GEOGRAPHY.
MR. SHELDON, in his "Elementary Instruction," has shown the way in which
we may begin to teach geography without books. To proceed in that way,
up to the point of drawing all maps, is feasible in a Kindergarten, if
the children stay long enough. My children learn a great deal about the
geographical locality of animals, from the natural history lessons given
over the blocks. A "Picturesque Geography," compiled by Mrs. Mann, from
the most brilliant descriptions of travellers, may by and by be printed,
and it would be a good book to read to children. It should be read
slowly, requiring them to tell what it makes them see in their fancy.
This comprises a great deal of physical geography, and is a desirable
precursor of political geography, which will be studied to most
advantage by and by, with history. (But history is altogether beyond the
Kindergarten.)
As soon as children know how to read, we advise that they be taught
topography by Mr. Theodore Fay's atlas, according to his method,--which
secures that they learn the maps by looking at the places as
represented, and not by _words_, which can be learned without conveying
the image, or an idea; and are easily forgotten.