When by hook or crook the devotees of floor games have secured a population and live stock for their block communities, then, as Mr. Wells reminds us, comes commerce and in her wake transportation problems to tax the inventive genius of the laboratory.
Simple transportation toys are the next need, and suitable ones can generally, though not always, be obtained in the shops. A few well-chosen pieces for initial material will soon be supplemented by "Peg-lock" or bench-made contrivances.
For railroad tracks the block supply offers possibilities better adapted to the ages we are considering than any of the elaborate rail systems that are sold with the high-priced mechanical toys so fascinating to adult minds. Additional curved blocks corresponding to the unit block in width and thickness are a great boon to engineers, for what is a railroad without curves!
Transportation toys can be perfectly satisfactory when not made strictly to scale. Indeed, the exigencies of the situation generally demand that realists be satisfied with rather wide departures from the general rule. Train service, however, should accommodate at least one passenger to a car.
LARGE AND SMALL SCALE TOYS
The floor scheme pictured here is a good illustration of our principles of selection applied to toys of larger scale. The dolls, the tea set, the chairs are from the toy shop. The little table in the foreground, and the bed are bench made. The bedding is of home manufacture, the jardiniere too, is of modelling clay, gaily painted with water colors. The tea table and stove are improvised from blocks as is the bath room, through the door of which a block "tub" may be seen. The screen used as a partition at the back is one of the Play School "properties" with large sheets of paper as panels. (See cut p. 20.)
There are some important differences, however, between the content of a play scheme like this and one of the kind we have been considering (see cut page 30). These result from the size and character of the initial play material, for dolls like these invite an entirely different type of treatment. One cannot build villages, or provide extensive railroad facilities for them, nor does one regard them in the impersonal way that the "Do-with" family, or Mr. Wells' soldiers, are regarded, as incidentals in a general scheme of things.
These beings hold the centre of their little stage. They call for affection and solicitude, and the kind of play into which they fit is more limited in scope, less stirring to the imagination, but more usual in the experience of children, because play material of this type is more plentifully provided than is any other and, centering attention as it does on the furnishings and utensils of the home, requires less contact with or information about, the world outside and its activities to provide the mental content for interesting play.
In the epochs of play development interest in these larger scale toys precedes that in more complicated schemes with smaller ones. Mr. Wells' stress on the desirability of a toy soldier population really reflects an adult view. For play on the toy soldier and paper doll scale develops latest of all, and because of the opportunities it affords for schemes of correspondingly greater mental content makes special appeal to the adult imagination.
Play material smaller than the "Do-with" models and better adapted to this latest period than are either soldiers or paper dolls remains one of the unexplored possibilities for the toy trade of the future.
HOUSEKEEPING PLAY
Materials for housekeeping play are of two general kinds, according to size--those intended for the convenience of dolls, and those of larger scale for children's use. The larger kind should be strong enough and well enough made to permit of actual processes.
Plentiful as such materials are in the shops, it is difficult to assemble anything approaching a complete outfit on the same size scale. One may spend days in the attempt to get together one as satisfactory as that pictured here. The reason seems to be that for considerations of trade such toys are made and sold in sets of a few pieces each. If dealers would go a step further and plan their sets in series, made to scale and supplementing each other, they would better serve the requirements of play, and, it would seem, their own interests as well.
STOREKEEPING PLAY
From housekeeping play to storekeeping play is a logical step and one abounding in possibilities for leading interest beyond the horizon line of home environment.
Better than any toy equipment and within reach of every household budget is a "store" like the one pictured here where real cartons, boxes, tins and jars are used.
Schools can often obtain new unfilled cartons from manufacturers. The Fels-Naphtha and National Biscuit companies are especially cordial to requests of this kind, and cartons from the latter firm are good for beginners, as prices are plainly marked and involve only dime and nickel computation. The magazine "Educational Foundations" maintains a department which collects such equipment and furnishes it to public schools on their subscribers' list.
Sample packages add to interest and a small supply of actual staples in bulk, or of sand, sawdust, chaff, etc., for weighing and measuring should be provided as well as paper, string, and paper bags of assorted sizes.
Small scales, and inexpensive sets of standard measures, dry and liquid, can be obtained of Milton Bradley and other school supply houses. A toy telephone and toy money will add "content," and for older children a "price and sign marker" (Milton Bradley) is a valuable addition.
The School of Childhood (Pittsburgh) list includes the following
miscellaneous articles for house and store play:
spoons
various sized boxes
stones
pebbles
buttons
shells
spools
bells
enlarged sticks of the kindergarten
ribbon bolts filled with sand
rice
shot
bottles, etc.
CRAFT AND COLOR MATERIALS
Materials of this kind are a valuable part of any play equipment. Of the large assortment carried by kindergarten and school supply houses the following are best adapted to the needs of the play laboratory:
Modelling Materials--Modelling clay and plasticine, far from being the same, are supplementary materials, each adapted to uses for which the other is unsuited.
Weaving Materials--Raphia, basketry reed, colored worsteds, cotton roving, jute and macramé cord can be used for many purposes.
Material for Paper Work--Heavy oak tag, manila, and bogus papers for cutting and construction come in sheets of different sizes. Colored papers, both coated (colored on one side) and engine colored (colored on both sides) are better adapted to "laboratory purposes" when obtainable in large sheets instead of the regulation kindergarten squares. Colored tissue papers, scissors and library paste are always in demand.
