---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Kirby, George D.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 12
number: 7
published: 1909-05
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'George D. Kirby, "Training of Children," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 7 (May 1909): 535.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1207unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1207unse
start_page: 535
end_page: 535
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-05)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1207unse
  publication_year: 1909
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Training of Children

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TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

                                  BY CxEO. D. KIRBY.
      Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not de-
part from it.   — Proverbs 22:   6.

       My duty is to explain some of the things parents should teach
their children,       and how it should be done.            I    must confess to a
certain     degree of weakness in treating this subject; for, while I
take a father's interest in my children, my time is so fully occupied
in the daytime earning a livelihood,           and     my       evenings either in
studying lessons for some of the organizations of the Church, or
in attending meetings of the same, that the                 training of our dear
ones has devolved upon their mother, to a very great extent.                     I

will say,   however, that I believe children should be taught to ask
a blessing on the food. This instils into their little hearts a knowl-
edge that a supreme Power is responsible for our possession of
  and that it is always polite to return thanks for a gift. When
it,

my children were infants, my work was such that at noon I could
remain at home* considerably more than the customary hour, and I
always ate with my baby on my knee; and as I blessed the food, it
was perfecly natural to clasp the little hands in mine, and by the
time the child could lisp words at all,         it   could ask a blessing.
       In the matter of prayer, my children have all been taught never
to go to bed until they have said their prayers, which consists of the
Lord's prayer.          When I'm at home at bed time, however, we en-
gage in family prayer, in which we all take turns at leading, and I
am trying to teach them to pray extemporaneously, but the fact
that they pray       is the   important step in their education.
       Children should be taught reverence for          God and humanity,