Part 1 (2/2)

Short lines represent the _a_ form, long lines, the _b_ form. The cipher word is ”the.” Various forms of sewing cards, or yarns of different colors may be used.

LESSON III

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In this weaving mat the light squares represent the _a_ form, the dark ones, the _b_ form. The arrow marks the starting point, and the reading proceeds from left to right in each line. The cipher message is ”Mary had a little lamb.” Any sentence containing the requisite number of letters can be inserted on the same principle.

LESSON IV

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This lesson embodies what may be designated as a symbolic cipher design.

This design conveys the idea of the setting sun, and hence the cipher word contained within is ”sunset.” Red sticks represent the _b_ form, orange sticks, the _a_ form. The arrow marks the starting point, and the reading proceeds in a clockwise direction.

LESSON V

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This is another symbolic cipher design picturing ”Humpty-Dumpty.” The blue squares represent the _a_ form, the red squares the _b_ form. The cipher message is ”sat on a wall.” The blank squares can be filled by colored crayons or blocks, and the children can thus practice the building of the message by referring to the code in Lesson I.

LESSON VI

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Another symbolic cipher design in which the hens represent the _b_ form, the chicks the _a_ form. The cipher word is ”egg,” reading from left to right.

This sort of symbolic cipher designing is susceptible of endless variation, and gives a hint of the possibility of drawing cipher pictures.

A sufficient supply is furnished so that when cut out, the hens and chicks may be utilized to spell out various words under the direction of the teacher.

LESSON VII--THE TIME-TEACHING CLOCK

In this clock the movable colored dots indicating the minutes are used to spell out the time in cipher. In the working cards to be provided for the child the colored dots are to be inserted in the holes made for the purpose around the face of the clock. There being sixty dots, any phrase expressive of time not exceeding twelve letters in length (that is, twelve times five dots for each letter equals 60) is available for indicating the time in cipher. That is to say, any phrase such as ”half-past ten,”

”nine-thirty,” etc., can be indicated on the clock by using five times as many dots as there are letters in the phrase selected. Should there be less than twelve letters in the phrase, the holes remaining are to be left blank.

This lesson is extremely flexible in respect to the many combinations which it makes possible. The teacher or parent should bear in mind that the most effective use of the clock is to be attained by first choosing a phrase designating some time of the day which is significant in the daily experience of the child--such as the opening or closing hour of school, the play hour, the dinner hour, or ”bed-time.” This phrase is converted into cipher by having the child place the dots representing the letters of the phrase, beginning at the figure twelve, around the clock face. After this has been done the child should be asked to ”decipher” the phrase by naming the letter which each group of five dots stands for. When this is accomplished, the ability to read the time becomes an unconscious achievement, since the hands of the clock are then placed by the parent or teacher, or by the child under her direction, in the proper position to indicate the deciphered phrase. If, for example, the phrase ”half-past nine” is selected and the child has extracted this from the colored dot combination, the hands of the clock are moved to nine-thirty. The child, with the phrase fresh in his mind, learns from this the position of the hands of the clock representing the time, since the mental image of the clock face with the hands in the required position establishes an a.s.sociation which becomes indelibly impressed on the child's mind.

The method here described is the best for young children. With children of more advanced age and greater ability to use their own minds, the reverse practice may be followed. The teacher may name the phrase designating the time, and direct the child to put in place the colored dots representing the letters of the phrase by referring for each letter to the code. This requires an intelligence of a higher order than the method first described.

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