It does not do to be too modern and to despise all the old-fashioned “makings,” which gave such pleasure some years ago.  Kindergarten Paper-folding has fallen into an undeserved oblivion.  The making of boats or cocked-hats from old newspaper is a great achievement for a child, and to make pigs and purses, corner cupboards and chairs for paper dolls is still a delight, and calls forth real concentration and effort.

Making in connection with some whole, such as the continuous representation of life around us, and, at a later stage, the re-inventing of primitive industries, or making which arises out of some special interest may have a higher educational value, but apart from this, children want to make for making’s sake.  “Can’t I make something in wood like Boy does?” asked a little girl.  There is joy in the making, joy in being a cause, and for this the children need opportunity, space and time.  There is a lesson to many of us in some verses by Miss F. Sharpley, lately published (Educational Handwork), which should be entitled, “When can I make my little Ship?”

  I’d like to cut, and cut, and cut,
   And over the bare floor
  To strew my papers all about,
    And then to cut some more.

  I’d sweep them up so neatly, too,
    But mother says, “Oh no! 
  There is no time, it’s seven o’clock;
    To bed you quickly go!”

  In school, I’d just begun to make
    A pretty little ship,
  But I was slow, and all the rest
    Stood up to dance and skip.

  When shall I make my little ship? 
    At home there is no gloy,
  And father builds it by himself
    Or goes to buy a toy.

CHAPTER VIII

STORIES

     Let me tell the stories and I care not who makes the textbooks.

          STANLEY HALL.

“Is it Bible story to-day or any kind of a story?” was the greeting of an eager child one morning.  “Usually they were persuading him to tell stories,” writes Ebers, from his recollections of Froebel as an old man at Keilhau.  “He was never seen crossing the courtyard without a group of the younger pupils hanging to his coat tails and clasping his arms.  Usually they were persuading him to tell stories, and when he condescended to do so, the older ones flocked around him, too, and they were never disappointed.  What fire, what animation the old man had retained!”

So Froebel could write with feeling of “the joyful faces, the sparkling eyes, the merry shouts that welcome the genuine story-teller”; he had a right to pronounce that “the child’s desire and craving for tales, for legends, for all kinds of stories, and later on for historical accounts, is very intense.”