"At the present time the United States leads the world in the excellence of its system of public education. Among its prominent features is the training in handwork, begun in the kindergarten and continued throughout the common-school years, whence it passes without break into the manual training high schools and special technical institutions. Of the several periods marking this manual training course the weakest is found in the primary school, dealing with pupils of from seven to 11 or 12 years of age. These children have outgrown the employment of the kindergarten and receiving class, but have yet to attain the growth qualifying them for hte forms of handicraft common in the grammar grades. With a view to partially bridging this hiatus [sic] I have devised these exercises...It is believed that many parents, realizing the value of constructive plays, will find the ensuing pages full of suggestion for rainy days in the nursery." -- foreword.