The Farm

The Farm gives grammar a place to happen: a miniature farm the child arranges by hand while working through noun labels, commands and describing words. A label is read and laid on the piece it names, a command is read and carried out with the pieces, and only then is the whole sentence read back. Because the sentence is acted out on the table instead of read off a page, the difference between naming and doing becomes visible. It anchors the language area from about three years and leads on to work where the same distinctions are met in writing alone.