Toys for the playground should be provided—­a sand-heap, a seesaw, a substantial wheel-barrow, hoops, balls, reins and perhaps skipping-ropes.  Something on which the child can balance, logs or planks which they can move about, and a trestle on which these can be supported, are invaluable.  It was while an addition was being made to our place that we realised the importance of such things, and, as in Froebel’s case, “our teachers were the children themselves.”  They were so supremely happy running up and down the plank roads laid by the builders for their wheel-barrows, seesawing or balancing and sliding on others, that we could not face the desolation of emptiness which would come when the workmen removed their things.  So, for a few pounds, all that the children needed was secured, ordinary planks for seesawing, narrower for balancing and a couple of trestles.  One exercise the children had specially enjoyed was jumping up and down on yielding planks, and this the workmen had forbidden because the planks might crack.  But a sympathetic foreman told us what was needed:  two planks of special springy wood were fastened together by cross pieces at each end, and besides making excellent slides, these made most exciting springboards.

For representations of real life the children require dolls and the simplest of furniture—­a bed, which need only be a box, some means of carrying out the doll’s washing, her personal requirements as well as her clothes; some little tea-things and pots and pans.  A doll’s house is not necessary, and can only be used by two or three children, but will be welcomed if provided, and its appointments give practice in dainty handling.  Trains and signals of some kind, home-made or otherwise; animals for farm or Zoo; a pair of scales for a shop, and some sort of delivery van, which, of course, may be home-made.

There must also be provision for increase of skill and possibility of creation.  If the Kindergarten can afford it, some of the Montessori material may be provided; there is no reason, except expense, why it should not be used if the children like it, and if it does not take up too much room.  But it has no creative possibilities, and even at three years old this is required.  Scissors are an important tool, and an old book of sample wall-papers is most useful; old match-boxes and used matches, paste and brushes and some old magazines to cut.  Blackboard chalks and crayons, paint-boxes with four to six important colours, some Kindergarten folding papers, all these supply colour.  Certain toys seem specially suited to give hand control, e.g. a Noah’s Ark, where the small animals are to be set out carefully, tops or teetotums and tiddlywinks, at which some little children become proficient.  The puzzle interest must not be forgotten, and simple jigsaw pictures give great pleasure.  It is interesting to note here that the youngest children fit these puzzles not by the picture but by form, though they know they are making a picture and are pleased when it is finished.  The puzzle with six pictures on the sides of cubes is much more difficult than a simple jigsaw.