Color Materials--Crayons, water color paints, chalks (for blackboard use) are best adapted to the needs of play when supplied in a variety of colors and shades. For drawing and painting coarse paper should be furnished in quantity and in sheets of differing sizes.
"If children are let alone with paper and crayons they will quickly learn to use these toys quite as effectively as they do blocks and dolls."
TOYS FOR ACTIVE PLAY AND OUTDOOR TOOLS
Among the many desirable toys for active play the following deserve "honorable mention":
Express wagon
Sled
Horse reins
"Coaster" or "Scooter"
Velocipede (and other adaptations of the bicycle for beginners)
Football (small size Association ball)
Indoor baseball
Rubber balls (various sizes)
Bean bags
Steamer quoits
As in the case of the carpenter's bench it is poor economy to supply any but good tools for the yard and garden. Even the best garden sets for children are so far inferior to those made for adults as to render them unsatisfactory and expensive by comparison. It is therefore better to get light weight pieces in the smaller standard sizes and cut down long wooden handles for greater convenience. The one exception to be noted is the boy's shovel supplied by the Peter Henderson company. This is in every respect as strong and well made as the regulation sizes and a complete series to the same scale and of the same standard would meet a decided need in children's equipment where light weight is imperative and hard wear unavoidable.
In addition to the garden set of shovel, rake, hoe, trowel and wheel-barrow, a small crow-bar is useful about the yard and, in winter, a light snow shovel is an advantage.
Jean Lee Hunt.
A small permanent exhibit of the play equipment described may be seen at the Bureau of Educational Experiments, 16 West 8th Street, New York, and is occasionally loaned.
For convenience it has seemed well to divide the following list into two parts--the first devoted to the discussion of theory, the other offering concrete suggestions.
Such a division is arbitrary, of course. No better exposition of theory can be found than is contained in some of these references dealing with actual laboratory usage and furnishings. On the other hand the two books by Dr. Kilpatrick, with their illuminating analysis of didactic materials, afford many concrete suggestions, at least on the negative side.
PART I.
Chamberlin, A. E.
"The Child: A Study in the Evolution of Man," Scribner, 1917.
Chap. I, "The Meaning of the Helplessness of Infancy."
Chap. II, "The Meaning of Youth and Play."
Chap. IV, "The Periods of Childhood."
Dewey, John
"Democracy and Education," Macmillan, 1916.
Chap. XV, "Play and Work in the Curriculum."
"How We Think," D. C. Heath and Co.
Chap. XVII, "Play, Work, and Allied Forms of Activity."
Chap. XVI, "Process and Product."
"Interest and Effort in Education," Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913.
Chap. IV, "The Psychology of Occupations."
"The School and Society," University of Chicago Press, 1916.
Chap. IV, "The Psychology of Occupations."
Chap. VII, "The Development of Attention."
"Cyclopedia of Education," Edited by Paul Monroe, Macmillan Co.
Articles on "Infancy," "Play."
Dopp, Katherine E.
"The Place of Industries in Elementary Education," University of
Chicago Press, 1915.
Groos, Karl
"The Play of Man," Appleton, 1916.
Hall, G. Stanley
"Educational Problems," Appleton, 1911.
Chap. I, "The Pedagogy of the Kindergarten."
"Youth: Its Regimen and Hygiene," Appleton, 1916.
Chap. VI, "Play, Sports and Games."
Kilpatrick, William Heard
"The Montessori System Examined," Houghton Mifflin, 1914.
"Froebel's Kindergarten Principles Critically Examined,"
Macmillan, 1916.
Lee, Joseph
"Play in Education," Macmillan, 1915.
Wood, Walter
"Children's Play and Its Place in Education," Duffield, 1913.
PART II.
Arnold, Dr. E. H.
"Some Inexpensive Playground Apparatus," Bulletin No. 27, Playground
Association of America and Playground Extension
Committee of The Russell Sage Foundation.
Deming, Lucile P. and others
"Playthings," Bulletin No. I.
"The Play School," Bulletin No. III.
"The Children's School, The Teachers College Playground, The
Gregory School," Bulletin No. IV.
Bureau of Educational Experiments publications, 1917.
Chambers, Will Grant and others
"Report of the Experimental Work in the School of Childhood,"
University of Pittsburgh Bulletin, 1916.
Cook, H. Caldwell
"The Play Way," Stokes Co., 1917.
Corbin, Alice M.
"How to Equip a Playroom: the Pittsburgh Plan," Bulletin No. 118,
Playground and Recreation Association of America, 1913.
Dewey, John and Evelyn
"Schools of To-morrow," Dutton, 1915.
Chap. V, "Play."
Hall, G. Stanley
"Aspects of Child Life," Ginn, 1914.
"The Story of a Sand Pile."
Hetherington, Clark W.
"The Demonstration Play School of 1913," University of California
Bulletin, 1914.
Hill, Patty Smith and others
"Experimental Studies in Kindergarten Education," Teachers College
publications, 1915.
Johnson, George E.
"Education by Plays and Games," Ginn & Co., 1907.
Lee, Joseph
"Play for Home," Bulletin No. 102, Playground and Recreation
Association of America.
Read, Mary L.
"The Mothercraft Manual," Little, Brown & Co., 1916.
Wells, H. G.
"Floor Games," Small, Maynard & Co., 1912.
"The New Machiavelli," Duffield Co., 1910.
Chap. II, "Bromstead and My Father."