The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

Notes of Lessons.

I.
Subject: Clubs.
Group: Drill. Class IV. Time: 20 minutes.

By C. A. Fraser

OBJECTS.

I. To increase the girls' interest in drill by teaching them a new kind.
II. To train the girls in accuracy of movement and prompt obedience to the word of command.
III. To teach the girls to keep perfect time with the music.
IV. To teach the girls self-reliance.
V. To teach them club exercises.

LESSON.

Step I.--Ask the girls what the use of club-drill is? It strengthens the muscles of the arm and wrist and makes the wrist more supple. It teaches us to use our arms freely while the rest of the body remains still. Also club-drill helps us to hold our heads erect, presses back our shoulders and develops our chests.
Step II.--See that the girls are standing properly--feet firmly planted on the ground, heels together, head erect and shoulders well thrown back. She the girls how the club is held, by placing it in the hollow of the thumb and first finger. Tell the girls that there are two turns in club-drill--the outer turn, which consists in dropping the club away from you, and the inner turn, which consists in dropping the club towards you. Show both the turns, taking care that the girls are sure which is the outer and which the inner turns. When the turns are mastered go on to the first exercise.
Do Exercise I. very slowly two or three times, counting aloud distinctly. Then let the girls do it slowly while the teacher counts aloud. Then take this exercise with music, first telling the girls that one bar of music goes to each movement.
Before going on to the next exercise make the girls take three deep breaths by placing the hands on the hips, shutting the mouth and breathing through the nose. Fill the lungs. Let the breath go slowly through the mouth. Give this breathing exercise after each exercise.
Exercise II. Movement 1.--Make the outer turn--with right arm bent from the elbow--behind the head. Movement 2.--Extend the arm outwards on a line with the shoulder and swing across the chest. Do the same with the left arm.
Exercise III. Movement 1.--Make the inner turn--with the right arm bent from the elbow--behind the head. Movement 2.--Extend the arm outwards on a line with the shoulder and swing it across the chest. Do the same with the left arm.
These exercises are to be taken in the same way as Exercise I. While the exercises are being done, see that the girls continue to stand well with heels together, and prevent as much as possible unnecessary swinging of the body. If the girls find great difficulty in doing the turns, let them do the exercises without the turns and merely dropping the clubs from the wrist.
Step III.--Take all the exercises together with music, letting the girls do them entirely alone.

II.
Subject: Grammar.
Group: English Class II. Time: 20 minutes.

By H. M. A. Bell.

OBJECTS.

I. To increase the children's power of reasoning and attention.
II. To increase their knowledge of English Grammar.
III. To introduce a new part of speech--preposition.

LESSON.

Step I.--Draw from the children the names of the two kinds of verbs and the difference between them, by putting up sentences on the board. Thus in the sentence "Father slept," "slept" is intransitive, therefore he could not "slept" anything, as "slept" cannot have an object.
Step II.--Put on the board the sentence "Mary went," and ask the children to try and make it more complete by adding an object. "Mary went school" would not be sense, but "Mary went to school" would be. Ask for other phrases saying where Mary went, as: for a walk, in the town, with mother, on her bicycle, by train, etc.
--Tell the children that these little words on, in, by, for, with, etc., belong to a class of little words which are very much used with intransitive verbs, and though they have not much meaning when used alone, yet in a sentence they cannot stand without an object. You cannot say "Mary went in," without saying what she went in.
Step IV.--Introduce the word "preposition" giving its derivation. Because these little words always take objects after them and because their place is before the object, they are called prepositions, "pre" being the Latin word for "before," and "position" another word for "place."
Step V.--Write on the board the definition:--"A preposition always has an object after it."
Step VI.--Let the children work through the following exercises:--
(1.) Put three objects after each of the following prepositions:--in, on, over, by, with and from.
(2.) Put three prepositions and their objects after the following:--Mary plays, Mother sits, John runs.
(3.) Supply three prepositions in each of the following sentences:--The books is ___ the table. The chair is ___ the door. I stood ___ the window.
(4.) Supply three subjects and verbs to each of the following prepositions and objects:___ ___ ___ in the garden, ___ ___ on the floor, ___ ___ by the fire.
(5.) Make three sentences about each of the following, each sentence to contain an intransitive verb, preposition and object:--The white pony, my little brother, that pretty flower.

Typed by Blossom Barden, June, 2023; Proofread by LNL, June, 2023