction of the occupation game termed "our solar system," |