p. 12 | The Home Study Hour by MRS. I. H. E.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1915

The Home Study Hour

By MRS. I. H. E.

It seems to be a part of the accepted order of things that children of school age shall have a certain amount of home work to do,—not work of the home, or for the home, but school work to do at home. At least this is the condition that exists at the present time. There are some child culturists who contend that six hours a day — and even a much shorter period — under proper conditions, with absence of frills and due attention to essentials, is enough for growing boys and girls to spend in getting lessons and reciting them, and that what is more than this is loss rather than gain in the long run. Children need time for play, to build up sturdy bodies, and time for a little home work of the kind that will help them to feel themselves an integral part of that institution because of their small responsibilities toward the happiness and well-being of its members.

The brief interval between getting home from school and the evening meal should be spent out of doors if possible; for there is nothing like fresh air and exercise to clear the brain and rest the nerves. Then, when the supper work is over, the study hour most often has its place. Whatever the hour decided upon, it should be understood that no ordinary happening is to be allowed to interrupt it. Careful planning, and often a good deal of patience and firmness of resolution, will be required to secure the study hour, and preserve it for its purpose; but the results are well worth striving for.

The ideal place for the home study hour is a library, where books of reference are easy of access, and there is room for both parents and children. One advantage of such a room is that the children need not be disturbed by evening callers.

However, few of our homes possess a separate room for this purpose. I recall one home in which the generous dining table, with its shaded light, furnished ample room for the books and pads and pencils and ink of the three church-school children who gathered around it, mother with her sewing or book close at hand. Besides the lessons learned in those pleasant evening hours, their memory will follow the members of that little group as long as they live.

In another home the wide landing of the broad stairway was fitted up for the children’s study. A low, substantial table, a green-shaded lamp, small, well-made chairs, a dictionary stand, and a bookcase with the needed books supplied the equipment. Here, every evening, the four children of the family spent the home work hour, undisturbed by the usual household distractions, yet near enough to call on father or mother for help or advice whenever some particularly knotty problem presented itself. All these children, it may be added, have made an excellent record in school.

The advantages of such a plan are obvious. Habits of regularity, order, and neatness are formed; the studious habit becomes fixed almost unconsciously; the eyes of the young students are guarded against strain; and table and chairs of the right height will do much to prevent the stooped shoulders that are the particular curse of school children. One little girl in short dresses, who insisted on “doing” her algebra and general history and Latin in her lap, was becoming seriously round-shouldered. A change in her methods of home study worked remarkable improvement.

But perhaps the greatest advantage of the home study hour is the insight that observant parents may gain into their children’s methods of study. The lovable, inattentive, arm-waving lad, whose hard-hearted teacher persistently gives him marks below his due, comes in this little home school under the eye of father and mother, who by wisely correcting his faults will greatly further his progress at school. The careless, giggling girl is here helped to better things; her too studious sister’s interest is directed to the great world outside of books; and the child of the “Emmy Lou” type, always a day or two behind the others because of a natural slowness—not dullness—of comprehension, is enabled to “keep up.”

If it is possible, provide for your children a place to study. The essentials are few,—a solid table, not given to easy joggling, where more than one child is to use it; a good lamp, preferably with a green shade, to save the young eyes; comfortable chairs; fresh air; and, best of all, father and mother, interested and not too far away. Under such conditions the dreaded home work becomes a pleasure because of more perfect lessons, and its influence for good will be felt in all the days to come.

MRS. I. H. E.