Compass Pilot Lessons : 1956

After I looked through all The Children's Friend magazines and scanned all of LaFawn's artwork in them, I decided to also scan the Primary manuals I knew she had done artwork in, especially the Gaynote manual.  When I searched  in the Church History Library, they did not have ALL the Primary manuals on the shelves. But they did have some from the 1950's.  At random, I pulled out this Compass Pilot manual from 1956 and found Mom's artwork in it!  These turned out to be the earliest pieces of artwork  Mom did for the Primary.

I vividly remember many 'posting charts' around our house that Mom made and used in her teaching.  Some held wordstrips like this one.  It was important to make sure there was enough blank cardboard on the bottom of the wordstrip or picture to lift the words above the folded paper.  Twenty years later, when LaFawn published her "Learning Cards," posting charts were included, as were other teaching ideas she illustrated in 1956. 

The most creative posting chart was a huge one (about 3 feet x 4 feet) she made out of brown butcher paper on one 'wall' of a cardboard appliance box for a fold-up play kitchen.

In the photo below you can see LaFawn's fold-up kitchen : three panels from a cardboard appliance box.  Behind her grandkids (r to l) Adam, Ryan and Chrissa on the left is the "kitchen cupboard" posting chart.

  Mom cut out the cardboard fronts of dry soup and cereal boxes; paper labels from cans were glued onto cardboard to stiffen them.  We had at least 50 products in an envelope that we could then "buy" at a pretend grocery store, and "bring them home" and put the groceries "in the cupboard" (the rows of the posting chart) in the play kitchen. 

 Mom also made small versions of this game which fit inside the flat boxes that nylon stockings were purchased in.  The 'groceries' were pictures of food products from magazine ads which she glued onto cardboard and covered with clear contact paper for durability.

Storage ideas like this hanging pocket also showed up in the "Learning Cards." (see below)

 In the Compass Pilot manual, they encouraged children to play musical instruments like the shepherd boy David had played his harp.

Although LaFawn did not play any musical instruments, she loved music and rhythm, especially as aids to memorization. She had her students sing scripture words to popular tunes or tap out rhythms to songs they were learning