Open–Air Play, 1930 – Ursula Wise privileges the value of being outside and active over formal lessons

February 5, 1930 in The Nursery World

Open-Air Play 

“C.W.” writes: “ I should be so much obliged for advice about my small daughter, aged four. I am anxious to know whether or not it would be advisable to send her to a kindergarten next term. I have found one near home, but it takes children from nine to twelve every morning, and is not keen on shorter times. G. has always been a difficult child, sleeps badly and wakens crying in the night. She is better since we moved into the country here. She is a self-conscious child, and gets very tired at the dancing class. I can’t make up my mind whether this kind of child is better doing more with other children, or whether another six months in the country  - we live on a farm, with hens and dogs and rabbits and cats, etc. – would be better. There are two other little girls on the farm, exactly her age, to play with. Should I give her lessons myself? She has a strong tendency to say in the hour supposed to be given to ‘work,’ ‘Oh, I’m tired; I would rather look at books’; and I feel this may be due to the lack of the right thing to do. The youngest child at the kindergarten is, I think, five years.”

Before deciding whether you send her to the kindergarten or not, I should, if I were you, find out two things. First, just how big the difference in age is between your little girl and the nest youngest child there. If it is not more than a few months, and the other child is not of a large, very vigorous or domineering type, it would not matter very much. But if the difference is, say, a year, and the other child is very well-advanced or a strong personality, then it would not be very good.  Secondly, how much active open-air play does the school allow? If the children there are mostly sitting still indoors, then the farm life and free play with the two other girls at home would certainly be better. If she had not other children to play with, the kindergarten would be better for her. But if you can arrange for her to spend her mornings regularly with the other two, watching animals, running, and jumping and climbing, exploring the fields and the farm, that should be a very good life for her. I would not, however, advise anything in the nature of set ‘lessons’ at her age and with her liability to nervous fatigue. You can help her best by giving her the right sort of conditions for play and things to play with, and by sharing her fun in her games and interests.  I shall be glad to hear again about your little girl.