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“A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six”, a reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890’s. from Summer 93 Parents Review pub by Karen Andreola

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To recite, beautifully, six easy poems and hymns.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To add and subtract numbers up to ten, with dominoes or counters.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To read-what, and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child; children vary much in their power of reading.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To copy in print-hand from a book.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To describe the boundaries of their own home.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To describe any lake, river, pond, island within easy reach.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To tell quite accurately (however shortly) Three stories from Bible history, three from early English, and three from early Roman history.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To be able to describe three walks and three views.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To mount in a scrapbook a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week) ;to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To do the same with the leaves and flowers of six forest trees.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To know six birds, by song, color and shape.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To tell three stories about their own “pets”-rabbit, dog, or cat.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To name twenty common objects in French (note from Sunflower Faith, this can be changed to Spanish to suit the area or choice of foreign languge) and say a dozen little sentences.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To sing one hymn, one French song (or Spanish), and one English song.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>To keep a caterpillar, and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

A formidable list of attainments for a child of five or six, but it is nearly all play-work, and to be done out-of-doors. The “sit-still” work should not occupy more than an hour and a half daily, and the time-table will show how all can be done, little by little, by day-by-day efforts. Our aim is to gather up the fragments of the child’s desultory knowledge, so that nothing is lost.

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